Uncomfortable

2017-10-22 16:18

Hey, it doesn't look like I have you marked down as being eligible for my critiques. If you are a patreon supporter, be sure to check your patreon inbox as I'll have sent you a message asking for your reddit username. Otherwise, you're welcome to submit your homework directly to the subreddit for a free critique from the community. Folks over at the discord server are also usually more than happy to offer advice and point out where you may be misunderstanding concepts.

Uncomfortable

2017-10-23 02:34

Generally looking good so far. One thing that caught my eye though was that in your super imposed lines, you've got some wobbling going on because you're focusing more on your accuracy over maintaining the consistency and flow of your line. I talk about this a little in these notes.

Also, make sure that when you submit your homework, it's all of the work for the whole lesson. So in this case, it'd be the lines, ellipses and boxes section all together rather than piecemeal.

Uncomfortable

2017-10-25 01:45

Overall, pretty good work! Here are some points that should help though:

• Wobbling, Drawing Too Slowly and Carefully

• Arcing Lines

• Stiff, Uneven Ellipses (many of your ellipses are quite well done, but there are some especially in the planes that get a little stiff and deformed)

• Be sure to go over your completed rough perspective work as described here.

• You made a good effort with the rotated boxes - it's normal for them to be a struggle. The point isn't so much to nail this one, but rather to get you to start thinking about rotating boxes in a different way without relying on strict perspective tools and instead internalizing what all the perspective rules really mean. Also, I did notice that as you went further out towards the extremities (especially the corners) you stopped drawing through your boxes.

• Same deal with the organic perspective boxes - you made a good effort, and that's all I ask for at this point.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes, especially the tip about drawing through your forms, as it'll help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Additionally, the correction techniques mentioned there should be applied at the end of each page.

Uncomfortable

2017-10-26 00:00

Pretty well done! Just a few things to point out:

• Your lines and ellipses are generally coming out well.

• Don't leave gaps between your ellipses in your funnels exercises, keep them snug up against each other.

• Watch how your ellipses are getting deformed when jammed into those planes. Read these notes.

• Be sure to go over your completed rough perspective boxes work as described here.

• Looks like you didn't draw through the boxes for your rotated boxes exercise. This is a very important part to understanding how those boxes sit in 3D space, and how that changes as they rotate.

• Pretty good attempt with your organic perspective boxes. There is room for improvement, but this is about what I was expecting. The exercise is quite challenging and was included here not with the expectation that students would master it easily, but rather just to get them to start thinking about forms and space in a different way.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms, which as I mentioned in regards to your rotated boxes will help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also make sure you read through the bit about correction techniques, and apply them upon completing each page.

Uncomfortable

2017-10-30 02:24

Excellent work! You've done a great job here. I have just a couple minor things to point out.

• For the funnels, try varying the degree of your ellipses - ideally they should be quite circular towards the extremities and very narrow towards the center.

• For your ellipses in planes, you focused more on the evenness and flow of your ellipses rather than accurately fitting them into your planes. That is absolutely the correct way of going about it - the result was of course that some of these are floating more than they ideally would, so just keep working on inching that accuracy forwards while maintaining your flow.

Huh! That seems to be it - the rest of your work is spot on. You totally blew the rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes out of the water, despite those both being exercises students regularly struggle with. They're really there to push students to think differently about how forms can sit in space, but you've demonstrated that your grasp of 3D space is already very well developed.

So, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next one!

Uncomfortable

2017-10-29 14:22

I was just taking a peek at your homework while adding it to my backlog, and noticed that it looks like your link only includes the first page of your homework. It's clear that you did the full set from your comment, so something probably went wrong when you were uploading or linking it.

Feel free to just edit your original reddit comment with the link for the full album when you get a chance.

Uncomfortable

2017-10-30 05:20

Very nice work! Your linework is quite smooth and confidently executed. I do feel like there's a little less of that with your ellipses, so you're definitely going to want to push yourself to execute those marks with a more confident, persistent pace. Right now they come out a little stiff, as you seem to be hesitating somewhat as you draw them. It can take some practice to get used to, but always remember that accuracy is not the most important thing - flow matters far more.

For your rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work as described here. This will help you identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Fantastic work on the rotated boxes. This exercise, as well as the organic perspective boxes are notably difficult, and were included here largely to get students to start thinking differently about 3D space, rather than with the expectation of success. Your organic perspective boxes do still need work, but that's totally normal and we'll get to that.

So, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This should help you better graps how each box sits in 3D space. The bit about corrections is also important, and the techniques listed there should be applied to each page of boxes upon completion.

Uncomfortable

2017-10-31 05:50

Excellent work! Your linework is extremely smooth and confident, which is great to see. You're also maintaining some very evenly shaped ellipses, due to the same confident and persistent pace with which you draw your lines, so good on you for that.

Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, my critique there actually has nothing to do with the boxes themselves - just about your hatching. It's best not to let those lines just float arbitrarily on a face. Make sure they stretch all the way across from edge to edge, for the sake of presentation and cleanliness.

Very nice work with your rotated boxes. The organic perspective boxes could definitely use more work, but this is entirely expected. Both these exercises are here to get students to change how they think about rotating objects in 3D space, and I don't expect them to nail both. That you nailed the rotated boxes is impressive already.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the bit about correction techniques is also useful, and should be applied upon the completion of each page.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-01 23:53

Your work is generally quite well done! There's a lot of confidence to your linework, which helps in keeping your lines and ellipses smooth and even. There's just a few things I want to point out that should help as you move forwards.

• For the super imposed lines, you're definitely a little too focused on accuracy, which adds a little wobble to your strokes. Give these notes on the issue a read.

• (Minor point for the rough perspectiv eboxes) Not Framing Compositions. I also noticed that you only did one page, though that's not a big deal as your work is fairly well done.

• Just be sure to go over your completed work for the rough perspective boxes exercise as described here.

• I do believe there were some steps of the instructions that you skipped for the rotated boxes. You also seem to have drawn it in pencil originally ,and then kind of went to town inking it over (avoid this in the future. Even if you go over regular pen work in this manner, one tends to go over with a slower, more careful stroke which tends to add wobbles and waves instead of keeping things confident).

• The rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes exercises were actually included here largely to get students to start thinking about 3D space in a different way, so I'm not at all surprised that you have difficulty, as most people do. Perfect work is not the goal here.

So, I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that challenge page before starting the work. The bit about drawing through your forms is very important and should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. The point about correction techniques is also useful, and should be applied upon the completion of each page.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-03 01:22

Very nicely done. Your lines are especially confident, which keeps them smooth, and your ellipses evenly shaped. You pretty much nailed the first two sections.

Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, I did notice that your line execution here wasn't quite as confident as in previous sections. It wasn't inherently bad, but there is a little bit of hesitation to how you draw each of them. It's important that you execute them exactly as you did before, using the ghosting method to plan things out and then make your marks with a confident, persistent pace.

Your attempts at the rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes were fairly well done. The goal with these two exercises is to get students to think differently about how forms can be rotated freely in space. The goal isn't really to have perfect work, so while there's room for improvement, you're heading in the right direction.

So, I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. You seem to be grasping the concept of drawing through your forms (which is mentioned in the notes there), so just be sure to apply the correction techniques described in the challenge upon the completion of each page.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-03 21:24

Your work is coming along well! I do have a few things to point out however that should help you continue to improve:

• For your super imposed lines, watch the wobbling. Don't focus too much on accuracy at the expense of flow. A smooth line is our top priority here. More on this here.

• The rest of your lines and ellipses sections demonstrate a lot of great confidence, which keeps your flow nice and smooth.

• Jumping ahead to your boxes exercises, your line quality definitely gets considerably more haphazard. Remember that you've got to get in the habit of applying the ghosting method to each and every mark you make, to ensure that they remain confident, smooth and accurate.

• Also, watch your hatching - don't be sloppy. Ensure that it stretches across its plane from edge to edge, rather than floating arbitrarily in the middle. And no scribbling!

• Solid work with your rotated boxes.

• Linework was definitely chicken scratchy in your organic perspective boxes.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Additionally, the bit about correction techniques should be applied upon the completion of each page.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-03 22:46

Very nice work! I do have a few recommendations that should help in the long run though.

• I noticed that your linework has a tiny bit of stiffness or wobble to it. In general it's fairly well done, but it's a little sign that you're likely stressing too much over the accuracy of your marks, and are sacrificing the smoothness and flow of your stroke. Ultimately, confidence and a persistent pace when executing is key, even if that decreases your accuracy. Remember that the ghosting method is all about taking your time to prepare beforehand, but ultimately be bold when making your mark. Be sure to apply this methodology everywhere, as this applies to both your lines and your ellipses.

• Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work for this exercise as described here. This will help you identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

• Excellent work on those rotated boxes.

• Your organic perspective boxes are coming along fairly well. There is room for improvement, and the 'draw through your forms' approach mentioned in the 250 box challenge is definitely a big help, as it helps one to better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. I don't mention it here, but often send students to the box challenge next with instructions to pay special attention to that part. So, I hope that you've followed those instructions when doing the challenge, and will continue to do so generally when constructing boxes.

So, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to finish up the 250 box challenge before moving onto the next one. Along with drawing through your forms, also be sure to apply the correction techniques mentioned in the notes, ideally upon the completion of each page.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-05 23:07

Wow, this is really solid work. I'm especially pleased by a few things:

• The smoothness of your lives and the evenness of your ellipses, both of which come from being confident and persistent when executing your marks, and ultimately focusing more on flow than accuracy (so as to avoid stiffness and wobbling).

