ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Uncomfy's dropped a new video: Overcoming the Fear of a Blank Page"
2020-12-01 00:02
I love this and I love shifty fishman.
I've been struggling to push past that inertia and actually do more than a couple of lines since finishing up a course mid-November. I probably need to pick this up again and just draw ugly stuff. The most involved thing I've done since then is try to draw myself as a wizard because I have weird aspirations of completing most of the past drawing prompts on the Discord server. :P
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Unfortunate Delays to the Drawabox Community Platform, and a short pause on Lesson 2-7 Critiques"
2019-12-28 12:33
Look after yourself, boss.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "After being out of stock for almost a month, we're back with more Drawabox Pens!"
2019-11-23 11:46
I believe the per-unit pricing on the pack of 20 comes out reasonably well for us but there are heaps of fineliner options in Australia. Personally, I use the Copic Multiliners which are about $5 each at Officeworks. You can also buy the refillable multiliners (SP) for an initial $15-20 then the nibs and cartridges are about $3 each.
These guys also have some fantastic options, including being one of the cheapest places to buy the Multiliner SP and their customer service is second to none. I've had them call me to make sure it's okay to split my order up because some of my stuff would be delayed by a day or two and once they sent me the wrong ink cartridge and just sent a new one free of charge.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "New? Lost? Read this intro to /r/ArtFundamentals and Drawabox.com before you post anything"
2019-08-09 03:57
Sadly that makes a second place to post and update them every time a thread ages out. They're up for I think 3 months before Reddit automatically archives them.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-08-06 05:17
Those last couple of pages are getting closer! Make sure you continue practicing your boxes and trying to push that understanding of how your lines relate to one another. Feel free to move onto lesson 2 now.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-08-04 10:33
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to update your flair and check on this.
First off, well done slogging through. 250 boxes is by no means a small task and I can see significant improvements in your line confidence as well as your estimation of perspective, though there is a ways to go yet.
Your boxes start off with very thick, unconfident lines but this definitely starts to improve as early as box 30. By the end, I can see lines that are made with far less pressure applied. I do see quite a few instances of lines being redrawn throughout your box challenge and this is particularly distracting on the interior lines of your box as this has the effect of thickening those lines and somewhat breaking the illusion of solidity that you're building by adding line weight to the silhouettes. When we make a mistake in ink, we must learn to live with what that means for the rest of our drawing and work with it, because it's very difficult to hide a mistake in ink without drawing more attention to it. You may need to spend more time planning your lines as I can particularly see a lack of planning and sometimes rushing in your hatching.
In terms of your convergences, you start off with some pretty extreme divergence and lines converging in pairs. These issues are still quite present by the end but the divergence particularly has become more subtle. Often times a student considers how the line they're drawing relates to others on the page, whether it's those that share a plane or a corner. What they should be focusing on is how the angles of those lines that share a vanishing point relate to one another. You'll note that the two lines in the middle (top left and bottom right of the box) are very similar in their angle, so as to be almost parallel. This is an important distinction to make as the rates at which the other two lines converge will be steeper than those in the middle.
Before you move onto lesson 2, I would like to see 20 more boxes. Ensure that you plan and execute your lines confidently and consider the angles of those lines and how they relate to one another - both those already drawn and those yet to be drawn.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-08-03 11:35
Hi there, I'm one of /u/Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to update your flair and check on this so let's get started.
When you said that you'd only submitted 2 weeks ago, I was a bit skeptical but looking at your submission, you do seem to have done a really good job of planning your lines out and thinking about what you're doing here.
Over the course of your box challenge, there are significant improvements in your line confidence, application of line weight, and of course, convergences. There's a good mix of exaggerated and subtle foreshortening and boxes of all different shapes and sizes here, which is also fantastic to see.
You seemed to hit your stride somewhere around box 200, where your boxes look consistently pretty good to the naked eye. There's a few little issues here and there where your lines are diverging or converging in pairs, even in the last few boxes but I do think you're starting to understand how the angles of your lines relate to one another.
Overall you've made some really solid progress across your box challenge on a number of fronts and it's clear that despite only taking 2 weeks to complete, you have not rushed and have made an effort to understand what your extension lines were telling you. Keep up the good work, continue working on getting those convergences consistent, and feel free to move onto lesson 2.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-27 22:56
These are improving! Continue to practice your boxes in warm ups using this method as you move forward. You may now move onto lesson 2.
/u/Uncomfortable
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-27 22:53
These are looking a little better but they're still quite lumpy. Are you able to show me the new page where you found a better flow?
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-26 23:59
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to update your flair and check on this.
Good job pushing through the box challenge. I see lots of notes on your pages which definitely suggests you spent some time thinking about what you were doing in the month you spent in the box mines. The biggest thing that stands out to me about your submission is the variety of rotations and dimensions of your boxes, this is really great to see.
I see a lot of reinforcing of inner lines throughout the set, make sure you're only reinforcing the silhouette of the box since this is what will lend it solidity. There's also some issues with line confidence throughout the set, particularly with application of line weight. We want to make sure our line weight is applied with the same confidence we draw our lines with otherwise we get those kind of weird fuzzy-bumpy bits on our boxes.
You definitely struggled with applying the check lines in the beginning though I did see a note around box 60 where you realised this mistake. In terms of your convergences, there is some improvement however you are still falling into some common mistakes even towards the end with some of your parallel lines converging in pairs or even two pairs diverging away from each other. This suggests to me that you need to shift your thinking more towards what the angles of your lines are supposed to be doing. What this means is considering how each of your lines relates to others it shares a vanishing point with - including those not already drawn and how those angles relate to each other as they converge towards the vanishing point. This diagram demonstrates the point quite clearly and you'll notice that the pair of lines in the middle of the box are very similar in angle so as to be almost parallel.
