This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.

Here's today's prompt!
THEY TOOK THE BUTTONS!
Submit for this prompt in the next to earn a unique avatar!Did you hear? It was awful. Aliens attacked! We expected it would happen, but... not like this. We didn't stand a chance, and didn't even have the opportunity to fight back.
Well, in truth, they didn't actually really fight, or harm us. But what they did was so much worse. They took our BUTTONS! They said that we were bad little worms and they wouldn't give them back until we learned to behave and stop warring with one another over "petty" things. They can't possibly know how important it is that my sports team win against theirs!
Anyway, so we need to figure out another solution. Please! Design an alternative way to use a tool or appliance that traditionally uses buttons. It's an emergency!
Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
Tables of Ellipses

The first exercise is relatively straight forward, and involves drawing a lot of ellipses. These are not, however, simply free ellipses with no real goals. Instead, it is pinned on the idea of setting out criteria and targets for the ellipses we intend to draw, before drawing them. Therefore, when you draw your ellipse, it is either correct, or it isn't.

For this one, you draw a circle starting from the far left of the box. Then, draw another beside it. Keep repeating it until you fill in the whole box. Strive to make your circles touch the top and bottom of the box, as well as the line to the left of it.
Next, same idea, but with ellipses. Within the same section, you should aim to draw ellipses of the same degree. You can also play with the angle of the ellipse, and this should also be consistent within the same section.

This one's a little different. Draw a wave through the section, dividing it into irregular pockets of space. Then fill these spaces with circles or ellipses, trying to keep them touching the bounds of the section as well as the curve. Everything should fit in there snugly, and nothing should be floating around.
The purpose of this exercise
This exercise is meant to get you used to drawing ellipses, in a variety of sizes, orientations and degrees. It also sets out a clear space each ellipse is meant to occupy, giving us a means to assess whether or not an ellipse was successful, or if there were visible mistakes (where it went outside of its allotted space, or ended up falling short). Practicing against set criteria, with a way to judge success/failure is an important element of learning. There's nothing wrong with failure - it's an opportunity to learn. Having a clearly defined task allows us to analyze those failures and make the most of them.

Things to remember
When going through this exercise, there are a couple things I want you to keep in mind:
-
Draw confidently - use the ghosting method and "draw through" your ellipses two full times before lifting your pen to achieve a smooth, even shape.
-
Always set out a goal for the ellipse you're about to draw. This is generally what the "planning" phase of the ghosting method is for.
For a more in-depth explanation, you can check out this video, or the points listed below.

Mistake: Drawing without a concrete goal
I've seen lots of people do these in the past - that is, drawing ellipses floating inside of other ellipses. This is my opinion of course, but I don't think they're terribly useful, since they don't give a concrete target to aim for. I understand that it definitely is tricky to draw a circle inside of another circle and keeping it centered, but I still don't feel like it's as effective as other more concrete exercises.

Mistake: Not drawing through ellipses
This is something I'm pretty adamant about - you should be drawing through every single ellipse you draw for my lessons. That is, draw around the ellipse two or three times before lifting your pen. Two is ideal in my opinion, but three is also acceptable.
When you try to hit your ellipse in a single round, it's usually going to come out uneven and wobbly (due to drawing too slowly and carefully) or extremely loose (due to simply not having built up the muscle memory to nail an ellipse). Drawing through your ellipses gives your arm the chance to familiarize itself with what's being asked of it in that first pass, and then firm it up in the second.
Along with giving you an extra chance to build up the muscle memory, it also helps you maintain the confidence needed to achieve a smooth, even shape, without totally losing control.
As you get better, your ellipses will tighten up - the gaps between your successive passes will shrink and eventually your ellipses will appear much cleaner. At this point you'll probably be able to nail your ellipses in one pass, but I still want you to continue drawing through them for all of the Drawabox lessons. Outside of Drawabox, you're free to do what you like.

Adobe Photoshop
There are a lot of options for illustration software out there, but mine has always been Adobe Photoshop. I've been using it for nearly 20 years now, ever since I started fooling around with digital art, and it has served me well into my career, both in freelancing and in studio positions. One of the biggest advantages, in my opinion, for those jumping into digital art with Photoshop now is its accessibility. Where when I was younger, it'd cost hundreds, even over a thousand dollars for a software license, younger students can now get their feet wet with industry standard software for just $10/month with their Photography Plan.