Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-15 18:09

Thanks for catching that! I've gone ahead and fixed it, and now no one will know my shame.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-15 02:07

Sooooo much better. So much. I'll mark this lesson as complete, so go ahead and move onto the next one.

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

2016-11-14 23:02

Really solid work! Your lines are looking smooth and well planned, your ellipses are even and confidently drawn with no sign of wavering or wobbling, and your boxes look and feel solid. I'm especially pleased with how carefully and closely you followed my instructions throughout the lesson.

There's a little bit of weakness in your rotated and organic perspective boxes, but you're still exceeding my expectations as far as this lesson goes, and the weakness is the sort that simply comes from not having enough practice with rotating boxes freely in 3D space at this point. And you're not meant to - those two exercises are just there to let you get your feet went and get used to the challenges involved.

The 250 box challenge is definitely a good idea, and it is what I was going to recommend as your next move. There are some additional notes on that challenge page, and while I'm sure you'll read through them as carefully as you have done here, it's especially important to look through the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular will help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space, ultimately helping you pin down those near/far plane issues that you were experiencing here.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Keep up the great work.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-14 22:51

Nice work! I'd say the solidity of your boxes and the confidence of your linework definitely improves over the set. I am still noticing some issues where you're drawing a bit more by reflex (like where you've got those doubled-up lines, likely resulting from immediately reinforcing a line right after putting down the first stroke) - that's definitely something you'll want to work towards avoiding. Any kind of drawing without thought is leaning towards some bad habits, so definitely work on that.

Aside from that, keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (new 30min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-14 22:47

Definitely much better! I can see a lot more construction and subdivision here - I particularly like the anvil, and the box cutter (or whatever kind of knife that is on the first page). The only thing I want to mention is that the shoe was definitely more of a situation where you'd use the technique I demonstrated in my computer mouse demo.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-14 22:44

Here's a couple things to keep in mind:

• When doing corrections, your focus should be on actually marking in the right line, rather than noting observations or circling things you think are wrong. Thinking about these things is certainly useful, but the most effective way to really train yourself to do it correctly is to actually put the correct line in. Focus particularly on issues like far planes being larger than near planes, as that is the most common issue people tend to have, and it isn't infrequent in your work as well (though in subtler ways).

• It can get a little confusing to interpret your boxes when drawing through them, so it can help to fill in one of the front-facing faces with some tight hatching like this.

• Always make sure you're applying the ghosting method to each and every line. Your line quality is improving, but here and there I can still see some lines that waver slightly, and that could have benefited from more preparation.

Anyway, keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-14 22:32

I'm honestly not seeing what you're seeing - your boxes are fine. There's plenty of room for improvement, but not a one is "beyond salvageable", and your last page is considerably stronger than - say - your third.

Drawing through your boxes naturally results in additional lines that make it sometimes more difficult to see the box itself, and perhaps this is something that is confusing you. These boxes can be interpreted in multiple ways (depending on which faces you see as facing the viewer), and some of those interpretations are flat out wrong - but they're not the interpretation that was used when the box was being drawn.

The way we usually solidify which interpretation should be used when viewing the box is to fill one of the front-facing faces in with tight, consistent hatching like this. This way, when you come back to the box some time later, you'll still know exactly which face is which.

When doing your corrections, the first thing you want to think about is your near/far planes, and how they relate to each other in size. If the far plane is larger than your near plane, that's the first and biggest clue that your lines aren't converging correctly as they move further away. If you're still struggling with understanding how those lines should be converging, your next step would be to actually extend those lines all the way back as far as you can (with a ruler) to get a better sense of where they all intersect with each other. Some of your lines won't intersect even if you take them all the way to the edge of the page - but by extending them, you will get a better sense of how they relate to one another.

The correction phase is extremely important, and should not be skipped, regardless of your reasons. That is where you actually concretely identify your mistakes, and where things went wrong. You can go as far as you need to, as far as plotting the actual perspective of each box. That is how you fix your ability to estimate - not that you seem to show any great deficiency in that area.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete. Keep up the good work - even if you don't seem to think it is so.

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

2016-11-14 01:07

That sounds about right, although it's understandably difficult to put to words. Ultimately the organic blob is just a silhouette - how that translates into three dimensions is the result of decisions made by the artist. Some decisions will mesh better with the resulting silhouette and will be easier to make believable, but ultimately there is a lot of freedom for the artist to explore how the form flows through space.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-12 23:11

Nice work! Your boxes and your general sense of 3D space certainly improves over the set. You've clearly approached each one with a great deal of care and focus. The only thing that I do want to point out is that right now your line quality is a little sketchy. Now this can be, and is at least in part due to you just trying to add line weight, which is fine. The lines you add when coming back to add weight to the otherwise completed drawing will improve in their accuracy as you continue to practice.

