Uncomfortable 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 19:07

Hahaha, thanks for the kind words! I do hope that these changes will make that endeavor a little easier to bare, and best of luck through 2019.

Uncomfortable 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 19:01

I think that's been the main goal for Drawabox - to show students how they can go about learning. It's something that's often left so vague and unclear that they're left feeling directionless in a void full of information that doesn't necessarily apply to them until they've gotten more of the basics under their belt.

I'm glad I was able to help you with that. I have a lot of students who do end up returning to the course and starting from the beginning (even those who have gone all the way through), and most are amazed with just how much of a difference it makes, still helping them develop the second time around, but showing such a vast change from their first attempt.

Uncomfortable 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 18:59

My pleasure. I hope it helps.

Uncomfortable 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 18:58

Huh! I didn't know that - I'll look into it myself, but I don't suppose you have anything you can link me to with more information on that point? I hate those things too (and I think everyone else does too), so I tried to make it a touch more light-hearted, but there's only so much one can do with what is essentially a little pop-up.

Uncomfortable 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 18:57

My pleasure. I think there are a lot of people who've given up or stalled in their work here, and it's mostly been from the fact that they've applied their own ideas on how the material should be used, often resulting in them burning out because they've been too hard on themselves. So I highly recommend you read the lessons carefully, starting from lesson 0 where I go over how the material should be used. This should give you a much better chance of getting through it with more appropriate expectations of yourself, rather than asking too much and getting frustrated when you can't deliver.

Uncomfortable 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 18:56

I strongly recommend that you read through lesson 0 carefully. There are a lot of things students generally do when approaching the lessons that I try to dissuade them from - grinding, rushing, not following the instructions closely, focusing 100% of one's time on drawabox or learning/improving in general and so on - that make it a lot easier to burn out and give up.

Drawabox is tough, but that's one of the biggest mistakes people make, and I've tried to dissuade them before, but hopefully setting it up as a lesson of its own will make those warnings stick a little better.

Uncomfortable 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 18:54

My pleasure - and merry christmas to you too!

Uncomfortable 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 18:54

My pleasure.

Uncomfortable 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 18:54

Honestly that might be a bit too taxing to put together. The simple version of it would be:

• Completely rewrote/restructured lessons 1 and 2

• Each exercise in lesson 1 and 2 as well as the box/cylinder challenges is given clear step by steps, along with an explanation as to the purpose of that exercise and a list of common mistakes with examples, and finally an example page of that exercise's work

• Incorporated one page of the texture challenge as an exercise in lesson 2

• Further developed the "lecture" section of lessons 3-7, sometimes replacing old diagrams and rewriting certain chunks

• New demos for lessons 3-7. Most lessons got 2, lessons 6 and 7 got one. Some of the new demos are formalized versions of previously informal demos that were available previously, along with videos explaining what's I'm doing as I step through them.

• New 25 wheel challenge as a bridge between lesson 6 and 7.

• Modified some of the homework assignments, bringing exercises from lesson 2 into later lessons as repeats where they are relevant and need to be refreshed in a student's memory

I think that covers most, if not all of it.

Uncomfortable 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 18:50

My pleasure. I hope it helps!

Uncomfortable 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 18:50

Hahaha, I expect to hear a lot of that.

Uncomfortable 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 18:50

Unfortunately I have developed a policy against producing PDF versions, for a few reasons:

• As the content gets updated, the PDFs get left behind, leaving many different out-of-date copies of the lesson material floating around, potentially being shared, but still technically being officially from drawabox

• It's incredibly time consuming

• Loss of potential ad revenue, especially if it gets shared around

I have however gone through some efforts to make the lessons more printer-friendly. It's not perfect, as every now and then there are some images that display too long to stay on a single page, but by and large by forcing page breaks after each "section", most of the lessons print a little cleaner.

As for the share links you're mentioning, are you talking about the social media stuff across the top, or the anchor links at the far right of each section? Right clicking on the anchor links and selecting 'copy link address' should give you a pretty clean URL to direct anyone to that specific section of content.

Uncomfortable 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 18:45

Thanks for asking! My web comic is Orc and Gnome's Mild Adventures. Not particularly well known at the moment, and it's only been around for a little under a year, but we have big plans for it!

Uncomfortable 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 18:45

That's honestly a topic I've struggled with explaining for years, and I feel like every time I clear the slate and try it from a different angle, it gets a little better. Let's hope this one sticks.

Uncomfortable 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 18:44

Hahaha- I hope you enjoy it!

Uncomfortable 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 18:44

I'm glad! I hope the revisions help clarify some of the material for you.

