Uncomfortable

2015-11-20 21:06

Well done. You're demonstrating a solid comprehension of 3D space with a lot of your little experiments (like the snake you mentioned), and some great linework with confident weights that really bring a sense of cohesion to each form. Keep up the good work.

Peteman22

2015-11-20 20:49

Sorry-I'm not /u/Uncomfortable, so this isn't a critique. But in answer to your question most if not all digital art programs allow you to rotate the "canvas" of your work, so you can rotate your drawing on the computer screen to whatever suits you.

Uncomfortable

2015-11-21 17:18

The quality of your lines and the confidence of your constructions definitely improves considerably over the set. Your corrections also show me that you are steadily improving your general sense of 3D space. Furthermore, it's clear that you're demonstrating far more patience near the end than you did at the beginning. You're definitely moving in the right direction, so keep up the good work.

As for your question, /u/Peteman22 has it right. Most major software packages let you rotate the canvas. That said, when learning to draw we face a lot of major challenges, and if we try to face all of those challenges simultaneously, we have a much higher chance of failing outright.

Because of that, we try to simplify and delay certain problems. A good example of that is rotating the page. Right now, we focus on nailing a line drawn in a single direction. Obviously no one's going to practice a singular angle, but they'll focus on a particular group of similar angles, rather than trying to tackle all angles at once. The focus here is the process of drawing the line, not so much the ability to do it in every possible situation.

As you grow more confident and capable with this subset of angles, you will naturally expand the angles at which you decide, "nah I don't need to rotate my page for this." Gradually it will expand further.

There will always be angles that will be more difficult than others - but as you practice, all of your lines will improve equally. This is because there are far more factors than just the angle. A lot of it has to do with how well you ghost your lines, your pacing, etc. That is what we want to focus on for the time being.

Uncomfortable

2015-11-21 17:38

Nicely done. Your boxes have improved significantly over the set, and in relation to your previous lesson. The ones where you play with line weight also give a strong sense of cohesion, which is great. You are absolutely moving in the right direction, so keep it up! I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-11-22 20:10

Vast improvements in your line weights, general constructions and definitely your confidence. One thing that I do want to encourage you to do is to practice drawing through your boxes (drawing the lines that are hidden in the box construction). You do have a tendency to draw some of your far planes as larger than your near planes, and drawing through your boxes will help you define each plane with a complete 4 lines. This will help you compare the sizes more accurately.

Actually, I just noticed that you did this on page 6, and your boxes came out considerably stronger for it.

It is also for this reason that I strongly recommend going back and drawing corrections over your boxes in a different coloured pen. Looking at them with a fresh eye will allow you to identify mistakes, which in turn makes you consciously compensate for those mistakes then ext time you try these exercises.

Lastly, keep an eye on your hatching lines - don't be sloppy with them, be sure to draw consistent parallel lines that stretch all the way across the surface from edge to edge.

Keep up the good work! I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-11-22 20:45

I could rotate my paper to always draw in the direction I'm comfortable with but I'd rather not to.

I understand your motivation for this - you want to learn how to draw lines confidently in every direction and don't want to 'give in'. It makes sense, but at the same time it's just silly. You have a set of challenges in front of you, and you have to conquer them. Adding this new challenge is compounding things, and is going to hinder your ability to tackle the first challenges you were already facing. Ultimately it is only pride and ego that is making things harder for you.

Anyway, your boxes are coming along well. Individual lines can be improved, but you've explained why some are weaker than others, so that's your own concern. The sense of space is pretty decent, so once you're able to nail your lines (however you choose to do that) your boxes will start to come out more solidly.

I also encourage you to play around with line weight - there are some notes in the challenge post that cover this. Either way, consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-11-23 20:50

I really like that you're drawing through each one and analyzing its construction in 3D space. Early on you seem to have a tendency to jump into some really dramatic perspective, which leads to a bit of awkward distortion at times, but you snap out of that pretty quickly.

Keep up the great work - I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-11-25 20:54

Generally quite well done. I see a good sense of 3D form and construction. I do have to say though - if you personally feel that you rush things, then it is up to you to hold yourself back and correct this behaviour. All it takes is putting yourself in a position where you think through every single line you're drawing. If you do not allow yourself to draw without thinking about what you're about to put down, then rushing becomes an impossibility.

Anyway, great work completing the challenge. Be sure to check out the notes on line weights (that would be the next logical step to push your boxes to the next level), and feel free to continue on with lesson 2.

Uncomfortable

2015-11-28 20:16

It's coming along. Here are some things to keep in mind. I'm noticing that you've got a lot of far/near plane size issues that you've got to keep an eye on. If your far plane is larger than your near plane, then the lines between them are going to be converging in the wrong direction. Also, when you make a mistake, immediately correcting it is a terrible habit. It only adds more ink to the problem, which makes it more visible to the viewer. Often it's better to work around it or ignore it altogether. In this case however, you are expected to come back after the set with a different coloured pen or pencil and mark in your corrections. The separation of time and process will keep you from developing that habit, while also allowing you to look back on the set with fresh eyes and more strategically determine what you did wrong and how you can avoid it.

Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete - I still recommend that you go back and do your own corrections, and also that you keep up with this kind of exercise.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-01 23:05

Nicely done! Your boxes are well drawn, and while you've made mistakes here and there, you do seem to have caught them and corrected them on your own. I also really like that you've drawn through many of them. The only thing I have to add is that in order to push your boxes to the next level, considering how to vary your line weights would be what you should focus on next. Specifically, consider that perhaps making your internal lines less thick than your external lines (the ones that define the overall silhouette of the form) may create a greater sense of cohesion.

Overall, fantastic work.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-01 23:27

I agree, they do improve over the set. The last page seems a little bit rushed, but the page before that is nicely done. I'll chalk it up to being too eager to reach the finish line.

The only thing that I would like to recommend is that you may want to practice drawing through the boxes now and then to get a fuller sense of how they sit in 3D space. By that I mean drawing the lines that are hidden by the box itself, so all the planes are fully defined by 4 lines each.

Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-03 00:21

It's coming along nicely. There is however one thing that I would like to encourage you to do as you move forward - draw through your boxes. That is, draw all of the lines that make up the box, including the ones that are blocked by the box itself. This helps clearly define every plane of the box with a full 4 lines, which gives you a better sense of when your far plane/near plane size relationships are correct or not.

You can do this while drawing them, or another way to make use of this approach is to draw through your box during the correction phase. It'll definitely highlight some mistakes, and I encourage you to try it out on your last page of boxes there. You'll notice that there were some errors that you didn't catch.

Anyway, nice work completing the challenge.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-04 13:48

Hey, unfortunately I'm taking a break through the month of December. Free critiques will resume on January 1st, so you'll have to resubmit the work then - until then, the critiques are restricted to the patreon supporters (if you are one, make sure you've sent me your reddit username via patreon's messaging system). For now, you can definitely still gain quite a bit by looking at the critiques I've given others - it helps to see if you've made similar mistakes.

You can check out this announcement on the hiatus for more information.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-04 23:02

You are certainly demonstrating some solid confidence, but there are a few areas where you can certainly work towards improving.

Before I go into that, I do want to point out that you did not do the additional step of going back over the set and correcting lines with a different coloured pen or a pencil. Since you haven't yet done that, I'll give you a few tips for doing that:

• Focus on mistakes that involve lines that you thought were correct initially, but upon reflection are in fact wrong.

• Draw in the correct lines - don't circle them, actually drop them in

• It can often help get a sense of how that overall form is sitting in 3D space if you draw through your forms - that is, drawing the lines that are hidden by the form itself, as if you were looking at it through an x-ray machine. This can be especially helpful when going through your corrections because it can highlight mistakes that you didn't even notice were there. This in turn will train your eyes to notice these mistakes without drawing through your forms, but of course we're taking it one step at a time.

So the biggest issue that I'm seeing is that your far planes are quite often coming out larger than your near planes. If you remember the primary rule of perpsective, if an object is moved away from the viewer, it will get smaller and smaller when drawn in 2D. So, each box is made up of pairs of planes, one of which is near and one of which is far. There's three of these pairs, making a total of 6 planes. Each member of a pair is identical in size and angle, the only difference is that one is further away from the viewer. So, the farther one must always be smaller than the nearer one.

I'm going to mark this challenge as complete, but definitely go over the set of 250 boxes and identify the mistakes you've made. They won't always be immediately apparent, so drawing through them may help you identify them more easily.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-04 22:56

You are definitely showing improvement over the set. There are a few points though where I think you're missing issues with your near/far plane size relationships. That is, where your far planes are ending up larger than the corresponding near planes.

Some examples of this include 224, 221, 43, 102. When you do your corrections, you seem to be focusing very much on the quality of your lines. While that is important, you should be focusing more on issues of understanding - specifically your understanding of form and 3D space.

Focus more on issues where you drew a line, and at the time you thought it was correct, but it turns out it wasn't. One way that may help test out whether or not your forms are coming out solidly is to draw through them (draw the lines that are generally blocked by the form itself). This allows you to define each plane with a full 4 lines, which gives you a better sense of how they relate to each other, in size, angle, and so on.

As for your line quality though, I definitely am noticing that your lines could use a little more care. Spend more time during the preparation phase of your 3-step ghosting method, and be sure to ghost through that line more often. If your lines arc or wobble, you need to adjust your approach.

Anyway, you did do a good job, these are just areas where you can certainly focus to see more improvement. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-13 01:04

Nice work. Early on your lines are a bit shakier and less certain, not really planned out all too well, but as you go through the set your confidence improves, and the lines come out straighter and smoother. The only thing that I would recommend is that you not only focus on boxes with very dramatic perspective applied to them, where your far planes are way smaller than your near planes. That's definitely useful, but at the end of the day shallower perspective tends to be more common.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-16 20:52

Generally there is a fair bit of visible improvement here. Initially your lines are certainly wobblier and less certain, and your constructions feel considerably less solid. By the end, the boxes feel as though they carry weight, and the lines merge cohesively into forms, rather than just loosely grouped marks on the page.

The application of line weight does certainly take practice. As for the wobbling, just keep in mind that you don't want to draw slowly and cautiously - you want to think hard and prepare beforehand, but when you draw, you draw confidently and quickly. The preparation is what mitigates the inevitable inaccuracies that come from drawing fast.