Before I mark this challenge as complete, I would like to see 15 more boxes drawn with what I've just told you in mind. Try to draw them big and confidently, because this will help you think about the angles a little more.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-26 23:37
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to update your flair and check on this.
Your work all the way through is pretty solid here and the line confidence is on point. Early on there's signs of reinforcing internal lines but you seem to have picked up on this and towards the end, line weight is only applied to the silhouette of the box and quite confidently at that.
Your estimation of perspective improves in subtle ways over the set though there's still signs of your lines converging in pairs in some cases. There's also some instances where it's clear little mistakes have compounded on the final lines of your box. I think you're very close to solving this issue on your own however allow me to give you a little push in the form of a diagram. Note how the pair of lines that converge in the middle are very close in angle and very close to being parallel? Once you place down one of these lines, the other is very quickly able to be estimated due to their similarity. Once you've got two down, it then becomes easier to think about the remaining lines.
Overall, you've done a great job and it's great to see such smooth confident lines all the way through. There are some subtle lingering issues that you should be able to iron out during your warm ups. As such, I'm happy to mark this challenge as complete and ask you to move onto lesson 2.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-26 23:21
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along to check on this later.
Welcome back to Drawabox. I did a brief scroll through your old work and compared it to your new and you've definitely improved a bit since then.
Let's start with your lines. Your superimposed lines are looking nice and confident and they're very well grouped together. Your ghosted lines and planes are also looking pretty good too, nice and smooth and fairly accurate in most cases. One word of advice I have for you is to try and make the dots you use as guides slightly smaller. We want that dot to fade into the line, not be an obvious feature of it.
Onto your ellipses and these are looking pretty smooth though they feel a little stiff, which suggests you're not entirely comfortable with the way you need to move your arm to execute these yet. I did also notice that you're drawing through them quite a few times, which is probably contributing to the stiffness, try to only draw through them 2-3 times. The alignment on the ellipses of your funnels are pretty good, with only a few little tilts off the minor axis here and there.
Your rough perspective is, I would say, more confident than your original submission, but somewhat less accurate. You've made a clear attempt to keep the front faces of the boxes perpendicular but struggled a little to carry that through to the rear faces. The second page is definitely an improvement in both keeping the rear faces perpendicular and the accuracy of your convergences.
Whilst Uncomfortable did not mention in his original critique that the gaps between the boxes in your rotated boxes exercise are its biggest weakness, it seems like you've picked up and corrected this yourself since your new submission keeps these gaps consistent for the most part and even manages a little bit of rotation. You didn't quite nail the full rotation but it's a definite improvement over your first submission.
Finally, I'm really liking the compositions you've created on your organic perspective. The experiments with scale are fantastic, the boxes definitely look like they're coming at me and convey the 3D space nicely. The boxes themselves are coming along well though there's a few hints of diverging lines here and there.
Overall your work here is a definite improvement on your previous submission. You still need to work on your confidence with drawing ellipss and moving forward, trying to bring those dots down in size to make them disappear into your lines more. I'm happy to mark this lesson as complete once again and ask you to move onto the 250 box challenge.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-26 22:54
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to check on this and update your flair.
Starting off with your superimposed lines and there's minimal wobble here and your lines are grouped nicely on one end, which is good to see. I did notice that you only seem to have gone over the lines 3 or 4 times. Make sure you read and follow the instructions closely.
Your ghosted lines and planes are looking pretty straight and confident though I can see signs of hesitation as you approach the end point, suggesting you are focusing too much on accuracy. We want to focus first and foremost on flow at this point and accuracy will come with time and considerable mileage as you get used to the exact pace you need to execute a straight line every time.
Onto your ellipses and it seems like you struggled to execute your ellipses confidently here. There are a lot of wobbles and while drawing through your ellipses has smoothed this out a little, it's still clearly present. A lot of students struggle here because we're asking them to move their shoulder in different ways to how we did previously. Again, I think there's a preoccupation with accuracy here that is causing you to lose confidence. The alignment of your ellipses on your funnels is actually quite well done with only a few straying from the minor axis line.
Your rough perspective is looking quite good here (though again, line confidence). Your front and rear faces are nicely perpendicular and your estimation of perspective is not too far off the mark. Onto your rotated boxes and you've made a pretty solid effort at this one. The gaps between the boxes are nice and consistent for the most part and you've managed to get quite a bit of rotation. The outermost boxes aren't quite rotated enough but overall it's a good effort.
Finally your organic perspective. I definitely feel the second page is a bit more solid than the first as you've experimented more with scale and rotation, which has in turn made your compositions more interesting. The boxes themselves are showing a few signs of common pitfalls including far planes that are larger than near ones.
One of the big issues that I have seen throughout your work is a focus on accuracy over flow and the effect that has on your linework. Before I mark this one as complete and ask you to move onto the 250 box challenge, I would like to see another page of the ellipses in planes with a particular focus on getting your lines and ellipses nice and smooth.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-26 06:33
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to check this and update your flair, so let's get started.
Starting off with your superimposed lines and these are looking pretty good. You're taking your time to line up your pen at the start of the line and for the most part, executing with confidence. That said I do see some wobbles of uncertainty here and there where you've realised you've gone off course and you're trying to course correct. Even when things go off course, make sure you continue to execute with confidence. This seems to be something you worked out for yourself since your ghosted lines and planes are much straighter and more confident.