Uncomfortable 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 18:44

It was my pleasure.

Uncomfortable 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 18:43

Lessons 14/15 are gone for now, but the next phase of my revamps (first two being full website rebuild and second being the revision of the lesson material up to lesson 7) is going to be the creation of structured curricula focused on design (concept art rather than graphic) and illustration (composition, storytelling, etc).

Haven't yet had the chance to think about how I want to approach them, but I've been wanting to add these topics to Drawabox for a while, as I feel resources on those fronts - especially design - aren't as common as they ought to be when it comes to free resources.

Uncomfortable 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 18:42

Hahaha, you can bet that I hope to make a significant marketing push on all those delicious new years resolutions.

Uncomfortable 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 18:42

Hahaha, I've been eagerly awaiting it too - so I could pass out on my couch for a couple weeks.

Uncomfortable 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 18:41

Merry Christmas to you too.

Uncomfortable 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 18:41

My pleasure, and I hope the new content helps make things clearer!

Uncomfortable 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 18:41

Hahaha, good timing! Yeah, as /u/ElectricSquiggaloo mentioned, the original website was built in Node (I never expected drawabox to take off so I took the opportunity to build with something new and fancy) - a decision I've regretted ever since.

This one is pure PHP - which I often refer to as an incredibly stupid language, but it is my stupid language, as some of my first and biggest steps forward in programming and development in general were made with it. I built the CMS from the ground up myself, as I plan on expanding it in a few very specific directions that a prebuilt one would only hinder.

Uncomfortable 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 18:39

It's been tough, but the response has been worth it.

Uncomfortable 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 18:39

I will! I'm working on a 4-phase plan, the first phase being the website rebuild and the second being the full revisions of lessons 1-7 and the challenges. The third phase - which I'll start on once I've had a nice long break, will be developing two new curricula: design (the skills one uses as a concept artist) and illustration (composition, storytelling, etc.)

Uncomfortable 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 18:38

I'm glad to hear that!

Uncomfortable 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 18:38

Hahaha, my pleasure.

Uncomfortable 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 18:38

Honestly, you are absolutely correct in that. I've made some attempts at trying to process the audio (watching tutorials and such) but none of it worked out particularly well, and it's honestly not a good use of my time. While I was unable to do this due to time constraints this time around, in the future I will be outsourcing the audio/video processing work to someone more skilled in that area.

While this won't happen for a while, eventually I will see to it that every video is redone. There's only so much I can (and am willing to) do as far as making the videos flow smoothly, but at the very least the audio is improved.

Until then, you'll have to make do with what I've uploaded. I really can't express how much I hate making videos, and every step on this front is one taken with immense frustration.

Uncomfortable 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 18:34

My pleasure.

Uncomfortable 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 18:34

While I wouldn't say that myself, I also won't deny it :D

Uncomfortable 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 18:34

Merry Christmas to you too!

Uncomfortable 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 18:34

My pleasure. I hope the revisions to the lessons make a big impact.

Uncomfortable 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 18:34

And thank you for your work proof reading it :D

Uncomfortable 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 09:59

https://drawabox.com

Merry Christmas, oh box cult of mine. For the past few months, I've been hard at work on rebuilding the drawabox website from the ground up, mainly intending to deliver the content in a way that was more digestible, while also shoring up the back-end (which was horribly unstable, due to me never expecting drawabox to take off like it did, and making the poor decision of experimenting with new tech when building it).

As I did so, I found that the lessons honestly weren't up to par anymore, and I knew I could do better. While there is always plenty of room for improvement, I've done what I can in the time that I had, and have pushed myself hard to do so, pulling 16 hour days between my job, my web comic and drawabox for the last few weeks to get this done on time.

So, as mentioned in the title, the major changes include:

• Full website rebuild to deliver the content in a slightly less overwhelming manner

• Better mobile experience (mainly on tablets, phones are still not a great place to read all this information, but I've taken steps to improve it there as well)

• Revised lesson content from 1-7 as well as the challenges

• The new 25 wheel challenge

• A few tweaks to homework assignments for different lessons to hopefully bridge certain gaps of understanding, including bringing some of the earlier exercises back into the later lessons

• 19 new videos - admittedly my videos have never been the sort to win awards for production value, but they are what they are.

And with that, I wish you all happy holidays. I am now going to go nap for two weeks.

Edit: Oh, and the subreddit broke 100,000 subscribers a few days ago! Let's call this update a celebration of that milestone too :D

Uncomfortable in the post "25 Wheel Challenge"

2018-12-25 09:52

Why, would you look at that? Seems to be a new challenge...