Also, focus more on the mistakes of understanding - that is, where you drew a line initially and upon reflection realized it wasn't correct. Issues where your pen slipped to accidentally add way more weight in one part of line than another are mistakes of a different sort, and will generally just go away with time and practice. When it comes to going back and marking out your mistakes, that's where you want to correct your understanding rather than critique your own physical technique.

Anyway, great work. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-20 20:39

I'm glad it helped! It was initially included as a separate component, but when I started formalizing the lessons back in February, it was included in lesson 1's Boxes section. That said, I do think it's still a pretty tough concept to wrap one's head around - but once it clicks, things tend to get easier.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-27 21:12

There's definitely improvements throughout the set. Remember not to be scribbly or loose with your hatching - generally you do it okay but here and there you get sloppy (186, 192, etc.). By the fifth page, your line quality starts to improve (up til then your lines are generally somewhat scratchier where you try to add line weight). In general, the earlier pages of this set are messier than I'd like. Hopefully this will continue to improve as you continue to practice.

Also, you will benefit from going over your homework with a different coloured pen and drawing in corrections where they are necessary. Focus on mistakes where you felt the lines were correct when you drew them, but upon reflection realized they were wrong.

Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete. Go ahead and move onto lesson 2 when you feel ready.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-27 20:45

Hey, unfortunately I'm taking a break through the month of December. Free critiques will resume on January 1st (just a few days away), so you'll have to resubmit the work then - until then, the critiques are restricted to the patreon supporters (if you are one, make sure you've sent me your reddit username via patreon's messaging system). For now, you can definitely still gain quite a bit by looking at the critiques I've given others - it helps to see if you've made similar mistakes.

You can check out this announcement on the hiatus for more information.

Uncomfortable

2015-12-27 23:37

I see quite a bit of improvement over the set! I'm glad to see that you started off by drawing through your boxes. By the end, your lines are considerably more confident and thought-out. You did miss a few mistakes to be sure, but your sense of what looks right and wrong will sharpen as you continue to practice drawing.

I'll mark this challenge as complete. Keep up the good work!

Uncomfortable

2015-12-30 18:15

Coming along very nicely! As you continue to move forwards, I'd say the next step is to experiment with line weight to add dynamism and solidity to your boxes. Other than that though, the forms are looking good and the lines themselves are generally drawn quite confidently and well.

I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-01 19:53

Good work completing the challenge. There's a few areas that you can focus on in the future though. Just like lesson 1 (and eventually lesson 2), all of these exercises are things you should continue to practice on your own. I'm just sending you in the right direction, but it's quite the journey you have ahead of you.

• Draw through your boxes - as though you have x-ray vision and can see the lines on the far side of the box that are traditionally hidden by the form itself. This will allow you to clearly define all the planes of the box with a full 4 lines. In turn this will make you more aware of mistakes you're making, like your far plane being larger than your near plane. You do that every now and then - for example, 242 is one that stands out to me.

• When you do corrections, focus on lines that you thought were correct when you drew them, but ended up being wrong when seen with fresh eyes. In this case, circling the mistakes isn't terribly useful - instead, draw in the correct line. On the other hand, mistakes where your hand slipped or where you aimed to draw one line but ended up drawing another, can just be ignored. The whole correction thing is more about making yourself conscious of the mistakes of understanding that you make.

Anyway, I'll mark this as complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-01 20:46

You've definitely improved considerably over the set. At the beginning you seemed to be lost in terms of how to think about 3D space. A couple pages later you were definitely doing better, but I was getting ready to tell you to start drawing through your boxes to fix the near/far plane issues - but you did so on your own in the pages subsequent to that! So all I can say is, keep up the good work. Your last organic perspective exercise that you did there at the end is much better than what you submitted in lesson 1.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-01 22:43

Congrats on completing the challenge. Here are a few points you should keep in mind as you move forwards:

• Most of your boxes have some really, really dramatic perspective/foreshortening applied to them. While that's fine for individual boxes, you will find that it will be troublesome when you start building scenes, as things will start to get inconsistent. Be sure to read this: Inconsistent Foreshortening Between Boxes in the Same Scene

• A lot of your hatching lines there are sloppy - if you're going to do something sloppy, don't do it at all. Remember to keep the hatching lines consistent, parallel, and stretched all the way across a plane from edge to edge. No scribbling, no floating lines.

• Also, as you move forward you may want to practice Drawing Through your Forms

Uncomfortable

2016-01-02 02:23

I... hate to tell you this, but you didn't do the challenge correctly. Not to say what you did didn't have any value, but the challenge was about constructing 250 arbitrarily rotated boxes, set at all different kinds of angles, without explicit vanishing points. Just random, individual boxes. The focus of the exercise was to help you break away from being constricted by vanishing points, and to help you work out a more general, flexible sense of perspective.

I just looked back at your lesson 1 homework - I figured if you'd demonstrated an understanding of arbitrary box construction in the organic perspective exercise, I'd mark this challenge as complete. Unfortunately, your work there shows me that you do need to work in that area. As such, I won't be marking this one as complete.

If you are having trouble approaching those arbitrarily rotated boxes, you may want to take a look at a new exercise I added to lesson 1 today, called 'Rotated Boxes'. It helps bridge the gap between rough perspective and organic perspective, and you can even put them towards the 250 box challenge's total.