Your ellipses are looking good for the most part though there are a few stragglers where you've executed with less confidence or your brain has taken over partway through the executed motion. Your ellipses in planes demonstrate far less of this and are quite well done but the issue does rear its head again in the funnels. On your funnels, you have not executed with as much confidence as you should have. Additionally, you have several instances where the minor axis is not cutting the ellipse down its centre.
Onto your boxes and you've actually done a really solid job here of the rough perspective. Your lines are reasonably straight and the front/rear faces are for the most part perpendicular. Your estimation of perspective here is pretty good too and where it strays, it does so in expected ways. You've taken a good crack at the rotated boxes and kept the gaps between your boxes nice and tight to give those little contextual hints about the next box you draw. You haven't quite nailed the full range of rotation here but that's okay, we don't expect that at this point.
Finally, your organic perspective is coming along nicely. I particularly like composition number 3. There's something really dynamic about how you've laid out your boxes and experimented with scale here. The boxes themselves could use some work as there are some common pitfalls present here like diverging lines and far planes that are larger than near ones, but that's exactly why we assign the 250 box challenge after lesson 1.
Overall, your work is coming along nicely. Particular areas of focus for you would be to work on funnels and aligning your ellipses as well as your confidence in executing both your lines and ellipses. I'm happy to mark this lesson as complete, please feel free to move onto the 250 box challenge.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-25 06:53
Hey there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to check on this and give you a flair.
While I can't comment much on the quality of the lines of your early boxes (the red is a bit overpowering), I can see instances where you've redrawn lines to correct mistakes. I want to strongly discourage doing this as in some cases here it has popped the backs of your boxes forward and made them look quite off. You only want to be applying line weight to the silhouette of the box and correcting your mistakes often results in a heavier line weight.
Your convergences definitely improve over the set though the biggest issue I'm still seeing with these is that many of your parallel lines will converge as pairs. Particularly lines that share a plane. This is suggestive of considering only the lines that you are drawing at that moment and not the others that are already drawn or yet to come. You may wish to consider how the angles of the lines relate to each other between planes. There is a more acute angle between the lines that sit at the middle of the box than the ones on the outside. This is a good relationship to keep in mind as it will allow you to draw these lines more parallel to each other and will flow onto the other other lines that share the vanishing point. Just as mistakes will compound onto those rear lines, so too will good decisions about the angles and placements of your lines. Check out this diagram to see what I mean about the middle lines.
Overall you've made some good improvement. You should focus on getting those pairs of lines in sync and being mindful that you do not reinforce your lines with a kneejerk correction to a perceived mistake. I'm going to mark this one as complete, please feel free to move onto lesson 2.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-25 06:37
Hello Kira, Box Duchess Squiggaloo reporting in. Our Box Overlord shall be by later to present you with your shiny new flair but first, boxes.
You start off pretty strongly. Your lines are nice and straight though your line weight is pretty scratchy. This certainly improved as you got further through though make sure you're only reinforcing the silhouette of the box and doing it in one confident stroke like you're doing superimposed lines. Better to miss the mark than to wobble the whole way along. It was good however to see you apply line weight and hatching to every single one of your boxes since it's good free mileage out of the exercise.
Your convergences definitely improved over the set and while there's no more really obvious errors like lines shooting off away from their vanishing point (except 249, but we don't invite him to the box reunions anymore), there's still some inaccuracies and lines converging in pairs. The former is a symptom of being human and needing more practice, the latter is related to how you think about your boxes when you draw them. You may have seen a common recommendation in our critiques that students consider the angles of their lines, how they relate to other parallel lines drawn and those yet to be drawn as well. The vanishing point is a consideration in there as well, but only in so far as how the angle of our lines relate to that imaginary point. Check out these notes for a more visual representation of what I'm talking about.
Overall, you've made a solid improvement with your lines and your convergences. There's work still yet to be done but there always is. Make sure you try drawing a few boxes with the mental shift I suggested, and draw them big, because there's no better way to engage your shoulder than to draw big. I'm happy to mark this one as complete. You may move onto lesson 2.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-25 06:22
Hey there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to check on this and give you your flair so let's get into it.
Your superimposed lines are looking great. Really smooth and confident, even on the curves. Your fraying is confined to only one end of the line, which is excellent to see. Likewise your ghosted lines and planes are strong, with very few signs of arcing. Your line section is extremely well done overall.
Onto your ellipses and it's good to see you drawing through these in every instance and they generally sit nice and tight to the ellipse. Your ellipses in planes are quite accurate but you have not sacrificed your flow for this - exactly what we like to see. Your funnels are pretty good overall though there are a few alignment errors in some of your ellipses, and it definitely feels like you were drawing with a little more uncertainty here.
The box you pointed out on your plotted perspective with the word "Distorted?" is in fact distorted due to its proximity to the vanishing point. These notes explain the reason for this quite well, if you're interested. Your rough perspective is looking pretty good overall though there's a definite dip in line quality here as you were thinking through the problem in front of you. The convergences are rather off but they follow the usual patterns we see when people misjudge perspective, particularly the boxes that are further from the vanishing point, being the most inaccurate.
The rotated boxes are quite well done and you've even managed a good degree of rotation here. The diagonal boxes have misdrawn lines in their rear planes, which makes them appear distorted. You've managed to keep your gaps nice and tight too, which is good to see and it has clearly helped you rotate your boxes. Finally, your organic perspective, you've got a good range of sizes and rotations. The boxes of themselves could definitely use work as they're falling into some common pitfalls such as distortion and having far planes larger than near ones.
Overall, you've done some great work here and your confidence in the first two sections is something you should strive to apply to everything you draw for Drawabox from hereon out. I'm happy to mark this lesson as complete and ask you to move onto the 250 box challenge.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-23 08:37
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to check this and update your flair.