• The quantity of the work, mixed with the sense of purpose. You definitely give the impression that you're not just doing this to get it over with, you're taking each exercise and really exploring its purpose and goals.

• How you laid things out - you take up all the blank space in your pages, and demonstrate a lot of care and patience throughout.

• Your attentiveness to the instructions! There's definitely a lot there in the lesson, but you took your time and went through it all, even applying the bit about double checking your rough perspective boxes' perspective estimation.

Now, you definitely did struggle with the rotated boxes, and the organic perspective boxes exercises certainly have room to grow - but you attempted each to the absolute best of your ability and pursued it (especially in the rotated boxes' case) to completion. That is exactly what I wanted to see.

These two exercises were included here with the full expectation that they would be a nightmare for students. They're not really here to be done perfectly, but rather to get students to start thinking about these box forms and how they can be rotated freely in a new way that is not quite as restricted by the sort of rote memorization of perspective rules. We instead are forced to think more about what the rules simplify and represent, and learn to understand them in a more intuitive level. This takes time, and is not an easy thing that I ask.

So, I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Two things:

• Be sure to read through all of the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space.

• The correction techniques (in regards to extending your lines towards their implied vanishing point) should be applied upon the completion of each filled page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-09 03:08

Very nice work! Your lines come out very confidently, and this helps you maintain a general smoothness through their lengths and avoid wobbling. Your ellipses do suffer from a bit of stiffness here and there, but this does improve over the set. Just make sure you're approaching them with the same persistent, confident pace you use for your lines, and be sure to apply the ghosting method. This is very important for maintaining the shape of your ellipses.

Jumping ahead to your boxes, you're generally doing a very good job. Take a little bit more time with your hatching for your rough perspective boxes - try to keep the lines consistent and parallel, and have them stretch across their plane from edge to edge. It's really just a matter of presentation, but it's worth the extra time.

Very nice work with the rotated boxes - you clearly took your time and patiently followed the instructions, to fairly good effect. The organic perspective boxes could use some more work, but you're about where I'd expect you to be. These last two exercises are more about exposing students to a new way of thinking about how those forms can be rotated freely in 3D space, so it is entirely expected that these would be much more of a struggle.

We'll definitely pay some more attention to those box constructions in the next step. I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes. The bit about drawing through your forms should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space, and the correction techniques should be applied at the end of each completed page.

As for your question, generally the direction in which you draw your ellipses shouldn't matter, as long as it's comfortable and you're drawing them from your shoulder. Personally, I draw them counter-clockwise (and am right handed). As for the amount of time you took, it should absolutely not be completed in less time than it takes to do the best you currently can. Worrying about how long it takes can often cause one to rush, so don't concern yourself with that. We all work at different paces, and are at a different stage in our development. As long as you put forward your best possible effort, you will grow from the experience.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-11 01:09

Generally you're doing well, but one thing I'm noticing is that you are allowing some of your enthusiasm drive you to rush a little, and perhaps not pay as close attention to the instructions and notes as you should. Nothing dire, but definitely some things to be aware of.

• Super imposed lines: Fraying/Separation on Both Ends

• Ellipses: Drawing Through Ellipses Too Much!

• Your rough perspective boxes definitely would benefit from taking a little more time to think through your spatial problems, making sure that your horizontals run parallel to the horizon and your verticals run perpendicular to it and so on. Take more time when applying the ghosting method, and try to fight against the urge to lay down any marks without thinking them through. I noticed that you applied the double checking method on one of your pages - do this for all of them, and as a rule, avoid broken/dashed lines. I'm guessing you drew these with a ruler, and that's fine, but in general freehanded broken lines aren't trustworthy, as their flow and trajectory breaks every time you lift your pen. All that said, your rough perspective boxes certainly do improve over the set, so good work keeping on top of them like that.

• For your rotated boxes, your second attempt was actually quite good, but I do want to stress the importance of drawing through your forms. That is, drawing them so you can see all of the lines that makes up a given form, including those that would sit on the opposite side of the form (being occluded by itself) or those hidden by a neighbour. By drawing each form entirely, we get a fuller grasp of how they sit in 3D space and how they relate to their neighbours. Neglecting these additional marks makes us think more about how they exist as shapes on a 2D page instead.

• Solid attempt with the organic perspective boxes exercise - this was meant to be quite challenging, and there is plenty of room for improvement, but we'll work on that next.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms, which I mentioned in regards to your rotated boxes. The correction techniques mentioned are also important, and should be applied upon the completion of each page to ensure that you gain the most out of the exercise.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-12 02:05

I'm going to move forward on the assumption that you're a recently pledged patron, because your reddit username matches one quite closely.

Your work is generally looking pretty good - your lines are looking smooth and confident. Ghosting does need work, but you're going about it the right way and will improve with practice. Your ellipses are a little uncontrolled, so you'll definitely want to work on applying the ghosting method more stringently before executing those - try to stick to drawing through them two full rounds instead of 3 and see if that helps.

One thing about your ellipses I do like though is that they are confident, and while the lines don't necessarily line up super well all the time, you aren't hesitating too much. There is a sort of fine balance we want to achieve when it comes to drawing (between confidence and control), so be careful not to lose that quality while striving for the other.

Nice work with your rough perspective boxes, but be sure to go over your completed work for this exercise as described here. This will help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space.

Your rotated boxes weren't bad - in general you kept the boxes pretty close together and maintained consistent, narrow gaps which in general kept things structured. Where you stopped doing that though, is where things started to fall apart. Doing this helps because it allows you to use neighbouring edges as hints when adding new lines.

Your organic perspective boxes were a good attempt. I included this exercise here largely to get students to start thinking differently about how boxes can be manipulated in 3D space, and to break them away from thinking about perspective as something to be learned by rote memorization. By being forced to contend with this kind of task, you have to consider more what the rules of perspective represent, rather than trying to replicate the same behaviour every time.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through the notes on that page - especially the tip about drawing through your forms, which should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. In addition to this, the correction techniques described there are also quite important and should be applied upon the completion of each page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-13 20:52

Looking good so far. There is just one thing that I caught in your super imposed lines - I describe this issue in these notes, so give them a read.

Also, in the future, make sure you submit the entirety of a lesson's work together, rather than submitting it one section at a time. That gives me a lot more to offer in terms of critique, as there's a great body of work to pull from, and certain patterns become more clear.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-14 21:10

Your second set is VASTLY better than your first set. There is a problem that is present throughout both, but it is much diminished in the second. Basically, you always want to push yourself to execute your marks with a confident, persistent pace. If you look at all of the linework in your first set, you'll see that it wobbles a fair bit, and this gives it a sort of stiff look, rather than the sort of smoothness we're looking for. This is present both in lines (straight and curving) as well as your ellipses.

In your second set, your lines are actually considerably better, with only minimal hesitation, but there still is some stiffness to your ellipses. It's often difficult to get out of the mindset of being overly careful with your marks, but it's important to realize that once you've applied the ghosting method to the best of your ability, any mistake you make from the time your pen touches the page is entirely unavoidable. The best thing you can do is charge forwards with the preparation you have made and see it through. If you mess up, it's not the end of the world - there will always be more chances to do better. There will always be more pieces of paper, and more penfulls of ink.

Aside from that, just a couple other things. For your rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Your organic perspective boxes were definitely a challenge, and there is certainly room to grow here, but this is entirely expected. I included this exercises here to get students to start thinking about boxes and 3D space in a different manner - forcing them to think more about the rules of perspective represent, rather than just learning them by rote memorization. You're about where I'd expect you to be, and are making considerable progress compared to your older attempts.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms, which should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction techniques mentioned there should be applied upon the completion of each page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-16 22:41

Excellent work! You've demonstrated exceptional confidence with your linework, and a patient, careful work ethic when it comes to going through and following the instructions to the best of your ability. Each and every exercise has been executed exactly as I would have hoped.

Even the one fall-back mistake I tend to catch on people with relatively exceptional work (increasing the degree of your funnels' ellipses as they go out from the center) is something you actually did do on your own - though perhaps not as much. It's pretty normal to feel that as the ellipse gets bigger, its degree does as well, though this is not the case. It's really more about the proportions of the overall ellipse, so as the ellipse gets larger, its width should increase further still (ultimately becoming more circular).

Now that's a very minor issue at best, and is just something you should keep in mind in the future.

Jumping ahead to your rotated and organic perspective boxes, both demonstrate a solid grasp of 3D space, enough so that I will not ask you to move onto the 250 box challenge next (unless you insist upon it yourself). I do ask however that you give the notes there a good read through, focusing especially on the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular will help you better deal with spatial challenges in the future, like in lesson 2's form intersections.

Keep up the fantastic work, and consider this lesson complete. As for your question, you are more than welcome to submit your work for community critique as well.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-19 21:45

Overall you're doing a pretty good job, there's just one area where you do need work, but it's pretty pervasive. It's also a common issue, and one we can certainly resolve.

Right now, when drawing your lines, your priority is accuracy. Because of this, you draw more slowly and take your time in your execution. As you go, your brain course-corrects whenever you veer off track, in order to keep you going where you feel you need to go.

