Uncomfortable's Advice from /r/ArtFundamentals

A Break for Uncomfortable - For the month of June, free critiques will be on hold. They will resume July 1st.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/comments/4lnc0b/a_break_for_uncomfortable_for_the_month_of_june/

2016-05-30 01:47

Uncomfortable

At this point, I'm settling into the rhythm of two months on, two months off, and it's coming upon two months since my last break. As before, critiques will remain open for those who help keep this project freely available to everyone - my current patreon supporters.

Your homework will still be accepted if you've pledged during the month of May, or if you really need your work critiqued you can pledge during June - though if you can wait and hold onto it for a while, please do. Many of you have noticed that I don't take days off while free critiques are open, so I'm very much looking forward to a lighter workload. I'll also be taking advantage of the extra time to create some additional content and to clean up/rewrite some of what's already there.

So, for those of you just finishing up your homework, submissions will still be accepted until the end of the day on May 31st. Don't rush just for the sake of getting a critique, but if you happen to finish up before that deadline, feel free to submit. You can see if your homework has been accepted if it appears on the homework spreadsheet within 24 hours of submission.

itaewonfreedom

2016-05-30 10:27

Thank you for doing this. I haven't gotten though my homework yet, but it's amazingly generous of you to offer these critiques for free.

Uncomfortable

2016-05-30 12:45

You are most welcome!

UnculturedLout

2016-05-30 13:09

It's amazing that you offer free crits at all. And you're just "slowing down" when you could just say "fuck y'all, I'm out". Enjoy your downtime (if you have any) or at least a slower pace.

Thanks for doing what you do.

Uncomfortable

2016-05-30 13:43

Hahaha, yeah. I'd love to take a complete break, though that just wouldn't be fair to the people who actually do help fund this whole mess. On the flipside, these months also does help encourage more people to support drawabox financially, so I'm ultimately a bit on the fence. Part of me wants them not to pledge to get an immediate critique, and another party of me wants them to.. aaaaaaaah.

UnculturedLout

2016-05-30 14:15

Ah, the joys of entrepreneurship

disies

2016-05-30 16:50

I joined your patreons.. Not only because I don't want to wait, but because i was thinking about for a while and you're doing a really good job and I'm so grateful for it. I don't have much but I want to be a part of it.. the more the better. :)

Uncomfortable

2016-05-30 18:00

Thanks! I caught your pledge, and I was going to send you a message through patreon to do some housekeeping, but I'll do it here instead - is it alright if I list you on the thank you list on drawabox.com by your reddit username, or is there another name you'd prefer?

disies

2016-05-30 18:01

"disies" is just fine :)

Peteman22

2016-05-30 17:39

Out of curiosity, how many critiques do you give when it's Patreon supporters asking for them?

Secondly how on earth do you fit 5-10 critiques/day into your day? I was being a bit stalkery and watched you progress through them via the homework spreadsheet. It took you a good 3-4 hours to get through that days critiques. How do you do that and have a full time job?

Uncomfortable

2016-05-30 18:09

I guess there have been a few of times it took me 3-ish hours to go through a full day's critique, but in general it takes me roughly one hour. That goes up and down depending on how awake I am, and whether or not I'm focusing 100% on critiquing or if I'm doing other things in between. At times I've had more success in dealing with them quickly by staying in the office a little later and tackling them from there - the work-oriented environment helps keep me on track, and my desire to go home keeps me from writing critiques that are too long-winded. For the most part, an extra hour of my day is manageable, but I am scared of the day when the number of critiques doubles. The number of critiques I get per day has stayed in roughly the same range for quite a while now, but the possibility of it increasing is quite high. The day it becomes too difficult to manage, I guess I'll have to put a stop to free critiques altogether.

As for your first question, if you mean how many submissions I get during one of these supporter-only months, I get about a quarter of the usual amount. For example, in March I got 43 submissions, in December I got 40. Considerably fewer than this past month's 160 (so far).

_Understated_

2016-05-31 05:27

I have only just started and feel the work you do is most definitely worth supporting so I just Patreon'd you, or whatever it's called :)

Mick

Uncomfortable

2016-05-31 12:48

Thanks! I just sent (what I assume is) you a message through patreon's messaging system to confirm your reddit username and do a little more housekeeping.

