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Uncomfortable in the post "I have never ever had any training or lessons in painting. Totally self taught."

2022-05-16 18:25

Very cool, but you should check the submission guidelines for any given community before sharing your work there. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here.

Try posting this on /r/painting or /r/idap instead.

Uncomfortable in the post "PDF/EPUB Version of The Art of Blizzard Entertainment?"

2022-05-15 18:54

It appears that no ebook version of the book was produced for sale, unfortunately.

Uncomfortable in the post "HELP:250 CYLINDER CHALLENGE"

2022-05-15 16:20

So there are a few misunderstandings here:

Uncomfortable in the post "Doodle"

2022-05-15 16:16

Try posting this over on /r/drawing or /r/idap. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here.

Uncomfortable in the post "Can you help me?"

2022-05-15 16:15

This kind of question is better suited to communities like /r/learnart or /r/digitalart (as mentioned in this community's submission guidelines). This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here.

Uncomfortable in the post "The feeling"

2022-05-15 16:14

Try posting this on /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, which focus on the core fundamentals of drawing. In order to increase the likelihood of students getting responses to their homework submissions and answers to their course-related questions, we do have to keep the focus of the subreddit fairly narrow.

Those more general communities I recommended may be more suitable for your post.

For what it's worth, I'm inclined to think those visual effects speak more to the brain's tendency towards pattern recognition, which leads to an effect known as 'pareidolia'. That's specifically the effect of seeing human faces or other such common, recognizable things in random arrangements, but in the case of drawing, when our brain identifies such patterns, it's prone to making assumptions rather than working strictly off what it sees. The exercise of flipping the image upside down is specifically one that demonstrates humans' tendency towards rely on what they think is there, and what they recall, rather than what is actually in front of them. Eliminating the familiarity with the object by flipping it upside down also eliminates, to a point, the urge to make such assumptions.

Another point that may be of interest to you is aphantasia - the condition where some people (myself included) have no 'mind's eye' - or more accurately no or at least a limited visual component to the things they imagine. You can learn more about this in this video I produced for the Proko youtube channel.

Uncomfortable in the post "getting started with drawing, will be a pro in next 10 years (btw am only 16 yr old)"

2022-05-15 16:06

Try posting this on /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, which focus on the core fundamentals of drawing. In order to increase the likelihood of students getting responses to their homework submissions and answers to their course-related questions, we do have to keep the focus of the subreddit fairly narrow.

Those more general communities I recommended may be more suitable for your post.

Uncomfortable in the post "Physical version of the course?"

2022-05-11 18:11

Unfortunately there is no book version of this course, because in a manner of speaking, the course is technically still under development. I expect the next round of overhauls (which is currently in process) should bring us to a point where we can explore publishing an actual book, but creating a physical version of the course is far from a high priority for us.

That said, Drawabox is a course that was designed as a text course first and foremost. Videos were kind of forced upon me by the will of the community (resulting in a lot of shitty videos that serve more as supporting material to the written content), although with our overhaul we're trying to increase overall parity.

We still do encourage students to go through both the text and the videos, as absorbing the information from multiple angles helps promote greater overall absorption of that information, but ultimately if you were to pick one of the two, the text would be the better option. Text is more easily updated as the material evolves, whereas videos have a tendency to lag behind.

Of course, again - one should use both, ideally. Even when we do one day publish a book, it's going to include QRCodes that link off to the video material.

Uncomfortable in the post "I started learning water painting yesterday and I need to know how do you blend colors properly and how do you prevent color drift"

2022-05-09 14:44

This question is better suited to /r/learnart. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here.

Uncomfortable in the post "HELP: DRAWABOX LESSON 2 (can anyone help me out with my contour sausages? They don't seem to look 3d despite placing the contour curves.)"

2022-05-08 15:47

This subreddit doesn't allow single exercises or partial work, as explained here. You can however get feedback on individual exercises on the discord chat server though, and the folks there would be happy to help you out. For the subreddit, we're pushing students to post complete lesson work.