These course-corrections manifest as wobbles in your line. I explain this concept in this comic. Instead of focusing so much on accuracy, you should be focusing instead on the flow of your lines. Spend as much time as you feel you need when preparing to draw (while applying the ghosting method), but when you actually execute a mark do so with a confident, persistent pace, and no hesitation. Accept that mistakes will happen, and that once your pen touches the page, there is nothing you can do to avoid them. All you can do is push forwards and face them head on. At the very least, your lines will be smooth and straight, even if they're not heading perfectly in the direction you intended.

Ultimately accuracy is something that improves with practice and time, but flow relates more to one's approach. You don't inherently need to draw quickly to have nice flow, but you do need to draw quickly enough to keep your brain from interfering as you draw.

This applies both to your straight lines and your curves, but also to your ellipses. Drawing them too slowly results in them coming out stiffly and unevenly shaped.

One other thing - for your rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Aside from that, you're doing a good job. You do seem to have left out the two pages of organic perspective boxes, but I've already decided that I'll be marking this lesson as complete, and that I want you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Usually I assign this because the vast majority of people struggle with the rotated/organic perspective boxes exercises (and generally it just really helps develop one's grasp of 3D space). In your case that will definitely be a helpful aspect of the challenge, but it will also give you ample opportunity to practice applying the ghosting method in the way that I described above.

Be sure to read through all of the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction techniques outlined there should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes, so you can reflect upon your mistakes and learn from them for the next page.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-23 02:11

Nice work! I do have a few things to recommend though:

• Your ellipses are very well done - they're confidently executed, which keeps them nice and smooth. That's definitely what we're after. Your ghosted straight lines however are not quite as confidently done. You're a bit caught up in making them accurate, so you draw them more slowly and hesitantly, resulting in wobbling and stiffness. Make sure you push yourself to draw them with a more confident, persistent pace in order to avoid that wobbling and keep them smooth.

• For your rough perspective boxes, it's best to avoid having too many boxes cut off along the edges, as you seem to be doing quite a bit. We want to focus on having boxes present in their entirety.

• Also for the rough perspective boxes, go over your completed work for this exercise as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

• Your rotated boxes were done quite neatly, so the presentation is great. I actually disagree with the notes you wrote on the side there - the boxes on the right are actually done quite well, and the exaggeration of their rotation helps cover their part of the full 180 degree arc. On the left side however, there's much less rotation and no real increase in the convergence of the horizontal lines of your left most box (making it seem more like it's just getting skinnier, rather than turning in space). Overall there are definitely places where you're more hesitant to push the rotations, so while the boxes are very clean, you're definitely more timid about completing the full rotational range. This is totally normal though - our brains don't like rotating things, and will often fool us into thinking we've rotated something more than we have (which is why we need to sometimes consciously exaggerate the rotations further).

• Your organic perspective boxes are about where I'd expect them to be - they're meant to be challenging, and you've given a solid attempt. I really included this exercise and the rotated boxes one to force students to think about perspective and space in a different way, rather than just through rote memorization of perspective rules. The one recommendation I have is to work on keeping your boxes closed. You've got a lot of gaps between your lines, which makes the forms seem less cohesive.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to to move onto the 250 box challenge next (which you seem to have already started on). Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms, which should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space (again, you seem to have started doing that too). Also, the correction techniques mentioned there are also quite helpful in finding where things are going wrong, and should be applied upon the completion of each page. So a good place to start would be to take the one page you've done, and apply those techniques (like extending your lines towards their implied vanishing point with a different colour of pen).

Oh by the way, I know you're a new patron because I saw you on the discord earlier today - but make sure you check your patreon inbox and respond to the message I sent there so I can properly mark your reddit username down in my notes with the appropriate patreon info.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-25 19:31

Nice work. Your lines section is looking great - your lines are very confidently executed, which keeps them smooth and consistent. You're not overly preoccupied with accuracy, which is good, as that tends to result in more wobbling due to drawing slower.

For your ellipses though, there is a touch of that hesitation that results in some stiffness. You want to make sure that you're still executing your ellipses with the same kind of confidence, and applying the ghosting method. If you hesitate while drawing them, they'll tend to come out uneven, and start to lose their elliptical shape.

For your box exercises, there are some signs that you may not be reading the instructions as carefully as you should. Here they're minor points, but it becomes a bigger issue when you move into your 250 box challenge.

• You're not framing your plotted perspective and rough perspective boxes exercises.

• You didn't complete the required number of pages for those exercises (2 pages of plotted perspective, 2 pages of rough perspective, 2 pages of organic perspective)

• You skipped the rotated boxes exercise entirely

Reading the instructions is very important - there's a lot of information presented in those lessons, but it's there for a reason. It may be dense and it may be difficult to absorb in just one read through so it is your responsibility to read through it as many times as is necessary. Generally it's best to read the instructions for an exercise before beginning your work on that exercise.

Aside from that, it's also useful to go over your completed work for the rough perspective boxes exercise as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Before I mark this lesson as complete, I'd like you to tackle the rotated boxes exercise. Note that I fully expect students to struggle with this exercise - the rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes are kind of like throwing a child into the deep end of the pool to see if they sink or swim. I don't expect you to succeed, but rather the exercises are there to get you to start thinking about 3D space differently.

On that note, you did about what I'd expect with the organic perspective boxes - there's plenty of room for improvement, but you're heading in the right direction. So once you're done attempting the rotated boxes exercise, I want you to tackle the 250 box challenge again.

The reason I want you to do it again is because you seem to have not read through the instructions for the challenge the first time around. Read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the following:

• The tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular will help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space.

• The correction techniques outlined near the beginning, specifically extending your lines towards their implied vanishing point. This should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes (as opposed to after each individual box or after the entire set is completed), so you can learn from your mistakes along the way, but avoid breaking up the flow of your process.

Lastly, don't draw on lined paper. Find some printer paper or something blank, as those lines will immediately set a standard of presentation and quality that is less than ideal, and generally makes people more accepting of a little sloppiness.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-27 01:08

Ultimately, a tremor will make things difficult - but while I'm not a doctor or someone who has any sort of a remote understanding of tremors, my experience teaching this material suggests that the tremor primarily makes an existing problem more significant, rather than introducing something new. That is, our hands shake, even without neurological issues.

These exercises are designed to help with that, by teaching students to draw with more confidence, rather than giving their hands the opportunity to shake. We execute our marks quickly, after a hefty dose of preparation and building up muscle memory.

Your lines may never come out entirely smoothly, but this will help them at the very least get smoother, which in turn will help you become more proficient at whatever it is you want to do.

Looking at your work, you're already showing signs that this approach works pretty well for you. Look at your planes exercise - the lines are for the most part pretty fluid and smooth, and there isn't a whole lot of wobbling. Your super imposed lines are a little wobblier, but this may actually be more that you were attempting to draw them a little more slowly, focusing too much on your accuracy rather than on the flow of the lines. I talk about this more [in these notes](Wobbling, Drawing Too Slowly and Carefully).

This comic may also be useful.

You obviously started down the ellipses before properly absorbing the lesson material, so you did a good deal of them without drawing through as instructed. That said, when you did start doing that, they came out much better. Still a bit stiff and wobbly at times, but generally not bad. It's normal for this to improve with time, but just make sure you're applying the ghosting method here, and really everywhere, to every mark you draw.

Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, comparing these to your planes it does look to me like you may not be applying that ghosting method here - or if you are, not with the same level of patience and focus.

Also, after completing this exercise, be sure to go over your rough perspective work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

With your rotated boxes, it was certainly a good attempt, though you did skip some of the instructions (like setting out boxes at the extremities for step 3). You also didn't draw through all of your boxes, which is pretty important as it lets you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space, and how that changes as the forms rotate.

This exercise, along with the organic perspective one are intended to challenge students and to force them into thinking differently about 3D space. There's no expectation of success, and it is meant to be difficult. That said, following the instructions is, of course, important.

I'm surprised you actually did draw through your forms for the organic perspective boxes - I actually purposely neglect to tell students about this approach at this point in regards to this exercise so they can flounder around a bit and better appreciate the difference it tends to make.

If there's one thing I want to tell you, and it's important - don't focus on your disadvantage here. I think you may be a bit preoccupied with it, and it may cause you to be a little sloppy (like skipping or forgetting instructions). It's true that you have an extra challenge to face, and we're not entirely sure how it is going to impact your results. Accepting it is important - but focusing on it will hamstring you further.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through the notes carefully. The ones about drawing through your boxes, as well as the correction techniques outlined near the beginning. Apply the correction techniques upon the completion of each page of boxes, rather than after each box or after the whole thing is complete. This way you can learn from your mistakes throughout the full set, but without distracting yourself and breaking your flow.

Oh, one last thing - it seems you have your flair off for this subreddit. I use the flair to track lesson completion and who is and isn't eligible for critiques. It'd be great if you could turn it back on, so I don't mistakenly think you're submitting work for a lesson you shouldn't be.

Uncomfortable

2017-11-27 01:22

Looking good! Your lines and ellipses are solid - you're managing to maintain a fair bit of confidence through their execution, which keeps the lines smooth and consistent, and helps you to avoid situations where your ellipses become uneven and loose their elliptical shape.

Just a couple things to mention:

• Your rotated boxes are generally looking pretty good, but two things I mention in the instructions are the importance of drawing through your boxes (drawing every line that makes up the box, including those that sit on the other side of the form, which helps you to better understand how each one sits in 3D space, a major focus of this exercise) and keeping the gaps between your boxes narrow and consistent so you can use neighbouring edges as hints when adding new lines. This keeps things structured and also reduces the need for guesswork. Guesswork is often going to be necessary, but we can strive to limit it where possible.

