The demos listed here have no written counterpart, and are only available in video form.
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Going through both the videos and the text is important - it allows us to attack this complicated material from many angles, learning from it more effectively and efficiently. But reading isn't for everyone - try listening instead.
Drawabox has been working with the guys over at Audiblogs to make our lessons more accessible. With much more natural intonation and inflection than normal text-to-speech, it makes absorbing the material vastly easier. You can test it out on Lesson 0, and the Lesson 1 Lines section for free. You can also learn more about our collaboration with them here.
Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants
Video Only Demos
Hibiscus Demo
This one focuses on what you may encounter when drawing flowers in general, especially the necessity of focusing on how the petals themselves flow through space.
Cactus Demo
Not all plants are going to have components that focus primarily on the flow of flat forms through space. Some have mass and solidity of their own, like cactuses and mushrooms, and are all perfectly valid topics to attempt when working through this lesson.
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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 I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Staedtler Pigment Liners
These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.
Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).
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 $10.00/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.