Drawabox.com | Part One: The Basics | Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction | Thinking in 3D | Exploring a 3D space
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Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

Thinking in 3D

The great conspiracy

When we start out, we know exactly what we're doing when it comes to drawing. We're taking a pen, a pencil, a stylus or whatever else, and we're making marks on something very, very... flat. We're not fools - we know that's exactly what we're doing, and we're very much in on the great conspiracy.

What conspiracy? The one where we fool our audience into thinking everything we draw is in fact 3D. That's what perspective is all about, right? Tips and tricks to fool those idiots and rubes into believing in something that isn't real?

Telling a convincing lie

Unfortunately, we tend to be too smart for our own good. The fact that we understand that what we're drawing is just a series of marks on a flat page is something we communicate to the viewer through subtle properties of the actual marks we put down. To put it simply - we're subconsciously speaking to the viewer's subconscious that none of this is real.

The trick is more about learning to lie effectively. That's what these drawings are - they're illusions created to trick the viewer into believing in something that isn't actually there. The best way to tell a lie isn't to be extra clever, but rather to be a fool. When we believe in the lie we're selling, everything we say and do will reinforce the lie, whether we're conscious of it or not. It's this wealth of information all pointing to the impossible, and the fact that it all does it in a cohesive, consistent manner, that makes this impossible thing believable.

Aside from the basic technical skills covered in lesson 1, that's ultimately what Drawabox is about. It's about taking students who are all too aware of what they're doing and gradually teaching them to believe in fairy tales. It's not something that just happens, it's not a truth that'll sink in the moment you're told - because there's no truth to it at all. It's all a lie.

So when you move through the exercises in this lesson and those moving forward (especially those where we're drawing actual objects like plants, insects, animals, vehicles, etc.) we're not learning to draw those objects. We're using them as a theme for exercises targeted at making you understand how everything you draw is three dimensional, solid, tangible and real. This is much more fundamental than learning how to draw a tiger or a porsche.

Exploring a 3D space

The first thing we need to get used to is the idea that the space we're drawing in is no longer defined by the flat piece of paper. This page is instead a window, one that looks out onto a vast three dimensional world that continues on even where you cannot see it. When you look out a window of a building, you know full well that what you're able to see is not the entirety of what exists out there. Think of the page as being the same.

What we need to familiarize ourselves with is the concept of the third dimension - that of depth - and the idea that objects are not only going to be to the left and to the right, or above and below. They will also be farther away from us, as well as closer. Perspective comes into play here, with the simplified rules such as objects that are closer appearing larger, and those farther away appearing smaller. There's also foreshortening - those that are very close will have more dramatic foreshortening, and those farther away will themselves flatten out with foreshortening that is shallower and more gradual.

Contour lines

Now that we've discussed exploring the entirety of the three dimensions available to us, lets look at the objects that can exist within space - more specifically, their surfaces.

Contour lines are the marks that run along the surface of an object. In doing so, they provide our eyes and brain with valuable information describing just how those surfaces themselves flow through space.

For example, let's imagine that inside of our 3D world, there exists a piece of paper, and on that piece of paper, there has been made a single straight line down its length. The paper is flat and straight, so the line still reads as visually being straight. But what if we were to take that piece of paper and rolled it up?

Now that line as we see it would be curved, wrapping faithfully around the cylinder we've created and describing to us the transformation that piece of paper has undertaken, from being flat to cylindrical. That is what a contour line does.

Not only does it provide the viewer's brain with additional information to help understand what it is looking at, but it also helps us as we're drawing to better understand how these forms and surfaces exist in three dimensional space. That ultimately comes back to helping us believe in the lie we're trying to create.

This also means that every single mark that exists on a surface can also work against us. We are in full control of which marks go where, so we could absolutely draw a line that appears straight on the surface of a cylinder, and it would immediately ruin the illusion by making the cylinder read as flat.

Homework and exercises

Every Drawabox lesson consists of lecture content and exercises that are assigned as homework. It's best to complete this homework before moving onto the next section. As this lesson consists of three sections (thinking in 3D, texture, construction), it is best that you only submit your work for review when you've completed all three.

The homework assignment for this section is as follows:

All the assigned work for this section should be done in ink, using fineliners/felt tip pens as described here.

Texture and Detail >>>
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Sakura Pigma Microns

Sakura Pigma Microns

A lot of my students use these. The last time I used them was when I was in high school, and at the time I felt that they dried out pretty quickly, though I may have simply been mishandling them. As with all pens, make sure you're capping them when they're not in use, and try not to apply too much pressure. You really only need to be touching the page, not mashing your pen into it.

In terms of line weight, the sizes are pretty weird. 08 corresponds to 0.5mm, which is what I recommend for the drawabox lessons, whereas 05 corresponds to 0.45mm, which is pretty close and can also be used.

Getting Your Work Critiqued

Critiques on reddit.com Critiques on our discord chat server

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.

Private Patreon Critiques

Critiques on reddit.com

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:

  • You must complete the lessons in order, in their entirety, starting from lesson 1
  • All work for the lesson must be completed - that means all exercises in the lesson, not just those in a given section
  • You may only move onto the next lesson once the previous has been marked complete
  • The work must be done in the tools recommended in the lesson

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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