Ezechield

2016-05-31 10:09

Hi, I had discoverd your lesson five month ago, and start working on your program sparcelly. The main reason was that I was taking drawing classes at first and I thought I canot manage both at the time. By the time my drawing classes ended I was working on lesson 3 and now it hapens that I'm about to finish lesson 5 about annimals and I'm realising that I realy shouldn't have gone so far without submiting my work. My question is the folowing :

How do you think I should subit my work, everything at the same time in the different lesson thread or one lesson at time to make it easyer for you to spread the correction time ?

Thanks for you work and your help.

Uncomfortable

2016-05-31 12:53

Hm, it'll be a little more complicated. You will certainly have to submit each lesson one at a time, but the problem here is that each lesson builds on the one before it. If there were significant mistakes in an earlier one, those mistakes will impact your work in later lessons.

So, start by submitting lesson 1 - if it's generally done well with no major issues, I'll mark it as complete. Otherwise I'll ask you to make some revisions - if the issues impact your work for the next lesson, you'll be expected to redo it before submitting. Of course, like this post says, free critiques will be on hold through June, so I don't really think it'll be possible to get it all in before then.

Ezechield

2016-05-31 13:22

Ok thanks for your answer, I understand that each leson have an impact on each other so I'll do them again if needed

It will be a good practice anyway to make it twice even if it takes time.

See you around so :)

kirbycat_

2016-06-04 20:20

I'm a newbie around here (currently on 250 box challenge), so I didn't know about Patreon or other things. I'm happy to become a supporter in the future.

I was just wondering what you wanted us not-current-supporters to do in the meantime. I will probably finish the 250 box challenge in the next few days. I will of course hold off on posting until July 1. Does that mean I should not start on Lesson 2 until those get critiqued? I know you don't like two lessons posted at once, so I was just wondering what you suggest.

So appreciative of your lessons and critiques! I'm glad you take some much-needed breaks every once in awhile.

Uncomfortable

2016-06-04 20:23

With most lessons, students are welcome to attempt later lessons on their own, but if the one they're currently on is submitted with core problems, then they'll be expected to redo later lessons once those problems have been resolved.

With the box challenge, I pretty much always mark it as complete upon submission, since the challenge is more about reaching the number. That said, be sure to read through the material that is available there carefully. Draw through your boxes, be mindful of line weight, and when you're done go back over it to mark in corrections, paying close attention to your near/far plane size relationships as mentioned in the notes.

kirbycat_

2016-06-04 20:45

Got it, that makes sense. Thanks!

Bizarroghoon

2016-06-10 14:33

I just found this reddit and I am already working on Lesson 2, though I would like my work critiqued. Am I too late to submit?

Uncomfortable

2016-06-10 15:33

You'll have to hold onto it until July 1st, and submit it then.

Bizarroghoon

2016-06-10 18:20

Alright.

[deleted]

2016-06-14 00:03

Hey, I just noticed you have me in the spreadsheet as "ambithea". I don't know if it matters at all. I need to scan and submit my boxes though!

Uncomfortable

2016-06-14 00:27

Doesn't really matter, but I went ahead and corrected it anyways.

yazhou_kyoshi

2016-06-14 08:58

Hi Uncomfortable! Just writing to mention that I've become a new Patreon supporter today! I really appreciate all the work you put into the lessons and the critiques. I've always wanted to be able to draw and this is a great opportunity for me.

Uncomfortable

2016-06-14 13:54

Thanks! You'll be receiving a message from me in a little bit through Patreon's messaging system to do some housekeeping and to confirm your reddit username.

JJJenkins

2016-06-21 13:15

Just wanted to say thanks so much for putting this together! I've been training with other online resources for the past year and a half and I think this is a great addition! I look forward to submitting my work when the critiques resume in July. More than likely you'll be getting support from me on patreon as well. It will be the first time I've done that so just getting a feel for how that system works currently.

Thanks again!

-Justin

Uncomfortable

2016-06-21 14:53

I'm glad you like the lessons, and thank you for the support on patreon! As you're a supporter now, remember that you're free to submit homework for critiques whenever - you don't have to wait til July if you don't want to.

JJJenkins

2016-06-21 17:51

Sweet, thanks! I think I'm gonna give you a break, though and wait until later. :-) I bet you have enough on your plate! I find these exercises very very interesting. I've been drawing for quite some time now, and have been training with Watts online and Proko as well. But these very basic exercises exposed some weaknesses I did not realize I even had! I'm so stoked, and very humbled, to go back to these basic things that I never even knew I should practice so extensively. I'm very excited to see how this will transform my current ability.

Uncomfortable

2016-06-21 17:58

I'm glad to hear that! And I also appreciate the gesture of waiting - thanks!