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12:35 AM, Monday January 24th 2022
edited at 2:02 PM, Jan 25th 2022

Congratulations on completing lesson one! My name is Rexplosive and I am a community member. I myself have only finished lesson one. I am now starting the 250 box challenge. Still, I feel confident that I understand the first lesson and will be referencing Uncomfortable's notes to ensure a good critique.

Lines

Superimposed Lines

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate confidence. Your hand blocks the endpoint, and yet you must confidently execute/guide your stroke. Any hesitation would result in wobbly lines. We are looking for smooth and consistent lines. We can expect to see fraying on the end of the line opposite the starting position. If you are taking the time to correctly position your pen, we should not see fraying on the start position. There are three levels of results https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/10/levels. We want to avoid wobbly lines, arcing lines and overshooting.

Results:

I can see that you execute your lines with confidence. You start from the same point, leaving fraying only to one side as to be expected. There is some slight arc to your larger lines, but I am not surprised as your brain will try to subconsciously correct your trajectory. I think you did a good job on this exercise and demonstrated you understand the purpose. You will surely improve.

Ghosted Lines

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise is to introduce you to a technique that you will use on every single mark you make through all of Draw a Box. The goal is to develop a habit of thinking before you draw. Remembering to rotate the page, plan your dots, prepare with ghosting, and finally execute with confidence.

Results:

You have drawn lines with confidence. It is evidenced with the fact that your lines are almost all perfectly straight. You have done a good job at almost hitting all of your planned points. There is some slight undershooting as I can see you have attempted to lift your pen early to avoid overshooting. I am confident with more practice and mileage your lines will improve. On a side note, your lines throughout the assignment seem to be faint. Please consider either upgrading to a new fine point or changing papers.

Ghosted Planes

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise is to apply the ghosting method to something more complex than a single line. Yet still, keep in mind that each line is an important step that must not be rushed. Regardless of whether we are making a plane or a box, we still plan (dots), prepare (ghost) and execute(confident, straight stroke).

Results:

As I concentrate on your planes, I can see you have used confident straight strokes. You may have undershot some points, but other points were bang on. Good job with your planning and ghosting. I think you have demonstrated here that you understand how to execute this exercise and will grow from this one.

Ellipses

Tables of Ellipses

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise is to get you used to drawing ellipses in a variety of sizes, orientations and degrees. We want to see that the ellipses did not go out of the allotted space, were snuggly packed next to each other, and were not drawn too short. Remember to draw through each ellipse, and avoid the egg shape.

Results:

I can see you show confidence once again with your lines. You follow through at least 2 or 3 times. Your ellipses show variety is size, orientation and degree. Snugly packed in, and within the alloted space. Good job.

Ellipses in Planes

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate maintaining the smooth, even shape above all else. Next demonstrating that you can fit snugly within the plane touching all four edges. Avoid deforming the ellipses by staying calm.

Results:

I like to see here that you were more focused on executing the correct shape than you were on accuracy. You may have drawn outside a bit but the accuracy will come with time. The form is more important. You have some really good smooth lines and shapes. Over time I think both your shape and accuracy of the ellipse will increase.

Funnels

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise is to get used to the minor axis line and fitting ellipses in snugly within a set space. Remembering to get each ellipse in the correct orientation with the minor axis. The ellipses should look as if it is evenly split in half along the axis (symmetrical equal halves). Avoid being slanted and cut unevenly along the minor axis. Remembering to fit snugly through the funnel, and within the space created by the curves. Avoided spilling outside the funnel.

Results:

An important thing to remember with the funnel exercise is to maintain consistency with the shape so you do not end up with an egg. As well to ensure the minor axis splits each ellipses correctly in half while maintaining the correct angle. I think this is an exercise you should bring more focus to. I will not ask you to revise this, though I do think you should express more patience with this specific exercise. Focus on ensuring the degree as you move out of the funnel are getting larger and in a consistent manner on both ends. You also want to be mindful of the minor axis in relation to drawing your ellipse.

Boxes

Plotted Perspective

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise was to familiarize those who are starting out with vanishing points.

Results:

Great job! Nothing really to say here. You did a good job showing you understand what is perspective.

Rough Perspective

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise was to get familiar with the concept that close enough is sometimes good enough. To get comfortable separating yourself from the explicit reliance on plotting everything back to a vanishing point. The boxes should look pretty close to correct but are not expected to be correct. You should demonstrate that you understand in one-point perspective, your horizontal lines run parallel to the horizon (kinda) and all vertical lines run perpendicular to the horizon. There should be no signs of guessing, no drawn lines to the vanishing point, and only one point perspective.

Results:

You did a great job with maintaining the horizontal and vertical lines of your boxes against the horizon. Your boxes came out pretty good. Even though you were off your vanishing point, nothing too crazy. I think your intuition with vanishing points is going to both get better once you move on to the 250 Box Challenge, as well as prove handy.

Rotated Boxes

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise is to learn how to infer information about space and the arrangement of objects from neighbouring objects. Remembering to rotate the boxes as they move away from the center box. Making sure to keep things together. Keeping gaps narrow and consistent. Making sure to draw through all boxes.

Results:

Good attempt at the rotating boxes. You started off with a nice big box which is nice to see to help clarify perspective, however it does seem you kind of shrunk down quickly. In the outer layer of boxes it would have been nice to see some more rotation as well. They almost seem in line with the vanishing point of the layer before. Nonetheless, great job at tackling such a difficult homework.

Organic Perspective

What we are looking for:

The purpose of this exercise is to experience the deep end. Work with freely rotating boxes in 3D space without any real grounding of how to deal with it. No use of vanishing points on the page. Using your educated guess and intuition.

Results:

Good job with your boxes. I think you did a good job shrinking the boxes in the distance to create the illusion. The shape of some of your boxes may seem odd, but I am confident that is a good reason to shift over to the 250 Box Challenge where you can get more practice.

Overall:

I think that BRUH has demonstrated understanding of all the exercises in level one and should move on to the 250 box challenge. Good submission that showed understanding of the concepts explained in lesson one. I am marking this as complete. Good work, keep it up!

Next Steps:

Move on to the 250 Box Challenge!

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
edited at 2:02 PM, Jan 25th 2022
11:06 AM, Monday January 24th 2022
edited at 11:09 AM, Jan 24th 2022

Thank you so much for the critique. I'll keep in mind the things you mentioned specially the ones about funnels. I think the fainting of the lines came from the way I was holding my pen. I think it got better in the later exercises.

edited at 11:09 AM, Jan 24th 2022
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