As always, patreon supporters who are eligible for private critiques for this challenge can post their work here. Everyone else is welcome to submit their work directly to the subreddit or over on the discord chat server.

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

2018-12-25 01:54

Your lines section is looking really solid. Really nice, confident lines, definitely drawing from the shoulder, and not a lick of hesitation so your lines come out smooth rather than stiff or wobbly. I did notice though that your ghosted lines section was a little bare (there's a lot of room on that page for more). I noticed this in the planes exercise as well.

Moving onto your ellipses, you are definitely demonstrating a good deal of control while also keeping them smooth and evenly shaped. There are a few places there where you've drawn your ellipses without any clear bounds (drawing them floating in the middle of space rather than having a set space for them to fill). I always recommend that when you practice your ellipses, try and make sure you've got something clear to aim for - if they're floating more arbitrarily in space, then you're not going to really know if you nailed what you were trying to achieve. This is of course something you only did a few times, but I figured I'd mention it anyway.

Your plotted perspective is fine, though I noticed some weirdness with your line weights. I'm guessing you were just experimenting, but some of those lines (despite being clearly drawn with a ruler) have some scratchiness overtop of them, and others are needlessly heavy. Not really sure what's going on there.

Some of this scratchiness does carry over to your rough perspective boxes. Remember that with every line you draw freehand, you should be applying the ghosting method - this means planning and preparing before the execution of each line, and avoiding any situations where you draw by reflex, automatically reinforcing your mark upon drawing it. You seem to have a lot of that here, causing your lines to appear quite rough. Mistakes happen, but if you go drawing over them, you'll develop a bad habit that results in your mistakes having more attention on them than had you simply left them alone.

The rotated boxes are, admittedly, more about exposing students to a different kind of spatial problem they may not have otherwise considered, rather than expecting perfect or even decent work. That said, I am quite pleased with how you kept your boxes structured and consistent, with narrow gaps between them to limit the amount of guesswork required. You did appear to struggle with actually getting them to rotate relative to one another however.

Your boxes are generally rotated relative to the central box, but aside from that, they're running fairly parallel to their neighbours (similar to what's shown here). Remember that you want your vanishing points to slide along an axis as the box rotates, rather than keeping them in the same position.

Your organic perspective boxes are coming along well, though there is plenty of room for improvement here (which is totally normal). Mainly you want to work on keeping your sets of parallel lines consistent in their convergence towards their shared vanishing point. Your linework is also showing those bad habits I mentioned before, so work on applying the ghosting method to every stroke, and avoiding reflexive drawing.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. While it's good that you started on the 250 box challenge (as that is going to be the next step I'll assign), I am releasing the rebuild of the drawabox website tonight/early tomorrow morning, so you should be sure to go back and read through the newer version of the notes before continuing.

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

2018-12-25 01:42

By and large you're doing very well, but there are a few little hiccups I'd like to mention. Nothing critical - in fact all the major points I focus on are being done quite well.

To start with, your line quality through the ghosted lines and planes is fantastic. Really confident and smooth, no hesitation to them. You're clearly ghosting through them a great deal too, as you're achieving pretty good control.

When doing the planes exercise though, some more variety would definitely be good. Right now all your planes are essentially square/rectangular - try playing with having some sides be shorter than their opposite. This will make it a much more useful precursor to dealing with perspective.

Getting into the ellipses, the confidence of your linework carries over here as well, helping you maintain smooth, even shapes to them. I do recommend however that when tackling the ellipses in planes, try to ghost through them a bit more - based on what I'm seeing, I think you are capable of achieving more control than this without losing the smooth confidence.

Next, for your funnels, I'm noticing that you may have missed the part of this exercise about aligning those ellipses to the central minor axis line, such that it cuts each one into two equal, symmetrical halves. That's one of the core aspects of this exercise, so keep that in mind as you move forwards. Right now they're quite slanted.

Jumping ahead, you did a great job with your plotted perspective. Your rough perspective's looking good too, though it does feel like your line quality is slightly less consistent than it was in your ghosted lines exercise, which suggests to me that you may not have put as much time into each line as you could have.

Your rotated boxes started off pretty decently, but you really nailed it with your second attempt. You're keeping those boxes quite well structured with narrow gaps between them to limit the amount of guesswork that is needed. You're also covering the full range of rotation on each axis, so great work here. I don't actually expect students to nail this exercise, as it's more about exposing them to a different kind of spatial problem that they may not have otherwise expected. So, that said, you're doing quite well here.

