Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-17 19:52

Congratulations on completing the challenge. There's a couple things I want to point out that I believe will help you as you move forwards:

• While your box constructions are okay, your line quality is still quite wobbly. It's extremely important that you be mindful of applying the ghosting method to your mark making. That is, instead of drawing a little slowly in order to improve your accuracy, you should spend all of your time ghosting through the motion, building up that muscle memory, and then executing the mark with a confident pace. This keeps your brain from course-correcting while you draw (which is why we see wobbling), and helps you maintain a straighter line. Ghosting on the other hand will help counteract the inevitable drop in accuracy that comes with drawing faster.

• I'm seeing a lot of repeated boxes - it's important that you practice a wide variety of orientations, and also vary how much foreshortening you use. That is, you should be practicing both shallow foreshortening (the far plane being only slightly smaller than the near plane) and some dramatic foreshortening (the far plane being significantly smaller). I'm seeing a lot of more dramatic boxes here - they tend to be easier to draw, but shallower foreshortening is much more useful, as you're only going to see the dramatic stuff when your scale gets very large (like looking at the top of a tall building from the ground floor). If you just practice a box from one angle, or in one kind of foreshortening, you're not going to improve in general, you'll just improve in terms of that one configuration.

• When you apply hatching lines, never do so sloppily. Always be mindful of drawing consistent, tight, parallel lines that stretch across the plane from edge to edge. No scribbling, no letting lines fall short of the edge, no lines floating in the middle of a plane.

You've got plenty of room to grow, but you are making good progress and I feel that this additional direction should help keep you on the right track.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-08-16 19:51

I can see a few mistakes in your approach that we can work towards rectifying. Before I get into that though, I want to point out that I actually updated the lesson 3 content this past weekend. I added a 40 minute introductory video where I talk about construction and how to apply it to plants, and I also redid all three demos. Definitely worth taking a look at.

Here's a few things I noticed:

• While you're somewhat aware of the presence of 3D forms, you're trying to maintain that understanding in your head without actually drawing it entirely on the page. For example, on this page your stems flow directly into leaves with no clarification of how the cylindrical, tube-like form connects with the flatter leaf form. Also, here you're leaving your flower pot open-ended at the bottom, rather than capping it off, which causes the whole for to flatten out considerably.

• This is less about approach, but is more something you should focus on - when drawing the various sections of this cactus, you did not draw with a persistent or confident enough stroke, resulting in wobbly edges that undermined the solidity of the forms. Admittedly, this is going to be a challenge when the organic forms themselves are drawn this large, but it's definitely something to take into consideration. You might actually want to treat them more like tubes (laying down the various sectional ellipses along its length, like in the stems exercise, before connecting the outside edges).

• Your texturing is somewhat scratchy and scribbly, and you seem to be more focused on covering the surfaces rather than actually identifying the texture (or lack there of) present on an object and conveying that in your drawing. You should be perfectly comfortable not adding additional texture to a smooth surface, and whenever you do draw texture, it should be the direct result of careful observation of what little forms are present on the surface, keeping in mind that every mark or value change you see in your texture is actually the result of shadows being cast by these small forms.

• Additionally, don't treat your pen like a pencil - even if the pen is dying, and its ink doesn't flow quite right, you should still be focusing on drawing with stark black on stark white. It's a very different manner of thinking, and I go into greater detail in regards to this on the 25 texture challenge page.

Once you've had the chance to look over the new content, I'd like you to do 4 more pages of plants. I don't want you to go into any detail or texture at all - focus entirely on construction, and on creating the illusion of solid forms (in the case of the more geometric and organic ones), as well as the illusion of flatter forms flowing through the various depth levels of 3D space (moving from farther to closer).

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

2016-08-16 19:38

Much better. There are a few places here and there where your ellipses and curves are a little misaligned (relative to the central minor axis line). When this happens, the curve or ellipse will slant towards one side, making the wrap-around effect better on one side, and significantly worse on the other. Work on getting your ellipses and curves to line up with the minor axis (meaning the minor axis should be cutting each ellipse into equal, symmetrical halves down its narrower dimension).

I also noticed that while your organic intersections are better, your lines are immensely hairy and chickenscratchy, as they were before. If you're trying to add line weight to something, don't do it in little scratchy bits. You should be doing it much like the super imposed lines exercise from lesson 1, where you go through the whole length of the line with one stroke.

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

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-08-16 19:29

Looking better. I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. One thing I would like you to do before moving onto the next lesson is to watch the 40 minute intro video I added this weekend to this lesson. Just in general, it'd be good to fill in any holes you might have that I may have missed when looking at your work. I've also redone all three demos so you may want to take a look at those as well.

Also, I'm planning to do the same thing to lesson 4 this coming weekend, so it may be worthwhile to hold off starting on it before then. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to record that content on saturday or sunday.

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

2016-08-15 20:26

Here's a few things that I noticed, looking over your work:

• You skipped the organic forms with contour ellipses exercise (you jumped right into organic forms with contour curves)

• Your contour curves don't wrap around the forms convincingly. It's a common problem, and it likely has more than a little to do with the fact that you skipped the previous step. Additionally, overshooting your curves and hooking them back can help. I explain that further here: Contour Curves Do Not Wrap Around Organic Forms

• You're not drawing through your ellipses. Specifically we're looking at the form intersections. You should be drawing through each and every ellipse you draw for my lessons. An explanation of what I mean by 'draw through' can be found here: Draw Through your Ellipses. Aside from that, your form intersections are reasonably well done.

• Your textures are alright, though a little sloppy, and at times a little too cartoony and oversimplified. This is by no means a problem at this stage - texture is something that you will improve at gradually over time. That said, always force yourself to constantly look at and study your reference image. The moment you look away from it, your brain will throw the bulk of the information you acquired out the window. You want to develop a habit of studying, studying, studying, then drawing for a moment and going back to studying. Additionally, you're thinking very much in terms of line right now - but those lines don't actually exist. What you're capturing as texture are actually the little forms that exist on a surface (for example, scales) that cast little shadows that you see as lines. But since they're not just lines, they're much more dynamic. They can expand into larger shadow shapes, and they can merge with other neighbouring shadows to create larger areas of solid black. Working strictly in uniform line will come out cartoony - think about how the lines would get thicker and heavier, or taper down to a light touch, as shadows do. Lastly, focus on those textures that result from shadow, rather than things that are explicitly patterns. Patterns include things like a leopard's spots - it's just coloration, and is not really what we're looking at here.

