MuseCleio in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-01-08 09:45

Thank you for the feedback!

MuseCleio in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-01-06 13:34

http://imgur.com/a/mPCXg

That was though. And frustrating. My boxes are still not turning out the way I want them to. But here's 250 of them anyway.

MuseCleio in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"

2016-12-19 17:31

Lesson 1 completed: http://imgur.com/a/ckk10

As a background, I'm starting this from pretty much zero. I have never really drawn before, so this is all new, and certainly not without some considerable challenges.

I've taken notes while self-critiquing as best as I could. Sorry if it is a bit long.

Part 1

• Superimposing lines: There's some fraying but mostly at the end. The lines are a bit wobbly though. I am definitely overthinking it and going to slow.

• Ghosting lines: Same as above. Slow and wobbly lines.

• The same critique still applies to the planes exercise.

Part 2

I have to say, I found the ellipses extremely difficult. After reading some of the comments on other people's homework, I found locking my shoulder did improve things a bit, but it continues to be a challenge.

• A whole lot of ellipses: the trend from the lines continues. My ellipses are wobbly and inaccurate. For all my attempts to plan them right, they often end up somewhere where I don't want them to be. I've tried speeding up to get rid of the wobbliness, but I'm struggling to find the balance between speed and accuracy. More practice needed, I'm sure!

• Ellipses in planes: Same as above. Difficult!

• Funnels: while my ellipses are wobbly and inaccurate, I think I did, at least, do okay with the minor axis.

Part 3

At some point while doing these exercises I started slipping up on the ghosting method, and missing some of the steps there. I realised towards the end, but it is clear my lines are not nearly as accurate as they might have been.

I think it happened because I was concentrating on the new information. Because it is all so new, it can be tricky to keep all of it in my conscious mind. Similarly, I have to keep reminding myself to lock my wrist/elbow.

• Plotted perspective: Used frames on the first page, after assuming from the general notes on boxes that I was supposed to. Realised later that it was perhaps not needed.

• Rough perspective boxes: I did accidently draw some of the (partial) perspective lines. This happened when I was so focussed on ghosting the line that I just kept on drawing. I think I did consider my lines pretty well at the time, but when drawing the lines through to the VP, I was really appalled surprised at how far off I was on quite a lot of them. I went wrong where there was tight angles in particular. Lines are messy and wobbly.

• Rotated boxes: A very hard exercise alright. The one shown is my third attempt, and I know it is far from perfect. That said, towards the end of my second go the whole thing all of a sudden started to make sense, which is why I tried again immediately. If the boxes are not very well drawn, at least I could see what it was supposed to be like. Again, my linework could be better, and I did mess up the hatching in places as well. Speaking of the hatching, it could probably be tidier.

• Organic perspective: When initially trying this, I was completely out of my depth, so I started doing the 250 box challenge as well to get my head around drawing boxes in perspective on their own first. Despite the practice, there's issues with the far/near planes alright. And the foreshortening is inconsistent I also struggled with accurate, non-wobbly lines, and I notice that my lineweight varies a lot. Towards the end, I did start putting points down again for ghosting the lines properly, which I had somehow started slipping up on.

In conclusion

Drawing lines is hard. Drawing ellipses is harder. Drawing boxes is harder again. That said, I really enjoyed the exercises. I thought the repetition would be tedious but so far I love the challenge of trying to improve. And although there is room for (a lot of) improvement, I think I've gotten better already. Onwards and upwards!

Thanks you for looking at my work, and thank you for putting so much work in these lessons.

As I said, I've begun the 250 box challenge, and I will continue on that for now, although of course I will come back to these exercises as required.