For all intents and purposes however, your contour curves here are coming along well - they're actually better than the contour ellipses in the top left, where you're not shifting their degree. The contour curves on the other hand are correctly shifting towards becoming wider as we slide further away from the viewer.

Uncomfortable in the post "21 y/o, new to art & I need your help"

2022-05-08 15:46

I'd recommend asking this over on /r/learnart. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here. Of course, you may be interested in looking into drawabox as well, as it's a free course that explores the core fundamentals of drawing. Not all of them, mind you, but the video about the fundamentals on this page early on explains what we cover, what we don't, and why.

I would still recommend however that you ask this over on /r/learnart, as that should get you a more varied set of answers and recommendations.

Uncomfortable in the post "Yesterday, we dropped a new video about the concepts around the 50% rule. This is without exception, the most important video of the entire course."

2022-05-07 00:28

Generally I think that should be fine, but it comes back to a simple rule: are you choosing to draw a particular thing because it genuinely interests you, or because it's easier/safer than the things that do?

Uncomfortable in the post "Wanting to find drawing books on apothecary."

2022-05-07 00:26

You'll want to ask this over on a more general subreddit, like /r/learnart. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here.

Uncomfortable in the post "Question on Patreon membership"

2022-05-05 17:26

Unfortunately we don't accept any alternative forms of payment right now. I don't know if we'll ever lean towards accepting cryptocurrency, but while we do have plans to eventually accept payment outside of Patreon, that's the only option we have set up at this time.

Uncomfortable in the post "Where can i start the lessons?"

2022-05-05 15:38

Take a look at the sticky post.

Uncomfortable in the post "lesson 2 - texture analysis. im struggling with transitioning without shading. feedback/advice please? ty!!"

2022-05-04 15:55

This subreddit doesn't allow single exercises or partial work, as explained here. You can however get feedback on individual exercises on the discord chat server though, and the folks there would be happy to help you out. For the subreddit, we're pushing students to post complete lesson work.

That said, your work here is coming along just fine - and you've already done more of it than was assigned, which as discussed in this video from Lesson 0 states you should avoid.

Don't fall into the trap of grinding - move onto the next exercise, and submit the whole lot for feedback when you're done.

Uncomfortable in the post "Yesterday, we dropped a new video about the concepts around the 50% rule. This is without exception, the most important video of the entire course."

2022-05-03 16:57

It's a good start. At the end of the day however, I think it's important to ask ourselves if we're actively choosing to do one thing over another - for example, playing with new materials (a low-risk activity with no clear outcome to strive towards) versus, say, drawing something with a clearer sense of success/failure.

That's not to say that we should be striving for that success (given that this contradicts the core purpose of the 50% rule), but rather that there is a definite possibility that some people will actively then go on to avoid anything with a clear goal, given the fear that they aren't equipped to achieve it as they'd like right now.

If it's really just because you're interested in playing with new media, then absolutely, have at it. Just always be sure to reflect on the motivations of why you want to do that for your 50% rule, over something that can potentially be a lot more intimidating.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2 Possible Contradiction?"

2022-05-03 16:28

Hm, that definitely is something that could use some clarification. Texture in general is not about drawing the shadows we see, except for that specific part of the texture analysis exercise, where the focus is on being 100% observational at that moment, to get students used to the idea of analyzing what they're actually seeing, so that they can then use that information to understand the forms as they exist in three dimensions, and then use that understanding when drawing the gradient portion of the exercise.

Uncomfortable in the post "Collection of doodads?"

2022-05-01 00:31

Try asking this over on /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here, but the two other communities I recommended are better suited to more general posts and questions.

Uncomfortable in the post "Just started the boxes, needs improved but not sure what I am a missing thoughts?"

2022-05-01 00:26

This subreddit doesn't allow single exercises or partial work, as explained here. You can however get feedback on individual exercises on the discord chat server though, and the folks there would be happy to help you out. For the subreddit, we're pushing students to post complete lesson work.

That said, the only thing you're missing is the first step, which was to draw a rectangular frame in which the exercise would be performed (and then again twice more on the same page).