• Lastly, your organic intersections suffer from the same issue as your organic forms with contour curves. Additionally, your lines seem to get especially hairy/sketchy/chickenscratchy when you try and build up line weight. You should not be chicken-scratching those lines, but rather applying the additional weight in the way you would in the super imposed lines exercise from lesson 1.

I'd like you to redo the entire organic forms with contour lines section (ellipses and curves), and then redo the organic intersections as well.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"

2016-08-15 20:18

It's improving, bit by bit. I'll be marking this lesson as complete, and leaving you to practice this material on your own, but here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Be mindful of the joints on the limbs. Actually drawing lines to divide them up into the various segments of the limb can be quite helpful, as it gives a visual hinge-point that can help you to think about how it might bend in space.

• Your contour curves specifically when it comes to the additional organic lumps we add to bulk the forms out are kind of poor and sloppy. Remember to wrap those curves around the forms, overshooting a little if need be.

• When it comes to the animals' heads, you tend to toss construction aside. As I depict [here](http://drawabox.com/viewimage/lesson5/bearhead.jpg, build out from the cranial ball. The muzzle, or at least the bulk of it, is usually going to be fairly boxy, so think of it like a box intersecting with a ball, and then flesh out the remainder of the head from there. Don't just paste eyes on there like stickers, think about it more like carving out the eye sockets, and then placing the eyeballs within them.

So, like I said, I'll mark this lesson as complete. Beyond this, it's a matter of continuing to practice. I also believe that the particular perspective on the matter of construction that the next lesson takes should help.

The last few lessons have been more forgiving - they're organic, and you can get away with relying more on observation and a little less on construction. If you do that with drawing the straight forward geometric objects from lesson 6, you'll struggle immensely.

The one piece of advice I have for you moving forward is this: when drawing a geometric object, force yourself not to think about it as though you're drawing that object. Instead, you are drawing a series of primitive geometric forms arranged in such a way that they appear to be that kind of object. If the object has rounded corners, ignore them. Ignore any kind of additional complexity, and focus entirely on the geometric forms. Eventually you'll reach a point - perhaps the last 5% of the drawing process, where you'll finally round off your corners and put the finishing touches, but before then, it's all about the basic forms. The longer you continue to treat them as such, the more successful your drawing will be. Ignore all detail.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention - it'd be a good idea to complete the 250 Cylinder Challenge before attempting lesson 6.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-15 19:58

Very nice work! I have to say, I grunted and shook my head at the first page - broken lines are a pet peeve of mine, because as soon as a line is broken, its trajectory and flow will shift slightly, making it completely unreliable. I'm very glad to see that you moved onto drawing confident, solid strokes for each and every line from your second page onwards.

Generally your constructions are solid. In order to kick your boxes up to the next level, it'd be worth thinking about how you might want to take advantage of the use of line weight. I've got some notes on that subject on the challenge page, so you should check them out if you haven't already.

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

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-15 19:55

Your boxes are pretty well done, but I have one big recommendation - don't draw so small. It's fairly normal when a subject is a little daunting for a student to find themselves drawing much smaller. It's a natural thing that we do subconsciously, perhaps out of timidity, like it's going to hide our mistakes. On the contrary, working smaller tends to result in much stiffer drawings, where the tip of the pen (and therefore the average weight of the lines) comes out much larger in relation to the whole drawing. Furthermore, it leaves much less room for thinking through spatial problems, and constructing boxes is all about this sort of spatial nonsense. So, instead of hiding mistakes, it tends to produce them instead.

Instead, draw more confidently - your boxes should at least be two times as large, perhaps a bit bigger.

That said, your constructions are still fairly well done. As you move forwards, it'd be nice for you to think more about the use of line weight (there's notes regarding this on the challenge page). Additionally, filling one of the front faces with hatching will help clarify which side of the box is on the front and which is the back, since drawing through boxes, while an approach you should continue applying, does tend to make that a little more confusing.

Anyway, great work completing the challenge. Keep it up.

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

2016-08-15 19:51

Pretty nice work! Your contour lines wrap around the organic forms reasonably well, your dissections show some solid texture experimentation, your form intersections are consistent and believable, and your organic intersections show a solid understanding of how each form sits in space, and how they interact with one another.

I have only one thing to point out - when doing your organic forms with contour ellipses, you left out the central line that should be passing through it, which doubles as the minor axis (to which the ellipses should be aligned). Your ellipses' alignment is still decent despite this, but it's important not to skip steps when doing these exercises.

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

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-08-15 19:28

It's coming along well. Certainly plenty of room to grow, but you're moving in the right direction.

With the leaves in particular, always try to keep the flow of the leaf through space in mind. Think about how one point of the leaf is going to be farther away from the viewer, and the other is closer. This sort of sense of the depth of the world is what helps really emphasize that the leaves themselves are cutting through layers of space, rather than resting across a flat page.

I do think that in general you'd benefit from holding yourself back when it comes to putting marks down on the page. It's important to think before you put anything down, considering what purpose that line's going to serve, and whether or not it really belongs there. Lines that help you better understand each form and how it sits in space are valuable, lines whose purpose are already fulfilled by existing marks are not. Also always remember that once you've planned and prepared and ghosted a line, you want to execute it with a single stroke, and then stop yourself from following it up with any additional marks as a reflex.

Overall, I am satisfied enough to mark this lesson as complete. There is more to say, but lucky for you (or perhaps slightly unlucky since you've already completed the lesson) I updated the content of the lesson this past weekend. I switched out all three demos with new ones, and added a 40 minute introductory lecture video at the beginning. The video talks a lot about the importance of construction, and understanding that flow-through-depth-and-space that I mentioned above. Definitely give it a watch.

Anyway, I'll mark this lesson as complete. I think you'll continue to learn more about the constructional approach as you move into the next lesson. I do want to give you a heads up though - I'm hoping to update lesson 4 this coming weekend, so it might be a good idea to hold off til then. I just hope I can find the time, as it seems I've been getting bombarded with homework submissions for the past few days.

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

2016-08-15 13:17

The challenges (box/cylinder/texture) don't have any prerequisites. That said, I do recommend that for this challenge, you'd get the most bang for your buck if you completed it after finishing off lesson 2.

Regardless, if you submit work for this challenge (assuming it's done using ink), you will receive a critique.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-15 00:14

Pretty nice work! Your boxes are coming together, and you've done a good job with your use of line weight. It's subtle, but it goes a long way towards making your boxes feel more cohesive. One thing that does help in terms of remembering and communicating which side is the front and which is the back (especially when drawing through your boxes) is to fill one of the front faces with tight, consistent hatching. Otherwise it's kind of easy to forget which side's which, and then it gets confusing as to whether or not you drew some far planes larger than your near planes or not.