The other reason however relates to students immediately reinforcing a line right after putting it down - that is, putting down a mark without actually planning its execution properly. It's a bad habit to get into, so if you catch yourself doing it at all, definitely try and force yourself to stop and consider your actions. Every line should be drawn with a single mark, and any drawing by reflex should be avoided entirely.

Anyway, keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete!

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-11-12 23:08

Definitely a good choice. Your work here is quite well done. As you move forwards, I do want to recommend that you play a bit with constructing cylinders inside of boxes, as you'll find that this is necessary in order to line up a cylinder to other forms. Additionally, at the beginning of lesson 7 there's two videos (aside from the intro video) that go over some techniques that relate to drawing ellipses inside of planes. Be sure to watch those before jumping into the homework. They'll help explain while some of your cylinders here feel like they're a little bit narrower than they should be (which is totally normal when approaching cylinders in this way).

Anyway, aside from that keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-12 23:06

Definitely looking much better! Your sense of 3D space has definitely improved with these extra boxes, and your corrections are generally on point. Keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-12 00:19

The biggest thing that jumps out at me is that you're focusing more on meeting a certain quota of boxes, rather than actually executing each one with the utmost care and focus that you can muster. Ultimately, working with a mindset of quantity over quality will not get you terribly far.

On top of using the ghosting method for every mark (and not chicken scratching, as you seem to have been doing when adding line weight - this makes things look extremely messy), you're also being super sloppy with your hatching lines. I did mention this in my first critique of your work, but I do understand that you've done a lot of work since then so I understand your forgetting. Here's what I had said:

One last point about the rough perspective exercise - it's about your use of hatching for shading. Whenever you decide to use hatching, don't be sloppy about it - make sure the lines are tight, parallel and consistent, and that they stretch all the way from edge to edge. No lines floating in the middle of a plane, no zigzagging or anything like that.

That said, it is better to apply hatching to one front-oriented face just to clarify which side is which, but make sure you do it with more care. Each box should be a singular example of the best you can do. If I'm not critiquing the best you're capable of at this point in time, then my critiques can't help you that much.

I'd like to see you do just 25 more boxes, taking the utmost care with each and every one. Make sure you follow the ghosting method's steps, giving each one as much time as it requires). Also make sure you're drawing from your shoulder, not your wrist. It's just another 25, so make them as solid and fantastic as you can.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-12 00:00

The first part of your work - specifically the birds - is quite well done. Your bears are so-so, with their legs and heads starting to get rather weak, and that trend continues through the rest.

Overall your torsos aren't bad, but when it comes to the heads and legs, I don't feel that you're really paying enough attention to your reference image. There's a lot more drawing-from-memory (therefore drawing what you think you remember seeing, not what you're actually seeing), and as a result things tend to get way too simplified.

I'm usually quite okay with legs being more gestural and starting off as 2D shapes . That said, as you can see in this demo, I believe it's very important to clearly cut those 2D shapes at each joint, rather than leaving the shapes to be complicated. Always remember - simple to complex. By complexity, I'm referring to the kinds of details that involve a lot of change of direction in your line.

As far as construction goes, most of your heads are pretty well done - it's more about making sure you study your reference more carefully, and look back at it constantly. Don't draw for more than a second or two before turning back to your source, as your brain will immediately start simplifying everything it collected, reducing it to a sort of cartoony state (rather than the sort of simplification we were talking about before).

I'd like you to look through the lesson once more - watch the intro video, read through the notes and demos (and the less formal demos under the 'other demos' tab), then try two more pages of animal drawings. I think that if you can push yourself to observe your reference more carefully, you'll be able to do considerably better. Also, make sure that you're still keeping up with the exercises from lessons 1 and 2 regularly as part of a warmup regimen - picking two or three exercises each day (or as often as you can) to do for 10-15 minutes before moving onto that day's work.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-11 22:54

Not bad! One thing that does jump out at me though is the general quality of your linework. It's pretty well done, but I can see some signs that you're not necessarily applying the ghosting method to each one. For example, the first step of putting down points seems to be missing. As a result, I am noticing a few lines that are a bit wobbly, but more often it's more that your lines stop short of corners, or they're off in angle and trajectory. Putting more time and focus into ghosting through those lines before executing will definitely help.