As for your concerns about the grip... honestly I've never given it much thought. When working in pen, the grip issue is not the same as when you work with pencil. Pencil affords you many surfaces with which to work, whereas pen is quite limited. Because of that, I generally tell people to hold the pen however they find it to be most comfortable.

That said, the grip on the pen doesn't have a whole lot to do with the shoulder/elbow/wrist thing. That's a matter of how you actually move your arm, and in these situations, you should be striving to lock your wrist and pivot your arm from your shoulder.

I will say that your lines are considerably less wobbly than the last time, so at least you have shown a marked improvement there.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-03 20:41

Congrats on completing the challenge. As you move forwards, here's a few things that might help:

• Don't make everything so small - you should be playing with different sizes, and generally smaller drawings leave you very little room to move and even less room to think through spatial problems.

• Draw Through your Forms. There are a lot of mistakes you didn't catch, specifically where your far planes are larger than your near planes - drawing through your forms would help you catch them more often.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-05 02:26

Good work completing the challenge. One thing I would recommend to you though is that you practice Drawing Through your Forms. I think that'll make those mistakes much more apparent, and much more immediately. It's definitely worth doing.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-07 23:07

Congrats on completing the challenge. I'll mark it as complete, though here's a few points that may help you as you continue to practice this in the future:

• Remember to keep an eye on your near/far plane relationships. Far Planes Larger than Near Planes

• Related to the previous point, Drawing Through your Forms will help you identify those near/far plane problems.

• This is less a problem, and more of the next step in terms of pushing your boxes to the next level: Playing with Line Weight

Uncomfortable

2016-01-08 22:40

That is pretty much the purpose of this exercise - to draw individual boxes with different amounts of foreshortening and different orientations, rather than cohesive forms within the same scene. That said, as soon as your boxes start to overlap, they immediately read as existing within the same space, so the inconsistency becomes a problem. Again, it's totally fine for this exercise, but it'd have been better not to overlap.

Your sense of form is generally quite solid, and is developing nicely. You are a little sloppier with how you draw your lines though - this is definitely because you jumped into this challenge before completing lesson 1, where we talk about things like the every-important ghosting method, which focuses on thinking and planning before every stroke you put down.

I'm sure that once you get into that material, your linework will get more concise. Consider the challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-09 18:16

Nice work. The confidence of your lines improves considerably over the set, which makes your boxes look pretty snazzy. I am noticing however that you've got quite a few far-plane-bigger-than-near-plane issues. Drawing Through your Forms would help you identify these problems, so you should incorporate that into your practice. It generally gives you a better sense of how that form sits in 3D space.

Keep up the good work, and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-10 03:54

Very nice work on the boxes, especially the ones that work in a gradually rotating series. I do want to mention though that it probably wasn't a great idea to do large clusters of arbitrary boxes overlapping with one another - by making them overlap like that, you're adding another level of complication that comes from them existing within the same physical space. Separate boxes drawn with no overlaps can be interpreted as just being independent boxes, which is the simple training we're after right now. As soon as they overlap, they exist within the same scene.

Anyway, you still did a great job, so congrats on that.

As for your questions:

1. It's a personal decision. You don't need to do them all each time, or in any great quantity, but you should not be in a situation where you haven't done one of the exercises in a very long time. The point is to make sure you practice those concepts regularly, continuing to sharpen those skills and ultimately work towards keeping them sharp. Your eagerness however is completely irrelevant. You should read my article on motivation.

2. Again, I'm not going to give you an amount of time. I get these kinds of questions all the time, and each time they severely miss the mark. The point is not to master the exercises within the minimum number of pages I ask for as a homework submission. All I want to see is that you understand what each exercise needs to be aiming for. As long as you read the lesson carefully and take the amount of time required to do the best you are capable of for each exercise, I will be able to find any major misunderstandings, and we can resolve them so that in the future you are able to practice these exercises without going off track.

Don't overthink things. Don't get caught up in amounts or time or motivation or any of that. Just look at the task ahead of you and do it.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-13 23:33

Congrats on completing the challenge. Here's a few tips moving forward:

• Draw through your boxes. This was mentioned in the challenge page, here: Draw Through your Forms. It helps emphasize the mistakes you're making and give you a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space.

• Draw bigger - the smaller you draw, the less room to have to think through spatial problems.

• Draw boxes, don't complicate things. When you add complexity, it tells me you think your boxes are perfect, and they certainly aren't. They still need a fair bit of work.

• Don't just circle your mistakes - actually draw the correct line. If it's a mistake where you accidentally overshot a line or scuffed something up, ignore that. We want to focus on mistakes you made that you thought were correct initially, but upon reflection realized they were not.

You are improving, but because you're kind of loose and sloppy with how you've been practicing (not really putting 100% into each box and not drawing through them), you're still repeating a lot of mistakes like drawing boxes with far planes larger than near planes.

If you're going to sit down and practice something, it should not be just for the sake of getting it done. Give each part your full, undivided attention and focus, and spread it out over as much time as you need to do it to the best of your ability.

I'm still marking the challenge as complete, because you did draw 250 boxes.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-13 23:50

Very nice work! I don't really have much to say in the way of critique - your constructions are solid, and your use of lineweight is good. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-14 19:57

Coming along nicely. I like the fact that you drew through your boxes, and that you took the time to ghost through your lines, focusing on drawing singular, clean marks. Your corrections also seem to be on point.