Uncomfortable in the post "I practice drawing in Blender every day"

2022-04-29 15:47

This subreddit doesn't allow single exercises or partial work, as explained here. You can however get feedback on individual exercises on the discord chat server though, and the folks there would be happy to help you out. For the subreddit, we're pushing students to post complete lesson work.

That said, it's always good to see students warming up with these exercises. Just be sure to draw through the ellipses for your tables of ellipses, going around the shape two full times before lifting your pen. Also, on your organic forms with contour lines, be sure to shift the degree of your ellipse wider as we move farther away from the viewer along the sausage's length.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1 so far just boxes left so i want help please"

2022-04-28 20:22

This subreddit doesn't allow single exercises or partial work, as explained here. You can however get feedback on individual exercises on the discord chat server though, and the folks there would be happy to help you out. For the subreddit, we're pushing students to post complete lesson work.

Uncomfortable in the post "is drawing 7h/week enough?"

2022-04-28 19:14

7 hours a week is plenty - though I would recommend asking this over on /r/learnart instead. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here. In our course, we've got plenty of students balancing a full time job at the same time, so all we ask is that students try and keep things regular, even if it means shorter periods a few times a week, rather than a big session once in a blue moon.

Uncomfortable in the post "I can't request an official critique for Lesson 2! Help"

2022-04-26 20:19

I ended up checking your post history and found a link to your Lesson 2 submission, so I was able to find your username that way. It seems that your box challenge submission was not submitted for official critique- you'd forgotten to toggle on the official critique option, so the feedback you received was frol another student, not a teaching assistant.

You'll need to submit your box challenge work for official critique. Once you have it marked as complete, you can email me at support@drawabox.com to have the dates shifted around so you won't have to wait the 2 week cool down. That said, I highly recommend that you redo any exercises that you feel still show any of the issues the TA calls out in your box challenge work.

Uncomfortable in the post "I can't request an official critique for Lesson 2! Help"

2022-04-26 18:07

I can certainly look into it for you, but I don't really have any information to work off. Generally this sort of thing would be better sent to support@drawabox.com, but since we're here now, can you provide your drawabox account username?

Uncomfortable in the post "[250 Box Challenge] Is it ok to check the convergence while drawing a box?"

2022-04-25 21:00

Ahh. Yeah, that's fine. The important part is that in doing so, students are forcing themselves to think about those convergences. Of course students can do that without rulers, but this gives them something more tangible. Just remember that boxes are made up of 3 sets of 4 lines each - so it is necessary to think of all 4 edges simultaneously, including those that have not yet been drawn. So the one pitfall of using 2 rulers is that you might end up focusing purely on just those two lines, rather than all 4 at once.

Uncomfortable in the post "[250 Box Challenge] Is it ok to check the convergence while drawing a box?"

2022-04-25 19:53

In what way would you use two rulers, or two pens?

Uncomfortable in the post "Skipping chapter in drawing on the right side of the brain?"

2022-04-24 20:39

Try asking this over on /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here.

Uncomfortable in the post "How to draw values?"

2022-04-24 20:25

I've already taken care of that. Since this subreddit's more specific than most, every post actually goes to the spam filter and they get approved manually, so I went ahead and removed it when I sent the original message. No harm done.

Uncomfortable in the post "How to draw values?"

2022-04-24 20:22

No worries! And best of luck with developing your YouTube channel.

Uncomfortable in the post "How to draw values?"

2022-04-24 20:18

While I don't have comments on your tutorial, I can say that when sharing your content on reddit, you should check each subreddit's submission guidelines to make sure that it's a good fit for what you're posting. This subreddit for example is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, and in the interest of keeping the focus on students' homework and questions, does not accept any other posts.

/r/learnart or /r/learntodraw may be more fitting, but again - check their rules before posting there as well.

Uncomfortable in the post "[250 Box Challenge] Is it ok to check the convergence while drawing a box?"

2022-04-24 20:03

As long as your approach does not involve:

The way you describe it sounds entirely fine to me, and it is a perfectly appropriate strategy to put little points down to kind of figure things out - while a whole line is a commitment, a single point is not, and is easily ignored. You'll notice that Scylla's approach here uses various points to figure things out as well.