Anyway, keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

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

2016-11-11 22:38

Pretty nicely done! Your arrows are pretty good. Your organic forms with contour lines demonstrate a good sense of form and a solid grasp of how those surfaces warp through 3D space. Your dissections have got a lot of interesting and varying texture experimentation - I did notice here and there that you did rely a bit more on randomness than you probably should have. Remember that while it is always more time consuming, driving each mark with intent and consideration generally has a much stronger result than figuring out a pattern and then attempting to execute it on auto-pilot.

Your form intersections are looking pretty solid, and for the most part your organic intersections are fine - just keep in mind that if you make your organic forms wobble, that's going to undermine their solidity. You always want to aim for the simplest possible form, as that is always the easiest to make seem solid. After that, you can pile on more forms to add more complex details (like bumps or what have you).

Anyway, keep up the good work and consider this lesson complete. Feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-11-09 21:49

Looking pretty good! You've definitely shown some significant improvement over the set. The only suggestion I have is similar to what I mentioned for your 250 box challenge - don't take the training wheels off too early. Start with your minor axis every time, draw it with the ghosting method to ensure that it's straight, and do everything you can to align your ellipses on that axis. This last point is definitely something you're clearly struggling with, and needs a fair bit of work.

Anyway, keep it up and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-09 01:38

Pretty nice work. Your boxes are coming along well, and your line weights are nicely done. There is some room to improve of course when it comes to the quality of your lines (they're generally okay, but I do see a bit of wavering and wobbling here and there). Additionally, it does help if you fill one of the front faces with some tight hatching. This gives a visual cue as to which side of the box is facing the viewer.

Anyway, consider this challenge complete and keep up the great work.

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

2016-11-09 01:36

Looking great! I've had a pretty busy day, and I wasn't looking forward to doing critiques - I'm very pleased to see that this one should be pretty easy, since you've more or less nailed each exercise. Your arrows flow nicely through 3D space, your organic forms with contour lines push a strong illusion of volume and form, your dissections (despite your own apparent judgment) are coming along great, the forms in your form intersections all feel consistent and cohesive within the same space, and your organic intersections demonstrate a pretty good sense of how those forms would interact with one another, in terms of where their weight is supported, and when they would otherwise sag against their neighbours.

I'm honestly a little puzzled as to why you felt your dissections didn't turn out well. If you ask me, you've experimented with a wide variety of textures, and have applied a slew of different approaches towards capturing them. I don't see a single inappropriate use of hatching, any reliance on randomness, or anything particularly distracting or noisy.

There can be a lot of harm in setting the bar too high for yourself. Confidence is important, but if you never allow yourself to take pride in your results, you will encounter some serious negative effects. Also, if you'd like to try your hand at the 25 texture challenge that's great, but do it alongside other lessons. It's not the sort of challenge that should be completed all at once, but rather should be spread out over a long period of time. You'll find that I mention that in the challenge itself.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete so feel free to move onto the next one. Also, I wanted to mention that it seems that you've turned your flair off. I'd appreciate it if you turned it back on (by checking the "Show my flair on this subreddit" box on the sidebar). I use it to keep track of who is eligible for critiques, and what lessons they have completed thus far.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (new 30min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-09 01:17

You've done some really fantastic work here. I especially love the webcam and the bike light - both reasonably complex forms with a lot of careful planning and subdivision required, but you did a great job with each of them. You've got a lot of other good stuff, but those were the two that really stood out to me.

In general, I have no complaints (aside from the fact that your writing is near illegible - i think all I can make out is a lot of "fuck fuck fuck" :P). You've demonstrated a solid grasp of the material covered in the lesson, and definitely exceeded my expectations based on your previous progression. And it was nice to see the Canadian quarter, too!

Feel free to move onto the next lesson. I think you might enjoy that one more, since you have the freedom to use a ruler (and an ellipse guide if you happen to have one). Might help keep things cleaner - and honestly, if you want, I give you my permission to use a 0.1mm felt tip pen.

By the way, you should definitely post that photo of the year's work to the subreddit! I'm sure it'd be motivating to some of the newer members (and might help give them a sense of just how much work needs to be put in).

Uncomfortable in the post "A demo I did for a student about the importance of using simple forms when trying to convey solidity"

2016-11-08 19:46

I see. Honestly, I think this particular approach demands a bit more skill - at least to me, it's clear that you are already able to visualize (or at least display a subconscious awareness of) the simpler forms that make up the more complex blobby mass. Ultimately I want my students to work up to that.

Great sense of form and line weight by the way!

Uncomfortable in the post "A demo I did for a student about the importance of using simple forms when trying to convey solidity"

2016-11-08 16:44

Interesting example - though I agree, there is a fair bit of line weight variation. The lines are quite dynamic.