As you move forward, you should continue to work on adding dynamism through line weight. I see some areas where you did vary the line weight a little, though you have a tendency to push the internal lines of your form, rather than first establishing the outer edges of the box's silhouette. This will cause the box to start to feel like less of a cohesive object - you generally want the external edges to be a little thicker, to help 'group' the lines of the box together.

Anyway, great work, keep it up. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-16 19:00

There's definitely some improvement over the set, but I want to draw your attention to one of the tips included in the challenge page that you didn't take advantage of: Draw Through your Forms. It's important that you read everything and apply what's there, rather than jumping headlong into drawing.

I'll mark this challenge as complete, but I strongly recommend that you continue practicing these, while drawing through your boxes to get a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space, so you can continue to correct your mistakes.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-16 19:22

Looking good! I'm glad to see you drawing through the boxes - your constructions are solid and your application of line weight is excellent. Keep up the good work!

Uncomfortable

2016-01-18 23:17

I think there's a lot of room to improve. You're demonstrating a lot of the common mistakes, like Far Planes Larger than Near Planes. The important thing to keep in mind is that Drawing Through your Forms will help you identify those mistakes. I noticed you did it here and there, but for the most part you neglected to do so.

Secondly, when you're correcting, don't circle your mistakes - actually draw the correct line. If you knew immediately that your line was wrong when you drew it, don't correct it immediately. This is a bad habit, as it draws attention to your mistake. Instead, we want to separate drawing and correcting so we don't fall into the habit of correcting as a knee-jerk reaction.

I'm going to mark this challenge as complete, as you did draw 250 boxes, but know that you still need a lot of work in this area. Draw through your boxes and keep the near/far plane thing in mind. That which is further away should be smaller, never larger.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-18 23:42

Good lord your camera is weird. Your boxes are looking pretty good by the end of it though, so good work there. Continue to keep on top of this, but I'd say the next step would be to work on varying your line weights as covered in the challenge page.

Consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-20 23:02

They definitely improve over the set, both in terms of the integrity of your forms as well as the confidence of your line work. That said, I do believe you would benefit greatly from Drawing Through your Forms, as it helps highlight the mistakes you're making while giving you a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space.

Keep that in mind as you continue practicing. Consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-21 22:43

Generally very nice. Good forms, glad to see that you're drawing through them, and your line weights were applied well. Keep up the good work, and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-21 23:50

Very nice work! Great forms and excellent line weights. Keep up the good work!

Uncomfortable

2016-01-23 02:07

I definitely agree on all counts. Your sense of form has improved, but the integrity of your lines needs a lot of work, especially in the ghosting department. Furthermore, drawing through them is worth doing.

I'll mark the challenge as complete, but keep working on them at your own discretion.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-24 17:40

You certainly drew 250 boxes, so I'll mark the challenge as complete. That said, there's a lot of room for improvement, and I think it was to your detriment that you didn't read some of the notes included in the challenge page. They're there for a reason, after all.

The most important tip you skipped was this: Draw Through your Forms. Also, I'd definitely recommend in the future not drawing the boxes so they overlap as you have done, instead drawing many individual boxes. I mentioned that at the top of the challenge page as well, in bold no less.

Also, it's best not to have these boxes overlap - draw each one separately. Overlapping would add complication, so lets just tackle one thing at a time.

Finally, you also skipped this:

When you finish a page, go back with a red pen, or a highlighter, or whatever, and mark out your mistakes. Half the battle is being able to quickly pick up what you've done right and what you've done wrong.

It's definitely in your best interest to continue practicing these at your own discretion, but since you completed the challenge you're free to move onto lesson 2.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-24 17:54

Pretty well done! The only thing that I'd like to point out is that you did a lot of boxes with more dramatic perspective (especially as you got further into the challenge). Remember that you should be practicing boxes with shallower foreshortening just as much (if not more). More dramatic foreshortening implies a much larger scale (think a building where the far end is really distant), while shallow foreshortening implies a much more relatable scale like small objects that you can touch and manipulate.

It would also be beneficial for you to draw through your boxes when practicing them in the future, as explained here: Draw Through your Forms.

Anyway, keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-26 21:08

I notice that as far as your corrections go, you seem to be focusing very much on superficial slips of your pen (like overshooting a line, or a line going awry), but what you should be focusing on are mistakes in regards to the form, and your initial understanding of the form when you drew. That is, if you drew the box a particular way and then later realized that your far plane was coming out larger than your near plane, or something else to that effect, that is what I would expect you to correct.

I also noticed that you jump between drawing through your boxes and not - I definitely encourage you to continue drawing through your boxes, keeping a close eye on where you have issues with those near/far planes, as they are still occurring throughout the set. Drawing through your boxes defines all the planes quite clearly so it becomes easier to identify these mistakes - assuming you are looking for them.

Keep up the good work. You're steadily improving, but there is plenty of room to grow. You may consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-26 21:11

No one ever does! I do have two big comments to offer, however.

The first is to read the material more carefully before attempting the challenge, or any lesson. In the tips section, I suggest that you Draw Through your Forms, which is something you did not apply at all. This helps bring your missteps to the surface and strengthen your overall sense of 3D space, because it forces you to think in terms of how the form sits in three dimensions, rather than just a series of lines on the page.