• Be sure to go over your rough perspective boxes as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

• You have a tendency to correct mistakes as soon as you make them - this is a bad habit to get into, and should be avoided. When you draw a mark, don't reinforce it immediately, or correct it, or do any such thing. Drawing as a reflex should be avoided (the whole purpose of the ghosting method is to force yourself to think before every mark you draw). On top of that, when you correct a mistake it doesn't actually make it better - it really just darkens the area and draws more attention to your blunder. Get used to leaving your mistakes alone instead.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms (which I mentioned in regards to your rotated boxes). The bit about correction techniques near the beginning is also important, and should be applied upon the completion of each page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-02 20:19

Overall looking very good. Your lines are smooth and confident, and your ellipses maintain a clean, even shape. You're not showing signs of hesitation upon executing your marks, so you're avoiding the sort of wobbling that happens if you worry too much about maintaining accuracy as you draw.

I do have a few things to mention in regards to your boxes though:

• For the rough perspective boxes, just be sure to go over your completed work as described here

• You didn't draw through your forms on your first rotated boxes attempt, so I'm glad to see that you corrected this on your second try. The one recommendation I have there is to try and keep the gaps between your boxes narrow and consistent - this allows you to use neighbouring edges as hints when adding new lines and generally keeps things more structured, keeping you from guessing more than you have to.

• You had a good attempt with the organic perspective boxes. The point here is not to do perfect work, but rather to get students to think about 3D space in a different way. It's expected to be a struggle at this point.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the noteso n the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction techniques mentioned just above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each page of boxes, so you can learn from your mistakes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-03 23:49

Very, very nice work. Almost all of your work is exceptionally well done. I have only a few minor points about a couple things.

• For your super imposed lines, you're stressing a little too much about accuracy over the flow and smoothness of your lines. As mentioned here, when you execute a mark, I want your first priority to be maintaining a consistent trajectory. Don't allow yourself to course-correct as you go - even if the direction you're drawing is a little off, stick to it and keep that line as smooth as you can.

• Your ellipses are generally well done, but there is a touch of stiffness to them. It actually lines up with the previous point - this occurs because you're stressing the accuracy point over flow, and so when you execute the mark, you're hesitating somewhat rather than pushing through and trusting in your muscle memory. In general when you execute a mark after some healthy ghosting, I want you to do so confidently. All the time for hesitation is over - from the time your pen touches the page, any mistakes that may occur effectively already have. So all you can do is get it over with and move onto the next.

• Jumping all the way ahead to your organic perspective boxes, your attempt here is solidly done. Admittedly this exercise does have some issues (primarily your far planes being larger than your near planes in certain areas) but this is totally normal and expected. This exercise is meant to be challenging, and was introduced here to give students the chance to start thinking about 3D space a little differently.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction techniques outlined there above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-03 23:55

Very nicely done! The photos are crap, but the work is very solid. Your linework is smooth and confident, keeping both your lines straight and consistent, and your ellipses evenly shaped. You're demonstrating a pretty solid grasp of 3D space as well, and really nailed the rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes exercises.

The only minor suggestion I have is that when you're doing your organic perspective boxes, it's important to draw through each box completely. I didn't actually mention this in this lesson on purpose - I usually have students give it a shot and struggle for a bit, before pointing them to the 250 box challenge where all of this is explained. That said, I don't think the challenge is entirely necessary for you right now, as you're already demonstrating a good sense of space. So just give the notes there a read through.

You did actually draw through some of the boxes there, although in most cases you didn't, and also had your lines stop where they were blocked by other boxes, so I figured it was worth mentioning, as this can really help one to understand how each box sits in 3D space, and how they all relate to one another.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-06 01:22

Excellent work. You're hitting most of the major points I look for in this lesson. Your lines are confidently executed and well thought out - this keeps your straights smooth and consistent, while also keeping your ellipses evenly shaped and avoiding any sort of wobbling or stiffness. Your boxes also demonstrate an excellent grasp of 3D space - you did a great job nailing the rotated boxes as well as the organic perspective boxes, despite both of these exercises being included here with the intention of providing students with a bit of a struggle (and mainly to give them the opportunity to think about space a little differently).

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. In most cases I'd ask students to move onto the 250 box challenge next - I'm not going to ask that of you, but I would like you to read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This may come in handy later on, as it helps immensely when understanding how each form sits in 3D space relative to one another.

Keep up the fantastic work.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-06 01:41

Very nice work! Your lines are generally quite confident and smooth, which is great to see, and those rotated boxes are exceptionally well done - which is no easy task, most people struggle immensely with them and no one's really expected to nail them at this stage. They're just there to push students to think about 3D space in a different way.

Just a few points to mention:

• That one page of ghosted lines near the beginning - the lines seem just a touch wobbly and stiff. I don't see this elsewhere, but it does seem like you executed those marks a little too slowly, and not with enough confidence to keep them smooth. Hesitation is bad! After taking your time with your planning, execute your marks with a confident, persistent pace to keep them consistent.

• Don't forget to frame your rough perspective boxes, and when you're done go over them as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Your organic perspective boxes are about where I'd expect them to be - they're in the vein of the rotated boxes in that most people find them to be quite the struggle. There are definitely issues, but those are entirely normal.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. As for the next step, based on your organic perspective boxes I'd generally recommend moving onto the 250 box challenge, but you did complete that already. I'm not actually sure if you did them before or after completing lesson 1.

If lesson 1 was completed after the boxes, I'd recommend doing another 100 boxes (remembering to draw through them and apply those correction techniques). If you did lesson 1 and then the box challenge, then go ahead and move onto lesson 2.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-08 00:29

Very nice work! Your lines section demonstrates a lot of confidence in your execution, resulting in smooth, consistent lines. This trickles down into your ellipses where they are mostly coming out very evenly shaped without much stiffness or wobbling. The only area where I do see a hint of stiffness is with your ellipses in planes - this is actually pretty common, as most people get a little preoccupied with fitting the ellipses into the awkwardly shaped planes, and as a result will tend to hesitate a little more. It's just something to keep in mind - the confidence of your execution and the evenness of the resulting mark is what's most important, above accuracy.

Your boxes section is fairly well done too. For your rough perspective boxes, just be sure to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Your rotated boxes were very well done - this exercise and the organic perspective boxes were included here largely with the intention of being difficult. Rather than expecting perfect work here, I'm giving students the opportunity to think about 3D space in a somewhat different way. That said, you did a really solid job here. Aside from the slight assymetry of scale (which is not a big deal), your boxes are arranged with a good grasp of 3D space.

Your organic perspective boxes are coming along, although we will want to do a little more work in this area. I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Move onto the 250 box challenge next and be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. In addition to this, the correction technique outlined above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-12 23:41

Overall you're doing quite well. I do just have a few things that caught my attention:

• Your ellipses are a touch stiff. When making marks, we have two major priorities - accuracy and flow. Right now you're putting a little too much emphasis on accuracy, to the detriment of your flow. Make sure you're applying the ghosting method to each and every mark, and when your pen finally hits the page, don't allow yourself to hesitate or worry about accuracy any further. Once you make contact, any mistake you might make have effectively already happened - all you can do is push through with a confident, persistent pace and move onto the next one. The priority at this point is making a mark that flows smoothly, with a consistent trajectory. This applies to ellipses as well as to straight lines, although you're doing fine with the latter.

• Be sure to go over your completed rough perspective boxes work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

• Your organic perspective boxes certainly do improve, but I'll admit - the organic perspective boxes exercise as it was described isn't the best way to practice this particular challenge. I assigned this exercise and the rotated boxes (which you did a pretty solid job with) largely to force students to start thinking about 3D space in a different way. There are still some noticeable areas where your far planes come out larger than near planes, which is tricky to remedy in this fashion because we don't even fully flesh out those far planes.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next to get some more work in on those freely rotated boxes. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that page, and pay special attention to the tip about drawing through your forms - this in particular will help you get a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction methods outlined just above the blue video links should be applied at the end of each complete page of boxes, as this will allow you to learn from those mistakes throughout the set without breaking up your flow.

Of course, if you've already completed the challenge then feel free to submit it - I just hope you paid careful attention to the notes and did the things I mentioned above.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-13 22:08

Pretty solid work. Just a couple things to point out:

• For your super imposed lines, you've got some wobbling going on. When you execute your marks, instead of stressing over the accuracy of your stroke, the most important thing is maintaining a consistent, smooth trajectory. If you hesitate and fuss too much over how accurately you follow your intended path, your line will wobble all over with all the course-corrections you make. So once you decide to commit to a mark, execute with a confident, persistent pace. I expand on this principle in relation to this exercise in these notes.

• Your ellipses are looking very solid - they're a much better example of confident execution, so I do believe you understand the principle (especially since I talk about it in regards to ghosting, which is after the super imposed lines exercise - so you didn't inherently do anything wrong).

• Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, just be sure to go over your completed work for this exercise as described here. This will help you identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

• Great work with the rotated boxes.