Uncomfortable in the post "A demo I did for a student about the importance of using simple forms when trying to convey solidity"

2016-11-08 16:43

The choice of tool - that is, the felt tip pen - is geared towards forcing students to gradually come to grips with having to control the amount of pressure they use. When they start out, they'll naturally be going from 0 to full pressure with nothing in between, resulting in clunky looking linework. As they continue to push forwards, the nuance will begin to come out in little ways. It's a gradual thing, but any and all drawing with your felt tip pen will help. Furthermore, just being aware of the difference between uniform/dynamic lines will also push you in the right direction.

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

2016-11-08 15:25

Oh, I should remove that. There was a video, but it wasn't a good one so I got rid of it.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-11-08 15:21

It's actually the end that's closer - so those are supposed to be skinnier than the far end, but it's easy for them to get too skinny.

Uncomfortable in the post "A demo I did for a student about the importance of using simple forms when trying to convey solidity"

2016-11-08 13:52

You've got me all curious now - could you share a few examples of this style? It's be interesting to see ways that more uniform linework can be used. Although come to think of it, I have seen some oekaki-board work that might fit your description.

Uncomfortable in the post "A demo I did for a student about the importance of using simple forms when trying to convey solidity"

2016-11-08 13:51

Oh I don't know about that - I think it varies considerably from subreddit to subreddit. Just gotta find the right niche.

Uncomfortable in the post "A demo I did for a student about the importance of using simple forms when trying to convey solidity"

2016-11-08 13:49

The last step is kind of superfluous, just there for the sake of completeness. Every step before that however focuses entirely on form/construction - things do get more detailed, but that's due to the fact that we're breaking things down into more and more specific forms. If you get a chance, I'd love to see an example of your approach, so I can better understand what you're describing there.

Uncomfortable in the post "A demo I did for a student about the importance of using simple forms when trying to convey solidity"

2016-11-08 13:39

Aww, you're makin' me blush.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (new 40min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-07 22:38

Definitely missing a lot of what was covered in the lesson. This might help (also I'll be sharing this demo with the rest of the community as the issues you're struggling with are difficult for a lot of people). There's two major points that I outline there - first of all, your forms aren't solid. Or rather, they're not really forms - none of them read as three dimensional objects, they're mostly 2D shapes. The other point is something I raised before - you're still working from memory. You're not studying your reference closely enough.

The approach we use relies very heavily on breaking things down into small units - add a simple organic form. Pile another organic form onto it. Draw a line from here to there. Wrap a contour line around your form. And so on. Each and every one of these units should be informed by you looking at and studying your reference. There's a whole lot of information contained there, but you're not acknowledging it in your choices.

Now, your drawings do improve somewhat over the set. Your last two spiders are alright (though their pedipalps feel very flat where they're supposed to connect to the rest of the head). Still, you need to work harder at really nailing this form thing down.

Give the homework yet another try.

Uncomfortable in the post "/r/ArtFundamentals and Drawabox.com: A New Beginning. Read this if you're new to this subreddit."

2016-11-07 21:43

Still trying to figure out how to approach it. It's been somewhat more difficult than I thought, and we've actually been hit with some pretty tight deadlines at work - so it might not happen for a bit. It's still on my mind though.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (new 30min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-07 20:46

Not bad! There's definitely plenty of room for improvement, but you're moving in the right direction. I can see you pushing yourself to break those objects down into more rudimentary form, and working towards applying the different techniques and approaches I covered in the lesson.

One thing that does jump out at me is that here and there you seemed to work a bit too small, and that did end up turning against you by making the process considerably more difficult. A good example of this is your page of computer mice. You really did need the additional room to think through those spatial problems. Without it, things definitely got much stiffer, and little mistakes carried much more weight than they might have had the drawing been bigger.

In addition, I do see some places where your basic straight lines waver more than they should - keep pushing yourself to ghost through your lines wherever possible, in order to keep those basic parts of your drawing as clean and precise as possible.

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Keep what I've mentioned here in mind, but go ahead and move onto the next lesson. You also may want to look into completing the 250 cylinder challenge.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-07 20:42

Nice work! Solid boxes, good corrections (even when they're off, it's all a process that improves over time with repetition), and I'm especially pleased to see that while you started off drawing your boxes quite small, you transitioned into drawing them larger. This is generally a good idea, as it gives you more room to think through the spatial problems.

Keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete.

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

2016-11-07 20:40

Really great work! I have just a couple of points I'd like to raise, but generally the quality of your work is quite high. Here's the two major things I noticed:

• Just a minor thing - work towards tightening up your ellipses. The way you approached them is totally fine right now, but as you move forwards and practice them, you'll want to gradually shift towards getting those multiple passes (from drawing through them) to start lining up more closely. Of course, the confidence of your stroke is most important - so just thinking about tightening them up, with no additional conscious changes to your approach should be enough to get you to move in that direction.

