Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
6:21 AM, Sunday December 19th 2021
was done in June so I think I'll be fine now. also this was done in response to a critique I got. https://m.imgur.com/a/CzmMt0L
was done in June so I think I'll be fine now. also this was done in response to a critique I got. https://m.imgur.com/a/CzmMt0L
June was a while back. Though I won’t ask that you redo this, I do hope you’ve been keeping up with your warmups, since then. Now then, let’s see.
Your superimposed lines look mostly good. They’re smooth, and of a consistent trajectory, though not always lined up at the start. Try to be a little more patient, if you can. I know that drawing wildly is a good way to get confident marks, but that’s not the only thing we’re trying to train, here. Your ghosted lines (of which there’s an extra page), look confident all the way through, and I’m pleased to see that you’ve not forgotten to plot start/end points for the non-diagonal center lines of the planes – most students do.
The table of ellipses exercise looks mostly good. Your ellipses look smooth, and rounded, though more often than not, drawn through too much. Stick to the recommended 2-3 rotations (ideally, 2). I also notice that you’ll flick your pen off the page at the end of your rotations. See if you can lift it off, instead. The ellipses in planes are well done. Despite these more complicated frames, they do a good job of maintaining their prior smoothness/roundness. The funnels, too, look nice. There’s the occasional misalignment, for which we’d, of course, recommend ghosting a little longer, but the odd mistake is expected, so don’t stress about it too much.
Nice work on the plotted perspective exercise, though you should’ve used a ruler for the hatching lines.
The rough perspective exercise shows some solid improvement throughout the set, as far as its convergences are concerned. Linework is a little lacking, and there’s the occasional repeat line, though I suspect that this is due to your pen dying, more than anything else.
The rotated boxes exercise looks fantastic. It’s big, your boxes are snug, and they rotate comfortably. The hatching is a little off, at times, though this is to be expected with lines these small. Continue challenging yourself by drawing them from the shoulder, and they’re bound to improve.
Finally, the organic perspective exercise looks great. The sheer number of boxes, their overlaps, as well as their increase in size, and consistent, shallow foreshortening, all make it so that they successfully convey the illusion we’re after. The boxes themselves look quite good, also – a good start for the box challenge.
Next Steps:
Now, I know that you’ve already completed the challenge, so, as is procedure, I’ll allow you to submit it as-is, provided you draw 50 more boxes, that more accurately reflect your skill level right now (so you’ll be submitting a total of 300). GL, and feel free to use these 2 weeks to mostly draw for fun!
Some of you may remember James Gurney's breathtaking work in the Dinotopia series. This is easily my favourite book on the topic of colour and light, and comes highly recommended by any artist worth their salt. While it speaks from the perspective of a traditional painter, the information in this book is invaluable for work in any medium.
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