Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
7:23 AM, Monday January 27th 2025
Just wanted to thank you in advance.
Hello I'm Simon and will be reviewing your Lesson 1 :)
1. Superimposed lines
First of all you did a good job of drawing your lines confidently and committing to the stroke once you started it. Fraying is only visible on the end of your lines that proves you took the time to start each stroke on the same point, well done!
2. Ghosted lines
Well done your Ghosted lines do not wobble. Your lines remain straight, that's good in the future keep the habit of drawing with your whole arm so you have long confident lines! You did a good job of having your lines end up near or on the final dot, keep practicing this exercise (and the others) in your warmups to get even better at it!
3. Ghosted planes
You did a really good job of doing your ghosted planes, your lines are as good/better than the ones from your previous exercises.
4. Table of ellipses
Great job on drawing through every single ellipse twice! Make sure you keep doing that with every single ellipse you draw along the course! You tried to fit every ellipse and circle snugly along the borders of your tables good job, it is tough to achieve but as long as you keep striving for it you'll improve! Most of your ellipses are evenly shaped and appear smooth good job! Getting a perfect ellipse is a really hard job but you'll have time to work on it through your warmups.
5. Ellipses in planes
Once again good job on drawing through every ellipse twice! You tried and managed to fit your ellipses right between the four sides great job on managing to do that! Most of your ellipses are evenly shapes good job here too.
6. Funnels
Here too you tried to fit every ellipse snugly along the curves well done, even if it is tougher to do with a non straight edge it's a really good practice. You kept most of your ellipses along the direction of the minor axis, keep practicing this exercise as a warmup in your next lessons.
7. Plotted perspective
As mentioned in the exercise you used a ruler to draw your boxes that's all good. Some of your initial lines for the boxes that should be perpendicular to the horizon aren't perfectly lined up which makes your boxes less solid, when attempting this exercise in your next warmups simply take more time to set up your ruler as well as you can before drawing your lines. You made sure to plot every single line back to the right vanishing point so good job, even though some back corners don't come out perfectly that's completely fine :)
8. Rough perspective
Managing to land every single line exactly back to the vanishing point is a near impossible task at this point but what's important is you tried and most of your lines do try to reach that center point! Some of your boxes front/back aren't rectangular, that's probably due to rushing, when doing this exercise take all the time you need to set up your sides so that they form a rectangle, the front and back being a rectangle should be more important than the sides going exactly to the vanishing point. You managed to draw every line extension in the right direction, that could get a little tougher in the 250 boxes since you have to extend in 3 directions but this shows you got the base of how to do it! You seem to have used the ghosting method for every stroke that's good! Keep using it for every stroke and your exercises will look much better than if you didn't!
9. Rotated boxes
The setup of your rotated boxes is well laid out with the cross and the 4 cubes to strive for in each cardinal direction :) You kept the gaps between each box tight and consistent. That's a key to having a good result with this exercise. You seem to understand how to rotate your boxes, but don’t seem to rotate them enough, that’s fine since it still shows that you understood the assignment but if you can I’d like you to try this exercise once more while keeping an eye on the side squares you drew at the start as a goal for you 2nd box on each side. Drawing through your boxes is also a key part of the exercise and is also making you start practicing this skill that will be used for every box in the 250 challenge. You seem to have drawn too many boxes except for the bottom right side where some are missing. if you go and look back at the demo of this exercise you should see that there are two boxes in every single direction of the central boxes, achieving at the end a sort of 5x5 square being wrapped around a ball, I strongly encourage you to finish this exercise before you move on to the 250 boxes challenge!
10. Organic perspective
Once again using the ghosting method for every single stroke of this course is a crucial part into getting good habits for your whole drawing journey! Some of your boxes seem to have parallel or diverging lines, that's a common mistake when drawing shallower foreshortening boxes and the only way to get better at it will be through taking the time to place each stroke carefully while drawing your boxes, take your time. You will also improve on this as you move through the 250 boxes challenge! You did a good job of drawing shallower foreshortening here as some people tend to go into more dramatic foreshortening which in this exercise as the effect of making the boxes seem inconsistent in scale compared to each other, overall making the drawing less solid and less believable.
Seems like you struggled a little more with the later exercises but it's not big deal, your ghosted lines were like flawless so yeah you can't really do everything perfectly otherwise why do the course right ?
Just keep an eye on the few things I've mentioned above when you practice the warmups and you'll do great :)
Don't forget to complete your 50/50 rule and to add these exercises to your warmups for future lessons!
Also I strongly encourage you to go review some submissions on the website :) You can review some lessons 1 and once you've completed future lessons review those as well. Don't hesitate to do a review every so often. It really benefits you so you don't forget the point of the previous exercises and helps other people who are waiting on a review :)
Next Steps:
Feel free to move on to the 250 Box challenge
Thank you for your elaborate and on point review :) As instructed i have reworked on rotated boxes but i still feel that there is something wrong and it did not come out to be in perfect circle.
Great job! Much better, if you want it to be closer to a circle you'll have to make them rotate even more so that your corner ones end up nearly parallel to the viewer's eye direction ? if that makes sense. And otherwhise it's just a matter of keeping your boxes, and your rotation the same. Seems like you rotate less the top and bottom than the sides and also you tend to have your edge boxes bigger in perspective maybe to compensate for the foreshortening the perspective gives but you'll get used to it at some point if you keep forcing yourself to see the rotation and to try to draw boxes the same size each time. In any case it's nothing to worry about it'll come with practice.
Good luck moving forward!
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