• Your organic perspective boxes' line quality is reaaally messy. You should be applying the ghosting method to each and every mark you put down, and you should absolutely avoid any kind of chicken-scratching or reflexive correction/reinforcing as you draw. Every mark should be the result of planning and consideration. I do fully understand that this exercise is challenging in nature, and it's easy to fall back to particularly bad habits when overwhelmed by something - but you've made it very clear through the rest of your work that you're completely capable of thinking through these challenges more than you have here. That said, I do like the fact that you drew through your boxes (which is usually something I introduce people to after completing this lesson, looks like you're ahead of the curve).

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge. Be sure to read through all of the notes. In this case, you're primarily going to be focusing on applying the ghosting method to each line, and generally thinking through and planning your approach for each problem.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-07 20:35

Nice work. I do think it would have been better though to draw through all of the boxes instead of alternating between pages. Generally your understanding of those boxes and how they sit in 3D space is improving to be sure, but when you don't draw through your boxes, you still have more of a tendency to draw your far planes too large. A good example of this is 232. This is the sort of thing that comes with practice - it does take a lot of boxes, but gradually drawing through them becomes something you internalize.

Anyway, congrats on completing the challenge!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-06 17:31

Pretty well done! For the most part your construction is coming along well, though I did notice that here and there you have a tendency to change the 2D shape of some animals' torsos without actually following the constructional approach of attaching more organic forms. Here's what I mean.

I really, really liked your dogs by the way - the feel very solidly constructed, and you've captured a lot of their lively energy.

I'll go ahead and move onto the next lesson, so feel free to go onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-06 17:19

Congratulations on completing the challenge. That said, there's two significant issues in your approach to this challenge that I can see:

• First and foremost, you're drawing your boxes way too small. It's common for students to draw smaller when faced with a challenge that feels intimidating - unfortunately this results in far less room to think through the spatial problems involved in constructing 3D forms. Additionally, it has the negative effect of your pen tip being significantly larger relative to the overall size of the drawing, resulting in really thick, clunky and stiff-looking linework.

• You did not go back over your boxes to draw in corrections as instructed. With a different coloured pen, you should go back over the whole set, find mistakes (for example, near planes being smaller than far planes, then actually draw in the correct lines. You'll find that you exhibit a lot of issues like that. Ultimately correcting in this way (that is, separately from the initial drawing phase so as to avoid the bad habit of immediately correcting right after drawing a mark) will help you to learn from your mistakes, as it forces you to analyze each one. In order to grow, we must first fail a whole heck of a lot, and then review why and how we failed.

Since you did draw 250 boxes, I will mark this as complete. As you said however, it'll take much more for you to master boxes, but following the two points I outlined above will help you get there a little more efficiently.

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

2016-11-06 17:10

They are looking better. The issue you're running into about the axis/ellipse not matching up is because the axis, by definition, should be running straight through the center of the form. Many of yours are not - this is pretty normal though, and happens to most people. When this occurs, you simply need to try and compensate, using the line you've drawn as a sort of suggestion, but drawing the ellipse relative to a more central line (that you visualize, rather than draw). The line, even when incorrect, will help you with that visualization.

As for the dissections, what I said was based entirely off what I saw. Your own description of your process highlights the step you skipped - drawing contour lines on the organic forms. You skipped from the organic shape to texture. If you look at the exercise description in the lesson, you'll see that I start off with the result of one of the organic forms with contour lines exercises, so that what I am working on is a sausage form that conveys the illusion of 3D form. From there, the dissection part of the exercise takes over, cutting the form into segments and then applying texture to those surfaces, wrapping it around the form.

Anyway, I'll mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one. You should still continue to keep up with the exercises from lessons 1 and 2, picking two or three each day to do as a warmup for 10-15 minutes before starting on the day's work.

As for the 25 texture challenge, I mention this on that page:

Again, I really want to make this clear - this is a lot of work. Don't even think about trying to do it in one sitting (as if such a thing were even possible). 25 may not sound like a lot in the face of the 250 boxes, but it is a tonne when you consider just how much detail I'm expecting you to cram into each texture square. Since this is not a required lesson, nothing else depends on your completion of this. It's not holding you back from moving onto anything else. So, work on this slowly, while you work on other things. Spreading it over a long period of time is likely going to allow you to benefit more from it, anyway.