Lastly, while the organic perspective boxes exercise is similar to the rotated boxes one (in that it's more about getting students to tangle with a new, difficult problem), you're making great headway here as well. There is still room for improvement in keeping the convergences of your sets of parallel lines consistent towards their shared vanishing point, but that's entirely normal.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. As I mentioned to you before, the website is getting a massive overhaul, and I should be starting the switch over to the new website in a few hours, so I'd recommend waiting until that is done before you go to read the challenge page notes and start the work.

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

2018-12-25 01:28

By and large you're actually doing quite well, but there are some technical points to your execution that I'd like to adjust.

Through your lines and ellipses, you're definitely going to great lengths to demonstrate a fair bit of control with your marks, but I can definitely see a touch of stiffness throughout - especially in the ellipses. These are two sides of the same coin - you're able to maintain such fine control because you're drawing a little slower, a little more hesitantly than you ought to, and as a result your linework comes out a bit stiff.

Your first priority with all mark making should be to achieve a smooth, confident stroke, even if that means missing the mark sometimes. Ultimately the ghosting method gives you a path to take that allows you to plan and prepare, investing all of your time in these early phases, before finally executing your mark confidently, without hesitation, and while accepting that nothing you do past the point your pen touches the page will allow you to avoid any mistakes you are going to make. All you can do is commit to the motion and push on through.

This will ultimately help smooth out your lines and make your ellipses much more evenly shaped.

Getting into your boxes, it does look to me as though you're not quite applying the ghosting method as you ought to. It's very important that you get used to applying this technique to every single mark you put down, as it allows you to achieve that balance between premeditated control and confident execution. Most of the lines here do appear to have been drawn without much prior practice or ghosting, so they are rather slow and wobbly.

I am definitely pleased to see that you went over your rough perspective boxes with the line extension method. This will definitely help a great deal to identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift. I do want to mention though that the hatching lines you've used here is notably sloppy - try to keep these parallel, consistent and stretched across the plane from edge to edge rather than letting them fall short.

All things considered, you did a really great job with the rotated boxes, which demonstrates a well developing grasp of 3D space. I don't actually expect students to nail this one - it's more about exposing them to a different kind of spatial problem that they may not have otherwise considered. So the fact that you did such a good job at keeping your boxes structured and consistent while also covering the full range of rotation says a lot.

The organic perspective boxes exercise is another one of those that is more about exposing students to a different kind of challenge. You are doing pretty well here, though there is still plenty of room to improve, especially on the front of keeping your sets of parallel lines consistent towards their implied vanishing points.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I do want you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. This will both give you the opportunity to work on your freely rotated boxes and further cement your grasp of 3D space, while also letting you practice the use of the ghosting method.

Also worth mentioning - within a few hours of me posting this critique, I am going to be launching a full rebuild of the drawabox website with revised lesson content. So in case you see this response immediately and start working on the box challenge, I'd recommend that you wait for the launch of the rebuild.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2018-12-23 23:08

You've definitely made progress over this set, though I do agree that some of your linework is still falling just a liiiiittle bit short, and I think it comes down to confidence. From the looks of it, you're drawing a little slower, and while your lines aren't really wobbly per-se, they are kind of stiff in a way that comes from a line that lacks the driving confidence. In this way you can detect the subtle hints of hesitation that in turn make the boxes feel less solid. So try and push yourself to draw more confidently, even if it means risking a little mistake here or there. A confident, smooth line is still something we can use even if it misses the mark a little. A stiff or wobbly line isn't going to be good for much.

Additionally, while you definitely made progress by the end with your convergences, you did have a tendency to have one line in a given set go way off. This is because when you go to draw a line, you're likely thinking about the other lines with which it shares a corner, or perhaps the lines with which it shares a plane. Instead, think about the lines with which it is parallel - all four of the set, including those that are not yet drawn. When doing so, think about how they leave their vanishing point, and the angles between each pair of lines. Those with really small angles between them are going to end up running virtually parallel to one another as they reach the box itself, which is a very useful fact. These are also often the lines you end up having trouble with. I explain this further in these notes.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2018-12-23 22:51

I can definitely see improvement here, though it comes and it goes. Some of your cylinders look and feel quite solid, with fairly tightly drawn ellipses, well ghosted lines (that come out straight), and minor axes to which the ellipses are all reasonably well aligned. Even on the last page however, I am seeing a bit of a mix, where some are visibly better than others.

I think there are a few factors here that are coming into play:

• Time. There are definitely mistakes here and there that can be blamed on simply not putting as much time as you need into each cylinder.