Uncomfortable in the post "DRAWABOX 250 CYLINDER CHALLENGE"

2022-04-24 16:56

Stick with the ghosting method for now. You can (and should) use a ruler when doing the error checking/analysis however.

Uncomfortable in the post "Is it preferable for one to complete a day's homework in one sitting or is it okay if i need at least 3-4 sessions"

2022-04-24 16:55

It is perfectly okay to pace yourself and spread out the work in what ever way you need in order to fulfil your one responsibility - to do the work to the best of your current ability. Not at a specific speed or within a particular time frame, just giving yourself as much time and whatever breaks in between that you need.

Uncomfortable in the post "Can you suggest drawing reference app?"

2022-04-24 16:54

This question may be better suited to /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw.

Uncomfortable in the post "Taking a picture of my homework vs scanning a picture of my homework"

2022-04-23 20:37

We do allow students to capture their work however they please (PDFs are a pain but they are allowed), but honestly I've always found that scanners have a tendency to increase the contrast way too much and eliminate a lot of the nuance of your linework unless you know how to adjust the settings (which are all different depending on what scanner app or hardware you use). For that reason, I prefer photos - even those taken with a phone - as long as the lighting is decent. Daylight coming in through a window (or even photos taken outside) tend to produce good photos even on relatively cheap phones/cameras.

Uncomfortable in the post "has anyone done hair/fur as a texture? how do you do it?"

2022-04-22 18:02

Drawabox has some info on that here in Lesson 5. Though since you're not going through Drawabox, then you'll probably want a more general set of responses (not necessarily just those from our course), so I would recommend asking this over on /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw.

Uncomfortable in the post "Art resources to follow to learn about art (could not form the question properly, please read the text)"

2022-04-22 01:00

So this question would definitely be better suited to /r/learnart, since it's definitely more general and not drawabox-specific. I do however have a couple suggestions for you, because I definitely think the kind of immersion you're looking to achieve is beneficial.

When it comes to podcasts, a couple come to mind:

Additionally, you may want to check out the FZDSchool youtube channel. It's great to watch, and Feng Zhu shares a ton of interesting information, but just be careful and don't think of it like a tutorial or lesson. It's not - it's really an advertisement. He shows you a bunch of cool things, talks about the industry and whatnot, but there's a gap between beginners and what he's doing, and that's what his school (based in singapore) covers.

I'm not saying that to be derogatory or insulting at all - his videos are excellent and just a ton of fun to absorb, but it can be a source of frustration if you look at it as something you should be able to achieve right now. So just take it for what it is, and you may learn a few things along the way as well.

Aside from those, there are certainly plenty of other interesting youtubers and podcasts, but those are the ones that come to mind for me. The folks over in /r/learnart will hopefully be able to add to that list.

Uncomfortable in the post "Warm ups before homework?"

2022-04-21 19:06

Thank you for the kind words!

Uncomfortable in the post "inventing boxes is difficult but great practice."

2022-04-21 18:52

Indeed it is! Though I would go one step further and draw the opposite sides of the boxes as well (as though we have x-ray vision). This helps us to regard the boxes as they exist in 3D space, and how they relate to anything around them.

That said! This post may be a good fit for /r/learnart or /r/learntdoraw. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here - although I suppose you could say that I agree with you so much about the usefulness of this exercise that I made a whole course with that as its bedrock :P

Uncomfortable in the post "Is there a place to share shitty art from the 50% rule time?"

2022-04-21 16:51

It's fantastic that you've dived head-first into the 50% rule. We do have a couple channels devoted to this kind of thing on our discord server, but this subreddit does have to be limited only to complete homework submissions and questions relating to the lessons/exercises. The subreddit is prone to getting cluttered, so this is simply to ensure that students have a better chance to get eyes on their homework and questions.

Along with discord, you can also share your 50% rule work on the drawabox website, under the "sketchbook" section.

Uncomfortable in the post "I cannot for the life of me figure out how to freely rotate a box."

