Congratulations on getting through lesson 1! Here is some feedback.
Lines
First off, your frayed lines start at one point, and only fray at one end, as they’re supposed to. Did you use a ruler to draw the initial line? It’s hard to tell by looking. If you did use a ruler, move on, but keep doing these as warm ups. If not, redo them with a ruler. The curved lines have a bit of a wobble to them.
On the point to point lines, you have the idea, but are still struggling with the confidence. Definitely keep doing these as part of your 5 minute warmups.
One thing I like to do is to keep a piece of scratch paper, and if I feel I’m starting to wobble, I draw some loose, fast lines (with no guidelines) to “reset” my arm to a more confident state. Then I go back to whatever the exercise is.
Ellipses
On the ellipse tables, you’re fitting them in fairly well, varying the degree, and drawing them with two passes, as you should. These take a while to gain confidence in, and you’ll get smoother as you continue to practice.
When my ellipses start to wobble I do the following. First, draw a few quick super loose ones (not in a table or anything), then a few aligned with a minor axis (like this: https://imgur.com/a/FVVPp6Z ), then go back to constrained ellipses (like one or two panels of a table).
On the ghosted planes, again, you have the idea, but the pen confidence will come with time. When you draw the crosshairs (not the corner to corner “x”, but the middle to middle “+”), the lines of the “+” sign will go to the same vanishing point as the other lines that are parallel to it in 3D space. (this explains better: https://imgur.com/a/ZRm2n13 )
Boxes
You have the right idea on the perspective of the boxes for the 2 point perspective and rough perspective. Mostly here it’s just working on line confidence, which will come with time. Again, the idea is there on the rotated boxes. On the organic perspective, You’ve gone small to large and followed the lines. I do see a lot of diverging lines, but you’ll work on this on the 250 box challenge.
Here is one way of drawing boxes that helped me understand: https://imgur.com/a/CP1JmaB
Also, there is a pitfall of accidentally drawing your convergence lines the wrong direction. Here is how to avoid it: https://imgur.com/a/3YXACR6
Next Steps:
On the frayed lines, did you use a ruler for the initial line? (It's hard to tell.) If so, great, if not, redo them and draw the initial line with a ruler.
Other than that, start the 250 box challenge, and post your first 10 or so on discord for feedback, so you know you're on the right track before you crank out 240 more!
Keep doing the lesson 1 work as warmups, focusing on line confidence. In particular, do frayed lines, planes, point to point, and tables/funnels of ellipses. You don't need to fill entire pages--just pick one exercise and do it for 5 minutes, and alternate days when you do straight line vs ellipse work. If you tighten up, "reset" by drawing some very loose stuff on a piece of scratch pad. It took a few months for my ellipses to look decent, and you'll want to be more confident with them before hitting lesson 2.
Thank you for your critique! I did use a ruler for frayed lines, it's just been obscured. I'll get started on the 250 box challenge soon, and I'll make sure to do warmups so that my lines look better!
Fabulous, and good luck!
Next Steps:
Make sure you get feedback on your first 20 or so boxes, ideally on the discord server. It let's you know you're on the right track before you go through all the boxes, or let's you know if you need a course correction!
A lot of my students use these. The last time I used them was when I was in high school, and at the time I felt that they dried out pretty quickly, though I may have simply been mishandling them. As with all pens, make sure you're capping them when they're not in use, and try not to apply too much pressure. You really only need to be touching the page, not mashing your pen into it.
In terms of line weight, the sizes are pretty weird. 08 corresponds to 0.5mm, which is what I recommend for the drawabox lessons, whereas 05 corresponds to 0.45mm, which is pretty close and can also be used.
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