• Your organic perspective boxes are coming along well - there's more work to be done here, but you're about where I'd expect you to be for this lesson.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Before you start the work, be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. In addition to this, the correction technique outlined there above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes, so you can steadily learn from your mistakes without breaking up the flow of your work.

imguralbumbot

2017-12-17 02:50

^(Hi, I'm a bot for linking direct images of albums with only 1 image)

https://i.imgur.com/WhQbEgl.jpg

^^Source ^^| ^^Why? ^^| ^^Creator ^^| ^^ignoreme ^^| ^^deletthis

Uncomfortable

2017-12-17 02:57

Hey, mjjordy. It doesn't look like I have you down as being eligible for private critiques. If you're a recent supporter on patreon, check your inbox as you'll have received a message from me asking for your reddit username. Otherwise you're welcome to submit your work directly to the subreddit for a community critique.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-17 02:59

Nevermind my last message! I just got the email from patreon, it was just a little delayed. I've added your submission to my backlog, so you should receive a critique tomorrow. Thanks for the pledge!

Uncomfortable

2017-12-18 06:07

Overall you did a pretty decent job. One area that jumped out at me though was your ellipses, especially the table of ellipses exercise. When drawing these, you're demonstrating a lot of stiffness, fussing too much over the accuracy of your ellipses and as a result you've deformed many of them. Maintaining the flow of your marks and the evenness of your elliptical shapes is paramount. We do this by ensuring that we apply the ghosting method, ultimately executing each mark with a confident, persistent pace and trusting in our muscle memory. This allows us to draw smoother lines and hold true to the ellipse's intended shapes.

You're also demonstrating some laxness when it comes to drawing through your ellipses. I really insist that you do this for each and every ellipse you draw for my lessons. It works hand in hand with drawing your marks confidently.

Aside from that, your work is solid. I'm glad to see that you applied the double checking approach to your rough perspective boxes, and your rotated boxes came out pretty well. The organic perspective boxes do need work, but we'll be tackling that from a slightly different angle.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction technique described just above the blue video links should be applied at the end of each full page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-18 06:12

Overall, pretty nice work. Your execution of your linework is generally smooth and confident, which is great. I did catch a couple things though. For your ellipses in planes, you neglected to draw through your ellipses, and focused too much on accuracy to the detriment of the flow/smoothness of the shapes. Keep in mind that our primary goal is always to make marks that flow consistently and maintain a consistent trajectory. It's easy to get caught up in the accuracy of things, but this causes us to slow down and stiffen up.

Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work for this exercise as described here.

You did a great job with your rotated boxes, and demonstrated a well developing understanding of how to think about forms in 3D space. There's definitely room for improvement (especially in the organic perspective boxes), but this is totally normal and expected.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction technique described just above the blue video links should be applied at the end of each full page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-20 20:38

Your first two sections are well done. Your lines are smooth and consistent, and your ellipses are confident and evenly shaped. I'm glad to see that you're doing a good job of focusing on the flow of your marks rather than fussing too much over their accuracy.

Your boxes section does have some rough patches - primarily with the rotated and organic perspective boxes exercises, though these two were focused primarily on getting students to think differently about 3D space, rather than expecting perfect work. That said, with your rotated boxes there are clear places where you skipped important instructions - for example, you didn't draw through your boxes, and often left out the steps where you mark out your extremities. It's very important to follow the instructions as written.

Also, you should not be laying out your pages so haphazardly. The assigned homework requests a certain number of pages for each exercise, so you should reserve entire pages for each one rather than mixing them together in this way. I want your attention to be focused entirely on one exercise at a time.

Your rough perspective boxes are generally fine, just be sure to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift. Also the lesson definitely asked for far more than just one of these - you did mention that you'd lost some pages, but in the future please submit all that is requested, even if it means redoing what you've left behind.

You'll notice that at the beginning of the lesson, I mention that these exercises are meant to become part of a warmup routine, so it's not like you wouldn't be doing more of them in the future anyway - so there's no reason not to avoid redoing them now.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction technique outlined above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-20 21:48

Hey! It doesn't look like I've got your username down as being eligible for private critiques. If you're a patreon supporter, check your patreon inbox as I send out messages gathering information like one's reddit username within 24 hours of pledging. If you're not though, you're welcome to submit your work directly to the subreddit for a critique from the community.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-22 00:23

Your work is coming along well. There are a few issues I'd like to draw your attention to, but overall you're showing a propensity for reading through and applying the instructions with great care. Your boxes section is especially well done, and I'm glad to see that you also applied some of the additional notes from the self critique resources. Your rotated boxes attempts came together very nicely, with your last attempt being quite stellar.

The issue that I wanted to point out has to do with how you make your marks. Right now I'm noticing some definite stiffness, that suggests that you're currently a little too focused on the accuracy of your lines, to the detriment of their flow. When you execute a mark, you want to do so with a confident, persistent pace. Once your pen touches the page, all chances to ghost more and to improve your chances at being accurate are gone. You are committed - you must push forwards and trust in your muscle memory. If something goes wrong, them's the breaks. There will always be more chances. If you hesitate though, your line will wobble, and you may achieve greater accuracy and win the battle - but you will have lost the war, undermining the solidity of the forms you may be drawing at the time.

Now, I am exaggerating somewhat. The degree to which this is an issue in your work isn't that high, but it is an issue that you should work towards remedying. Where inaccuracy is something that naturally decreases with practice, the wobbling and stiffness in one's lines and ellipses that comes from hesitation is something that must be adjusted in the methodology one applies. This means it's both easier to fix, but also requires a conscious effort.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular will help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction techniques outlined just above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-22 00:18

Excellent work with your lines and ellipses. Your execution is very confident and consistent, so your marks come out smooth and evenly shaped. I'm also very pleased to see how conscientious you are about applying the self critique resources notes (like double checking your rough perspective work), and generally applying my instructions correctly.

Your rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes are coming along well, though we will work more on this front. For your rotated boxes, you did end up in a bit of a mess along the edges (probably because the boxes immediately to the left and right of the center were perhaps turned too dramatically, resulting in an attempt at compensating weirdly. It's not abnormal at all to find that you placed the extremities too far out to the side (I do this myself frequently) but perhaps trying to bridge the two wasn't the best way to deal with the problem. Most people just leave the extremities out to the side and treat them like a sort of visual representation of the full arc they're trying to achieve.

One recommendation I do have for this exercise is to try and keep the gaps between your boxes narrower and more consistent. This allows you to use neighbouring edges as hints when adding new lines.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular will help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction techniques outlined just above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-22 00:41

Overall you're doing a pretty good job. Your lines are generally quite confident, which keeps your lines and ellipses smooth and consistent, which is one of our priorities right now. You're also demonstrating a well developing sense of 3D space. Most importantly, you're reading and following the instructions carefully, and demonstrating an exceptional degree of patience, which will help you immensely as you continue to work through these lessons.

In regards to your question on page 7, focus on just rotating the page to find a comfortable angle of approach. There's no need to stress too much on being able to draw from all angles. As you continue to work, the range of angles that feel comfortable will expand naturally. Conversely, if you worry too much about it, it'll distract you from more pressing matters.

Jumping ahead to your rotated boxes exercise, both this one and the organic perspective boxes are really just meant to challenge students into thinking differently about working in 3D space. Both exercises are very difficult, and I do not expect perfect work here. That said, you've done a solid job.

The only thing that I would like to point out in regards to the rotated boxes is that you may want to try and exaggerate your rotations a little more. Our brains like keeping things restricted to grids. When we rotate a form, we break away from that, so our brain naturally fights against that to keep us in our comfort zones. As a result, you will - especially as you work through the beginnings of this - find that your brain tricks you into thinking something is rotated more than it actually is. to compensate, we need to push and exaggerate our rotations in order to cover the full range we're after.

I am however very glad to see that you kept the gaps between your boxes narrow and consistent, as this is a pretty important part of the exercise.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular will help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction techniques outlined just above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-22 01:06

Your first two sections are very well done. Your marks are confident and consistent, which keeps your lines smooth and your ellipses evenly shaped. I'm very pleased to see that you are keeping the flow of your lines at a higher level of priority over your accuracy. Your accuracy is still pretty good, but many students have the tendency to stress too much over it, resulting in stiff or wobbly lines.

Your boxes section is a little haphazard, however, as far as following the instructions goes.

Your plotted perspective exercises aren't bad, but you are running into situations where you end up with a lot of distortion. This of course wasn't explained, but I'll clarify it here.

You can generally see where the safe areas and the areas where you're going to get more distortion will be if you draw a circle between your two vanishing points like this. Everything inside the circle is generally undistorted, while anything outside starts pushing the boundaries of what your eye is willing to accept. The more distance between your vanishing points, the larger the circle. This is generally why the plotted perspective exercises on the last page where done far better.

Things get a little weird when you get into your rough perspective boxes. Firstly, frame your compositions. Secondly, the exercise is to be done in one point perspective. You got that with one of your attempts here, though not the others. It's extremely important that you do the exercises as instructed, and not stray/make up your own variations.

Your rotated boxes and organic perspective exercises do need work, but these two exercises were included here to challenge students to think a little differently about 3D space, and I did not expect perfect work by any stretch. That said, there are two issues in how you approached the rotated boxes:

• You're trying to work off a single central vanishing point. In the instructions, I explain that as a box rotates in space, the vanishing points slide along the horizon, like this. The principle of a vanishing point is that all lines that are parallel in 3D space will converge towards the same point when drawn in 2D. If all your lines go towards the same VP, that means they're all parallel - if a box has rotated, its lines cannot continue to be parallel with an identical box that has not been rotated.