Secondly, when correcting, simply circling your mistakes isn't terribly useful - you should be drawing in the correct line. Also, be sure to focus not on the wavy lines or slips-of-the-pen, but rather on the errors of spatial understanding. Focus on issues that cause the forms themselves to be incorrect - like the far plane ending up larger than the near plane.

Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete but be sure to continue practicing this material at your own discretion as you move forward through the lessons.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-27 20:19

Looks like your imgur link isn't working.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-28 20:17

Looks like you also missed the Draw Through your Forms instruction. It's highly recommended, as it helps you understand how your boxes sit in 3D space, and makes the spatial mistakes (like near/far plane issues) far easier to catch.

Generally you did pretty well (aside from what I mentioned above and the overlapping issue), but you should continue to practice this material while applying that drawing-through tip. In the future, read the text more carefully before jumping into drawing.

Anyway, consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-27 21:00

Your boxes are looking pretty solid. I do have a few recommendations though:

• When doing this kind of exercise, draw through your boxes every time. There's no loss in doing it, and it'll always keep you fully aware of how the forms sit in 3D space. I noticed that you tried it out a few times.

• When you did draw through your boxes, you used dashed lines - avoid this at all costs. A solid line can be trusted to be straight and flow true, whereas a broken line will not maintain such flow. It can have tiny deviations that aren't entirely noticeable that will undermine the benefit of drawing through your forms. Don't be afraid to draw solid lines, even in actual drawings.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-28 20:15

Here are a few tips:

• Early on, you were drawing pretty small - this improved over the course of the set, but always remember to avoid drawing too small. This restricts your ability to think through spatial problems, which is a major factor in this sort of exercise.

• Draw Through your Forms. You seemed to do it a little bit early on, but you stopped for some reason. This will help highlight some of the less obvious mistakes you're making, and will help you understand how your boxes sit in 3D space.

• Apply the ghosting method conscientiously. Generally you're doing okay as far as this goes, but I do notice more and more as the challenge goes on that you have a tendency to use two marks for a single line. I don't know if you're falling into the bad habit of immediately reinforcing a line with another as a reflex, or if you drew the wrong line and then immediately corrected it. Either way, work towards breaking that habit. If you make a mistake, don't correct it immediately - do it after you've finished the set so you're able to look at the box with fresh eyes.

On the note of corrections, don't just circle mistakes - actually draw in the correct line, and do it with a different coloured pen so it's clearer. Don't worry about issues where your pen just got away from you - focus on areas where you thought you were drawing the correct line, but upon reflection realized that it was incorrect.

I'll mark this challenge as complete. You have shown some improvement by the end of the challenge, but drawing through your boxes is extremely important, and you would benefit greatly by applying that to your future practice.

Uncomfortable

2016-01-28 20:52

Great work. Your linework is confident, your boxes are generally well constructed, and when they're not your corrections are on point. Keep up the good work!

Uncomfortable

2016-01-30 17:55

It is something you should be focusing on right now. One exercise that is similar to the rotated boxes is drawing a series of identical box forms that are connected by a "string". This string flows through 3D space, and the boxes follow it, rotating and moving further away and closer to the viewer. This page has a decent example of it.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-01 21:48

I will mark this challenge as complete, but I have a few recommendations for you. First off, read the material provided in full - you seem to have missed the tip about Drawing Through your Forms. Secondly, I noticed that you have a tendency of drawing long boxes with a lot of perspective distortion/foreshortening applied to them. You should try drawing different kinds of boxes, and you should also be playing with shallower foreshortening (where the far plane is fairly similar to the near plane in size). Shallower perspective is going to be more common in our exercises and lessons, because it implies a much more relatable, smaller scale. Overly dramatic perspective tends to imply massive scale, like a building whose far end is very far away from the viewer.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-01 21:52

Nice box constructions, and nice line weights. The only thing I'd like to mention is that you seem to have missed the tip on the challenge page in regards to Drawing Through your Forms. It's an extremely useful approach that helps make mistakes more obvious. Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-01 22:03

Looks like I accidentally marked lesson 1 as complete anyways after my last critique. I'm glad you still completed the extra work though!

Your rough perspective boxes do look better. Your box challenge work also does some show improvement. I did notice that you seem to be a little bit all over the place with your particular approach, sometimes drawing through your boxes as you draw them, sometimes drawing through them as a part of your corrections, etc. Try to keep things a little more consistent - it's probably best to draw through all of your boxes, as you draw them.

The only other thing I wanted to comment on was that when you did draw through your boxes with a different coloured pen/pencil, your lines were really scratchy. Remember to apply the ghosting method to everything you draw - chicken scratching is a bad habit and it's unwise to give it the chance to develop further.

Anyway, consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-02 23:15

A few things to keep in mind:

• Draw through all of your boxes, not just some of them.

• When you do so, keep in mind the size relationships between the near/far plane. You do seem to have circled a lot of these, so at least you seem to be aware

• Instead of circling mistakes, draw the correct lines in your red pen. Identifying the mistakes is good, but you want to really figure out what you did wrong and show yourself what the correct way would be.

