250 Box Challenge
12:44 PM, Monday May 2nd 2022
Thanks in advance!
Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.
Not only does the challenge help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. That being said I'll try to keep this critique fairly brief so you can get working on the next steps as soon as possible.
Things you did well:
You're doing a good job of drawing the lines constructing your boxes smoothly and confidently.
It's nice to see that you're taking the time to plan each of your hatching lines and space them evenly. This helps keep your boxes looking tidy rather than looking like they were rushed on to the page.
Line weight isn't a requirement of the challenge so it's nice to see you're applying it anyways. Most people need to build up some mileage before they feel comfortable applying it so I always recommend starting early. The sooner you feel comfortable the sooner you see better results.
You're doing a great job of experimenting with orientations. Experimenting is an important habit to build when learning any new skill, it helps form a more well rounded understanding. I hope you'll continue to display and nurture this habit in the future.
Things you can work on:
You tend to draw fairly small, I'd like you to draw larger in the future. Drawing large will help you become more comfortable working from the shoulder and allow you to see any misakes you've made more clearly.
I'd you to experiment with proportions and rates of foreshortening more. Currently you keep all of your boxes fairly similarly shaped. Try mixing in some longer/thinner/wider boxes to see how your lines behave in different scenarios. As for foreshortening you kept your vanishing points far from your boxes and tried to make your lines as parallel as you could, bring your vanishing points in closer so that your lines have to converge more dramatically. Remember that experimenting is important.
There are times when your lines converge in pairs or you attempt to keep your lines a bit too parallel which results in them diverging. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.
The key things we want to remember from this exercise are that our lines should always converge as a set not in pairs, never diverge from the vanishing point and due to perspective they won't be completely parallel.
I won't be moving you on to the next lesson just yet, each lesson builds off concepts in the previous course material so if you move forward with un-addressed issues you end up just creating further issues on top of them.
I'd like you to draw 15 more boxes please. Focus on experimenting with proportions and rates of foreshortening.
Once you've completed your boxes reply to this critique with a link to them, I'll address anything that needs to be worked on and once you've shown you're ready I'll move you on to the next lesson.
I know you can do this and look forward to seeing your work.
Next Steps:
15 more boxes please.
Hey! Thank you for such an informative and thorough feedback, it is very helpful.
Yes, while I was drawing boxes, I had the feeling that my boxes were monotonous, but it was not clear to me how to fix it.
I tried to draw 15 boxes, taking into account your comments, although sometimes my lines still converge in pairs.
No problem.
These are looking good, there's still room to experiment and for more improvement but these are a great first step. I have no doubt that as you continue to build up mileage you'll see even further improvement so I'll be marking your submission complete.
Keep practicing boxes and previous exercises as warm ups and good luck in lesson 2.
Next Steps:
Move on to lesson 2.
This is a remarkable little pen. I'm especially fond of this one for sketching and playing around with, and it's what I used for the notorious "Mr. Monkey Business" video from Lesson 0. It's incredibly difficult to draw with (especially at first) due to how much your stroke varies based on how much pressure you apply, and how you use it - but at the same time despite this frustration, it's also incredibly fun.
Moreover, due to the challenge of its use, it teaches you a lot about the nuances of one's stroke. These are the kinds of skills that one can carry over to standard felt tip pens, as well as to digital media. Really great for doodling and just enjoying yourself.
I would not recommend this for Drawabox - we use brush pens for filling in shadow shapes, and you do not need a pen this fancy for that. If you do purchase it, save it for drawing outside of the course.
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