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

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-15 00:08

Looking great! Solid constructions, nice use of line weight. Your 1's look like 7s though and I panicked that you'd drawn over 700 boxes. Anyway, keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"

2016-08-14 17:40

As far as construction goes, it's a good start, but there are a few issues that I'd like to highlight for you.

• At times, your linework gets kind of sketchy. That is, you're not always applying the ghosting method, and you often reflexively reinforce your lines with additional marks, drawn by reflex instead of conscious planning. You want to definitely stick to the rule of one mark per line, instead of the sort of natural tendency people have to be sketchy and more explorative.

• Many of these drawings demonstrate a solid constructional approach, which is good. The kettle, your bottles, the.. toaster? the tea pot, the toilet-bowl cleaner (i think) and the other cylindrical thing on the last page are all examples of this with variable degrees of success. There are others however where you jump right into drawing the object with no significant attempt at construction, such as the x-box controller, the scissors, and so on. Definitely push yourself to apply the constructional approach to everything. If you come across an object that doesn't seem to fit with the constructional method right now, I'd recommend just skipping it. Right now we're not looking for you to challenge yourself, just to get the basics of geometric construction down to the point that you feel more confident and solid with it.

• Construction when it comes to these sorts of geometric objects is very much about ignoring the fact that you're drawing a specific object, and not just visualizing it as a series of simple forms, but literally drawing it that way. A lot of your drawings sit on the fence, where you're clearly considering the presence of those basic geometric forms (boxes, cylinders, etc.) but you're also trying to capture the little nuances of the object itself at the same time. Don't. Ignore the fact that a bottle is a bottle, and focus purely on drawing a series of cylinders arranged in the way the bottle suggests. The longer you treat an object as being purely a series of primitive forms, the more solid and the more successful your construction will be. It's also for this reason that I strongly agree with your pursuit of the cylinder challenge. Learning to construct cylinders and understanding the huge significance of the minor axis and such is key. Also solidifying your grasp of boxes is highly important as well. This demo shows this principle of sticking to simple forms. Notice how I completely ignore the rounded edges of the bottle until the very end? Had I attempted to capture them early on, my construction would have been considerably less solid. In fact, I was less constructive with the head/nozzle area, and as a result it came out somewhat weaker.

I think you're moving in the right direction, but I'd like you to do another four pages of these sorts of drawings - though only once you've had the opportunity to complete the 250 cylinder challenge. I can already see the impact it's having (the last page is considerably better).

One last thing - you may want to draw your objects to be larger on the page. Relative to the size of the drawings, your lines feel a little on the thick side. This can result in things getting messy quite quickly, and it can be a little more difficult for you to think through the spatial problems of construction. Working larger makes each line weigh much less in relation, and it can be a little less stressful than smaller drawings.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-08-14 15:59

Ohhh lord no - you're definitely not supposed to lay in the correct weight with your initial stroke. It's meant to be separated into phases - do your full drawing at more or less the same weight (no conscious variation), and then go back over it after you're done to add weight in certain key areas, similar to the super imposed lines exercise.

You may be getting confused because I often stress the importance of not immediately reinforcing lines after drawing them. That's a different matter altogether, and relates to the habit people tend to have, drawing a line and then immediately following it up with another stroke as a sort of reflex, with no conscious planning or thought going into it. Since adding line weight is separated from the initial drawing phase, and you're consciously planning out where you want to add weight, it's not related to this habit.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-14 04:00

Not bad! Your increasing confidence does show. One thing I want to point out though is that simply circling your mistakes isn't terribly useful - to really benefit from that phase of reflection, you need to be actually drawing in the correct lines, so as to fix the incorrect angles in your boxes. This active correction will help solidify what's right and what's not, and more specifically why a certain mistake was incorrect, so that you are more conscious of your tendencies the next time you face a similar challenge.

Also, as you move forwards, you should definitely try practicing boxes with varying line weights - you'll find notes relating to this on the 250 box challenge page.

Congratulations on completing the challenge!

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

2016-08-14 03:57

You're actually doing much better at it than you were previously - it seems that overshooting your curves a little has helped. One thing to remember however is that the degree of each ellipse (of which the curves are merely the visible section) should not be as consistent and uniform as you have drawn them.

Each contour ellipse is like a cross-section of its organic form. The degree of the ellipse changes based on how that cross-section is oriented relative to the viewer. So if the cross-section is facing the viewer head-on, it's going to have a full degree of 90 (it'll be a full circle). If it's oriented away from the viewer, it'll have a degree of 0 (basically be a single skinny line).

I explain what I mean in greater detail in this old video.

Anyway, you're on the right track, so I'll mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next one, but be sure to continue practicing the exercises from lesson 1 and 2 as warmups, picking two or three each day to do for 10-15 minutes before moving onto that day's work.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-08-14 03:07

Your cylinders are coming along well. When it comes to the ghosting method though, one thing to keep in mind is that you apply that process of thinking and planning for every single mark. Meaning, when your pen is lifted from the page, the mark is finished, and the next time your pen touches down, it should be after you've had the chance to think through your actions. I'm saying this specifically because of the habit you have of correcting lines, and immediately reinforcing them with an additional mark.

For the straight lines in your cylinders, the majority of those on these pages are made up of multiple marks, instead of just one. That's a big sign of this bad habit - stop yourself from drawing by reflex. Even if the mark is incorrect, it doesn't matter. You mustn't draw more than one mark for every line.

There's one other point that I believe should help - it's true that in the lesson, I point out that the end that is closer to the viewer should have a smaller degree (be skinnier) than the far end. You are definitely doing this, but you are exaggerating it too much. It's very similar to the idea of the near/far planes of a box. If you use dramatic perspective (where the far plane is way significantly smaller than the near plane), you're communicating to the viewer that the scale of this box is very large. Think about it like looking at the top of a tall building from the ground level - the roof is going to appear tiny. A smaller box more relatable in size to the viewer however is going to have a near and far plane that are fairly similar in size, with the far plane only being slightly smaller.

This principle applies to cylinders as well. Of course, the size difference of the near/far ends works the same, but so does the shift in the degree. If the degree changes substantially, it's going to feel like the cylinder itself is bending, which is a distortion that can only happen if the cylinder is massive (or if it's actually not straight).

