Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 in relation to the space in which it is meant to fit (due to simply not having built up the muscle memory to nail an ellipse accurately). 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.