First off, well done for slogging through, 4 months is certainly a marathon! From the start, your linework was solid - confident, straight, and accurate. By the end, it's just as solid but it looks like you're managing the pressure you use far better.
Your estimation of perspective does improve over the course of your boxes though certain mistakes plague them all the way through. Namely the back lines of the boxes shooting off in other directions and in cases where this doesn't happen, the lines converging in pairs. The first is usually the result of little mistakes from the near planes of the boxes compounding to create more dramatic errors in the far planes. The latter is the result of something a little more tricky and indicates a need for a little shift in your thinking when drawing these boxes.
Often, students are inclined to think about their boxes in terms of where the vanishing point is, or how the planes of their box should look. The better way to think about this is to consider how the angles of each line that shares a vanishing point (parallel lines) change and compare to each other as they approach the vanishing point - including those parallel lines yet to be drawn. This idea is best demonstrated in this diagram.
Overall your estimation of perspective had improved and your pressure control has definitely improved. That said, I would like you to draw 20 more boxes and trying to implement the method above, since I feel you probably need that last little piece to push your boxes to the next level. When you're done, feel free to post them as a reply to this comment and I'll review them.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-21 21:31
Hey there, Mr Crayon. Look at that, I did get your submission after all. You know the drill, Uncomfortable will be along later to give you your flair and all that good stuff, so let's look at some boxes.
3 months is a hell of a slog and congratulations on pushing through. Hopefully you learned a lot from the experience and your understanding of 3D space has improved. Your boxes honestly start off pretty strong with nice confident line work and only minimal problems with the application of line weight. There's issues with diverging lines and lines converging in pairs as happens with all students as they grapple with how to think about what the boxes they're drawing should be doing.
Around box 100 though, some of these issues start to become a little less apparent. As we progress through the set, I feel there's some deterioration in your initially solid linework and you start to get a little more inaccurate with landing your lines. Almost as if you got a bit sloppy as you saw the end point in sight. :)
Even at the end of the set, you're still displaying a few of those little issues I mentioned above. Particularly the one where your parallel lines converge in pairs. It's possible you're thinking about the vanishing point too much or considering the plane you're drawing but what we want to think about is the angles at which our lines converge and the way those lines relate to on another and the vanishing point. Please refer to the holy TA text for a visual representation of this.
Overall, I think you've made some solid improvement over the set but got a little sloppy towards the end with your line work. There's still work to be done with your convergences as mentioned but I know that you plan to work on this in warm ups so feel free to draw 250 more boxes move onto lesson 2 and consider this challenge marked as complete.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-20 23:25
Hi Borja/Kerith! Welcome to Drawabox, I saw you on the Discord. I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs and I'll be looking over your work today. The man himself will be along later to check on your work and update your flair.
Let's start with your superimposed lines. These are looking really good and confident and I'm glad to see you're lining your pen up with the starting point before you execute. The ghosted lines and planes are also looking pretty solid though I see a few little wobbles particularly in the planes - possibly a result of focusing a little too much on accuracy here.
Onto your ellipses and these are looking pretty good for the most part with only a few lumps and bumps. You mention accuracy in your post however this tends to be something that develops in time and I wouldn't suggest favouring it over the flow/smooth shape of your ellipses. I can see little signs of this preoccupation in the ellipses in planes, though for the most part they're pretty good and accurate on the ones that don't sacrifice flow for accuracy. On your funnels, I can definitely see you struggling a little to align your ellipses to the minor axis. Make sure you're using a ruler to draw the minor axis on these because it's a difficult enough exercise without the added difficulty of a wonky minor axis. That said, there are a few instances where you've nailed it there.
Onto the boxes and I notice you've missed a page of plotted perspective here but I'm going to let it slide because you've clearly grasped the concept on your following exercises. Make sure you go back and do a page count before you submit to ensure you haven't missed anything. Your rough perspective shows a few signs in the line quality of getting a little overwhelmed but for the most part, you've kept your lines perpendicular and your estimation of perspective is not too far off the mark.
Good job pushing through on the rotated boxes. It's good to see that you tried different things on each quadrant to try and achieve what you needed to. The second attempt is a definite improvement in terms of rotation though the gaps are very inconsistent. You've kept the gaps between boxes most consistent on the inner layers on the first but I can tell you lost track of things as you noted in your post. Being able to distinguish the relevant information amongst the noise is an important artistic skill and the reason why a beginner might get overwhelmed if you told them to draw a realistic tree. Can't see the forest for the trees... or the tree for the leaves, as it were. It's a challenge so we need to meet that head on and not shy away from things that get complex and confusing.
Finally, your organic perspective has some interesting compositions and the experiments in scale are working well. Your boxes definitely need some work with some of your far planes being larger than near planes... but that's why we put people through the 250 box challenge.
Overall, I think you've done some really solid work though you definitely need to work on those feelings of being overwhelmed when looking at complexity. I'm happy to mark this one as complete, feel free to move onto the 250 box challenge.
P.S. I noticed a cat drawing (it's adorable). If that's your cat, I require you to pay the cat tax in the Discord Patreon channel. ;)
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-20 23:02
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to check this and give you a flair.
Starting off with your lines section and your superimposed lines are looking pretty good. You're taking the time to line up your pen and then executing with confidence. Your ghosted lines and planes are also looking pretty solid and it's clear your focus is more on flow than accuracy, which is what we like to see.
Onto your ellipses and it looks like you struggled a little here with some of your ellipses looking a little lumpy in places, possibly due to overthinking the movement when you came to execute it. This is a pretty normal reaction to this exercise since it feels much weirder to draw ellipses with your shoulder than any of the lines. :) Your ellipses definitely improved once you started trying to fit them inside the planes and it's good to see the focus returned to flow here. The funnels are also looking pretty good, with only a few minor alignment issues.