• Scale. You're definitely struggling a great deal with the larger ones, which is admittedly understandable. Really big ellipses force you to engage your whole shoulder, and there's a good chance that you may be relying more on your elbow than you may realize, so when you break past a certain size, it becomes much more difficult to manage.

It is worth mentioning that I'm also seeing places where your linework breaks down somewhat. I can see places where a line's been drawn with several separate segments, though I suspect this may becoming from your attempts at adding line weight. Remember that when you're adding line weight, usually it's just going to be in key, limited areas (rather than trying to wrap the entire form in a thicker line, this is something we talk about in lesson 2). You should also be applying the ghosting method just as you would when having drawn the original stroke to ensure that it comes out smoothly and confidently. You may make a mistake, but that is no reason to hesitate or draw more slowly. Mistakes happen, but gradually by pushing yourself to always draw with confident strokes, your muscle memory and overall control of those confident strokes will improve.

Anyway, by and large you've done a lot of good work here. There's still plenty of room for improvement, but that's largely expected. I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete.

One thing worth mentioning is that for the last few months I've been working on a full rebuild and revision of the drawabox material, which will be released on December 25th. This comes along with a lot of changes to how I explain and convey the lesson 1 and 2 material, as well as a new video for cylinders. I'd recommend that when it comes out, you look over the notes from the lessons you've already completed to ensure that you move forward from the best possible position.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2018-12-23 22:43

You've shown considerable improvement over the set, and I think a lot of it comes from the patience and conscientiousness you've demonstrated in applying the line extension method to each and every mark you put down. It's clear that you went to great lengths to assess those convergences and identify where you were making mistakes. Your linework is looking confident, your line weights go to great lengths to make each box feel cohesive, and your constructions are consistent and solid. Very well done. You did do the last two pages in pencil, but I'll overlook that this one time.

One suggestion that may help you continue to improve at a decent rate is that when you draw a given line, and are thinking about all the other lines to which it is parallel, think about how they all leave their shared vanishing point. Those lines that leave the VP with a very small angle between them are going to end up running virtually parallel as they reach the box - a fact that can be very useful when constructing it. I explain this further in these notes.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete.

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

2018-12-23 22:38

Really nice work! Your first two sections are really solid. Both demonstrate a considerable amount of confidence behind each stroke, which helps you to maintain smooth, consistent linework without any hesitation or wobbling, as well as evenly shaped ellipses that don't stiffen up when they need to fit in awkward or limited spaces. You're also demonstrating pretty solid control. There's certainly room for improvement, but you're most of the way there and the rest will come with continued practice using the ghosting method.

Your plotted and rough perspective boxes are looking good, and I'm glad to see that you applied the double checking method to your converging lines, as to better identify where your estimation of perspective tends to drift.

Now, it is worth mentioning that your rotated and organic perspective boxes aren't perfect, and they're not expected to be. Both of these exercises were assigned with the intent of exposing students to a different kind of spatial problem that they may not have otherwise considered. That said, you're making good headway.

I'm quite happy with how you kept your boxes well structured, with narrow gaps between them allowing you to avoid as much guesswork as possible. When it comes to the actual rotation of the boxes however, aside from those rotated relative to the center, the rest are still running pretty parallel to one another, as shown here. You want to get the same kind of change that we see between the central box and its neighbours (which involves the vanishing points for that box sliding along its axis) to happen between each box. It is a pretty common issue though.

Your organic perspective boxes are coming along well - there is plenty of room for improving how your sets of parallel lines converge, ensuring that it remains consistent towards their shared vanishing point, but you're moving in the right direction. Additionally, I noticed that you've focused your line weight on the inside of your boxes. I wouldn't recommend this, as it breaks apart the overall cohesiveness of each box, making it feel more like a loosely associated series of lines. Instead, focus that line weight along the silhouette of the form, to enclose the box and make it feel like a more solid unit.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I noticed you submitted the box and cylinder challenges as well - I'd much prefer not having had them all submitted together, though I do understand that you completed all this work prior to submitting. Had you moved onto lesson 2 as well, I would have asked you to do it over, but as the challenges don't have lesson 1 as a prerequisite, I'll critique them next.

Uncomfortable in the post "25 Texture Challenge"

2018-12-23 22:24

Sorry for the delay - I was caught up in the drawabox rebuild, still scrambling to get it done for Christmas.

