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250 Box Challenge

3:43 PM, Monday June 5th 2023

250 Drawabox Challenge - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/taitb7E.jpg

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I have a few things I would like to state:

  • I rewatched the video multiple times but when it came to drawing faces on the boxes I did the best of my ability as to me it was unclear. This includes rereading the lesson explanation that drawabox had on its website.

  • I followed the same placement of three colored lines but made mistakes here and there. Should not be that much of a deal.

  • I experimented with boxes and the strategy that was used to make said boxes aka drawing the y shape first. You can obviously tell not all boxes are perfect but the site encourages experimentation so I went along with it.

  • I ask for mercy because I do not want to do this challenge again. Even though I did get better with it.

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6:02 PM, Wednesday June 7th 2023

Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.

Not only does the challenge help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. That being said I'll try to keep this critique fairly brief so you can get working on the next steps as soon as possible.

Things you did well:

  • You're doing a good job of drawing the lines constructing your boxes smoothly and confidently.

  • It's nice to see that you're taking the time to plan each of your hatching lines and space them evenly. This helps keep your boxes looking tidy rather than looking like they were rushed on to the page.

  • Line weight isn't a requirement of the challenge so it's nice to see you're applying it anyways. Most people need to build up some mileage before they feel comfortable applying it so I always recommend starting early. The sooner you feel comfortable the sooner you see better results.

  • You're doing a great job of experimenting with orientations, and proportions. Experimenting is an important habit to build when learning any new skill, it helps form a more well rounded understanding. I hope you'll continue to display and nurture this habit in the future.

Things you can work on:

  • I'd like you to experiment with rates of foreshortening more. Currently you tend to keep your lines close to parallel and push your vanishing points far from your boxes. Try bringing your points in closer so that your lines have to converge more dramatically. Remember that experimentation is important.

  • At times you're placing your vanishing point between the viewer and your boxes (boxes 133, 135, 174, and 179 are examples of this). This leads to you extending your lines in the wrong direction and your boxes becoming distorted because your lines are actually diverging from where the vanishing point would actually be. Here's a guide I wrote that will hopefully help you place your vanishing points and line extensions more consistently. If you need some more examples you can find them here and a simplified guide below.

  • There are times when your lines converge in pairs or you attempt to keep your lines a bit too parallel which results in them diverging. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.

The key things we want to remember from this exercise are that our lines should always converge as a set not in pairs, never diverge from the vanishing point and due to perspective they won't be completely parallel.

I won't be moving you on to the next lesson just yet, each lesson builds off concepts in the previous course material so if you move forward with un-addressed issues you end up just creating further issues on top of them.

I'll be asking you to draw 30 more boxes. Focus on extending your lines consistently in the correct direction as well as experimenting with rates of foreshortening. For the first 15 I'd like you to draw all 3 of your vanishing points explicitly on the page after you've drawn your initial Y shape, this will force you to work with vanishing points closer to your box. For the latter 15 you can go back to the original method which should hopefully be easier an easier task after the first 15.

Once you've completed your boxes reply to this critique with a link to them, I'll address anything that needs to be worked on and once you've shown you're ready I'll move you on to the next lesson.

I know you can do this and look forward to seeing your work.

Next Steps:

30 more boxes please.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
12:33 AM, Friday June 9th 2023

https://imgur.com/a/1vB945Y

The link above is for the extra 30 boxes. A few things:

  • I did understand but of course they are all not perfect especially when one is experimenting. Also went with the same system used for the 250 boxes.

  • The back corner is especially hard and as you can see I overdrew my work so that the end result can make more sense. I had to refine it so it could work. But i am getting the idea and erasing it as others would.

  • It may look as if some lines are parallel but i did try to make them all converge. I had to take even more time and tried closing one of my eyes for me to properly gauge it.

3:24 PM, Friday June 9th 2023

You're doing a good job of extending all your lines correctly in these boxes. That being said it does seem like you're still not as comfortable as you could be bringing your vanishing points in closer on your own because as you mentioned your lines become closer to parallel after the first half of your revisions.

There are a few things I'd like to address as well:

  • You tend to draw fairly small here, I'd like you to draw larger in the future. Drawing large will help you become more comfortable working from the shoulder and allow you to see any mistakes you've made more clearly.

  • You're focusing a lot on the back corner of the box which is likely why you're struggling with vanishing points. Focusing on the back corner is trap that many people fall into (and one we warn you about in the instructions). It will very rarely be perfect if you're freehanding boxes like you are in this exercise. This is because we tend to draw it last and any inaccuraces we've created up until that point get reflected in it. While you should still attempt to create it as accurately as you can, if you make a mistake anywhere else it won't be perfect so it's not what you should be focusing on.

  • One thing I'm not entirely certain of that you bring up is:

But i am getting the idea and erasing it as others would.

You shouldn't be erasing or redrawing, part of why we use ink is to discourage this and to work with our mistakes. Redrawing doesn't get rid of the mistake it just creates a mess. Drawing larger will help your mistakes be more obvious so you can improve from them, otherwise a lot of that time that goes into correcting them could be put into ghosting and planning the form to begin with.

With all of that being said these are an improvement and you've shown you can bring your vanishing points in closer, you just need more mileage to become more comfortable doing so. You've extended all your lines correctly as well so good work overall.

I'm confident you will continue to improve as you build up mileage in your warmups so I'll be making your submission complete.

Keep practicing boxes and previously completed exercises as warmups and best of luck in lesson 2.

Next Steps:

Move on to lesson 2.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
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