Looking at your rough perspective boxes now and I can definitely see you've struggled a little here. You seem to grasp that the lines of the front and rear faces of the boxes need to be perpendicular, but it does seem to be an execution issue in this case possibly due to being overwhelmed and starting to guess where the next line needs to be placed.
Good job on completing the rotated boxes. You've done pretty well at keeping the gaps between the boxes consistent however I can tell you were very clearly overwhelmed here as well as your line quality definitely suffers. Make sure that you're thinking through every line you put down and consider what it's adding to the overall drawing. In your organic perspective, your line quality definitely picks up again. Your compositions are really interesting and the experiments with scale, while subtle, definitely work well. There's a few issues with the boxes themselves including diverging lines and near planes being smaller than far planes.
Overall, you've done some good work here but you do seem to let new tasks overwhelm you a little. Remember that these are exercises, think through your lines, and just breathe. Feel free to move onwards to the 250 box challenge and consider this lesson marked as complete.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-20 22:47
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to give you your flair so let's get started.
Starting off with your superimposed lines and these are looking okay. The second page is a definite improvement over the first however I can see some fraying on both ends in some cases so make sure you take the time to line up your pen before you execute. Your ghosted lines and planes are displaying a little bit of arcing which is completely natural at this stage, it's just something we need to learn to consciously counteract when we're drawing.
Onto your ellipses and you've actually done a really solid job of keeping these consistently shaped, even when constrained to a plane. There's a few issues with your second and third passes not sitting tightly with the ellipse but again, this is something that will come with practice and even over the set of images, does seem to have improved. Your funnels are also looking really good with only one or two misalignments of the ellipses.
Your rough perspective is looking really solid and there's a definite jump in your line quality at this point. There's still the occasional hiccup where you redraw a line as a kneejerk reaction but overall it as improved. The fronts of your boxes are definitely displaying the perpendicular nature we're after though the backs of the boxes not so much. That said, your estimation of perspective here is not too far off the mark for a beginner. Onto your rotated boxes and although you've not managed the full rotation of boxes, you've taken a really good crack at it, which is all that we ask. The gaps between your boxes are nice and consistent for the most part, which helps place the next box, but there are some gaps on the back plane where you've missed that opportunity, particularly on the far outer layer.
Finally, your organic perspective is looking really quite solid. You've got some interesting compositions and you've experimented well with scale. The boxes themselves need a little work with diverging lines and far planes larger than the near ones but this is a great place to start for the 250 box challenge, because it gives you something to work on.
Overall you've done some pretty solid work. There's inaccuracies in your line work here and there but it's definitely something that will come with mileage. I'm happy to mark this one as complete and ask you to move onto the 250 box challenge.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-19 23:08
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to assign your flair.
First off, well done for pushing through the 250 box challenge. I think you had some good improvement over the course of the set but there's definitely room for more and hopefully my crit will help with that.
You start off with boxes that are really small and cramped and I'm glad to see you did start making them slightly bigger - though you could have stood to have made them even bigger. Drawing big is definitely encouraged in Drawabox as it gives you more space to think through the spacial problems you're tackling. It's also good to see consistently applied line weight and hatching for that extra practice and certainly you improve over the set in terms of subtlety and confidence.
At the end of the set, I'm still seeing quite a few issues with lines of your boxes converging in pairs or small mistakes in the front faces compounding to send those back lines shearing off in a random direction. This is usually a result of the student not thinking about how the angles of the lines are affected as they converge towards their shared vanishing point and what the angles of those lines yet to be drawn will look like. When a box is drawing correctly, the two middle lines of a given set will usually have a fairly small angle between them - the smaller the angle, the closer to parallel these lines are going to be running, especially once they reach the box itself. This idea is explained further in these notes.
Overall, I think you've done a pretty good job and made some good improvements across the board but there is work still to be done to bring those lines under your control. I'm going to mark the challenge as complete and invite you to move onto lesson 2 however I strongly encourage you to continue to incorporate boxes into your warm up to try and push that understanding of how the angles of the lines relate to one another in 3D space.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-13 23:25
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. Let's get started.
Firstly, congratulations on finishing the slog through 250 boxes. Secondly, thanks for picking up on the fact you hadn't followed the instructions correctly up until that 100 box mark. In future, make sure you read the lesson section in its entirety before you dive in, otherwise you miss important points that make the lesson that much more valuable.
Your boxes start off pretty rough with chicken scratching and significant wobbles. This definitely improves after the 100 box mark where it seems like you started putting more planning and care into each line of your box. I was also glad to see that you picked up on scribbling your hatching at around 150 and your entire set shows considerable growth not only in confidence but in mindset.
In terms of convergences, I definitely see improvement here across the board though even towards the end, you're still falling into the trap of having your parallel lines converge in pairs or having the final back line of the box shear off in another direction due to the previous mistakes compounding. Usually this kind of thing is caused by thinking about how the line they're drawing is going to relate to others on the page, the lines that share a corner with the one they're drawing, or the lines which define the plane. Rather, we should be thinking about the lines that run parallel to the one we're drawing (and those yet to be drawn) and think about how they all converge at a similar angle towards a shared vanishing point. This idea is explained in these notes.
Overall, I think you've learnt quite a bit from this exercise and I hope it has been valuable to you. Again, in future, make sure you look before you leap so you don't miss anything. Keep practicing your boxes with what I've mentioned above in mind and please feel free to move onto lesson 2.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-13 23:01
I'm so sorry I missed this! My day job has been hectic this week. These are looking quite good though there are occasional instances of lines converging in pairs still.
