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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.
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Start off by taking your piece of paper and dividing it into a table with two columns and a bunch of rows.
Each of these sections will contain a different variation on the exercise - here you can experiment with different approaches, but here's a few that you can try out first.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
Your end result will look something like this.
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Here we're getting into the subjective - Gerald Brom is one of my favourite artists (and a pretty fantastic novelist!). That said, if I recommended art books just for the beautiful images contained therein, my list of recommendations would be miles long.
The reason this book is close to my heart is because of its introduction, where Brom goes explains in detail just how he went from being an army brat to one of the most highly respected dark fantasy artists in the world today. I believe that one's work is flavoured by their life's experiences, and discovering the roots from which other artists hail can help give one perspective on their own beginnings, and perhaps their eventual destination as well.
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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