So keep that in mind when you construct cylinders in the future. Aside from that, your cylinders are improving, and generally do feel more solid. Just make sure you keep your ellipse degrees more similar, and work towards eliminating that bad habit of immediately reinforcing straight lines with extra marks.

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

2016-08-13 17:12

Yup, shading one of the near faces is probably the best way to distinguish the various sides of the box.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-12 23:08

Nice work completing the challenge, but I don't see a whole lot of (or any) corrections. You should be going back over your completed work with a different coloured pen, drawing in the correct lines. You say that your mistakes have become painfully clear to you once you'd drawn them (which is great), but it's important to cement that acknowledgement in this way. Just make sure you do your corrections separately, as correcting immediately after drawing the mistake is a bad habit.

You don't have to submit that to me, but make sure you go back and do that when you get the chance.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-12 23:00

Congratulations on completing the challenge. I'd say the quality of your boxes waxes and wanes at times - you tend to be much more successful when you follow the tip regarding drawing through your forms. You'd have been much better off had you done it throughout the entire set.

Additionally, when drawing through your boxes, try to maintain a confident line. Don't worry about trying to hide it or anything like that, and aim to get all of your corners to meet cleanly. It's fairly common to see students try to draw those lines with a lighter, more timid touch, in order to maintain a pretty final image (and honestly I can see that by taking the extra time to fill in one face with grey rather than applying hatching lines you're quite concerned with your finished results for many of these). Still, it does them no favours. Drawing confidently will result in you better grasping how each box sits in 3D space, and how to manipulate it in your mind. Presentation is important (don't waste lines, make sure the marks you put down are planned and thought out) but this all has value because of how it impacts the process of drawing. At the end, whether your boxes are beautiful or whether you burn each and every page, it makes no difference.

Keep that in mind as you move forwards - the priority is to understand how 3D space works.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-12 22:48

It's good to see that your line quality improves over the set (starting with chicken scratching, which you should never do). Overall, it does appear that you need more practice with the use of the ghosting method to draw smooth, straight lines. Invest more time into the preparation stage (where you're actually ghosting through the motion to build up muscle memory), and then when you execute the mark, do so with a confident, persistent pace so your brain doesn't have the opportunity to try and course-correct while you draw. Achieving both accuracy as well as a straight line is a matter of balancing preparation with confidence/speed, with a healthy serving of repetitive practice.

Anyway, congratulations on completing the challenge. For your own sake, you may want to do more of these, if only to further practice applying the ghosting method. Improving your accuracy and the flow of your lines will be a great asset when attempting the form intersections from lesson 2.

By the way, I'm not sure why your badges aren't showing up next to your name - if you've unchecked the "Show my flair on this subreddit" in the sidebar, please turn it on. I use the badges to keep track of what lessons a student has already completed. At first I thought you hadn't yet completed the first lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-08-12 22:43

I hope you've recovered from your tendinitis!

Your work is going in the right direction, but there is a little bit I want to emphasize on the topic of construction. In some places you do an okay job of it, while in others you skip certain steps, or don't push things far enough to properly establish your simpler forms before breaking things down into greater levels of complexity.

Here's what I mean: http://i.imgur.com/Bb031y1.png

In regards to the leaf/stem exercises, I definitely want you to go back and complete them. Once you've done that, do two more pages of plant drawings and submit that for critique.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-12 21:23

Pretty nice work! It looks like you didn't apply the drawing-through tips much early on, but shifted more towards it as you went on. Definitely important to read the notes in detail. Generally your boxes are looking solid, especially the ones where you went as far as to apply line weight to them. As you continue to move forwards, work on getting your lines to meet at corners more faithfully - leaving little gaps could undermine the solidity of your forms. Ultimately it's more of a matter of practicing your ghosting technique more than anything, to get your lines to start and end at specific points without under or overshooting.

Keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete.

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

2016-08-12 13:32

I won't be critiquing this right now. My instructions were to complete the 250 box challenge next, not to move onto lesson 2. Once you've completed and submitted the box challenge, you will redo the form intersections for this lesson and resubmit the whole set. Next time, follow my instructions to the letter, and if you're unsure of something I've said, ask.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"

2016-08-11 19:40

Hahaha, 'nvm' indeed. The problem there is that you rushed in with curves way too early, rather than blocking them in as straighter, boxier forms. Shoes are going to be notoriously difficult at this point, as they're quite complex. The lack of solidity to their construction also is bound to introduce a significant challenge, so don't feel discouraged that you aren't quite there just yet.

On the topic of curves and straight lines/boxier forms, one important thing to be aware of is the relationship between the two. In many cases, you can consider a curve to exist as representing any combination of two or more straight lines. Think of it in terms of bezier curves, for example, how the curved line will follow along the framework of multiple straights. In terms of drawing objects, we often rely on curves perhaps too much, because we know that a given curve, in representing multiple combinations of straight lines, has a greater chance of representing the correct ones. In this sense, a curve is a vague approximation, and a straight line is a clear cut decision.

When we start thinking about solidity, we want clear, firm, confident decisions. Once your decision has been made, you can construct a curve to round off the edges based on the straight lines you have, and it will continue to carry along that sense of confidence and solidity, but it's important that you start with the straight lines - or in an expanded sense, solid boxes.

Like everything else, this isn't a hard-fast rule, but it applies especially effectively when talking about geometric constructions, and the principles (if not the exact application) apply in more subtle ways to organic constructions as well.

Anyway, your newer drawings certainly have improved! Your core components are feeling stronger and more solid, so that trickles down to the rest. There still is room for improvement (the box on the olive oil bottle is pretty lopsided, though you clearly noticed that on your own - nice work fighting the urge to correct it!).

So, I'll mark this lesson as complete - feel free to move onto the next one, which is going to be more of the same, but... likely more challenging.

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

2016-08-11 19:13

I do have some concerns.

• Firstly, a general issue with how you lay out your pages. For the most part, they're not particularly.. full. I'll usually be fairly lax with this, since the amount of work a student puts in will directly impact what they get out of the lesson, but here I think it's definitely important to point out. For example, look at your organic forms. You've got a handful on the pages, but there's loads of room between the, plenty of space for several more. You should be much more conscientious about filling up your pages, and practicing the exercises as much as you can.

• Next, your ellipses are still quite stiff and uneven. The quality varies, but in general you are drawing too slowly, letting your brain course-correct as you draw, rather than pushing through a confident, persistent pace to achieve a smoother mark. This is something I raised in lesson 1. If you haven't been continuing to practice those exercises as warmups, you definitely should be.