Anyway, I did most of my critique with redlines (I hope your internet situation is better, I vaguely remember you saying you were back stateside but hopefully I'm not mistaken). Overall you've shown considerable improvement in the way you think about all the detail being laid out. There's a clear increase in how much you're thinking about cast-shadows rather than every form being drawn independently (admittedly you were showing that very well in the pebbles direct study, but it was lacking when applying that to your gradients).

There are a couple demos that were available on the texture challenge page that would definitely have helped somewhat, specifically on your leaves and on your mushroom. Still, by and large you've got a lot of really excellent experimentation here.

One thing I do want to mention is that here and there (less so as you move forwards), I saw you relying on some little bits of scribbly scratching here and there, or some hatching lines. It's great to see that you used less of it as you went on, but I'd definitely make a point of avoiding it altogether. Any kind of randomness is going to take away from the sense of intent behind your textures and muck them up, so take an extra second to think before every mark you put down, even though it's going to be tempting to draw, say, gravel by being more erratic. Think about how those little forms are arranged in your reference image, how they're clustered in some places, or if they're spread out evenly across the whole surface. Identify the kinds of groupings (maybe there's often a large chunk with a few smaller pieces). Anything to distill the characteristics of this texture.

Lastly, I noticed places where you were using some purposely fainter marks (like where your pen might be dying). I can absolutely understand why, but when you're using a given tool, there is a lot to be said about understanding its limitations. Fineliners are, by design, meant to put down really rich, dark marks. When they're running out of ink, or when you use them at an angle low enough that the ink doesn't flow quite as smoothly, it's true that you can get a variety of marks but they tend to be very difficult to control in an intentional manner, and don't play well with the lines that tool is designed to create.

Long story short, when you're using fineliners, stick to the idea that it's only going to make pure, dark marks - and when you have to transition between light and dark, force yourself to use those little bits of stippling or other textural information to cover those transitions by deciding specifically where you want that ink to fall, and which areas you want to leave blank.

There is actually going to be lots of new texture-based content coming with the rebuild, along with a video on how to tackle this exercise (it's actually being incorporated as part of lesson 2, though with just 1 page of 3 textures), so be sure to give that stuff a look once it's up. You'll probably already understand most of it, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete. Keep up the good work.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2018-12-22 18:41

You interpreted what I meant by drawing through ellipses correctly (going over the ellipse two full turns before lifting your pen). It's great that you're ghosting like that and the results are definitely there, but I still want you to draw through them. Considering your preparation, the result should be tight enough not to look too different from going over it once, but it'll provide you with that extra muscle-memory-mileage.

As for degree - what you described there ("farther end having narrower degree") is not correct. The closer end has the narrower degree, as shown here.

Lastly, the cylinders in boxes should be mentioned more in the actual challenge page notes. This has been corrected in the full rebuild of the website, which will be coming out on December 25th.

Uncomfortable in the post "25 Texture Challenge"

2018-12-22 05:47

Old thread got locked, those submitting their texture challenge work for private critique can do so here.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2018-12-22 00:50

More often than not, the self-analysis that some students offer along with their submission does less good than some might think. Unless there are clear questions that need answering, it's generally better to just give me the floor and to discern what I need to know from looking at your work. The rest is just liable to confuse matters.

Now, looking over your work, while there are a number of issues that I will address, by and large you've shown a good deal of improvement over the set and have demonstrated yourself to be working through the challenges of construction and the spatial problems that lay therein. Despite the issues I'll mention, you are demonstrating a belief and understanding of the scene you're drawing as existing in three dimensions, and you appear to see that quality in your own drawings.

• The first issue with your leaves is that the lines that denote the flow of the form through space - that is, the first line we draw in relation to any leaf - is generally drawn hesitantly, and as a result comes out looking a little stiff. Being that the line is the core, driving element of the flow of the entire form, it carries over into the rest of the construction. It's critical that you draw this line - and all your constructional lines - with a confident, persistent pace pushing forwards through the path you have plotted, planned and prepared for using the ghosting method. This line represents the energy and forces applied to this form - the flow of wind and air that causes it to move as it does. Don't see this line as being a static object with a beginning and an end. View it instead as a visual representation of something that extends far beyond its beginning and end. Sometimes it can help to draw it with a little arrowhead (I often do).