This is usually due to when a student draws a line, they try and think about how the line they're drawing is going to relate to the others on the page. Many will try and think about the lines that share a corner with the one they're drawing, and others will think about the lines with which this one defines a plane. Both these cases are incorrect. Instead, think about the lines that run parallel to the one you're drawing (and those yet to be drawn) and think about how they all converge at a similar angle towards a shared vanishing point. This idea is explained in these notes.
I'm happy for you to move onto lesson 2 now though please remember to follow the instructions to the letter in order to get as much as possible out of the exercises. Sorry once again for the delay.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-09 08:30
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to update your flair so let's get started.
First up is your lines section and this is pretty solid across the board. Your superimposed lines are nice and confident with minimal wavering and nicely grouped together. This confidence flows through to your ghosted lines though I do see a few little wavers as you approach the end of your line, which is occasionally present in the ghosted planes as well. This is suggestive of a focus on accuracy which tends to make your brain take over at the last minute.
Onto your ellipses and these start off a little more shaky and unsure than the lines however by the last page of tables and the ellipses in planes, you've tightened this up and they're very nicely shaped. I'm glad to see you've drawn around every ellipse at least twice as well. Your funnels actually do a pretty good job of following the minor axis line, with only a few ellipses straying from it though here again, your ellipses wavered a little, particularly with the smaller degrees. It's possible you are reverting to using your wrist when you're doing the tight ellipses, which is something you want to avoid.
Your rough perspective is looking pretty good, though your confidence wavered again here. You've managed to get them very much perpendicular and your estimation of perspective is not too bad at this stage. Onto your rotated boxes and you've made a pretty solid attempt at this and your line confidence actually improves a little here. You've managed to keep the gaps between your boxes nice and consistent and whilst you haven't managed the full rotation, you aren't expected to nail this or the following exercise at this stage. Finally, your organic perspective boxes are looking really good. Your compositions are solid and there's some good experimentation with scale. The boxes themselves are a good start though there's definitely room for improvement with your estimation of perspective.
Overall, I'm really happy with your work. You've clearly read and understood the instructions and what's being asked of you and made your best attempt. Make sure you maintain your confidence no matter what line you need to draw. I'll mark this lesson as complete and ask you to move onto the 250 box challenge.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-09 08:12
Hi there, I'm one of the TAs. Let's get started.
I'm not sure how you've numbered these, but I assume the number in the circle is the number of boxes that page brings you up to. I'm going to assume this is the case and critique it as such.
Your work is actually pretty solid from the start and you're doing a good job of estimating perspective on boxes with extreme convergence. Over the set, your line quality definitely improves in terms of accuracy when it comes to adding line weight which is good to see. I do think you've done yourself a bit of a disservice by not consistently applying the checking method to all of your boxes, as this helps us identify those more subtle mistakes that aren't immediately obvious to the naked eye and makes it more difficult to critique to boot.
I can see, even in your last boxes that you're still struggling to place those back three lines in such a way that they join at a single point. Again, the line extensions would have helped you here to ascertain where your estimation had wavered and caused these mistakes to compound. In addition to this, you tended to stick to very extreme boxes in at least one direction whereas we tend to see a lot more of the more subtle kind of convergence that tends to suggest a more relatable human scale.
Overall you've made some great progress in your estimation of perspective and line confidence however before you move on, I would like you to draw 25 more boxes, with shallower foreshortening (like the one on the right in these notes and consistently applying the line extension method.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-06 00:05
Ah okay, I see it further down. :) Don't worry about it.
/u/sluggydragon - The ghosted lines you asked for.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-05 23:58
Hi there, it seems your link is missing the majority of the lesson, could you please edit your post with a link to the full album and reply to this comment when you've done this. :)
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-05 23:55
Hi there, I'm one of the TAs. Uncomfortable will be along later to check on this and give you your flair.
Let's get started. Firstly, your superimposed lines are fantastic. They are confident with minimal fraying, even though they're so long. It's a clear indication you're engaging your shoulder and a great start to this section. The same confidence is demonstrated in your ghosted lines and planes however on some of the lines, I can see a little bit of uncertainty kicking in towards the end of the lines you draw but it does improve over the course of your work.
Your ellipses are looking quite good throughout, smooth and confident. I would suggest that you draw through them one more time than you have, as this will tidy up those straggling lines that hang out the ends. You've done a good job of confining your ellipses to the planes, without losing confidence - this is exactly what we like to see. The funnels are also really solid, with only a few misalignments of the ellipses here and there and it does seem that you understood the purpose of this exercise.
Onwards to the boxes and here we see the first signs of uncertainty in your work in the rough perspective boxes. Where all the other lines you've drawn in this lesson are confident, these ones are wobbly, unsure, and have been reinforced multiple times. Line weight is a tool that should be used subtly and we should aim never to reinforce a line that doesn't serve a purpose in organising the hierarchy of our drawing. Other than the line confidence, you work here is actually pretty solid too, with the convergences of your boxes, even the ones far away from the vanishing point, are actually pretty accurate.
Interestingly, your line confidence improved on the rotated boxes, which is arguably a far more difficult exercise. You've actually done a really solid job of rotating the boxes, although the layer furthest from the centre could probably have stood to be rotated further. Your gaps are consistent and here at least, your line weight makes more sense.
Finally, your organic perspective boxes. These are really good too! Your line confidence came back and it's clear you have a fair grasp on perspective already and I'm excited to see what you can do after the box challenge. Again though, you have reinforced every line of the box here.
Overall, you've done some really solid work here, with your confidence only wavering as you got into drawing the boxes. Moving on, try not to let that overwhelm you and spend the time planning each line of your box as this will pay off in the long term.
