boxstudent in the post "Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-06-17 10:27
Hi Uncomfortable, long time no posting from me. I hope you're doing well!
This is my submission for Lesson 4: https://imgur.com/a/RzUwlhQ
This lesson was very interesting, but challenging. I've drawn a lot more insects than I'm submitting and most of them were really, really terrible attempts. (I learned a lot from them, but they are better left unseen.) What I'm submitting is not that great, either, but I've gotten to the point where it feels like I'm drawing 3D shapes instead of just lines on a flat surface... so here I am.
I struggled a lot with drawing shadows under the insects. I think it was because, in the beginning, I was not grasping the 3-dimensionality of the forms very well. By the end of the set, I've gotten slightly better at it, I think, but any advice would be really welcome. I tried looking at reference pictures with well-defined shadows and I tried imagining the light source and how the shadow would be projected. Are there any other tricks to drawing convincing shadows or is it just a matter of more practice? (Also, I know I shouldn't fill in the shadows. I just couldn't help myself in some cases, because the contours turned up so badly that I felt the need to "cover it up".)
Another issue I had: I can't figure out how to handle the sausage intersection for leg segments when the angle between segments is less than 90 degrees - like the front legs of the top-left bug in this drawing, or the back leg of this praying mantis. Any advice on that?
Finally, some of my drawings were done on A3 paper and my scanner can only fit A4 sheets... so I had to paste the two scanned halves together digitally and it shows. If that's not cool, I'll switch to taking pictures next time (although the image quality might be slightly worse.)
As always, thank you for taking the time to critique my submission!
boxstudent in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2019-02-01 00:09
I didn't realize that you were still pledged to the $5 tier (and therefore not eligible for the lesson 3 critique) until after I finished writing it out. Since it's written and all, I'm not going to go and delete it, so here it is - I hope you'll go and adjust your pledge to the correct amount (and I hope you're able to in the next few hours, since it's the last day of the month).
I've upgraded my pledge tier, hopefully in time. I'm terribly sorry about that, I'd somehow misunderstood your announcement about the new tiers and thought I had until the end of February before needing to upgrade. Hope I didn't cause you too much trouble.
As always, thank you for your critique! I'm pretty excited about Lesson 4. :)
boxstudent in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2019-01-31 17:50
Hey Uncomfortable, here is my homework for Lesson 3: https://imgur.com/a/hXcgy7d
I also wanted to say, the site overhaul is fantastic! It's what motivated me to finish Lesson 3, after a half-year long period of procrastinating on it.
Thanks in advance for your critique!
boxstudent in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"
2018-05-15 21:21
Thank you so much, your feedback helps me a lot, as usual! I'll be sure to practice with cylinders in boxes from now on, too.
boxstudent in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"
2018-05-15 18:29
So, um... hi again! I'm reposting this under the correct account. :)
Hey Uncomfortable! 250-cylinder challenge, finally done...
I'm not really happy with how most of it turned out--too stiff and hesitant in the beginning, then too sloppy as I was trying to counter the stiffness. Well, at least, my confidence and speed of drawing cylinders definitely improved by the last couple of pages and I feel that I can get better at it with more practice.
This is my dedicated Reddit account for Drawabox, I just mixed it up with my usual account... I'll remove the initial submission now that I've reposted it under the correct account. I feel so silly about this mixup, sorry for the trouble!
boxstudent in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"
2018-05-05 09:31
Thank you for your suggestions, I'll definitely take them into account from now on. Your kind words, too--they do wonders for my self-confidence! :) I've come to realize that in order to draw, having a positive mind-set is essential. So I'll try to work on that too, just as I work on my technique.
boxstudent in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"
2018-05-04 12:29
Hi Uncomfortable. It's been so long since my last post, but I finally made it through lesson 2. (I am also almost done with the cylinder challange, which I'll be posting in the appropriate thread soon... I hope).
Part 1 - https://imgur.com/a/6WFF475
Part 2 - https://imgur.com/a/JAw4FWH
Part 3 - https://imgur.com/a/lXlPFsM
To be honest, the last 5 months I struggled a lot with my motivation and discipline in regards to drawing. Lesson 2 was harder than I expected. I kept finding excuses to postpone drawing, always telling myself that I would do it tomorrow. Each time I postponed made it harder to get back to it. Before I knew it, the whole month of February had passed without me touching my drawing pens even once! I finally picked them up again in March and it felt like I was back to square one, but I didn't let myself think too much and just drew one crappy page after another.
Well, in the end, it worked out somehow. Things that used to give me trouble finally started to click.
There are still many aspects of my work that I'm not satisfied with, but I am forcing myself to submit it or else I would probably take another month and I feel I really need to move on now.
The most important things I learned from lesson 2 are not at all related to my drawing technique (which still has a long way to go). When I started Drawabox last year, I read your words about tenacity in the face of failure and I thought, "all right, I can do this! Forewarned is forearmed and all that. I won't let failure stop me!" It turns out, I was in fact over-estimating myself. Lesson 2 taught me that the hard way.
I'm not very good at articulating my point here... How should I put it? I don't enjoy failing, again and again (who does?). But, lesson 2 taught me to enjoy the process of failing, if that makes sense. In the begining, every unsuccessful attempt at a dissection or form intersection used to bring me down. However, lately, I have been feeling satisfied with simply filling up a page, no matter how bad it turns out, because now I know that at the end of a very long string of crappy pages things will finally start to make sense.
Anyway, sorry for rambling so much.
Thank you and, as always, I'm looking forward to your critique (well actually, to be honest... I'm a bit nervous, haha.)
boxstudent in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2017-11-11 01:24
Thank you for the encouraging words and for replying so quickly! Have a great weekend!
boxstudent in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2017-11-10 21:16
Whew... it's done: https://imgur.com/a/IK4Cl
Well, it's not called a "challenge" for nothing! I was losing my motivation quite badly around number 180. But then I went and re-read your article on the subject and hammered away. :)
Drawing the boxes themselves was fun, but corrections took me a lot of time and started feeling like a chore as I advanced. I might have made a bit of a mess when correcting some of the boxes, too. In some cases, after spotting which lines were off I tried to redraw them, but then the other lines didn't fit, so I corrected those too... until I got a whole new box inside (or around) the original one!
But doing the corrections paid off, I think. I tried to make them for every 1-2 completed pages and I feel this helped me with the next set of boxes.
At the end, I also tried my hand at the advanced exercise. The first two attempts are quite a mess, but I am satisfied with how the last one turned out, for now.
boxstudent in the post "Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-06-18 01:06
A lot of valuable feedback here, which I'll have to ponder more carefully when it's not quite so late in my time zone. But I just wanted to say, having confirmation that I'm on the right track does wonders for my motivation. Thank you for another great critique!