• I've noticed that when adding additional detail to your leaves, you have a tendency to use the simpler edge enclosing the basic leaf shape as more of a suggestion than something solid that exists there in the scene. What I see is that your more complex line from the following phase of construction zigzags back and forth across the line. There are two things wrong with this. Firstly, don't zigzag your lines - it causes us to go into autopilot and creates repetitive patterns that do not actually exist. Instead, draw each line individually, lifting your pen when it comes to some kind of sharp corner or turn. This allows you to design those marks more deliberately. Secondly, these lines should always come off the simpler stroke from the previous phase of construction, and then return to it. Treat it like an object or mass that exists in the world, not as a sketch or something to be ignored. Being that it's solid, your only option is to build on top of it. If at all possible, and it generally should be when dealing with leaves, avoid building subtractively (cutting back into a form you've already produced), opting to work additively instead. This should demonstrate what I mean.

• The last thing I noticed in your leaves was that the few places where you seem to have attempted detail (nothing wrong with not tackling detail just yet), you merely applied vague hatching lines. Try to stay away from hatching - it tends to encourage the student to think less about the actual texture present on an object, and just focuses on filling an area in, or attempting to shade (shading being something that we poignantly don't tackle in this course).

• In your branches, there are a few things that I believe are contributing to the same problem. The issue is that your linework here is quite stiff, and as a result the segments that create each side don't flow smoothly into one another. Instead you end up with a lot of stray ends that stick out. The goal is, of course, to have them all flow from one to the next, overlapping their ends to create the illusion of a single line. I believe that this stiffness may be caused by you drawing more from your wrist than you should be, which in turn may be encouraged by how small the spaces between the ellipses are. I'd recommend spacing them out more and engaging your shoulder to achieve smoother, more confident and consistent strokes.

As for your plants, I have some general observations:

• I mentioned this in regards to the first exercise, but it's worth mentioning again. You aren't approaching the initial flow line of leaves/flower petals/etc with much attention - they're largely either drawn as a passing thought or not drawn at all, despite being the most important, driving element of that form.

• Whenever you think to put down a mark, consider what its purpose is. Think about what it's meant to achieve, and whether or not that can be achieved by another mark, or whether it is already being done by another stroke on the page. Think about the specific mark you want to put down. Then, if it contributes in a meaningful way to your construction, or communicates some important part of the drawing as a whole, then draw it confidently, using the ghosting method. Otherwise don't draw it. I'm noticing that you have a tendency of drawing a lot of contour lines, and when I see this from students it's usually because they're not really thinking about what each contour line is meant to achieve. Generally one or two that have been drawn confidently and properly is more than enough to achieve one's goal. More than that and you start weighing your drawing down with unnecessary linework.

• You're frequently drawing ellipses and ellipsoids but not drawing through them. You should be drawing through each and every ellipse you draw two full times before lifting your pen, focusing on drawing it with a confident, persistent pace.

• I also see places where you draw things lightly and then go back over them with a sort of 'clean up pass'. It was mentioned in the form intersections exercise from lesson 2, that this is not an approach I want you to use in these lessons. When adding line weight, you're not replacing existing lines or designating some lines as being part of the real drawing and others not. You're meant only to add weight to local sections of existing lines (never their entirety), specifically with the purpose of clarifying specific overlaps. If you try following along the entirety of an existing line, you're going to end up drawing slowly and carefully, and the result will be a wobbling, stiff line. Even line weight should be applied by using the ghosting method to ensure that it is done confidently and smoothly.

• Minor axes are an important tool for drawing cylinders and cylinder-like objects, as all the ellipses must be aligned to one another. These are missing from your flower pots and such.

• I'd recommend giving yourself a lot more room for each drawing - splitting each page into quadrants is forcing you to draw in a much more cramped space. Giving yourself room to work is pretty important, especially early on, when learning to deal with spatial problems. Working smaller causes us to stiffen up and make mistakes we may not have otherwise done.

Now, I am going to mark this lesson as complete, for the reasons I mentioned at the beginning of this critique. That said, you have a lot to work on here, and will be able to apply most of it in the next lesson. As for your question about boxes, in my previous reviews I gave you all the information you needed to self-assess, so there isn't going to be much gained from continuing to submit your boxes. Finally, about the reference, sure - if you've got it, go ahead and include it. If you don't, it's no big deal.

You'll find that on December 25th, the drawabox website is going to undergo a pretty significant change as I release the rebuild I've been working on for the past few months. This includes heavy revisions to the first two lessons' content, along with modifications through the others. I'd recommend reading through the first two lessons' material once that comes out, and before moving onto lesson 4.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2018-12-21 20:15

You're definitely showing a good deal of progress. There are a couple things I noticed:

• Early on, your linework was definitely a little more hesitant and wobbly. This got better as you moved through the set, and by the end your linework was considerably more confident, which is great to see.

