Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
5:47 AM, Saturday June 26th 2021
lesson 1 submission. this is the new link as the older one doesnt have all the pages of the exercise.
Hello, hello! I will be reviewing your work today.
Starting with your superimposed lines exercise, there is a clear starting point with fraying at one end of the line, something that is expected early on. Now, your shorter lines are done well on both pages, however the longer lines do seem to deviate from their original path towards the central line, meaning you fixed its trajectory to be more accurate. This is not as pronounced in the second page, so you did take note of that. Your ghosted lines could have been better, since most of them do appear a little wobbly. Just like before, you took note of that and worked on your confidence in the ghosted planes exercise, all your lines are continuous with a fair amount of accuracy too, which gets better with practice. It is good to see that you are applying the ghosting method and are getting comfortable drawing from your shoulder. And good job on taking note of your previous mistakes to avoid them.
Moving on to your ellipses, one common recurring mistake that I am sure you noticed is that you are not drawing through them twice as instructed, so make sure to not lift the pen until you finish your second ellipse on top of the first one. I would also like to address another problem that manifests occasionally, but it is important that you take note of: some of your ellipses lack symmetry. Take a look at this: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/5/minoraxis; when folding the ellipse through the minor axis, both side will match up, meaning that for an ellipse both the top and bottom parts must be equal in size and width. If you look at your previous work, you will see that some ellipses are not equal on both side, resulting in an egg or sausage shape and a little bend at one of the tips of the mayor axis. One thing that can help to avoid that is by starting from the minor axis first to prevent the bend and ensure that both halves have the same shape. Aside from that, both your table of ellipses and ellipses in planes exercises are done well, seeing that you did your best to keep your ellipses snugly packed in each square without much overlapping between them while drawing them confidently on your tables, and on your planes you strived to keep them tangent to the edges. Your funnels are also done well, one thing that could have helped you here was to start out with a narrower ellipse to gradually increase the degree as you moved further apart. You also seem to run into a pretty common issue of your ellipses not being aligned with the minor axis of each. It is subtle, but noticeable.
Nothing to say about your plotted perspective, it is done well. Your rough perspective is looking good here as well, but there does seem to be some noticeable wobbling on your lines, meaning that you got a little anxious. Understand that a smooth line, even one that misses the mark, can be worked on while not much can be done with a wobbly one, so make sure your line making is done confidently and apply the ghosting method as many times as needed. Your convergence is off, something we expect early on. One thing that could have helped you here was drawing wider boxes, as drawing bigger boxes helps you tackle spatial problems such as this one and in your rotated boxes. I say that your rotated boxes turned out pretty well. You kept the gaps narrow and used the neighboring boxes as guides to build the next one. Your mistakes lie in each box’s lines not sharing the same vanishing point, notice how the rotating box has multiple vanishing points, resulting in the box not actually rotating and the mistakes cascading into the rest of the sphere. (Very noticeable on the vertical and horizontal boxes if you take a closer look.) Finally, your organic perspective turned out well. Most of your boxes did turn out pretty wonky and that is mostly a result of the initial Y’s angles not being greater than 90 degrees, so do keep this in mind when tackling the 250-box challenge.
Overall, this was a solid submission. You followed the instructions and left with a solid understanding of each exercise. I recommend you come back to each one as warm-ups for 10 to 15 minutes before tackling every lesson, especially your ellipses. Congratulations on completing lesson 1 and good luck in the challenge!
Next Steps:
The 250-box challenge.
Heyy thanks for the critique!!! I understood it. I know it's been almost like a year now. I'll keep in mind what you have mentioned. Thanks!
This is a remarkable little pen. Technically speaking, any brush pen of reasonable quality will do, but I'm especially fond of this one. It's incredibly difficult to draw with (especially at first) due to how much your stroke varies based on how much pressure you apply, and how you use it - but at the same time despite this frustration, it's also incredibly fun.
Moreover, due to the challenge of its use, it teaches you a lot about the nuances of one's stroke. These are the kinds of skills that one can carry over to standard felt tip pens, as well as to digital media. Really great for doodling and just enjoying yourself.
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