Hello ElGirard!

I’d like to congratulate you on finishing the 250 box challenge; it’s certainly no easy feat!

Let’s first talk about the lines.

Line quality is a bit of a mix, especially in the beginning where there are some really nice, confident strokes, and others more hesitant and wobbly. Although they tend to improve over the challenge, I am frequently seeing corrected lines. No matter how tempting it is to correct a line, don’t do it. Yes, it can be frustrating, but in the end, a smooth, confident line that is slightly inaccurate is much better than that of a line that is accurate but wobbly. So remember to keep using those dots to plan; ghost with your shoulder; and execute the line confidently.

This holds true to any line you draw, including line weight and hatching lines. There were times where I wasn’t quite sure if you were applying line weight or if you were correcting the lines. However, the extra marks in both external and internal lines led me to believe the lines were corrected. If there were some attempt to apply line weight, they should be:

• applied around the silhouette (outer edges) of the box, and

• subtle. This can be accomplished by superimposing the line (like in lesson 1) confidently and just once.

When adding hatching lines, treat them with care and execute them as with any other lines you draw. Hatching lines should be tight, consistent, and parallel to each other. Moreover, they should have a solid start and ending point, from edge to edge on one of the box’s face. The hatching lines in your boxes admittedly start off a little rough, but improve over time. However, some still start and end past the edges of the box, in turn slightly undoing the hard work you’ve done to maintain a solid 3D box.

Now, onto your boxes!

You have a pretty good mixture of shallow and dramatic foreshortening. You’re also experimenting with various orientations, so that’s great. Don’t be afraid to draw a little bigger, about 5-6 boxes per page as you’ve done with your last 2 pages.

You start off with the usual issues of diverging lines. I also see some moments where you ran into confusion on which direction to extend your error check lines, but you managed to fix it and get a hang of it pretty early on. Still, be careful to extend the error check lines from the starting point of the original line (tracing over it) and extending out (versus starting the error check line at the end of the original line and extending out).

Also, be careful of boxes that become distorted (example boxes: LIV, CXCVI, CCVIII).

As you approach the final boxes, there are still a couple of issues particularly with the inner corner of the box. Continue to think about the relationship between the overall sets of lines rather than just the pairs of lines. Here is a diagram by Uncomfortable that helps explain the relationship of the lines. Taking this into account, you can also try to modify the order in which you draw the box, as briefly mentioned here by community member Elodin.

All in all, there is considerable improvement from your first boxes to your last boxes, and the boxes are pretty solid.

So with that, congratulations on completing this challenge, and feel free to move on to Lesson 2!