Drawabox.com | Part One: The Basics | Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction | Texture and Detail | Don't worry about shading here
This is where the message goes!

Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

Texture and Detail

This page has student-made recordings

  • ScyllaStew
    ScyllaStew

They're great to draw along with, or just to see how much time these exercises really take when they're not rushed.

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. If you're interested, here is a full list.
The Art of Brom

The Art of Brom

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.

Getting Your Work Critiqued

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

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.

Woops! It looks like we updated this page in the last few minutes, and the audio is still generating. Reload the page and try again in a few minutes.
00:00 / 0:00

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