Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

5:04 AM, Sunday October 10th 2021

Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes - Album on Imgur

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I started the course a month ago, I have been drawing for a year and I look forward to taking every lesson learned to the letter. Please be honest and support me in my development as an illustrator.

Here are my practices from lesson 1.

2 users agree
7:44 PM, Sunday October 17th 2021

Hello Kento, I hope you are well,

Starting with your lines.

You did quite a good job finishing those exercises. There aren't any major mistakes, just one minor. It is that In superimposed lines you fry both ends. It is normal to fry one end, but frying both, tells me that you don't prepare enough for each stroke. Remember to plan each stroke by positioning your pen on the start of your line, then confidently execute the stroke.

Your biggest problem with this section is that your lines wobble and aren't as straight as I would want them to be. Remember to be patient with ghosting and take as much time as needed for each line. Then when it feels right, confidently execute the line. Also keep in mind to use your shoulder with a locked wrist. You also arch your lines, you can try to arch your shoulder a little in the opposite direction to your arching. At first it may feel weird but after some practice it should make your lines straight.

I want to point out that you do a good thing focusing on confidence rather than accuracy. But in the end your lines aren't confident as pointed out earlier. We want to progress step by step and our 1st step is a smooth confident line that misses our mark a little.

Moving onto your ellipses.

Remember to draw through your ellipses 2-3 times. Doing so we gain experience with them faster. This also allows us to create a smoother shape of our ellipse.

You focus more on accuracy rather than smooth and confident ellipses. Keep in mind that what we want from this section is a habit of drawing through our ellipses and making them as smooth as we can. We do it by ghosting our ellipses and executing them with confidence.

In ghosted planes keep in mind that center of a plane isnt a center of our ellipse that we want to draw in. Ellipse has to be symmetrical and also has to keep the same form regardless where they are. Also few of your ellipses aren't smooth.

On funnels, you don't align ellipses to the minor axis. Remember that our ellipses should be cut by the center line in two symmetrical halves if that means you need to ignore the initial curves. In tables of ellipses try to make your ellipses within the bounds of tables and don't make them overlap each other, this happens quite rarely but I still want to point it out for the future.

Lastly your boxes.

This section came out good. Your linework got a little better, but another problem appeared. Repeating lines is a bad habit most students do in this early lesson. Don't repeat your lines, even if you made a bad line, leave it and treat it as if it was the correct one. We don't want to correct our lines as it forms bad habits and teaches us that we don't have to commit to our lines. Leave your bad line there to be seen. Next time you try to make a line, don't repeat the same mistake you did the previous time.

You did quite a good job in rotated boxes, most students struggle in these exercises and they are supposed to as it is the hardest part of this lesson. That said, sometimes you are actually not rotating them, but rather skewing and translating over. When we rotate a box we also move its vanishing point, use this gif to understand how the rotation is correlated with the motion of the vanishing points.

In your organic perspective you arent varying the sizes of boxes enough. As it stands now your boxes are very similar in sizes. Additionally remember to overlap your boxes, don't avoid it. We want them to be overlapped and varied in size to make a strong feel of perspective.

Summary

There weren't any major mistakes, just a few minor ones. But your weakest point is your line making skill. Remember to always be confident with your lines and ellipses.

I want you to make 2 pages of ellipses in planes as a redo, as I believe improving this skill will help you greatly in future.

If you have any question feel free to ask,

Next Steps:

2 pages of ellipses in planes

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
8:45 PM, Monday October 18th 2021

Thank you very much, I was really looking forward to getting a response from someone so observant of this community. I have clearly understood my pros and cons. I'll make sure to take my time from now on for my ghost lines. I was really right on how I felt and my weaknesses, and it helped me to have a clear thought of what to do to overcome it.

I really appreciate it. I'll make sure to move forward clearly.

2:25 AM, Thursday March 3rd 2022

I'm back.

I have taken some time to rest, retrain and be able to feel more comfortable with other aspects of art during my definitive path.

I have practiced several times in order to show again my tasks that have been entrusted to me, and here I want to present them ready.

Thank you very much for the task that you left me, I have noticed an improvement in the aspects that you have pointed out to me and I feel ready for the next challenges.

https://imgur.com/a/dkR2EWi

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