• I noticed a lot more dramatic perpsective boxes than ones with shallower perspective (where the far plane isn't that much smaller than the near plane). In later exercises that use a lot of boxes and geometric forms, you're going to want to have more experience with shallower perpsective, as it's generally what you'll be using in order to maintain consistent foreshortening. Make sure you don't draw all of your forms with really dramatic perspective just because that's what you're used to. I talk about that in greater detail here: Inconsistent Foreshortening Between Boxes in the Same Scene

Anyway, I do think you have plenty of room to grow with this material, but you have drawn the 250 boxes so I'll mark the lesson as complete. If you haven't already, you should definitely read the entire challenge page and note the parts you missed (like drawing through your forms).

Uncomfortable

2016-02-03 00:21

Yes, as you mentioned, drawing through your boxes is something you missed and would have been hugely beneficial in helping you catch your mistakes. I believe that the way you started doing it on your early boxes - drawing through them as a part of your corrections is a good way to go. Apply this to the rest of your boxes as well, as most of them have issues with their near/far plane relationships.

I am marking this challenge as complete though, since you drew all 250 boxes.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-05 20:27

Nicely done. I'm glad to see that you drew through many of the boxes, and your forms are coming along very well. I think you've improved both in construction as well as in confidence across the set, and your corrections do seem to be on point.

Keep up the good work, and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-05 20:41

I do think your boxes and your sense of space and construction is improving over the set, going from fairly weak to reasonable. There's still plenty of room to grow, but you're moving in the right direction. I'd say my biggest concerns lie with the quality of your lines - more effort should be put into thinking through your lines and drawing them straight and solid in one go, rather than giving into the habit of immediately reinforcing a line with another as a reflex. Be sure to apply the ghosting method from lesson 1 more consistently to every mark you put down. If the lines that make up a box aren't solid, the box itself won't appear solid either, even if all of the lines are otherwise correct.

Anyway, like I said, you're showing progress. Consider this challenge complete

Uncomfortable

2016-02-07 17:37

I'm glad to see that you drew through a lot of your boxes early in the process, but I do think it is something you should continue doing for all of your boxes. The only other thing I have to recommend as you move forward is to be more mindful of your individual lines and how they connect - try not to leave gaps where lines should be connecting, and watch where your lines tend to arc or curve a little. A solid box requires solid, straight lines.

As far as the forms themselves go, you do seem to be improving. You do have a few near/far plane mixups here and there, but things are improving.

Anyway, you're moving in the right direction, so keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-09 20:37

There is improvement, though I'd say that your decision to either skip the material included on the challenge page, or ignore it, did not work in your favour. You would have done well to Draw Through your Forms as described on that page, it helps you identify major issues with your constructions.

Your later boxes are considerably better than your first few, but I'd say you still have plenty of room to grow. You do seem to be identifying major mistakes in your first set of boxes, but simply circling them isn't terribly useful - you should be drawing in the correct lines with your red pen, actually figuring out what went wrong and how you could correct it.

You've drawn 250 boxes, and you have made some improvement, so I'll mark this challenge as complete. You should be more mindful of the material provided to you however.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-09 21:04

Generally nice work. Confident boxes, nice line weights, and so on. I would however recommend that you not try and round out your boxes - it undermines the general solidity of the form, and that's not something you want to throw away willy-nilly. There are times when we, as artists, choose to ignore certain facets of reality in order to communicate our agenda to our viewers. In this case, our agenda is definitely to construct forms that feel like they carry real weight. A rounded box will instead feel somewhat lighter and less substantial.

On that same topic, it's great to learn form many sources, but don't mix them up until you've fully consumed and analyzed the entirety of what any given source has to offer. In this case, I wouldn't recommend mixing up what I'm teaching with anything else until you've completed lesson 7. At that point you'll have a much fuller understanding of why I stress certain concepts over others, and you'll be able to decide for yourself what is worth keeping and what is better defined in other terms or with other techniques. Right now you simply don't understand enough about the method to make those calls.

Anyway, as I said, your boxes are generally quite good in terms of confidence and line weight. I have noticed throughout the set some boxes whose constructions aren't ideal however (some issues where your near/far plane relationships are reversed) and where some angles seem to be off considerably. For example on the last page, at a glance I see issues with 228, 246, 250, 248, 237, and others.

Definitely go back with a different coloured pen and really analyze each one to see whether or not the constructions match up with your current understanding of 3D space, or if you see some glaring errors. Then draw in the lines you now feel are more correct. This is the best way to really gain a lot from the exercise, for your own development.

Anyway, consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-13 21:09

Definitely an improvement in your confidence and construction. I do want to point out though that you seem to have not read over the material included with the challenge, and as such, didn't draw through any of your boxes as mentioned in the tips section. You really, really should go and read over the material and apply the things I suggest.

Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete. You should be good to tackle lesson 2.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-13 21:54

Your box constructions are decent, but you definitely shot yourself in the foot by not reading/applying the material included in the 250 box challenge page - specifically the tip about Drawing Through your Forms. Doing so helps immensely with fully understanding how a for exists in 3D space, ultimately helping identify issues where your angles are off, or your far/near plane size relationships are incorrect.

I noticed that you did a little bit of this early on, though I think this may have been checking after the fact (which is also a good idea to be sure), but you should have been applying it across the board to get the most out of the exercise.

