If you haven't yet read through Lesson 0, you absolutely should before moving forward. It covers important information on how these lessons are meant to be used, and highlights common pitfalls many students encounter that can hinder their progress as they move forwards.
As you may have noticed, Drawabox is presented in both videos and text. This is because the content we teach here is dense, and it helps students to absorb the material when it is delivered in multiple formats.
While we are working to make the videos more concise and to touch on all the same major points in both text and video format, as of February 2021 we are only just beginning revising the video content. Most of the videos are older - some by a year, some by a few - and many of them are not as up-to-date as the text content. They are still useful, but should not be treated as a replacement for the text.
Even when the videos are fully updated however, there is immense value in absorbing the material in different formats. Our brains easily become complacent, so going through it in multiple formats is more effective, even than just rewatching the same video several times.
Expect to both watch the videos and read the text, in order to get the most out of this resource.
Over the years, it's become more and more apparent that reading isn't for everyone. If for whatever reason, reading isn't an option for you, we've been collaborating with the guys over at Audiblogs to help. They're excited to improve accessibility across the internet, and I'm doing what I can to provide Drawabox as a testing ground for them.
Audiblogs takes the boring, robotic text-to-speech you're probably used to and kicks it up to the next level. If you haven't tried it already, I strongly recommend that you do - you're bound to be impressed with how it captures natural intonation and inflection, making the content here much easier to absorb, and helping you learn more efficiently and effectively.
While it does cost $2.99/month (processing and bandwidth costs the Audiblogs guys quite a bit each month), you can try listening to Lesson 0 as well as the first section of Lesson 1 for free to get a feel for it and see if it'll work for you. Just look for the "Listen with Audiblogs" button at the top of each page.
Just remember - Audiblogs is not some big company. They're a small startup - just two guys trying to make a difference, so if you find their service useful, they certainly deserve your support.
So- if you've read through all of Lesson 0, are ready to follow the instructions of the tasks laid before you, and to both watch the videos and read through the text, let's get started. You can click the link at the bottom right of the page to move onto the next section.
Some of you may remember James Gurney's breathtaking work in the Dinotopia series. This is easily my favourite book on the topic of colour and light, and comes highly recommended by any artist worth their salt. While it speaks from the perspective of a traditional painter, the information in this book is invaluable for work in any medium.
Having your work reviewed by others is critical, as those who are just starting out aren't in a position to properly judge their own work, and won't be for quite some time. Don't be afraid to show your struggles - it's by analyzing your mistakes that we can help you grow. Perfect homework is not what we're looking for; we just need it to be complete.
There are currently two places you can get your work critiqued by the community - Reddit and our Discord Chat Server.
Both of these are completely free.
If you are interested in receiving extra help, I critique the work of those who support Drawabox on Patreon.
All of these private critiques are done through reddit, in specific threads where students post their work as a comment, including a link to their work (often hosted on Imgur, though most image hosts are okay).
My requirements are more strict than the free community critiques:
The minimum pledge for this lesson is $5.00/month. The orange button above will take you to the reddit thread for this lesson, you can post a link to your work there and I'll be notified. Once I catch the submission, I'll add it to this backlog spreadsheet.
Pledges are collected at the beginning of the following month, but you may start submitting your work immediately. If you're a new patron, I'll be reaching out to your shortly to collect your reddit username.
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