• Your organic forms with contour curves need work. The contour curves aren't quite wrapping around the forms convincingly much of the time. I do see some signs of you attempting to hook around and overshoot the curves here and there, and that is looking a little better, but the vast majority of your curves fail to support the illusion of roundedness and volume.

• Your dissections are supposed to start off as an organic form with contour lines, before even starting to add texture of any sort. You are not just jump into the dissection portion, you must first establish the underlying form.

• Overall, for your textures, I believe you're trying to organize the visual information before properly developing your ability to really observe, identify and copy over the actual visual information of your reference. As a result, you don't really have much information to organize, so your dissections end up looking somewhat cartoony. You'd be much better off focusing on trying to copy over as much detail as you can right now, with no consideration for organizing it at all. The result will look very noisy and busy, but it's an important step to take. Additionally, remember that you must not work from memory - our ability to remember things is pretty poor as a species. Instead, you should be looking at your reference constantly, taking only a second or two to draw before looking at the reference again. Once you look away, your brain will quickly start simplifying the things you saw, throwing a lot of key information out.

• Your form intersections are coming along, but they do have plenty of room for improvement. The weakness in your ellipses is definitely a factor, and generally your box/cylinder constructions are kind of sloppy. Remember the near/far plane concepts (near planes are always going to be larger than your far planes), keep your foreshortening consistent by maintaining shallow rates of perspective distortion (the far plane shouldn't be significantly smaller, just slightly), apply the ghosting method to each and every line you draw to keep your lines straight and smooth, and as the lesson instructed, avoid including any stretched forms (longer tubes, etc) and stick to more equilateral forms - that is, forms that are more or less the same size in all three dimensions. This helps limit the amount of perspective distortion making a complicated exercise more complicated.

• For your organic intersections, one important thing to keep in mind is that you want to make sure every organic form feels solid. Looking at yours, I see a lot of wavy lines. This kind of thing will undermine the solidity of your forms - you want to stick to simple curves. Try to keep to drawing only basic sausage forms, and focus on how those forms interact with one another. How one form might be supported by the one underneath it at some points along its length, and then how it might sag where it ceases to be supported. Think about how they would wrap around each other. A good thing to visualize is a sausage-shaped balloon filled with water being dropped over your outstretched forearm. Think about how it would be supported by your arm in the center, but how the sides would sag downwards.

I know this is a lot to take in, so you'll probably have to read over my critique a few times. Once you've been able to digest it, I'd like you to try and take another stab at this lesson's homework. Take your time, apply the ghosting method and the principles it espouses, and remember to draw confidently. A wobbly line drawn too slowly and carefully will undermine the solidity of everything you draw.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2016-08-10 23:58

Pretty much. Though instead of constructing a cylinder, an organic sausage-like form would work better. Just something with clear, defined volume on which to construct the more complex layers of detail.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2016-08-10 20:02

Your understanding of form is improving considerably. The bottom half of this page is especially exhibiting really tangible, solid constructions. While you probably are going a bit overboard on the contour curves (at least on the scorpion's legs), it's not in such a way that it's massively detracting from the drawing itself.

Your grass hoppers are probably the main part that highlight a bit of weakness. When you construct them, you initially lay in those starting ellipses/balls, but form there you jump directly into the segmentation of the carapace you see in your reference image. Think of it like jumping across a chasm instead of chopping down a big tree and crossing over that. You're skipping an important step.

The important step is constructing the solid form on which to construct the grasshopper's body. You'll encounter this a fair bit in the next lesson, and the lesson page has a lot of useful demos in regards to creating sausage-like forms for the torsos and then building up more forms on top of that. It is something to be aware of though, as skipping steps will result in your constructions flattening out, with the complex details overpowering the meagre constructional elements present. The basic construction should always be dominant.

You've got some decent texturing in there. Some of them are less good, but your first two beetles are pretty okay, the wolf spider on the page I linked above is subtle, but quite good, and the speckling on the dung beetle is nice. Texture is going to be slow going, you should be pleased with your results right now. Your fur/hair elements aren't great, but you are experimenting with two different approaches to the problem, which shows that you are learning. In one, you draw a bunch of individual strands of hair, which ends up too noisy. In another you try to draw tufts of hair, but perhaps don't spend enough time observing your shapes, and you place the tufts in the center of the body, rather than around the silhouette of the form where they'd be a considerably stronger read.

Again, these are things you will encounter in the next lesson - a couple of the demos touch on fur, but it will take some practice to really have the idea settle in your mind.

Keep up the great work, and feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "I dusted off my sketchbooks from when I took Dynamic Sketching with Peter Han back in 2013. Figured you guys might like to see me floundering with the material."

2016-08-09 23:47

1. Thinking about it in terms of how much time you should take is a bad idea, it'll drive you to rush and feel inadequate. You should aim to put in as much time as is required to put your absolute best towards every exercise, regardless of how much time it requires. If you submit anything short of the best you're capable of, any critique would be inaccurate. That said, the lessons are going to take a long time to complete. I've had people take anywhere between 8 and 12 hours, likely many taking much more than that, to complete lesson 1.

2. You must complete at least the minimum required amount. Consider the mindset that drives one to bargain, trying to get away with doing less work. Is that the sort of approach that is going to result in that person improving their skills? This is not abnormal for someone just starting out, but it is something you are going to have to work on changing. Discipline, time and direction are the ingredients required for progress - without discipline, you won't get far.

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

2016-08-09 20:35

Despite your struggles, I think you've done a pretty solid job. Your organic forms with contour lines give a good illusion of form, your form intersections are solid and consistent, and your organic intersections demonstrate a growing understanding of how these different forms interact with one another.

Your dissections are decent - definitely good enough for now - though there's two concerns that I have. Firstly, you're meant to start this exercise off as though you were doing another page of organic forms with contour curves. Don't jump right into the texturing, actually build out those contour curves first to make sure you're building upon a solid, voluminous foundation. Secondly, your textures are coming out just a little bit more cartoony and perhaps oversimplified. This comes from you attempting to organize the detail in your textures a little too early - before properly having the chance to develop your observational skills. As a result, you don't actually have a lot of visual information to be organizing, resulting in that oversimplified look.

Be sure to take a look at the 25 texture challenge. It forces you to try and grasp each texture's full detail, and then gives you the opportunity to try and organize it. This is an extremely time consuming challenge, so I recommend that you do it gradually, bit by bit, alongside moving forward on the other lessons. Keep in mind that texture is not that important - construction is FAR more significant, and it's the focus of my lessons. So, it's perfectly fine if you allow yourself to work on those separately, at different rates.