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

2016-11-04 21:55

Excellent work! Your lines are looking fantastic - very smooth and straight. Your ellipses are also well done, exhibiting a lot of confidence in your approach with no visible sign of wobbling or unevenness. Your boxes are generally strong as well, though I do have a few recommendations in that area:

• For your rough perspective boxes, something I recommend to everyone - be sure to go over your completed work for this exercise as described here

• For your rotated boxes, note that with each successive rotation, the actual rotation of the box is going to start to feel more extreme. So while the actual rotation itself is going to be consistent (lets say 30 degrees per box), what you're going to see is that those further out from the center will feel like they've rotated more. Right now your far left/right look to be more or less parallel with the boxes beside them (as though they're both heading towards the same vanishing point.

• Your organic perspective boxes are coming along well - I do want to point out that this exercise was included as a means for students to get their feet wet with the challenges involved in rotating boxes freely in 3D space. It's not an easy thing, and I don't expect anyone to be submitting perfect work here. There are plenty of things you can work on with this, and you'll be given that opportunity. One thing I'm noticing a lot of though is extreme foreshortening, which is causing your scale to feel inconsistent.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next to get some more work in on that last bit. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space.

Uncomfortable in the post "25 Texture Challenge - fleshed out into an actual challenge for those of you struggling with how to render different materials"

2016-11-04 20:02

Excellent work! I think what stands out the most here is that you're exhibiting a strong understanding of how forms can bleed into one another, and how while the distinction between different forms remains, the lines that define them in the drawing can disappear and reappear throughout. You've demonstrated a lot of patience and care, and have experimented with a broad range of textures with great results. Admittedly, my wrists ache a little from looking at this - I can't imagine how exhausted you must be.

Keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete. If you don't mind, I've marked this particular submission off on my spreadsheet as being particularly exemplary, so I may use some of the images in the future to show students what to aim towards.

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

2016-11-03 21:20

Pretty nice work! Your lines are looking smooth and straight, and your ellipses are confident and evenly shaped. In general your boxes have also been executed quite well. In your rough perspective boxes, I can see some signs of needing to work on your use of the ghosting method, but the last few slips, arcs and uncertainties should fade away with practice.

For your organic perspective boxes, I do want to point out that this exercise was really intended to be a first exposure to the challenges of rotating boxes freely in 3D space, with no real expectation of students nailing it this early on. In that sense, you're doing great - definitely a little ahead of my expectations. That said, you still do need some work in this area, as I'm seeing some issues with your near/far plane size relationships here and there, and a few skewed angles. Again, this is totally normal.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. It's that in particular that should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space, ultimately allowing you to identify mistakes with your near/far planes and the general angles of your lines more easily. Keep up the great work!

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-11-03 21:13

Nice work! Your cylinders are coming along great. As you pushed through these, I'm sure you started to realize that sometimes some ellipses seemed to come out a little too skinny - I actually explain how to figure out which degree is appropriate in a specific situation in this video. Be sure to watch it, as it comes in handy when you start to get into more technical and specific applications of cylinders.

Anyway, keep up the solid work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles (new 40min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-02 23:24

Aaaand an hour or two later, I remembered there was another part to your question. Now that you've completed this lesson set, you should be okay to practice in digital media. Just make sure you reread this article so you can be more aware of the certain challenges (that aren't necessarily always obvious) that come up when working digitally.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles (new 40min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-02 22:09

Ah, yeah, the thread must have gotten locked for being too old. Usually in this situation I create a new one, but I'm not sure I will just yet. Reason being, I'm not at all pleased with my figure drawing lessons, and am sure that I can do better. Rewriting those lessons is next up on my list, I just have to get a solid grasp of how exactly I want to go about it.

If you want to submit homework for that lesson, I guess you could send me a PM and I can critique it there. For now I'm going to wait until I rewrite those lessons before I actually post the homework threads again (since I'll want to draw attention to the new versions, as opposed to the old ones).

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

2016-11-02 22:07

Looking great! Your line quality's quite nice, and I especially like your ellipses. They have a strong sense of confidence, which leads to very smooth strokes and even shapes. Your boxes are also quite well done. Good use of line weight, leading to some very solid forms that convey the illusion of weight quite well.

I have only one thing I'd like to point out - in your organic perspective boxes, you have a tendency to apply somewhat overly dramatic foreshortening on your boxes. This causes the sense of scale overall to become rather inconsistent. Your second page is better on this front, but swings a bit too much in the opposite direction in terms of many of your boxes now having far planes that are larger than their corresponding near planes. These are very common mistakes, and are by no means unexpected at this stage.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through the notes there, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space, and ultimately improve your ability to identify areas where your near/far plane relationships fall out of whack.

Keep up the great work!