• Keep the gaps between your boxes narrow and consistent. This allows you to both keep things more organized, but more importantly allows you to use neighbouring edges as hints when adding new lines.

So when I say that the exercises are about challenging students to think differently about space, the point is that it's meant to break you away from focusing on the rote memorization of perspective rules and trying to plot everything back. You could approach this in a technical, plotted way, but you'd end up drawing back to so many vanishing points that it would become unreasonable. So, you need to try and apply the spirit of the perspective rules, understanding what they actually mean rather than just repeating what you've memorized.

Before I mark this lesson as complete, I want you to do two more pages of rough perspective boxes and one more page of rotated boxes (be sure to reread the instructions first before doing the work).

Once you've completed that and submitted it, I'll mark the lesson as complete. At that point, I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular will help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space. Also, the correction techniques outlined just above the blue video links should be applied upon the completion of each full page of boxes.

I mentioned that now in case I forget about it when reviewing your resubmission - but of course, don't move onto the 250 box challenge until I've marked this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-25 06:23

Very nice work! Your linework and general execution is very smooth and confident, which keeps your lines consistent and your ellipses evenly shaped. As a result, your first two sections are spot on.

For the rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

You did a great job with the rotated boxes. The only thing I caught was that the second one (don't know if it's the second attempt, or if it's just in an arbitrary order) doesn't have you drawing through the boxes as you should be. The first one's very well done though.

Your organic perspective boxes are certainly coming along well. There is some room for improvement here, but you're definitely doing better than what I'd expect for this stage.

Keep up the great work. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, so I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. I've even just uploaded a brand new 'how to draw a box' video, so be sure to give it a watch.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-27 01:34

Very nicely done! Your lines are smooth and steady, and your ellipses are evenly shaped with no visible wobbling or stiffness. Both of these are for the same reason - you're executing each mark with confidence, and trusting in your muscle memory. More over you're clearly preparing before each stroke. All of this is excellent - keep it up.

You're also demonstrating a solid grasp of 3D space, and have even done an excellent job at the rotated boxes - which was intentionally supposed to be more challenging than most students could manage at this point. Admittedly you did miss some of the early steps (fleshing out the extremities in step 3 or so) but you still did fine.

The organic perspective boxes are certainly getting there, though some additional work with rotating boxes freely in 3D space is definitely warranted.

Lastly, for the rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work on this exercise as described here. This will help you identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

So, I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge. Be sure to watch the video there and read through all the notes on the page before you begin.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-29 05:06

It doesn't seem I have you listed on my records as being eligible for private critiques. If you are a patreon supporter, be sure to check your patreon inbox, as I'll have sent you a message to collect your reddit username. Otherwise you're welcome to submit your work directly to the main subreddit for a free critique from the community.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-29 23:29

Overall you've got a lot of good stuff here, but there are a few points I noticed that I'd like to point out:

• In your super imposed lines exercise, I noticed that you've got fraying on both sides of your lines. This tells me that you're executing your marks confidently, which is good - but also that you're not taking the time before each mark to line your pen up at the correct starting point. I explain this a little further in these notes.

• Your ellipses are coming along well, but you'll want to continue working on both the confidence of your execution (which keeps them smooth and evenly shaped, which is our top priority) and your control (second priority, keeps your lines more together and fits them in their intended spots). Be sure to apply the ghosting method here (if you're not already), as it tends to help with both of these points.

• When you decide to apply hatching to any of your boxes, don't half-ass it. No scribbling, keep your lines parallel and consistent, and make sure they all stretch all the way across the plane from edge to edge. Otherwise it'll just look sloppy and it'll take the quality of presentation down for the whole exercise.

• It seems like for your rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes, you didn't quite apply the ghosting method to your lines. My guess is that you may have gotten somewhat overwhelmed by the task, and as a result forgot to do so. Make sure you apply the method to each and every mark you draw - make a habit of planning things out before you draw them, and separating the planning/execution phases so you can execute with more confidence and more trust in your muscle memory.

• For your rotated boxes, it looks like you missed a couple of the instructions - like laying out your extremities (step 3), and keeping the gaps between your boxes narrower and more consistent so you can use neighbouring edges as hints when adding new lines.

Anyway, aside from that, you're doing a great job. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes and watch the video content before starting the work.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-31 01:05

That is certainly a step in the right direction. You're drawing much more confidently, so they flow much better and are generally smoother. As you continue to practice, your control/accuracy will improve, but you're on the right track. Keep up the good work.

Uncomfortable

2017-12-31 01:14

Generally good work. You're executing your lines with a lot of confidence, which is keeping them very smooth. You're also maintaining the same for your ellipses, which maintains their even shapes. I am noticing though that when you apply the ghosting method, your lines tend to trail off as they end, often shooting past their intended end points. As you continue to practice this technique, try to get a little more control over where those lines end. Right now it seems like you're drawing in a direction from a particular starting point, but letting the mark end where it feels like ending.

Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, it does look like you didn't quite use the ghosting method here (or at least not as much, or not as carefully) - your lines tend to waver and wobble a lot more. Remember to apply that technique to every single line you put down - it's not just an exercise, but rather the approach that should be applied to everything.

Your attempts at the rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes exercises were pretty solid. As I've mentioned in the lesson, those exercises were meant to challenge you into thinking differently about perspective and 3D space, rather than expecting perfect work.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I do want you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through the notes on that page and watch the video before starting the work.

As for your question, yes - for any line that requires a smooth, consistent flow (which was all the lines in this lesson, and the vast majority of non-detail lines you'll be drawing for later lessons), you want to draw only from the shoulder pivot. You'll also generally want to be rotating your page in order to find the most comfortable angle of approach, so you're only really focusing on drawing lines in a particular angle - or as Scott Robertson puts it, "mastering drawing a single line."

Uncomfortable

2018-01-02 17:35

Sorry for the delay in my response, I've been caught up with making new video content, but that should be done for now.

Overall you're doing quite well. Your lines are smooth and straight, and your ellipses maintain an even shape - both of these points come from the fact that you're executing your marks very confidently, and not getting too caught up in accuracy during the execution phase. You're also clearly taking the time to plan out your marks using the ghosting method, so keep that up.

One thing I noticed is a pretty minor point, but it's worth mentioning. In your rough perspective boxes, you've got some hatching on your boxes, but it's been drawn quite sloppily. It's important that whenever you choose to add something to a drawing, that you never half-ass it. If you make the decision that something else should be included, you need to treat it as though it is as important as any other part. In the case of hatching, make sure you keep your lines consistent and parallel, and stretch them all the way across the plane from edge to edge.

Also, for that same exercise - be sure to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Your rotated boxes came out very well, which is pretty exceptional as this exercise was meant to be very challenging for students at this stage. The purpose was less about getting students to nail the work, but rather to get them to think about rotating forms in 3D space a little differently.

Same goes for the organic perspective exercise, although here while you did quite well, I can see some minor areas where some extra work will definitely benefit you in solidifying your grasp of 3D space.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through the notes and watch the video before starting on the work.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-02 17:45

You've got a lot of good work here, but I did notice some issues worth pointing out. Identifying them should help you improve a fair bit.

The biggest issue I see is that when you execute your marks, you are overly focused on the accuracy of your lines. You draw slower and stiffen up because you're afraid of making mistakes. We can see this in your super imposed lines (where you have a wobble from drawing too slowly), as well as in your ghosted lines and ellipses where there is a clear sense of stiffness.

As I explain in this comic, you need to loosen up. It's important to take your time and focus on accuracy only as you apply the preparation phase of the ghosting method. Once your pen touches the page, you're committed, and can no longer hesitate. Whatever mistake you may or may not make is now written in stone, and nothing can be done to avoid it. All you can do is trust in your muscle memory and execute the mark with a confident, persistent pace so as to maintain a consistent trajectory. That line may miss the mark a little, but that is perfectly okay. There will be hundreds of thousands of lines in your future, and this is just one drawing of many. If you make a mistake, it doesn't matter that much. What's more important is that you get used to drawing with greater confidence.

Jumping ahead to your boxes section, your plotted and rough perspective boxes are done quite well. I would like to warn you away from deviating from the exercise as it is written though (like the more interesting variations you added to your rough perspective boxes). You did just fine, but in general doing so risks distracting you from the main focus of the exercise. Also, be sure to go over your completed work for the rough perspective exercise as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

For your rotated boxes, you do seem to have missed a few useful instructions:

• Draw through all of your boxes, including the lines that exist on the far side of each form. this helps you to better grasp how each box sits in 3D space, which really is the meat of this exercise.

• Keep the gaps between your boxes narrow and consistent. This allows you to use neighbouring edges as hints when adding new lines.

Your organic perspective boxes are coming along fairly well, though I would like you to explore freely rotated boxes a little bit more. So, I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes and watch the video on that page before starting the work.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-03 20:18

Sounds to me like you naturally slow down when you come to the end of a line (whether you're drawing the rest of the stroke quickly or not). You'll have to work on practicing stopping your stroke suddenly.

Also, you should probably be asking this question directly in the subreddit so others can answer as well.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-05 02:23

Nice work! Overall you're doing quite well - your lines and ellipses sections are solid, as you're executing your marks with a lot of confidence, which keeps them smooth and even. This is what we're after - we want to keep that trajectory consistent, focusing on the flow of our lines over accuracy.