The last thing I want to mention though is that you've got a lot of boxes with particularly dramatic foreshortening/perspective applied to them - where the far end of the box is considerably smaller than the near end. You're right that this does help you wrap your head around the concepts of perspective, but remember that this kind of dramatic perspective is usually associated with very large scale objects (like a building where the far end is very far away). We use boxes for everything, so they become very important when constructing other objects - in these cases, it's important to remember that you want to use shallower foreshortening (which implies a much more relatable scale, like things you can pick up and move around with your hands).

Anyway, consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-13 22:29

Nice work. It looks like drawing through your boxes for the first 160 paid off - your constructions feel more solid and it seems to me like you have a much better sense of 3D space. Keep up the great work, and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-15 21:39

Nice work! Your boxes definitely increase in confidence and solidity over the set, and I'm glad to see that you start drawing through them later on. Your corrections also seem to be very much on point. Keep up the great work, and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-15 22:12

Nice work. The only thing I want to mention is that there's no need to worry about mistakes that are momentary slip-ups, like a line accidentally going way off, or overshooting, or something like that. Focus on mistakes where you thought the line you were drawing was correct, but it turns out in retrospect that it was not.

Your forms are generally very solid and well executed, though I do want to mention that it's always beneficial to Draw Through your Forms, so as to get a better understanding of how that form sits in 3D space.

Anyway, keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-15 22:17

It's good that you're experimenting with what does and doesn't work in terms of your execution, and playing with different approaches to constructing the boxes. I'd say the biggest shortcoming was that you missed some of the material included with the 250 box challenge - specifically, this: Draw Through your Forms. Drawing through your boxes would help you wrap your head around how your boxes sit in 3D space, and allow you to identify mistakes where your angles are off, or where your far/near plane size relationships are reversed. It's definitely something you should do in the future.

Anyway, you drew your 250 boxes, so congratulations on completing the challenge.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-15 22:27

I think generally there is some improvement, but you definitely would have benefited immensely from reading the material on the challenge page before actually starting the challenge - specifically the tip on Drawing Through your Forms. This helps you identify all sorts of mistakes, especially those involving your near/far plane size relationships. Definitely something to keep in mind as you continue to move forwards. There's also some material about how to best leverage line weight in your drawings that's worth a read.

It still wouldn't hurt to go back and draw through the boxes with a different coloured pen to help identify your mistakes a little better.

Anyway, congrats on drawing 250 boxes and completing the challenge.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-16 21:07

I like the confidence with which you're drawing your boxes, and I do notice some improvement in your sense of form by the end. There's a couple important things I want to stress however:

• Read the material provided before jumping into drawing. You skipped over a very important tip about Drawing Through your Forms, which would have helped you get a more solid understanding of how each box sits in 3D space, while also helping you identify inconsistencies and spatial problems in your work.

• Don't just circle mistakes when you're going through your corrections - actually draw in the correct line. I recommend that you go back over your work and draw through your boxes with a different coloured pen, so you can identify and correct mistakes that you have missed.

Anyway, consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable

2016-02-18 19:39

I definitely see considerable improvement from the beginning to the end. You definitely would have benefitted considerably from following the tip about Drawing Through your Forms through the whole set - I noticed that you did it a little at the end, but it REALLY helps across the board to highlight your spatial inconsistencies.

Generally your corrections seem to be going in the right direction, so I think you definitely gained a lot from this exercise. Consider the challenge complete!

Uncomfortable

2016-02-19 23:47

Nice work. I do notice the sloppiness you mentioned, though it decreases throughout the set. By the end, your forms feel more solid, and your lines are cleaner.

The only thing I want to mention is that when you start tackling drawings with multiple boxes within the same scene, the amount of foreshortening (the rate at which the boxes get smaller as they move further away) definitely becomes relevant. A lot of the boxes you've drawn here have really dramatic foreshortening on them, so the far end tends to be considerably smaller than the near end. This generally implies massive scale (like the top of a building being tiny when viewed from the ground). You'll find that when you're putting lots of boxes in the same scene, you're going to want to use shallower foreshortening most of the time, to imply a much more relatable scale - like these are forms you could manipulate with your hands. So, it's important to practice this as well.

Anyway, you've done a solid job of completing the challenge, and you've clearly grown a lot through it. Well done!

Uncomfortable

2016-02-21 16:55

I'm really happy to see how the confidence of your line work and sense of 3D space has improved over this set. I'm also very happy to see that you applied the tip about drawing through your boxes, you've definitely benefited from it considerably. The last few pages are especially well done. Keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete!

Uncomfortable

2016-02-24 20:46

Your boxes are alright - the issue isn't that you're a slow learner, it's that you didn't read the material on the challenge page in full. You skipped a very helpful tip that would have helped you develop a stronger sense of 3D space much more effectively: Draw Through your Forms.

I'm marking this challenge as complete - your boxes are coming along nicely, though there surely is plenty of room for improvement as well. Make sure you read the instructions more carefully in the future!

Also, another point you seem to have missed is mentioned at the beginning:

When you finish a page, go back with a red pen, or a highlighter, or whatever, and mark out your mistakes. Half the battle is being able to quickly pick up what you've done right and what you've done wrong.

You might want to use that different coloured pen to draw through your boxes so you can see the inconsistencies in form constructions more clearly.