Darkranger23 in the post "Trouble visualizing 3D has made this near-impossible. Now what?"
2023-06-24 18:25
Yes, I think I got caught up in my own realizations and forgot to address the specific issue at hand with more emphasis.
You may not be able to draw good boxes for a long time. You need to do hundreds and hundreds of boxes. Especially in perspective.
The fact that you can see that your boxes are incorrect is fantastic. I actually recommend switching ink colors and drawing corrections over some of the boxes you do wrong. Take note of the angle and length of your lines. Really observe them. Visualize how the box would change if you extended one line, or shortened another, what would that do to all the lines connected to that one?
The next step is to begin trying to see the lines of the box on the page before you put any lines down. Plan ahead, to an extent. Ask yourself, if I put this line down at this angle, what perspective will my box end up in? How long will it be compared to its width or height?
If youre struggling with the mark making itself, put a dot where you think the line should go, then visualize what the completed box will look like if you put that line down. Is the angle off? Should it be longer? Shorter? Place a new dot if necessary.
This is all just practice. Its not something youre going to sell or show off, so dont be afraid to play with it a bit.
Darkranger23 in the post "/r/ArtFundamentals (not Drawabox) will be shutting down permanently"
2023-06-23 19:47
Do users realize that the majority of mods use third-party apps to make the job of managing their subs far less time consuming?
Darkranger23 in the post "Trouble visualizing 3D has made this near-impossible. Now what?"
2023-06-22 20:51
I think Uncomfortable summed it up well. Im not going to try to repeat what he said.
Instead Ill give you a take from someone whos still on their journey through the course.
This stuff doesnt always make sense right away. After completing the 250 box challenge I realized that I really had only just begun to draw boxes.
Im doing another course at the same time, and when we went on to figure drawing I realized that everything is made of boxes!
Torsos, heads, limbs Yes, spheres for heads and cylinders for limbs may be more appropriate most of the time, but if you use boxes for the limbs you end up with a stiffer sturdier structure, say for more muscular characters, or robots.
The arrows exercise is another one that was fun but I was initially unable to see the bigger picture.
Then when I was drawing eyes I realized that the eyelid surface closest to the eye is actually an arrow. Its also a great way to create elongated deformed cubes. If you think of the arrow as one of the planes of an elongated cube, all you do is extend the side planes and close it off. Boom, deformed cube. Took me months to figure that out.
Anyway, 6 months ago I was where youre at now. After drawing and using intentional observation for 6 months, I see things I couldnt see before.
Darkranger23 in the post "Doing texture exercises, would it be cheating to sketch out the texture in pencil first? Im finding it challenging to draw in details without mapping out the biggest shapes/shadows"
2022-06-29 13:51
I guess the questions only you can answer then are:
Is the reason you feel the need to sketch it out first because you are struggling to recognize the shape of the cast shadow before putting it on paper?
Is it because you aren't taking long enough to study your reference before placing a mark?
Is it because you are placing too many marks before studying your reference again?
The other half of this exercise is learning how to study a reference properly. If you find yourself needing to correct misplaced lines, then it's likely because of one of the reasons above. If that is the reason, then I would recommend not sketching first, because sketching will hide your bad study habits rather than helping improve them.
As others have said. There's no cheating in traditional art. But you are not making art with this exercise. You are developing two important skills through exercise.
Everything you do in an exercise should be in service to developing the skills that exercise is intended to develop. Not to making pretty pictures.
Edit: I would also make a note that if you are going the feedback route, then sketching is expressly not allowed.
Darkranger23 in the post "Doing texture exercises, would it be cheating to sketch out the texture in pencil first? Im finding it challenging to draw in details without mapping out the biggest shapes/shadows"
2022-06-29 03:48
It's not that it's cheating to redo the rotated boxes exercise. It's that the point of the exercise isn't to do a good job rotating boxes. But to start learning how to think in 3 dimensions.
Similarly, the texture analysis exercise isn't about drawing good textures. It's about learning how to recognize and recreate cast shadows.
Darkranger23 in the post "Trouble visualizing 3D has made this near-impossible. Now what?"
2023-06-24 18:47
Does your existing art suffer because of your struggle with boxes? Or are you only struggling because youre drawing random boxes in a blank page?