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

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"

2016-08-09 20:30

I'm a little bit on the fence. There's a lot of good stuff here, but it's wrapped up in a somewhat sloppy execution in some areas. There's a few basic things that you're missing (like the fact that you're not drawing through your ellipses, which you should be doing for all of the ellipses you draw for my lessons), and some generally loose and flimsy construction - but at the same time, you ARE applying constructional approaches, and you definitely are benefitting from them.

For instance, in terms of flimsiness, a good example is the torso of the cat. Its torso is meant to be a basic 3D sausage-like form made by connecting the ribcage and pelvis. You've done this, although both sides of this sausage have been drawn with a concave curve, resulting in a very weak structure. I actually have a demo from ages ago also involving a cat where I demonstrate this concept: http://i.imgur.com/R7NIJej.jpg. Specifically look at the top right corner.

Next, you're also not putting enough thought into the orientation, size and position of the three initial masses - specifically the ribcage and the pelvis. As this may suggest, each form specifically represents that part of the body. Your ribcages don't reflect the position and size of the animals' actual ribcages.

Thirdly, look at the camel's legs - you've drawn very complex, bumpy, lumpy shapes with no underlying structure or scaffolding to support them. Remember that the constructional method requires you to start everything off as simple as possible, and then to build up complexity in successive passes.

Now, your rhinoceros (on the left side of the page) is an example of sloppy, yet still surprisingly effective construction. You get a strong sense of its bulk, and the layering of muscle and hide, though your lines still don't feel terribly well planned or considered, so in the end it feels both impressive but also not particularly solid and heavy. Rhinos are heavy, so your drawing should ultimately give that impression.

These are all some things for you to consider - more important than anything, don't just jump into drawing on the page. Stop and think before each mark, consider what you hope to accomplish with the next line you put down. Also, be more mindful of your use of contour curves. Make sure they wrap around the forms convincingly.

Lastly, think in 3D. A lot of what you're drawing are just loose 2D shapes. You should be drawing 3D forms - convince yourself that this is what you're doing. If you're not buying into your own illusions, no one else will either. Think about how each form has different sides - a top, a bottom, a front, etc.

Be sure to go over the "other demos" section of the lesson - there's many demos on the overall construction, as well as some focusing specifically on how to construct the head, tackle fur, etc.

I'd like you to do another four pages of animal drawings.

Uncomfortable in the post "I dusted off my sketchbooks from when I took Dynamic Sketching with Peter Han back in 2013. Figured you guys might like to see me floundering with the material."

2016-08-09 17:35

Just do your best to push that fear to the back of your mind. You will make mistakes - you'll make a LOT of mistakes. It's entirely necessary for you to make mistakes, because we don't learn from our successes. We only learn from reflecting upon our failures.

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

2016-08-09 01:05

Perhaps then do the last two pages or so with details/texture, and focus on construction for those before it - that should be a good balance, I think.

And thanks for the extra tip! I have to admit, knowing how much you've already given as a patron made it a little difficult for me to be as blunt and direct as I always try to be. Still, I figure it's in my students' best interest for me not to tip toe around things.

Oh, I do have one thing to mention - every six months, the homework threads get locked, requiring me to submit new ones, usually linking to the same lesson content as before. Generally once lesson 1 gets locked (which just happened), I end up resubmitting one each subsequent week.

Why's that relevant? Because I'm going to take the opportunity to revamp lessons 3 onwards (or at least as many as I can through August), updating the now outdated demos and swapping out the patron-only videos. So in the next couple of weeks, if all goes according to plan, expect some new content on those fronts.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-08 21:21

You don't need to submit the corrections to me. You're cleared for lesson 2.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"

2016-08-08 20:07

Coming along decently. Your second page is better than the first, though they're both pretty good. Keep an eye on your foreshortening on those longer cylinders, though - you want to keep the foreshortening fairly shallow in order to keep the scale more consistent across all of the forms. Overall it's definitely a big improvement over your set from lesson 2. It's kinda nice to know that I'm not just a crazy person shouting at people to draw boxes on the internet...

I mean, I am that, but I'm also helping!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"

2016-08-08 20:05

Not a bad start, but there's a few areas where you can certainly change your approach in order to improve.

First and foremost, I'd like you to step back from this exercise and complete the 250 Cylinder Challenge. There's some specific instructions in regards to the use and construction of cylinders that you're lacking right now, and would be of great benefit.

Secondly, there's an important observation to be made in regards to how this subject matter differs significantly from that covered in the previous three lessons. The previous topics were organic - I stressed the importance of constructing things from basic 3D forms (organic forms, but simple building blocks none the less), but due to the organic nature, there's a lot of leeway in terms of straying from that purely constructional approach.

When it comes to solid, geometric objects, there is no leeway at all. It's extremely important to stop looking at the things you're drawing as whatever they are, and instead perceiving them as a combination of solid, rudimentary geometric forms (primarily boxes and cylinders, hence the cylinder challenge). For example, a shaving cream can is just a cylinder, a sphere, and another couple of cylinders. A camera is a box with a cylinder. And so forth. Things do get considerably more complex than that, but they are ultimately just geometric forms. The shoe probably wasn't an ideal choice, try to stick to things that feel hard and solid. We could definitely apply the same principle to the shoe (as we could to any object), but for the sake of learning, we'll stick to things are within a certain range of complexity for now.

Once you're done the 250 cylinder challenge, I'd like you to then do two pages of form intersections - this exercise relates closest to what we're going to be doing here, as you might imagine, as it's just a matter of making forms interact. Where the form intersection exercise allows us to combine forms freely, the content of this lesson has us put forms together in a much more predefined fashion, with forms aligning to each other in a logical fashion. In that way, it's actually much easier than the form intersections.

So, when you're constructing such an object, the longer you stay in the mindframe of drawing a series of basic forms, the more successful your drawing will turn out. There's always a point where you're going to let that go, and put in the final touches to your drawing - rounding off corners, adding labels or other superficial features - but none of these are really all that important. 99% of this is construction, ignoring detail and other such features.

Take a look at this demo. I cheat a little with the head of the spray bottle, but the rest of the bottle is a good example. The original bottle is quite rounded, but I flesh it out with solid boxes. By the time I round things off, those rounded corners aren't a far jump at all from what I've already got.

So, once you've finished the cylinder challenge and the 2 pages of form intersections, I'd like you to try this homework again. Feel free to submit in stages - that is, submit after completing the cylinder challenge, then after completing the form intersections, and finally after redoing the homework for this lesson.