I'm happy to mark this lesson as complete and ask you to move onto the 250 box challenge.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-03 23:39
Definitely keep laying down dots to plan out your lines. It gives you something tangible to aim for. Just keep them nice and small so that they don't overwhelm what you're conveying.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-07-03 09:10
Hey there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs. He'll be along later to give you a flair.
First up, your superimposed lines are looking pretty good. There's a few stray lines here and there but overall you've done a good job of keeping them straight and confident. Onto your ghosted lines and planes and these are also very good - straight and confident with the exception of a few wobbles here and there.
Onto your ellipses and I can see you definitely struggled a little here, with lots of lumpy ellipses and some gaps here and there. Try to keep a confident pace and ghost as many times as you need to. There's definitely places where you nailed the flow so this is likely just something you need to practice more. That said, the shape of your ellipses in planes and in the funnels has definitely improved. On the funnels, you haven't correctly aligned your ellipses to the minor axis.. This concept becomes even more important in later lessons, so it's important that you nail it down.
Finally, onto your boxes. The rough perspective definitely shows promise but it seems like you let uncertainty get the better of you here because your lines are distinctly wobblier here. In terms of your boxes, you've made a solid attempt at keeping the lines of the front faces perpendicular and your estimation of perspective is not too far off the mark for the most part. I did notice you applied line weight here, though I feel that maybe you went about it too slowly, which made the result look a lot wobblier. Much like the superimposed lines lesson, we want to aim for confidence when we apply line weight.
You've taken a really solid crack at the rotated boxes and even managed to get quite a bit of rotation, though the outer boxes could be rotated further. On some of the outer diagonal boxes, you seem to have lost the nice consistent spacing you maintained on the other boxes. We keep these gaps consistent to give little cues about where the next box should be placed and even how far to rotate it.
Finally, your organic perspective boxes. Towards the end, it seemed like you were slowly getting the hang of what the box should look like. I definitely think you could have fit far more boxes in these compositions - don't be afraid to overlap things. It's good to see experiments with scale and rotation here as well and ultimately, the purpose of this and the previous exercise are to introduce you to spacial concepts that you may not have considered before.
I'm going to mark this lesson as complete and ask you to move onto the 250 box challenge. Here are some points for you to keep in mind as you progress:
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Practice your ellipses and particularly their alignment to the minor axis.
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Plan, ghost, and execute every mark that you put down with confidence (including line weight). This is the best way to get the most out of the 250 box challenge and these lessons in general.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-06-13 18:10
You should keep your boxes (particular the ones with shallower foreshortening) as part of your warm up routine to help with that development. It may not feel like it at the moment but your work does suggest some building awareness of 3D space.
Make sure, moving forward that you continue to believe the lie that you're telling and you'll continue down the right path.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-06-13 08:10
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs, let's get started.
First off, well done on completing the challenge! I'm glad you found a kind of routine to settle into with it, getting little bits done at a time is the best way to keep focused and not get too sloppy.
Starting off, you definitely had a lot of those little mistakes that compound on the final few lines of the box. I think you've included a good variety of different box shapes, though make sure you're practicing the less extreme converging boxes as well, since there's far fewer of those present.
I'm happy to see that you've applied line weight throughout, as this is extra mileage on the challenge. Not only that, but your application of it has improved greatly over the course of the challenge - going from laborious wobbly strokes to a far more confident application. The other thing I'm glad to see is a consistent application of the check lines as these have clearly helped you tighten up your estimation of perspective.
The back lines of your box have definitely improved overall though I am seeing a few instances of your lines converging in pairs instead. This usually stems from considering only the line that is directly opposite the one you are drawing, instead of all others that converge (or will converge) with it. It's not so bad that your boxes do not look like boxes but it's something to consider, particularly when it comes to doing more advanced things with your boxes in later lessons.
Overall, you've improved greatly from that first page of boxes and should definitely be proud of your improvement. Keep pushing.
I'm happy to mark this challenge as complete. Please feel free to move onto lesson 2.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge (Patreon Critique Thread)"
2019-06-13 07:55
Hi there, I'm one of Uncomfortable's TAs and I'll be reviewing your work today. :)
First off, well done for completing the box challenge. It's definitely a slog and I know the temptation of wanting to cross out an imperfect box.
Your boxes were actually pretty solid to start with, though with their fair share of the usual problems such as diverging lines and lines converging in pairs. Line confidence was definitely not an issue at all here and your application of line weight is subtle and well done throughout, though there are a few instances where you've incorrectly applied line weight to the internal lines.
As you've progressed through the challenge, I can tell you've definitely thought about what those correction lines are telling you and I'm very happy to see it applied correctly and consistently to every one of your boxes. In your final boxes you still seem to be having a few of little mistakes compound onto the final rear lines of your box but it is much better than where you started.
Overall you've done some fantastic work here with only a few small issues lingering. I'm happy to mark the challenge as complete and feel free to move onto lesson 2.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Drawabox 2.0 has been released - a full website rebuild, revisions of lessons up to 7 and 19 new videos"
2018-12-25 22:59
Get a little more sleep before you write the next lessons. No stupid deadlines, eh?
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Drawabox 2.0 has been released - a full website rebuild, revisions of lessons up to 7 and 19 new videos"
2018-12-25 13:18
The old website was based on Node, I believe Uncomfortable has written his own CMS in PHP this time with plans to expand it out to a proper community platform in future.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Drawabox 2.0 has been released - a full website rebuild, revisions of lessons up to 7 and 19 new videos"
2018-12-25 10:35
Thanks for all your hard work /u/Uncomfortable. The content looks fantastic and I'm excited to start the new and improved lesson 5. :)
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2018-12-02 01:01
Thanks boss.