• As you progressed through the set, I can see a tendency where you brought the vanishing points closer and closer to your box, causing the foreshortening to get more and more dramatic. This suggests to me that rather than improving how you handled a given problem (estimating convergence towards a variety of vanishing point locations) you changed the parameters of the problem to make it more manageable. By bringing the vanishing points closer, you changed the situation so it was easier for you to gauge those convergences more accurately. So, if you were to try to draw a box with shallower foreshortening (which is common amongst smaller, human-sized objects or things that are farther away), you would likely still struggle a great deal. Both shallow and dramatic foreshortening presents different kinds of challenges and are both important, so it's best to get a good mix of these going all through your exercise rather than having such a gradual shift like this.

• I hope you still plan to go over your last page with the line extension method to check your mistakes and identify where you need to improve. I'm assuming you left it blank for the sake of presentation, but it's always valuable to reflect upon your work in a constructive manner.

Anyway, you have definitely shown a good deal of progress over this set. Make sure you get some more practice in on shallower boxes - you can focus on them when doing warmups at the beginning of each sitting, as you continue to move forwards.

I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete. Since you haven't submitted lesson 1 yet, I'll be expecting that next.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2018-12-21 19:46

That was pretty quick! I can see that you took certain unfortunate shortcuts (only extending some lines as you got further into the set) which likely reduced the effectiveness of the exercise, but by and large I can see considerable improvement in a number of areas. The confidence of your linework and the solidity of your constructions has gotten considerably better. Your estimation for convergences definitely improved as well, though you definitely could have gotten much more out of this.

Extending all your lines really is important, and this becomes even more so as you get better and better, because the mistakes we make have a tendency to become more and more subtle as we improve. If you extend only certain sets of lines, then you might get better on those directions, but the other sides tend to compensate - if left unchecked, then they can go a bit crazy without you realizing it. That's why applying the method evenly across all axes is pretty important.

Also, try extending your lines further - a little bit is nice, but to get a really good sense of the nature of your lines and how they're converging towards their shared vanishing points, extending a line to twice its original length will tell you a great deal more. I'd recommend going over your last page in this manner - don't worry if things overlap. The different colours generally help making things a little more clear and easier to track.

Lastly, based on your last boxes, there's two things I want to suggest:

• When drawing a line, don't think about the lines with which it shares a corner, or the lines with which it shares a plane. Think about all the other lines that are to run parallel to it (of which there are 3), including those that haven't yet been drawn. Think about how they all converge towards their vanishing point and ignore the others.

• Furthermore, as you consider this, think about the angles between each pair of lines as they leave the VP. Lines with small angles at this point are going to end up running virtually parallel to one another when they reach the box itself, which is a very helpful thing to take advantage of. I explain this further here: https://i.imgur.com/8PqQLE0.png

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete. You've done a good job, but you could have done better. Even if it means taking more time, do everything in your power to follow the instructions carefully and completely.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"

2018-12-21 19:14

These are definitely looking much better. I can see considerable improvement, especially in the organic forms with contour curves. The forms are more solid, the contour lines are better aligned, and the lines themselves look much more varied and lively (due to the obvious effort gone into tapering them more naturally).

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next lesson (though I'd recommend holding off on that til Tuesday, when the new drawabox website is released.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2018-12-21 19:11

Pretty nice work! There are a few things that I want to draw to your attention, but by and large your cylinders are coming along fairly well. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Caught a lot of ellipses that you weren't drawing through - you're definitely getting better at hitting them in one go, but you should still be abiding by the rules of "always draw through each ellipse you draw for these lessons". It'll give you more practice with the muscle memory, and as you keep getting them tighter and tighter, you'll equally develop your ability to hit them in one go.

• You should be placing your ellipses so they sit entirely on the minor axis on both ends, rather than on the ends of the line, to help align to it more effectively.

• I'm a little unsure of whether or not you're aware of the degree shift in the ellipses. Some feel very samey, others seem right, and others feel like they might be shifting in the wrong direction. The closer end should have a narrower degree than the farther end, due to how the angle at which we see these surfaces changing through the length of the cylinder.

• You don't seem to have attempted any cylinders in boxes, as demonstrated in the video. This is something you should definitely practice as it comes into play a great deal when handling lesson 6 and 7. It's much easier to place a box in 3D space and then build a cylinder inside of it, than to place a cylinder around a minor axis in a specific position relative to other objects. This is something I expand on much more in the new version of the lessons coming out on Tuesday, so check that out at that time.

Anyway, your linework is looking very confident as always, so keep that up. Keep the bits I've mentioned here in mind, but I'll go ahead and mark the challenge as complete.