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3:00 AM, Tuesday March 22nd 2022

Thank you, Box Man.

I think I'm not understanding what you mean by drawing through the ellipses. Every time I let it go twice without thinking it through and being slow, it becomes a mess of bad, nearly two different ellipses. When I really try, I'm able to stay fairly accurate to the first ellipse. Not always, but sometimes it can be right on top.

I think I should go back and read Lesson 1 on that then, maybe but if you had another bit of wisdom to drop, I'd appreciate it.

I'm not sure how to be more confident. I try to ghost, I try to just do it, but it still seems to catch me. I don't know if this is a me vs the fineliners or just me vs lack of confidence. Things seem to be a bit better when I'm not doing homework.

Who knows, I don't want to take up much more of your time right now. I know you've got a vacation coming up. It'll be awhile before ya see a submission from me no doubt, but thank you, especially for the compliment. I really want to be better.

All the best,

Kraken

Enjoy your vacation! I'm going to take a week off of Draw a Box as well I think.

4:59 PM, Wednesday March 23rd 2022

So by "draw through your ellipses", I'm referring to this from Lesson 1 (I assume you do understand that, but I wanted to be clear just in case).

Every time I let it go twice without thinking it through and being slow

Remember that as discussed back in Lesson 1 - specifically in the principles of markmaking, our primary goal is not accuracy - it is confidence. Even while it may undermine the accuracy of our strokes, we must execute those marks with a confident pace (ie: not slowly, albeit not necessarily fast, but rather at whatever pace we need to ensure that we do not attempt to steer the pen with our eyes in order to correct mistakes while drawing). The moment your pen touches the page, you must commit to whatever trajectory you were set upon (assuming use of the planning and preparation phases of the ghosting method beforehand, which as mentioned in my original critique is necessary here). If you end up struggling with accuracy, that's fine - but the solution is not to change the approach, but simply to keep practicing that markmaking. Through however many iterations of those Lesson 1 exercises one would have reasonably done by this point as part of their warmups since completing Lesson 1, our accuracy would steadily improve, but only if we actually apply the approach as instructed, prioritizing the right parts.

I'm not sure how to be more confident

I do sometimes run into students who are just convinced that they cannot draw with confidence, and this can pose a pretty big wall. The solution in my experience is to show them that they can.

So, here's what you do. Take a piece of paper, put it on your desk. Make sure you're sitting comfortably - meaning, the chair/table height relationship should be such that you can place your hands flat on the tabletop while bending your elbows at a 90 degree angle. If you can't, you're either sitting too high or too low relative to the table. Being a little high is not a problem, but being higher than that, or low at all will mess with the use of your arm.

Sitting comfortably, take your pen and strike across the page with it as quickly as you can, using your whole arm from the shoulder. Don't worry about what mark you intend to make in this case - just draw as quickly as you can.

Your marks won't necessarily be straight, but they will be smooth. It is physically impossible, if you're really focusing on a smooth, blazingly fast execution, to end up with any wobbles in the stroke, because there's no time for it. The stroke pushes through, and out comes a smooth. non-specific, unplanned stroke.

That's proof that you can draw with confidence. The challenge is not to keep the marks smooth - it's to build up accuracy around that.

1:36 AM, Thursday March 24th 2022

I will give this a shot and see how it goes. From raising my chair up, I do think I've been a bit low. I will do some lesson 1 exercises and post them in the discord and get some feedback.

But don't people recommend an angle for drawing? Aren't drawing desks angled or something?

Thank you Box Man,

Kraken

2:35 AM, Friday March 25th 2022

That is true - angled drawing desks are quite useful, but they are not required. It all comes from the fact that when you're drawing on a flat desk, the far end of the page is farther from you than the closer end, resulting in perspective distortion impacting how you perceive your drawing, and thus how you draw. But it's also something you get used to. An angled drawing surface is certainly beneficial and sidesteps that issue, but it's not a requirement. I myself have only had a desktop drafting table for the last few years and... I honestly didn't really use it. Not even sure where it's gone now, we may have tossed it out. But either way, I certainly didn't have one when I was learning - this was what I had to work with. You work with what you've got.

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