Didn't even notice the thorax proportions. Usually I've got a decent eye for these things from years of observational drawing, but that'd probably be related to my desire not to look at these things for any longer than absolutely necessary. :P
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2018-12-01 00:38
Garbage (Although I did less this time).
I've picked up on a lot of my faults and I've written most of them down but I'm aware of others. I didn't think I would be this bad but I feel a lot of my issues stem from not wanting to look at the reference long enough to figure things out properly. Please sir, let me draw da fuzzyfwiends. :(
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2018-10-27 21:11
Thank you for the demo. I'll have to try it later. I think the enclosing shape is probably the step I needed.
A couple of things on the redline I realised I probably should've mentioned.
Most of the extra little bits where I'm figuring out leaf shapes, etc are my attempts at figuring things out in the more observational way I'm used to and usually these studies came after trying to apply the constructional way in my main drawing. As a result, they're sloppy and very much "thinking on the paper" but they did help in a few cases and I was able to pick out forms to start with by laying out shapes first. I don't really care about ruining the page I'm working on so it made sense to put them on the same page as my plants.
I also think you've picked up on an unfortunate tendency of my pen. When I use a lighter touch, it tends not to put down as much ink and when I'm laying in initial forms, I'm not pressing as hard. As a result, I get these really light thin lines that don't really show up well on a scanner, so I tend to go back over them so they'll show up. It's not that I'm not happy with the initial line, it's just that it hasn't gone down on my paper dark enough to begin with. That probably means I need to replace the nib in my pen again, which is fair enough since I did half my box challenge, all of my lesson 2 + garbage and this with it.
The bit you noted of the texture where I noted I did shittily, that was an early experiment, was my use of texture okay where I applied it later?
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2018-10-26 12:57
I did mean to go and do some sketching from life but I couldn't get close enough to any interesting plants.
I feel like I'm still struggling to balance construction which kinda feels rigid, and the fluidity of organic forms, particularly leaves and petals. I did a lot of grinding on leaves. I very much struggled with the leaves that have multiple arms (like maple leaves) and I tried the method you did a demo of but I still couldn't get it to work. Leaves that fold around like this were also a problem.
The only things I'm reasonably happy with are my textures (where I've applied them) and line weight.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"
2018-09-11 09:12
Guess who's back? Back again. Doc is back. Tell a friend.
Warm-ups and garbage as requested. Apologies for the disproportionate number of dongs sausages, there is some bonus texture stuff floating around in there.
Dissection refs for the textures I actually used.
Things I'm proud of: Pulling my shit together and getting the hang of form intersections. My second page of dissections are also a point of pride.
Things I'm not so proud of: Far too many dicks sausages. Shitty spheres. Line work that isn't up to what I know I am capable of in some spots. >_<
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2018-06-14 11:12
Yo dawg, I heard you like boxes
The Good: My line weight and confidence seem to have gotten a lot better.
I'm proud of some of my subdivided boxes and particularly some of the ones where I've added extra boxy bits... they're kinda hard.
I didn't rush, it took me almost 70 days. I did line weight, plane shading, and check lines on every single box to get maximum mileage out of the challenge. I drew them big so that I could see my mistakes better.
The Bad: This album is big because of drawing a maximum of 5 boxes per page.
Many many frustrations. I had to replace the nib in my pen at one stage and I'm pretty sure it's because I flung it across my table in frustration.
I had an absolute meltdown somewhere around box 80 which seemed to be where I actually started improving, I find that irritating.
My cat felt the need to snuggle my face while I was trying to draw boxes, or sleep on my pile of paper. I started a decoy pile of paper and that helped.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Drawabox, /r/ArtFundamentals and Reddit going forward. My plans for the future, and the chance to include you lot in on the discussion."
2018-05-08 10:21
I hope you took notes from last time I grilled your website. ;)
Some of these suggestions are great. I agree with /u/antisigma in that you want to be careful building everything yourself. Particularly since I believe you were planning on using PHP? There's likely a solution at there that can get you most of the way and be customised the rest of the way.
Is the plan to make the website for exclusively for full lesson submission critiques with the subreddit to become a place for discussion and assistance with individual exercises? Importantly, how would it be moderated?
I see a lot of people on the Discord asking about whether to read the text or watch the videos and I think it's important for the content to either match - the funnels exercise is the one I can think of off the top of my head that the video doesn't match the text - or for it to be emphasised that to get the full effect of what they're looking at, it's important to read and watch.
ElectricSquiggaloo in the post "Is it okay to just do it with my wrist?"
2022-09-15 06:21
Hey, I thought Id weigh in. Ive finished the course, suffer from anxiety, and struggled a lot with letting go and perfectionism. /u/Uncomfortable will back me up here, I was one of his more painful students that did pretty well once I could get out of my own way and trust that what I was doing would bring results eventually.
I found learning to let go really hard and I still struggle a lot with it. Some days you will be all thumbs. Some days youll nail it. For me, its a control thing - if Im trusting myself to do it right, Im not steering the ship anymore which definitely makes me a little anxious. One thing Ive found that helps is lowering my inhibitions a little before I sit down to draw - sometimes thats when Im physically tired from the gym or Ive had a beverage or two - but this really helps with the overthinking because I dont have as much bandwidth for it.
Anyway, I had a lot more in my head when I started typing this comment but its disappeared but you have my empathy, picking up new skills and the process of learning to loosen up is super hard. Ive been trying to do it with my newest hobby and its difficult trying to do it again when I just learned it for drawing but it does get a little easier the second time. Be patient with yourself.