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12:26 AM, Friday May 24th 2024

Starting with the cylinders around arbitrary minor axes, your work here is generally pretty decent. I am somewhat concerned about your linework - it's visibly hesitant, resulting in subtle but noticeable wavering, and I'm not seeing any signs that you're applying the ghosting method to these. Note that we do require students use the ghosting method for any and every mark that is freehanded throughout this course. It's pretty easy to get a little too comfortable and to stop thinking about how actively you're applying all three stages of the process to each and every mark - and so if we aren't attentive and intentional with it, we shift from properly investing our time to the planning and preparation phases, then executing with confidence, to reducing how much time we're willing to invest in those planning/preparation phases, and compensating by spending more time on the execution... which brings us right around to the opposite of what the ghosting method is all about.

As a whole, this course really focuses on being hyper-intentional with every choice we make throughout the process. It's tedious, it's boring, it's exhausting, but in doing so we rewire our brain and what it considers "normal" so that when we're drawing outside of the course, even if we're not consciously trying to apply these methodologies, we still fall into those patterns of behaviour - even if it means thinking for a split second about the nature of the mark we wish to draw before we draw it.

Aside from that, you are generally doing a good job of checking the alignment of your ellipses, and I'm pleased to see that you've included a wide variety of rates of foreshortening. The only other thing to keep an eye on aside from how you're executing your marks, is to draw through each of your ellipses two full times. It seems you intend to do so, but again - because you're not being as attentive to what you're actually doing, you frequently fall short, drawing only 1.5 turns of the ellipse instead of a full 2.

Unfortunately while the first section of the challenge was overall decently done despite the issues I called out, you don't seem to have taken as much care as you should have in following the instructions for the cylinders in boxes. This exercise is really all about helping develop students' understanding of how to construct boxes which feature two opposite faces which are proportionally square, regardless of how the form is oriented in space. We do this not by memorizing every possible configuration, but rather by continuing to develop your subconscious understanding of space through repetition, and through analysis (by way of the line extensions).

Where the box challenge's line extensions helped to develop a stronger sense of how to achieve more consistent convergences in our lines, here we add three more lines for each ellipse: the minor axis, and the two contact point lines. In checking how far off these are from converging towards the box's own vanishing points, we can see how far off we were from having the ellipse represent a circle in 3D space, and in turn how far off we were from having the plane that encloses it from representing a square.

Looking at your work, you do not seem to have actually applied the line extension instructions correctly - you only extended your boxes' lines and identified the minor axis for each ellipse, and did not apply the 2 contact point lines for each ellipse, so you did not gain the benefits the exercise was designed to impart. While it's a lot of work, it does mean that you're going to have to redo that section.

When doing so, be sure to aim to have each ellipse touch all four edges of the plane enclosing it (cases like 227, 231, and 233, as well as some others had some issues in this regard, although this is something you did correctly for the majority of cases), and also ensure that you are extending your lines in the correct direction (again, you largely did this correctly, but there were a handful of cases towards the first half like 155, 156, 157, 172, 193) where your lines were extended in the wrong direction. This approach from the box challenge can help you consistently extend your lines in the right direction based on the Y you start with).

Next Steps:

Please submit another 100 cylinders in boxes, being sure to apply the line extensions as directed in the instructions, including all 3 line extensions for each ellipse. Additionally, be sure to take your time applying the ghosting method in its entirety to all of your marks, to ensure a confident execution with no hesitation.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
3:07 PM, Wednesday May 29th 2024

https://imgur.com/a/yVPH7Z7

I'll make sure to read the instructions more carefully next time. Thank you!

6:08 PM, Thursday May 30th 2024

As a whole this is an improvement, mainly in terms of ensuring that you're following the instructions and applying the line extensions more correctly this time around. The only issue in regards to that is that you appear to only be marking out your minor axes in a limited fashion, more similarly to the first section of the challenge. Looking at the instructions you'll note that we want them to be extended all the way back, so we can more effectively compare them to the other line extensions, identify more easily how far off they are from converging consistently, and apply that information more directly when tackling the next set.

In terms of the work in general, there are two main things I want you to focus on going forwards:

  • I noted your linework as a concern previously, and it continues to be one. A lot of these lines are longer, which makes me think that you may not have developed a level of comfort with drawing from your shoulder - something that at this point in the course would usually be due to either forgetting to push yourself to draw from your shoulder and allowing yourself to slip back to the elbow more frequently without correction, or neglecting to keep up with the exercises we introduced that help develop those skills as part of your regular warmups. More likely it'd be a combination of the two. The other side of this is that you may simply not be giving yourself enough time - I noticed that you submitted within a little over 5 days, which means that you were doing 20 boxes + cylinders + line extensions each day, which is a lot. Back in the box challenge, we generally advise students that 5 per day, even 10 per day is fine, but exceeding that can result in more rushing. That rushing tends to manifest most of all in your linework.

  • The other point that stood out to me is that your boxes tend to have sets of edges that diverge very frequently. That is, cases where the 4 edges of a given set feature at least one edge that is dramatically diverging from the others. This usually comes about when the student is not paying enough attention to how the edges of a given set should be behaving when figuring out a corner, and relies more on guesswork. If you take a look at the 250 box challenge material currently, you might find that it has been updated since you last tackled it - the single video's been broken up into 3, and the challenge itself is more broken up as well into distinct sections. I'd advise you to review the videos, and potentially review the video discussing the Y method that is currently part of Lesson 1's Organic Perspective section to better understand how to go about "resolving" your corners.

As you've largely addressed the points I raised previously, I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete. Do be sure to review the material I've referenced here however, as allowing those issues with divergence and linework to continue without adjusting how you're approaching this work will result in larger issues going forward.

Next Steps:

Review the sections I called out, adjust your approach (more generally in terms of warmups, and specifically in terms of how you're executing your linework and planning out your forms), and then continue onto Lesson 6.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
10:28 PM, Thursday May 30th 2024

Thank you! I'll review the new material and you're definitely right that I haven't been pushing myself to use my shoulder enough. I'll make sure to change my warmups and exercises to make up for it.

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Rapid Viz

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