One note about the funnels exercise - as your ellipses move in towards the center of a funnel, your degrees should shrink, and as they move out towards the extremities, the degree of your ellipses should increase towards becoming a full circle.

Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, I do feel like you're being a touch sloppier than you could here, so your lines wobble a little more in some places, and your hatching isn't quite consistent. Make sure that hatching stretches all the way across the plane from edge to edge, and keep them parallel.

You've done an excellent job with the rotated boxes. Your organic perspective boxes are coming along well, but I think we'll benefit from getting a little more work in on this area.

I'll mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes and watch the video before starting the work.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-05 02:26

Your first page of super imposed lines is excellent. Your second page definitely has considerably more wobbling, so always push yourself to execute those marks with confidence, focusing on keeping the trajectories consistent and smooth over trying too hard to match the underlying guide line. Overall you're doing well in this area though.

Jumping ahead to your ellipses, they're looking quite smooth and evenly shaped, so based on what I've seen of your work previously, you've made significant strides here. You're managing well with ellipses and circles of all kinds of sizes, so keep that up.

You seem to have left out the whole boxes section though. I know you may have lost some pages, but... you know. Drawabox. Gimme some boxes.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-05 16:10

That is exactly what I'd expect them to look like. The lines separate because when you execute them, you're maintaining a consistent trajectory. When that trajectory is slightly off when starting out (which it is undoubtedly going to be), the lines are going to separate towards the far end. The alternative would be to execute more slowly, with more hesitation, resulting in a wobbly line that keeps trying to veer back towards the goal, continually overcorrecting.

I talk about this in the self critique resources here.

So, you're doing exactly what you should be. The separation will decrease with practice and over time, but especially with the longer lines, it's something you're going to see for a long time.

As svendogee and Aera mentioned on the discord channel, make sure you complete the entire lesson when submitting work for critique. That'll help me give you a fuller breakdown on where you need to improve, with more useful advice targeting your particular issues.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-05 22:05

For one, my mechanical skills still need practice.

Of course they do. The point to submitting your work for critique is not to impress me - it's just so we can make sure you understand what you should be aiming for with each exercise. You'll still be practicing these exercises as part of a regular warmup routine.

One of them was not understanding what makes a square in space. For the ellipses in planes exercise, I tried to make the planes specifically squares, and I often failed.

I really wouldn't recommend trying to add your own challenges to these exercises - not yet, anyway. The matter of keeping things square in 3D space is something we talk about in later lessons (to a degree, anyway), and it is a deceptively complex concept. By worrying about things that are not actually a part of the exercise, you potentially distract yourself from what the exercise is actually about. None of the exercises ask for perfect cubes.

So, onto your work.

Your lines section is looking alright, though there is a little bit of wobbling that I'm noticing early on. It's minimal, but always keep in mind that when you execute a mark, your main priority is to maintain a consistent flow and trajectory to your line. Worrying about accuracy will cause you to hesitate, and will cause your line to wobble as your brain course-corrects. At this stage, especially when applying the ghosting method, you must accept the inevitability of mistakes, and know that the time to correct them has passed. Once that pen touches the page, any mistakes that may or may not occur are written in stone - you must still push forwards with confidence, and accept the outcome.

Looking at your ellipses, I think it's quite possible that you're attempting to draw them more from your wrist than your shoulder. They're generally not too bad, but there is some inconsistency and irregularity to their shapes, and they often end up feeling a little more loose than they ought to. This is something you'll want to continue practicing, to be sure.

Jumping ahead to your boxes, the plotted perspective boxes exercise was done very well. Your rough perspective boxes are also pretty solid, but be sure to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

You also really nailed the rotated boxes - this exercise was meant to be quite challenging, and was included here largely to get students to think about space and form a little differently, rather than expecting the exercise to be achieved successfully. The organic perspective boxes was a similar exercise, and while you did pretty well, there is more work we can do here.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. You should move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes and watch the video before starting the work. Also, you mentioned that your lesson 1 work was done over the course of several months. In the last few weeks, I added videos to each exercise, detailing and discussing how they should be approached and demonstrating certain pitfalls. I highly recommend that you give them a watch when you get the chance, just in case there were any misunderstandings you had that I did not catch here.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-05 22:10

Overall your work is very solid. Your lines have been executed with great confidence, as have your ellipses - resulting in marks that are smooth and straight, and ellipses that are evenly shaped. Your boxes also demonstrate a pretty well developed grasp of space, with your plotted perspective boxes coming out nicely, and your rough perspective boxes demonstrating a lot of the qualities I focus on in my critiques. I'm also pleased to see that you applied the double checking method from the self critique resources.

You certainly did struggle with the rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes, but this was entirely expected. You did apply the instructions to the best of your ability, and did so patiently and with care. I don't actually expect students to nail either of these exercises, but rather included them here to challenge students to think about 3D space differently from the standard vanishing-point-perspective exercises.

You're demonstrating a good grasp of this, but a little extra focus in this area will help immensely. I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page and watch the video before starting the work.

Also, since you mentioned that you'd done this work over the course of a few months, I did want to point out that I actually added specific videos to each exercise explaining its purpose, demonstrating its execution and discussing certain pitfalls that students somethings stumble into. I strongly recommend that you give them a watch in case there have been any misunderstandings in your absorption of the material that I have not caught here.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-06 22:51

You start off on the right foot - your super imposed lines are smooth and confidently executed. Your ghosted lines are alright, but as you continue on, I can see a certain degree of stiffness becoming apparent in your work. It becomes much more noticeable as you get into your ellipses.

The reason for this stiffness is that you're prioritizing accuracy over the flow and smoothness of your lines. It's a pretty normal issue, and to rectify it, you have to push yourself to accept that once you touch your pen to the page, any mistake you may or may not make at this point is written in stone, and nothing can be done to avoid it. Hesitation will not save you - so all you can do is push through with a confident, persistent pace and execute the mark you've already ghosted and prepared for, focusing now only on trusting your muscle memory and maintaining a consistent trajectory.

Jumping ahead to your rough perspective boxes, your work here could use a little fine tuning. Specifically, make sure you keep your horizontals parallel to the horizon, and your verticals perpendicular to it. Furthermore, make sure you're applying the ghosting method here.

Also, for the rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

All these points are mentioned in the rough perspective boxes video, which was added fairly recently. I've done so for all exercises in lessons 1 and 2 (it was a big of a christmas gift to the community), so be sure to check them out when you get a chance, as they may clarify things you may be unsure of.

Your rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes definitely have considerable issues, but this isn't abnormal nor unexpected. Go ahead and watch the videos for them (they're linked in the lesson), but I will tell you that I included these two exercises here not with the expectation that students would be able to nail them, but rather to get students to think a little differently about 3D space.

Now, I am going to mark this lesson as complete. You have much additional practice to do, but as these exercises should be done as part of a warmup routine from here on out, you will have that opportunity. What I want you to do next is to tackle the 250 box challenge. Be sure to read through all of the notes and watch the video on that page before starting the work. This challenge should help you better grasp how boxes sit in 3D space, and how to manipulate them in your mind.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-07 17:05

Overall you're doing okay so far. Just make sure you're continually pushing yourself to draw from your shoulder (the kind of wavering I'm seeing - when some lines are a little bent in the middle, but otherwise fairly smooth - suggests that sometimes you might be falling back to drawing from your wrist).

Also, your homework for a lesson should be submitted all at once - in the case of this lesson, you'd want to submit lines, ellipses and boxes all simultaneously as described in the homework section.

Lastly, what tool are you using to draw? It's probably just the poor quality of the photos, but some of these look like they're done in pencil. All of the work should be done in ink, ideally fineliners/felt tip pens. Please take a little more care in taking pictures that aren't too blurry. The last page was particularly difficult to make out.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-12 01:02

You were lucky to catch me just as I was finishing up a couple extra critiques, so you're getting yours quicker than usual. Your work is actually very good. When it comes to the execution of your marks, you're doing great - each mark is confident and smoothly executed, which shows that you're not getting overly preoccupied with accuracy. Accuracy is a matter to contend with before drawing the mark - but once that pen touches the page, you are to trust in your muscle memory, which is exactly what you've done here. Your accuracy will still improve with practice, and you will find that you are going to develop greater control and stopping speed over time. What's important is that you are approaching the exercise with the correct priorities.

This applies to both your lines and ellipse sections.

Your boxes are also generally quite well done. Your plotted perspective is solid (though that's not exactly a tough one). Your'e also demonstrating a great deal of patience and care with your rough perspective boxes, and I'm glad to see that you applied the double checking method there as well.

Your rotated boxes are definitely a good start - the exercise is more about getting students to think differently about 3D space, without the real expectation of any significant successes. That said, you did a good job of keeping the overall exercise structured and consistent. The only area where you could improve there is in pushing the actual rotation of the boxes (the degree to which they turn with each neighbouring box), as I think you were a little timid in that area. That is of course quite normal - our brains like to keep things on a grid, so we often have to push ourselves to exaggerate rotations in order to keep our brains from fooling us into thinking we've rotated more than we have.

The organic perspective boxes are similar, in that it's more about changing how you think about 3D space. There is definitely room for improvement here, and we'll be tackling that next.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes there and watch the video as well, as there is a lot of important information there in terms of drawing through your forms and identifying where things have gone wrong.

