Happy Birthday, /r/ArtFundamentals!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/comments/6u2j4b/happy_birthday_rartfundamentals/
2017-08-16 14:50
Uncomfortable
It was three years ago today (August 16th 2014) that I, on a whim, decided to scrawl together the beginnings of what developed into our current lesson 1 and created a new subreddit to serve as its home. I think that first day, a hundred eager students subscribed, which was pretty phenomenal in its own right.
As of yesterday, following a massive bump in traffic thanks to /u/yellowzealot mentioning us in reply to a post on /r/woahdude, then 6000+ new subscribers kicked us up to the top position, as far as art-education subreddits go. I'd actually been keeping an eye on /r/learnart (I find myself driven by a secret competitiveness), hoping that we could beat them to the big 50k, but had accepted just yesterday morning that it would not be possible. It turns out I was wrong, and I am intensely proud of that fact.
Now in the interest of continuing to grow the community, I'll have to find something new to quietly compete with. But for what it's worth, thank you all for working so hard through these lessons and keeping this community buzzing these last three years. I genuinely hope that it has been worth your time and sweat.
disies
2017-08-16 15:18
Congratulations on so many levels! Even though I'm taking a long break from the lessons, I'm very happy that I found this and I am proud of the progress I've made and will make in the future thanks to your help.. :)
alexvostrov
2017-08-16 16:10
Draw a box is awesome. I wasn't even aware of the constructionist approach before I found it.
Most art courses seem to sit you down and tell you to draw what you see. Observational drawing is great, but it never made sense to me as a system.
Finding your site inspired me to start daily art practice again. So far, this is the longest uninterrupted stretch of practice that I've done.
Uncomfortable
2017-08-16 16:21
I'm glad to hear that! I definitely felt the same way until I was taught this approach. They really don't cover it in as many schools as they should, and it was a bit of a pity that I had to go all the way across the continent for it.
godsanchez
2017-08-16 19:23
Yeah! Been looking for the right system to properly begin my journey, and Draw A Box hit the mark beautifully - THANK YOU.
As a small suggestion/request - I know you've been trying to distance yourself from your later, figure drawing lessons - but why not update them to your present standards? I'd love for Draw A Box to be my primary learning course throughout, and it might well scratch that competitive itch for ya, no?
Uncomfortable
2017-08-16 19:30
That was the plan for some time, but it was never really about the standards of presentation. I'm just not great at teaching that subject, so continuing to pursue that end would be a bit silly. It's better for students to look to other resources, like Stan Prokopenko's youtube channel rather than offering something I'm not confident in.
godsanchez
2017-08-16 21:25
Well darn - I'm forced to defer to you on that, of course. That being the case -
Is there a good outline that would tell us, for example, which of his lessons would flow naturally as curriculum after Draw A Box?
My ultimate goal being to have a clear path towards a solid foundation in the subject.
Uncomfortable
2017-08-16 21:38
Unfortunately I don't have any such outline or path, and ultimately it would depend on your own goals. Figure drawing certainly does make sense as the next thing to tackle, but additionally you may want to look at Ctrl+Paint if you're interested in moving into digital media.
As far as the path that I took goes, I took two terms at a school called Concept Design Academy. During the first term, I took a Dynamic Sketching course (where I learned the basis of what I teach in drawabox), and also took an Analytical Figure Drawing course. I felt this gave me a pretty good basis with which to tackle more intermediate topics. The next term I took an environment design/illustration course, which focused on digital illustration, as well as a course on Form Language which covered the principles of design. Form language is actually something I'd like to get into myself on drawabox, though I'm unsure of how I'll handle it, or when I'll start moving in that direction.
godsanchez
2017-08-16 21:47
Ah, thank you for this. This will be an interesting journey, and I'm again thankful that you're providing me those first few crucial steps.
My goals rest primarily with sketching mastery, with the hope of being able to capture most anything with a pad and pencil/pen/charcoal.
Beyond that, my ultimate goal would lie in the skill necessary to sketch and design (a la Scotts Roberson's "How To Draw"). Precise, well-shaded, realistic sketches have always been a passion of mine.
Dark_Ice_Blade_Ninja
2017-08-16 20:13
Regardless of how you feel about me or my art personally, your lesson has helped me in the past and the present. Even if you are too ashamed to call me your student, I will always think of you as my master. I am forever grateful and indebted to you.
Uncomfortable
2017-08-16 20:21
See, now that's perfectly appropriate for polite conversation! All I ask is that you ease up on the stuff that isn't, especially when tagging me in your messages.
On another note, I'm glad the lessons were able to help, and I hope they continue to do so.
aloneinthedork
2017-08-16 23:51
Congratulations! I wish I had found Draw A Box years ago, honestly. I've always been interested in drawing but the books and courses I tried only taught me how to copy. I could never find a method to it, so I "got lost" and kept dropping it time and again. I've only just started these lessons, but I really think this approach you teach is what I was missing all this time. So, thanks a lot!
bobstar
2017-08-17 00:25
Happy birthday! And thanks for being such an organised, sensible, and linear structure for my scatterbrain learning impulses.
[deleted]
2017-08-17 02:59
Thank you Uncomfortable. If it wasn't for you, I would probably never have started to learn how to draw. The critiques you give are incredibly helpful, especially for someone with absolutely no art knowledge.
dizzydizzy
2017-08-17 11:39
I had no interest in learning to draw, because drawing is for people with drawing talent.. Then I stumbled on this reddit from a link along the lines of learn to draw for programmers. And I still cant draw :) But I'm 1000 times better than I was 3 months ago. Am addicted, never would have guessed that at 48 years old I would suddenly start learning to draw after 30 years of hardcore games programming.
Learning to draw has literally opened my eyes to the world, we take what we see so for granted we dont actually study what we are looking at, its only when you have to put a bit of reality down on a 2d piece of paper that you realise all the tricks your brain is playing on you!
So thanks for all the hard work you put in.
And a request.
Post a video of you drawing with ink and paper, none of this cheating digital with undo, suffer like we do :) BTW I loved seeing your personal homework from your art course and your drawings over the years!
Uncomfortable
2017-08-17 14:13
Uuuunfortunately you won't see any such video any time soon! I simply don't have the hardware to record myself like that (although I imagine I'd be kind of rusty - but I've already done my suffering!) Though I'm very glad to hear that the lessons were able to open you up to so much.
dizzydizzy
2017-08-17 21:04
When I recorded my vid of drawing a box for the 250 box challenge I submitted I used a phone holder for car sat nav with the sucker stuck to my computer screen, it was a bit awkward but better than nothing.
On the good side of all this ink stress, when I tried doing some proko pencil assignments it suddenly seemed so much easier.
Turkopauto
2017-08-17 12:11
Happy birthday,
To many more years and boxes.
Uncomfortable
2017-08-17 14:13
Only a few more million boxes, and I will have the power to take over the world!
Loktor
2017-08-19 14:17
Congrats
as others have pointed out too, this is a great place to learn art, i always struggled with other approaches but your way of teaching really is understandable and sets clear goals which altough not always easy really help to get better
Uncomfortable
2017-08-16 16:20
Thanks! I look forward to you making your return.