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

2016-08-08 19:54

Generally pretty good! Your lines and ellipses are solid, both confident and smooth. Your boxes are well done as well, though I noticed that you neglected to complete the plotted perspective and rotated box exercises. The plotted perspective one isn't that important, largely there to help beginners bridge the initial understanding of the use of vanishing points, but I would like you to complete the rotated boxes exercise before I mark this lesson as complete.

Once that's done, I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Your organic perspective boxes are pretty good, though in some of the later ones I noticed a little bit of (totally understandable and expected) weakness in regards to how each box sits in 3D space. Read through the notes on that challenge page - the tip about drawing through your forms in particular should help you get a better grasp of how each box occupies space.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-08 19:50

Generally not bad, though when adding corrections you should be actually drawing in the correct lines, rather than simply circling things you think are wrong. Focus in problems like far planes being larger than near planes, issues where you thought the line you were drawing was correct at the time, but upon revision you discovered that they were wrong. This is the kind of reflection that will lead to conscious change in your sense of 3D space.

Additionally, your use of hatching varies from being fairly tight and straight to being a little sloppy. Make sure your lines go from edge to edge across the plane, remaining parallel and consistent. Avoid situations where your lines float in the middle of the plane, or fall short of the edge.

Oh, lastly - it's a good idea to draw a bit larger on the page. When we struggle with something, we tend to cramp up and draw smaller. Unfortunately this has the negative effect of giving us far less room to think through spatial problems, ultimately making our drawings worse. Loosen up, draw a little bigger.

I'll mark this lesson as complete, but you should go back to do the corrections as I mentioned for your own benefit.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-08-08 19:46

Pretty nice work! One thing does jump out at me though - your last 150 or so boxes tend to shift towards using a much more dramatic rate of foreshortening. This is not an issue at all when tackling individual boxes, but you'll find that if you try and use this in a scene with many forms present, you'll end up with a scene that does not look cohesive. Dramatic foreshortening implies a very large scale (like looking at the roof of a building from the ground level), while a shallower rate of foreshortening will feel much more relatable in size. The latter is often much more useful, and while both are important, it may be a better use of your time to practice shallower perspective. At the very least, it would be good for you to mix them up a bit, practicing both dramatic and shallow perspective, to ensure that you're not falling into the trap of tending more towards the former.

Your boxes in general are looking good though - they're solid, and your use of line weight is effective. Just make sure that you're on top of that whole matter of keeping your foreshortening consistent when needed.

Keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-08-08 19:41

Looking great! Adding the ellipses/contour curves along the length of the cylinders also seems to be a pretty great approach. Generally your constructions and corrections look solid, and you've clearly gained a lot from this exercise.

Keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete.

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

2016-08-08 13:43

I did a demo for you, if only to show you how shitty my attempt at that particular texture, with the restriction afforded by the medium (I worked digitally of course but in stark black and white with pressure set to size only). The medium naturally isn't suited for smooth transitions. Purely smooth (and therefore blank) surfaces are easy, but a smooth transition is extremely difficult.

Here's the demo: http://i.imgur.com/KEJRfjE.jpg

In doing this, I think that I've found the core of your discomfort - the medium itself. You're frustrated because we're drawing with ink, and ink is inherently getting in the way of actually producing beautiful end results. I mention this in the demo - none of these lessons has to do with learning how to draw with ink. I certainly don't cover it at all, because I don't know how to use ink as the medium for a finished piece, so I certainly can't teach it. Instead, we use it in the way a runner might use weights to increase resistance in all the right areas to make the exercises more effective and efficient. When you actually intend to compete, you take the weights off.

In the case of texture, being forced to try and tackle the challenge with a limited range of values and no colour to speak of, you're forced to think about it in a way you would not consider, were you to work with a fully gradated scale. This influences how you'll think about it when working with a more comprehensive toolset.

Of course, the limitations and challenges of working in ink are most noticeable when it comes to texture. They're present in construction as well, but it's much easier to come to terms with them in that regard. You're focusing very heavily on texture because it frustrates you, because you see it as a challenge you should be able to overcome, but can't. As I've mentioned before, this is paralyzing you in a way that I have not yet seen. It's like it's something you just can't bring yourself to set aside and go around.

I'll leave this entirely up to you, and won't force it upon you, but I do have one strong recommendation to make. Forget about texture. Stop drawing it completely. Go through lessons 3-7 without going into any detail at all, and focus 100% on construction. When you're done, you can revisit the lessons with texture and detail (if you wish), but for this first round, leave it out. Considering how much time you pour into getting your textures right, you should be able to complete the lessons much more quickly.

As I've mentioned before, construction is the focus of these lessons, not detail, and I'm worried that you stand to miss out on that if you continue to allow yourself to be so invested in this unimportant side aspect.

Uncomfortable in the post "Tackling the Rotated Boxes Exercise"

2016-08-08 12:33

I'll be able to help you a little better when you submit the homework - just focus on completing the work to the best of your ability for now.

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

2016-08-07 23:16

Ultimately if you're planning on submitting the work for critique, I don't accept work done digitally for lessons 1-7, so there's that to consider. Regardless, you're better off doing each lesson in its entirety traditionally, then considering redoing it digitally. There isn't a point where you'd put your pen and paper down entirely.

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

2016-08-07 22:15

That's fairly normal, fraying/separation towards the end of the line is completely expected. You should be spending enough time on lining up your pen at the correct starting point however to completely avoid any signs of separation at the beginning. Besides that, make sure you're drawing from your shoulder, and you're locking your elbow and wrist. Keep your elbow off the table, but if absolutely necessary you can rest your hand on the page, just be aware of how this may cause you to fall back into the habit of drawing from your wrist, and correct this whenever you catch yourself doing it.

Your work falls within the range I'd expect. The homework section states exactly how many pages you should fill with whichever given exercise. Don't waste time doing the exercises digitally until you've completed the work on paper, as digital media introduces several layers of disconnect (driver issues, software issues, getting used to your tablet, etc.) that will add to your confusion in terms of whether or not you're doing it correctly.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"

2016-08-07 18:43

Definitely a good start, but there's a couple important things that I'd like to point out.

Firstly,

Also a little too much chicken scratching, as I really wanted to correct the lines before I committed.

Bad! Don't ever chicken scratch, there's no excuse for it. Apply the ghosting method to every single line you draw, and never give into the urge to correct a mistake. Correcting will draw more attention to your blunder, what you want is for it to disappear. Ignoring it is your best bet, though with practice you'll become more adept at finding ways to incorporate your mistake into your drawing (though this is case-by-case).