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-11-02 22:03

I really, really can't stress the importance of following directions enough. I totally get missing some of the content in those extremely dense lessons, but I made a very direct recommendation to you in my last critique, right when I told you to move onto the 250 box challenge.

I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next to get more practice with those arbitrarily rotated boxes. Be sure to read through the notes on that challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. That one in particular should help you get a better grasp on how each box sits in 3D space.

You mention getting confused by the 'form lines', I can only guess that you're referring to these particular lines. They can be quite confusing, but you should never ignore an instruction just because it poses a challenge or some difficulty. In this case though, there is a way to help reduce the confusion. By filling one front-facing plane with tight, parallel, clean hatching that stretches all the way across the plane from edge to edge, you can give your brain a visual cue, telling it which side is which. It'd look something like this: https://i.imgur.com/4RJOfwK.jpg

Additionally, notice how that student did their corrections by drawing the right lines in? This is also what you should be doing. Identifying mistakes is all good and well, but the real growth comes from figuring out what the correct mark should be, and putting it down on the page.

Before I mark this challenge as complete, I want you to try another hundred boxes - this time, follow the instructions to the letter.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (new 30min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-11-01 21:40

Honestly, I'm really impressed. I think you've done an excellent job of applying the concepts I covered in the lesson, and many of your drawings show both strong observational skills and a really solid grasp of construction. You've done a great job of using subdivision, as well as some of the other more technical tricks I mentioned.

There's always going to be some room for improvement, but that's just a matter of practice. Here and there your initial boxes are a little bit off, and this does affect the resulting object (like the phone's proportions were definitely skewed and your box's foreshortening was really dramatic so the result was weird) but I'm glad that you still stuck through applying the methodology.

Keep up the fantastic work, and consider this lesson complete. Your pens may all be dead, but they've died for a good cause!

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

2016-11-01 20:13

Very nice work! And I'm glad that you enjoyed it more the second time around, and that you took the time to correct the things you noticed on the self critique resources page.

Your lines are exceptionally well done - they're confidently drawn and quite precise. Your ellipses are also very smooth and even, without any significant signs of wobbling.

For your boxes, there's just a couple things I want to mention - they're minor points for now, just things to be aware of as you move forwards. Firstly, for your rough perspective boxes, I noticed here and there a little bit of deviation in the alignment of your horizontals - I'm sure that you're fully aware of this already, but I want to stress the importance of keeping your horizontals as close to parallel to the horizon as you can manage, and keeping your verticals perpendicular to it. Obviously this will improve with practice, so keep up the good work.

For your rotated boxes, as you get further out to the sides, you'll notice that the boxes there have to rotate a little further each time - so the far left and far right boxes aren't quite pushed as far as they should. I am glad to see though that even though you placed your extremities out too far, you didn't stretch your boxes out to meet them. I actually placed mine too far out when doing the examples, but luckily I was working digitally so no one will ever know! :D

Lastly, your organic perspective boxes are coming along well. Admittedly this exercise was included to give students the chance to get acquainted with the challenges involved in rotating boxes freely in 3D space. This is particularly difficult, and I by no means expected students to nail it this early on. You're doing a decent job, though I am noticing that you do have subtle issues like some far planes coming out larger than near planes. Keep an eye on that.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular should help you better grasp how each box sits in 3D space, and will also make issues like the near/far plane problem more noticeable.

Keep up the great work!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-10-31 20:15

I'll mark this lesson as complete, but there's a few things I want to bring your attention to:

• At every step of the constructional process, you need to make sure you feel confident that what you've drawn feels three dimensional before moving forwards. That means that if you've connected your ribcage and pelvis into a sausage form, but it doesn't feel entirely 3D, do something to reinforce that illusion of form. Usually this means adding a contour curve or two.

• Don't draw lines and then ignore them - whatever you've created at the end of a given step is like solid stone. It cannot be ignored, it has to be carved or have more forms added to it.

• You tend to draw your ribcages too small. For most animals, it's going to take up something like half of the torso, if not more. Think of it this way - the ribcage houses the lungs, the heart, and so on. These are massive organs, they're not all going to fit in the space between the front legs.

• You still need to pay a lot more attention to your reference images. This will improve over time, but you've got to force yourself to constantly look back, not to work from memory, and to pay attention to the proportions of things, how individual forms and objects relate to one another. You definitely are improving, but you've a long way to go.

• When it comes to limbs, you've got to think in terms of segments. For example, the legs on your horse don't have any break points establishing joints. They have bends, but these bends are not as concrete as the closing of a segment would be. Dealing with the legs in terms of shape rather than form is fine, but you still need to close off those shapes in order to ensure that you are building up from simple to complex. A whole leg of three segments is a lot more complex than each individual segment being represented by its own self-enclosed shape.

