8:03 PM, Saturday October 3rd 2020
Congratulations on completing the 250 Box Challenge!
Before we begin I just want to let you know that in general TAs will ignore student self assessment or critique (unless you have a question!) so as not to contaminate our own critique of your work. Back to your critique.
You did a good job on the challenge overall, when I compare your early boxes to your final sets I can see that you made a lot of improvements as you moved through the challenge. Your mark making steadily improved with your lines becoming straighter and more confident looking. The line weight that you added to your boxes starts to become more subtle and blend better with their original marks. You also do a better job of getting your sets of parallel lines to converge more consistently towards their shared vanishing points!
Looking at the line weight that you added to your boxes I can see that while you did show a lot of really good progress, there is still some room for improvement. When you go to add weight to a line it is important that you treat the added weight the same way you would a brand new line. That means taking your time to plan and ghost through your mark so that when you go to execute it the mark blends seamlessly with your previous mark. This will allow you to build and create more subtle and clean looking weight to your lines. This is something that you will improve with consistent practice, so make sure that you include this step in your regular warm ups.
I would like to suggest that, if possible, you try changing the paper you are using. You appear to be using a sketchbook and those tend to have a toothier texture to their paper making it more difficult for your fine liner to create the sort of rich bold line we strive for while doing Drawabox. Toothier paper can also shorten the life span of your pen nibs which is one of the reasons we recommend printer paper. Printer paper is smooth and much better suited to working with fine liners which is one of the reasons we suggest students use it instead of other papers.
I would also like to remind you that while you are working through Drawabox you should not attempt to cover up, scribble out or change any of the marks you made. Once your pen touches the page, any opportunity to avoid mistakes has passed, so all you can really do is push through. Hesitation serves no purpose. Mistakes happen, but a smooth, confident mark is still useful even if it's a little off.
Finally while your convergences do improve overall I think this diagram will help you further develop that skill as you continue through Drawabox. This should also help you have a better idea of how to visualize your boxes while planning your construction. So, when you are looking at your sets of lines you want to be focusing only on the lines that share a vanishing point. This does not include lines that share a corner or a plane, only lines that converge towards the same vanishing point. Now when you think of those lines, including those that have not been drawn, you can think about the angles from which they leave the vanishing point. Usually the middle lines have a small angle between them, and this angle will become negligible by the time they reach the box. This can serve as a useful hint.
Congrats again and good luck with lesson 2!
Next Steps:
Continue to lesson 2!