2022-04-21 16:49

Drawabox at times asks students to do things they're not equipped to accomplish successfully - the rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes at the end of Lesson 1 are one example of this, and it does state as much in the instructions. As explained back in Lesson 0, regardless of how difficult an exercise is, you should still only make as many attempts as you are assigned, so that you do not end up grinding away on something you're not meant to.

The organic perspective boxes serve to introduce students to the fact that this is a much more difficult problem to solve than they may have expected. It plants a seed from having attempted it, and then after Lesson 1 - when you move onto the box challenge - we actually start addressing it (although there's still plenty of mistakes that you're going to make there as well, as you gradually work through the challenge).

Uncomfortable in the post "Warm ups before homework?"

2022-04-21 16:47

I think your confusion is arising from a slight misunderstanding - your warmup pool is made up of exercises from the lessons you've completed. So during Lesson 1, you wouldn't have to worry about any warmups, not until it's actually completed (and ideally marked as complete with external critique).

Uncomfortable in the post "I don't know what I'm doing here, but I'm having fun and practicing, would you recommend some tips? :)"

2022-04-21 16:46

Your work's coming along well, though this subreddit doesn't allow single exercises or partial work, as explained here. You can however get feedback on individual exercises on the discord chat server though, and the folks there would be happy to help you out. For the subreddit, we're pushing students to post complete lesson work.

Uncomfortable in the post "Whats the next step?"

2022-04-21 16:45

As your question isn't Drawabox specific (though you do mention it), I think this question would be better suited to a more general community, like /r/learnart. They should be able to give you a wider range of suggestions for next steps.

Uncomfortable in the post "Chalk artist needs help"

2022-04-21 02:08

Oof, that sounds pretty harsh. Unfortunately you're gonna want to direct that question to /r/learnart - this subreddit's reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here. /r/learnart's more generalized, and while they may not have an answer for you, they may have suggestions on other places you might try asking.

Uncomfortable in the post "Which one of these should I do first?"

2022-04-20 18:15

This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here (which you may want to check out, as it's a free course that focuses on the core fundamentals of drawing). This post may be more suitable for /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw, but be sure to check their submission guidelines first.

For what it's worth, looking at your lists I would recommend that instead of separating them into now/later, you may instead want to separate them into "advanced concepts I'm interested in" and "fundamental concepts that aren't especially fun but are important" - then maybe split your study time into halves, and giving one half to something on each list.

Right now it seems like you're punting a lot of the foundational concepts to "later". While you should delve into the things you find interesting right now, it is important to understand that they're built on top of those less interesting fundamentals.

Uncomfortable in the post "My progress (Plus a list on what y'all can practice)"

2022-04-20 17:49

Try posting this on /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw (though be sure to check their submission guidelines to see if it's appropriate). While I understand that the name of this subreddit is 'artfundamentals', over the years it became necessary to reserve it specifically for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here (drawabox is a course that focuses on the core fundamentals of drawing - not everything, it focuses on confident markmaking and 3D spatial reasoning, but basically what the rest builds upon).

For what it's worth, construction is not the same as anatomy. Construction is the process of building up from simple to complex (whether that's when drawing figures or anything else). Anatomy on the other hand is specifically about the skeletal structure and musculature of living creatures.

Uncomfortable in the post "Two Fundamentals at the same time?"

2022-04-20 16:29

I actually encourage it - as long as you're able to devote the appropriate time to each course you work through, ensuring that you're following each given course's instructions (rather than mixing-and matching, applying one course's approaches to another), and while applying the 50% rule. I think that learning a variety of things together will result in each one progressing more slowly individually, but will in the long run save you time (as they'll reinforce one another, helping you progress more quickly overall than if you did them in series), and will generally help you develop into a more well rounded artist.

But again - don't forget your 50% rule.

Uncomfortable in the post "any feedback? its not amazing. i drew the mushys randomly in class and the tree just now in like 15 mins in the dark lol so.."

2022-04-20 12:17

Try asking this over on /r/learnart or /r/learntodraw. This subreddit is reserved for those working through the lessons on drawabox.com, as explained here.