Anyway, keep at it. You're free to move onto the next lesson, and I do think that the next lesson will be quite challenging for you. If done properly, it will force you to think more in terms of solid, simple geometry being combined together to create complex objects. The subject matter we've been dealing with so far has been largely organic, which gives a lot of leeway in terms of making those kinds of decisions, letting students get by without thinking as much in terms of individual rudimentary forms. If that same approach is applied in lesson 6, things will not feel solid. Make sure you watch the intro video and follow the demos closely and carefully.

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

2016-10-31 20:05

As /u/anchpop remarked, your shading on your arrows is technically correct. I totally see what you mean, and at first my eyes got a little confused, but there's actually nothing inconsistent about how you've done that. Of course, there's a difference between you doing something unintentionally but it still being correct. Either way, not that big of a deal. Additionally, your arrows are pretty well done in terms of how they flow through 3D space.

Your organic forms need some work. The biggest thing that jumps out at me is that you're pushing yourself to play with some extremely complex forms, though this actually doesn't offer any advantage to you. In most cases it's actually considerably more effective to get a solid grasp of simple organic forms - for example, focusing entirely on basic sausage forms. More complexity, more branching, and so on will result in forms that feel much less solid. It will also take your focus away from the core challenges of this exercise. This includes:

• Aligning your contour ellipses/curves to the minor axis line that passes through the centre of each form

• Keeping your contour ellipses smooth and even, drawing them confidently and from your shoulder

• Considering the degree of each ellipse/curve, and considering what you want to communicate about the form's path through 3D space. Think of the organic form as already following a particular path - you are merely marking out cross-sections of this form, each one being perpendicular to its flow through space. The degree of each ellipse/curve represents a certain orientation of that cross-section. I explain this both in this video and in these notes.

By easing up on the artificial complexity you're introducing through your initial shapes, you can really focus on what it means to reinforce the illusion of form and volume.

Your dissections are looking good - lots of interesting experimentation going on. The only thing I want to point out is that this exercise is meant to start off as just another organic form with contour curves. This means that when you begin, you should not be putting any thought into the textures you wish to use, or how you want to dissect the form.

As for your question, it's okay to look at how other people translate a texture, but it is best to do so with the original texture on hand as well, so you can try to apply their logic as a means to understand and translate the original on your own. One thing to keep in mind though is that there are two stages to learning how to draw texture (I explain this here) - the first one is where you're just doing what you can to observe, study, and translate all the detail as faithfully as you can. This means no simplification, no organization, and the result is going to be very noisy and distracting. Once you fully grasp that, then the second stage is to learn to organize it. There's nothing wrong with not reaching the second phase just yet, and often jumping into it too early can result in not having spent enough time in the first.

As for what you show me, all I'm interested in seeing is the best you are capable of right now. This means that if you feel you were sloppy in your attempt, and that you did not focus enough, you should probably do it again. Conversely, if you put forward your best effort, and the result was garbage, that's perfectly fine. Submit it anyway. The road you're walking is going to be filled with all kinds of failures - you'll only grow by falling and scraping your knees. When you do, you'll get back up and look at why exactly you fell down - or better yet, you'll ask someone else (me) why it happened. Then you'll apply what you learn, and keep moving forwards. If you're preoccupied with never falling, you won't move forward with any confidence, and ultimately won't get very far.

Your form intersections are fundamentally okay, just note that in the lesson I mentioned that you should stay away from forms that are overly stretched in any one dimension (like long boxes or long tubes). This makes the exercise more complex than it needs to be by adding too much perspective distortion into the mix, ultimately distracting you from focusing on drawing forms together in the same space in a way that feels cohesive and consistent.

The only thing I want to mention about the organic intersections is that, while you've done reasonably okay, you should give a little more thought to believable physics when doing this exercise. It's all very much about understanding where a form's weight is supported, and where it's not. When it's supported, one of these sausage-like forms will tend to wrap around the object supporting it. When it's not supported, it will sag under its own weight. As such, physics plays a big role, and so if you've got some serious instability in the way things are stacked, it's definitely going to influence your overall mindset as far as those physics are concerned. While your sagging/supporting aspects are okay, consider how unstable the overall system is, and how it should probably be tumbling apart.

Now, before I mark this lesson as complete, I want to see one more page of organic forms with contour ellipses, and one more page of organic forms with contour curves. Keep the points I raised above in mind, and make sure you stick to simple sausage forms.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2016-10-31 18:12

By the way, sorry about forgetting to add the 250 box challenge badge. It should be there now.