Keep up the great work.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-14 03:37

Nice work! You've exhibiting a lot of the qualities I'm looking for - primarily, the execution of your marks is confident, which keeps your lines smooth and consistent, and your ellipses evenly shaped. Keep in mind for your planes exercise that what we're doing here - at least for now - has nothing to do with perspective, so there's no need to add that extra pressure. That said, adapting this exercise in this manner will help later on, but for now just focus on it as an excuse to use the ghosting method.

For your funnels, I caught that little "didn't read the lesson" thing - but your follow up attempt is still missing your central minor axis line, which really is the core of the exercise. It's all about aligning to that minor axis. That said, you do seem to be aligning them more correctly in your next attempt, just be sure to actually include the line in the future.

Nice work with the rough perspective boxes, nothing to complain about there. You did reasonably well with your rotated boxes, though it's clear that thinking in this manner of freely rotating the forms posed quite the challenge. That's normal of course - it does so for everyone.

You do have a few noticeable issues of far planes being larger than near planes (so basically your lines converging in the wrong direction), in your organic perspective boxes. This isn't abnormal at all, and we will be working a little further on this area.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, and watch the video as well.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-14 04:05

Pretty good work overall, but there are a few key things that you missed in the instructions, or at least, points that you didn't heed as carefully as you should have.

Before that though, I do want to mention that your line execution is quite confident, which keeps your marks quite smooth and consistent. Keep it up.

So the issues are as follows:

• Draw through your ellipses. You only seem to do this in a couple of instances, and everywhere else you strive to complete your ellipses in one go. I stress the importance of drawing through all of your ellipses (not just in these exercises, but in all of the drawabox lessons). I noticed that when you try to draw them in one go, you do manage to get very even ellipses, but your accuracy tends to be quite poor. Drawing through them will help you maintain your confidence while letting you work on developing that accuracy a little better.

• You don't seem to have done the rough perspective boxes exercise, or perhaps you forgot to include them here.

• For your rotated boxes exercise, push and exaggerate the rotations of your boxes. You're drawing through the forms very nicely, but each step doesn't rotate very much, resulting in the countless rows and columns. In the instructions, I demonstrated doing it with only a few rows/columns covering a full 180 degree arc. Our brains actually don't like rotating forms at all - they prefer things to exist on simple, straight grids. So, it's quite natural to feel that we've rotated a box further than we actually have, because our brain fools us into thinking so. Because of this, we need to push and exaggerate those rotations further each time, to compensate.

You made a solid attempt with the organic perspective boxes as well - there are issues, as I would expect, so we will be working a little further on rotating boxes freely in 3D space by moving onto the 250 box challenge. Before that though, I want you to complete and submit the rough perspective boxes exercise.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-14 09:49

Looking good. Go ahead and move onto the 250 box challenge. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that page and watch the video before starting on the work.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-19 00:38

Excellent work! You've actually really nailed all of the exercises. Your line quality is smooth and consistent, which keeps your lines fairly straight, and your ellipses evenly shaped. You're also demonstrating a pretty solid grasp of 3D space in how you're tackling the 3D forms. The rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes are meant to be quite challenging, and are really more about getting students to think differently about space, but you nailed them all the same.

I have only one suggestion - I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, so you should feel free to move onto lesson 2, but before you do I'd like you to read through the notes on the 250 box challenge page, and watch the video linked there. Things like drawing through your boxes, and generally how to go about practicing the construction of boxes (and checking your work for mistakes) is very helpful. You don't need to complete the challenge, just go over the content.

Keep up the great work!

Uncomfortable

2018-01-20 01:01

Hi Danyal. You probably meant to post your homework directly to the subreddit for the free community critique. Those who post here receive critiques directly from me, and that's limited to those who support drawabox on patreon. I don't currently have you listed in my notes as being eligible for that.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-20 01:18

Overall you're doing really quite well. The two exercises that you had particular trouble with are intended to be that way - they're more about getting students to think differently about 3D space, and in order to do so I drop them into the deep end of the pool before teaching them to swim.

I did notice that your linework have just the slightest, almost imperceptible tendency towards stiffness. It's barely even there, but it led me to want to just reiterate that the flow and smoothness of your lines (coming from executing each mark with a confident, persistent stroke without any hesitation) is paramount, and that the accuracy of your mark is secondary to that. Remember that once your pen touches the page, any opportunity to adjust your approach and overall avoid mistakes is over and gone. You've committed yourself, so you need to follow through.

Of course, like I said - it's a very minimal issue in your case, so I don't want you to consciously attempt to alter anything. Rather, I think just planting the seed in your mind should be enough to nudge you in the right direction.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the page and watch the video. This should help you improve on the issues you experienced with the rotated boxes (which admittedly were actually done pretty well) and more specifically the organic perspective boxes.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-21 19:05

Doing good so far! There's a bit of wobbling on your super imposed lines (though it's minimal) - so I recommend that you give these notes a quick read. Aside from that, you're doing fine.

Just keep in mind that your homework submissions should include the entirety of a lesson's exercises, not just one section at a time. So keep up the good work, and submit the rest once you've completed the ellipses and boxes sections.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-21 19:16

Really solid work! Overall you're doing great, and are demonstrating a great deal of patience and care with your execution of each exercise. There were a couple minor things that I'll point out, but overall you're doing very well.

I noticed that in your super imposed lines and early into your ghosted lines exercises, there's just a touch of stiffness and wobbling to your lines. It's not terribly noticeable, but I've gotten used to catching these things. I explain the issue in these notes, but the gist of it is that you're still a little too preoccupied with accuracy as you execute your marks. Once your pen touches the page, you've committed to whatever you've prepared to do, and nothing can be done to change that. All you can do is push forwards with a confident, persistent pace and maintain a consistent trajectory. Wobbling is generally caused by a student's brain trying to course-correct as you go, which is generally only possible if you slow down.

Now I don't see any of this issue with your ellipses - they've come out very smoothly and consistently, and have lovely even shapes to them.

Jumping ahead to your boxes, your plotted perspective boxes are solid, and while there are clearly issues that you identified with your rough perspective boxes, this is totally normal. I noticed that you rushed into the rotated boxes at first (and didn't draw through your boxes), but immediately corrected that into your following attempt and all of those that came after it. By the end you did a pretty solid job, although I noticed that you neglected to fill in those corner boxes :P

Both this exercise and the organic perspective boxes were intentionally set to be out of a student's league, largely focused on getting you to think about 3D space a little differently. You certainly achieved that, so don't worry about the fact that they seemed to be rather painful. It's totally expected, and we'll be doing a little more work on this front next.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that page, and watch the video before starting the work.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-21 23:35

You start out with your lines being a little wobblier (exhibiting this issue), but your last page there seems to be much better. Keep in mind that your main focus when executing these lines is maintaining a consistent, smooth trajectory. The second your pen touches the page, you've committed to whatever mistakes you may make in terms of accuracy - all you can do is keep yourself from hesitating in order to avoid wobbling along the way.

In the future, you should be submitting an entire lesson's worth of work all at once, rather than in sections. I mention this in the homework section where the pages are assigned:

If you want a critique and some direction, you can submit your homework for review as a comment on this lesson's post on /r/ArtFundamentals. If you do choose to submit, please be sure to complete the homework in its entirety (all three parts as prescribed: lines, ellipses and boxes) in the required medium/media. While I am happy to help out, it does take a lot of time, and I'd greatly appreciate it if the time is taken to fully read and digest the material.

Anyway, keep up the good work, and feel free to submit the whole thing once you've got your ellipses and boxes done.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-27 01:22

Really nice work! Your lines and ellipses sections are solid. You're executing your marks with a confident, persistent pace, which keeps them smooth and maintains even shapes, avoiding any wobbling or hesitation.

Your boxes section is also very well done, though I do have a couple things worth pointing out. Firstly, for the rough perspective boxes, it helps considerably to go over your completed work as described here to help identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Both the rotated boxes and organic perspective exercises are intentionally challenging. They're meant to challenge you to think differently about 3D space, and I have no expectation that students at this stage will really come anywhere near success. That said, your rotated boxes were genuinely well done. The organic perspective can certainly use some more work though, maintaining consistent angles and solid constructions - but we'll definitely get to that.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes and watch the video on that challenge page before starting the work.

Uncomfortable

2018-01-27 01:55

Very nice work! You're executing your lines smoothly with a confident, persistent stroke, and maintaining a consistent, even shape for your ellipses. You're definitely demonstrating a lot of patience and care as well - and you may almost be a little too hard on yourself as far as those little notes and corrections are concerned. It's good to be aware of your mistakes, but each exercise has its purpose, and fussing too much over yourself isn't always for the best. Of course, if it isn't harming your self confidence, then by all means - just don't push yourself to the point of burnout through self-deprecation.

Jumping ahead to your boxes, I caught in your plotted perspective boxes exercise that you got a little confused on this page (where you marked out "WTF"). The reason it feels weird is that your box is outside of the two vanishing points, so it's falling prey to a lot of heavy distortion. Your box is still technically correct, it just looks all whacked out.

Jumping ahead from there, solid work on your rough perspective and rotated boxes. Your organic perspective can certainly benefit from some more work but this is completely expected. Both the rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes were included here with the intent of being challenging and difficult, ultimately to get students to think a little differently about 3D space. Success is not really the goal here, so while you've got some issues with the consistency of your angles and the near/far plane size relationships in your boxes, that's totally normal.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes and watch the video on that challenge page before starting th ework.