View Full Submission View Parent Comment
6:33 PM, Tuesday January 24th 2023

We are still working through the last section of Lesson 1, but I cannot commit to any specific timeline. Circumstances are always changing (we started out overhaul back in 2021), and things continuously get in the way. From our apartment flooding, the constant flow of homework submissions to critique, and the latest being a change in Patreon's subscription model that reduced our monthly revenue requiring me to decide between either increasing the cost of feedback, paying our TAs less, or taking a pay cut myself. I've taken the pay cut, and as a result have had to pick up a contract work opportunity with my old employer, resulting in much less time to work on the updated material. It is what it is, and the overhaul will always be a "when it happens" situation.

Drawabox will always be in a position to be better, but I do not advise students to try and wait for the overhaul to be complete, or completed to a particular point - all of the recommendations people have heard about this course are based on the material as it exists right now, and the purpose of the overhaul is basically to incorporate what we've learned about how we can better address the material from explaining those concepts in the feedback we provide. So, those on the official critique track will get that information in one form or another as they work through the course, and those who are not will get it eventually as the overhaul moves forwards

As far as the "sneak peak" those on the official critique track get, you've experienced some of this yourself - for example, the emphasis on not altering the silhouettes of forms once you've added them to your construction, which was shared with you in your Lesson 4 feedback. So, rest assured, you will not be missing out on anything, it's more of a matter of when in the process you receive the information.

8:35 AM, Friday January 27th 2023

I sorry for you and your team that there seems to be always something in the way.

Thank you that you release sneak peaks of in the critiques.

Is there some way for the community to help with the overhauls?

4:22 PM, Monday January 30th 2023

Hahaha, no worries - it does often seem that way, but in all fairness I've also prioritized my health and sanity, so I'm no longer devoting the kind of hours I used to spend on Drawabox, and am instead forcing myself to take my evenings, to take more of my weekends, etc. Not always possible given the other projects/jobs ongoing, but I've definitely accepted that at the end of the day, what people know Drawabox as is what it is today - not a promise of what it will be eventually. So regardless of how long it takes, I see the work on the overhaul as something that is continuing to give more, rather than repaying owed debt.

Unfortunately right now there isn't much for the community to do, aside from being patient with me.

5:51 PM, Wednesday February 1st 2023

It's really good to hear that you don't do too much of the draw a box stuff and such.

Health and sanity is the most important thing there is.

Well the community can't help right now but I'm sure you'll let us know when we can help you.

I believe that everyone especially the ones who are past the 250 box challenge have more that enough patient and will be hyped for everything that may happen with draw a box.

Thanks for making it free for everyone and having such a good course.

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)

Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)

Let's be real here for a second: fineliners can get pricey. It varies from brand to brand, store to store, and country to country, but good fineliners like the Staedtler Pigment Liner (my personal brand favourite) can cost an arm and a leg. I remember finding them being sold individually at a Michael's for $4-$5 each. That's highway robbery right there.

Now, we're not a big company ourselves or anything, but we have been in a position to periodically import large batches of pens that we've sourced ourselves - using the wholesale route to keep costs down, and then to split the savings between getting pens to you for cheaper, and setting some aside to one day produce our own.

These pens are each hand-tested (on a little card we include in the package) to avoid sending out any duds (another problem with pens sold in stores). We also checked out a handful of different options before settling on this supplier - mainly looking for pens that were as close to the Staedtler Pigment Liner. If I'm being honest, I think these might even perform a little better, at least for our use case in this course.

We've also tested their longevity. We've found that if we're reasonably gentle with them, we can get through all of Lesson 1, and halfway through the box challenge. We actually had ScyllaStew test them while recording realtime videos of her working through the lesson work, which you can check out here, along with a variety of reviews of other brands.

Now, I will say this - we're only really in a position to make this an attractive offer for those in the continental United States (where we can offer shipping for free). We do ship internationally, but between the shipping prices and shipping times, it's probably not the best offer you can find - though this may depend. We also straight up can't ship to the UK, thanks to some fairly new restrictions they've put into place relating to their Brexit transition. I know that's a bummer - I'm Canadian myself - but hopefully one day we can expand things more meaningfully to the rest of the world.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.