The most important thing to keep in mind that the final drawing doesn't matter - it's all a process to help you understand how 3D forms sit in space, and how they all fit together to create larger, more complex objects. The final drawing could just as well be thrown into a fire, it's of no value at all.

Another thing I noticed is that though you completed the cylinder challenge, you didn't apply the concepts learned in it at all in this lesson. There were plenty of cylinders, but I don't see any minor axes being used in their construction. I mentioned this when marking lesson 5 as complete - it's important to see this lesson entirely as the form intersections from lesson 2, just arranged and configured in a very specific way to match whatever it is you're drawing.

There is a demo that I'd posted before you started doing these lessons that I think would be of help - http://i.imgur.com/xAIXxfo.jpg

Everyday (Geometric) Objects

The plants, the insects, the animals, they all gradually hold your hand, walking you slowly and patiently towards the idea of breaking down your subject matter into its core forms and then reconstructing them on the page, rather than simply transferring details one line at a time. Most people find that when they reach this lesson, the person who was holding their hand has brought them to the edge of a cliff, and suddenly shoved them off.

That person's me. Better learn to fly.

The biggest piece of advice I have for these all-too geometric of objects, is to stop seeing the object. Look beyond it. In this example, you're not drawing a spray bottle. You're drawing a box, then a sort of tapered, trapezoidal box on top of it, with an taller angled box on top, and more boxes on top of that. Break it down into these absolutely basic forms.

It can help to draw a quick 2D diagram off to the side, as I have here, breaking it down into its simplest shapes. Once you've constructed those same 2D shapes as 3D forms, THEN you can start worrying about the little nuances, like smooth transitions beveled edges, and so on. If you want to learn 3D modeling, this is actually an excellent exercise for that. Keeps you from getting caught up in the detail of things.

Some of the most successful homework I've seen for this lesson has had virtually no detail to it. At least, not in the texture/rendering/littlebittylines sense. They were all construction, all form.

Lastly, it looks to me like a lot of these drawings are quite small (judging by the thickness of your lines relative to the overall drawing). Keep in mind that the smaller you draw, the less space you have to think through spatial problems - and these exercises are ALL about spatial problems. So, draw bigger.

At the end of the day, you are going to be limited by how well you can construct basic boxes and cylinders, so the principles of drawing through your boxes and constructing cylinders based on your minor axes (and also starting a cylinder off as a box in order to align it correctly) are all very important, and as your ability to do this improves, so will these drawings. It's important to continue practicing them regularly (I talk about the principle of regular warmups here: http://drawabox.com/comic/2).

I'd like to see two pages of form intersections, followed by another six pages of every day objects, taking what I've mentioned above into consideration.

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

2016-08-07 17:50

Despite your struggles, you did fairly well. There's a few things that need a bit more work to be squared up, but you're definitely heading in the right direction.

The biggest thing that stands out to me is your organic forms with contour curves. You're almost there, though you'll want to continue keeping your mind on wrapping those contour curves around the forms, accelerating them as they reach the edges and hooking them back around. Overshooting your curves a little bit may help with this. I talk about that here: Contour Curves Do Not Wrap Around Organic Forms.

One important thing your organic forms with contour curves are missing is the central line. You drew this for many of your contour ellipses, but it's just as important for the curves. A contour curve is just the visible portion of the ellipse that goes all the way around the surface of the form. The central line serves as the minor axis of the ellipse, cutting it into two equal, symmetrical halves through its narrower dimension. If it's misaligned, it'll be more difficult to get it to feel as though it wraps around believably.

Moving ahead, your dissections are coming along nicely, demonstrating some interesting experimentation.

Your form intersections are coming along well, especially after all of the practicing. One thing I did notice though is that you largely ignored one of the instructions in the lesson:

For now, I strongly encourage you to avoid forms that are stretched in any one dimension. For example, long tubes, long boxes, and so on. At this point it is far better to stick to fairly "equilateral" forms. That is, forms that are roughly the same size in every dimension.

Lastly, your organic intersections are looking good.

I'll mark this lesson as complete, feel free to move onto the next one.

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

2016-08-07 17:39

Not bad. There's a few issues that we can work towards resolving, but generally you're doing well.

• As you continue working on your ellipses, work towards tightening them up. Draw through each one twice before lifting up your pen (more than that seems to be causing you to lose control a bit). Don't stop drawing through them however, as you did for your funnels - I fully expect you to draw through all of the ellipses you do for my lessons.

• For your rough perspective boxes, be sure to go over your completed work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. This helps identify areas where your estimation of perspective is at its weakest.

• Your rotated and organic perspective boxes are definitely weak, but this is totally expected. This exercise was only included as a first taste of the challenges involved in rotating boxes freely in 3D space, and you were by no means expected to nail it by the end of this lesson.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next to get more practice with constructing arbitrarily rotated boxes. Be sure to read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This approach in particular will help you better understand how each box sits in 3D space.

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

2016-08-07 17:34

Generally quite well done! Just a few issues I'd like to highlight:

• Super Imposed Lines: Fraying/Separation on Both Ends

• You likely noticed this, but in your first plotted perspective, you encountered a lot of distortion. Your drawing was still technically correct, but if your boxes fall outside of the space between the two vanishing points, things are going to start looking weird. Same goes for above/below - if you imagine either vanishing point sitting on opposite sides of a circle, anything that falls outside of this circle is going to start getting distorted. Same thing actually happens with your eyes - anything in your peripheral vision is quite stretched, we just don't notice it.

• Roug perspective boxes: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point (I recommend this to everyone, it's a great way to identify areas where your estimation of perspective is weakest)

• Organic perspective boxes: Inconsistent Foreshortening Between Boxes in the Same Scene

I'll be marking this lesson as complete - I do want you to move onto the 250 box challenge next however. Specifically practice boxes with shallower foreshortening - so where the far planes are only slightly smaller than the near planes, rather than significantly smaller. Also be sure to read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-08-07 17:27

There are definitely some issues. As you pointed out, you're certainly struggling with leaves and petals, and I don't think you attempting to apply texture and detail to everything is helping at all. It's distracting you from focusing on construction, which needs to be nailed before you start concerning yourself with texture (which is largely unimportant).

Looking at this page, the smaller thumbnail drawings on the right side are WAY more solid than the large one on the left. First off, drawing so large that your forms get cut off is an awful idea - all of these exercises are intended to focus on getting you to understand the forms themselves and how they sit in space, so half-drawing forms is going to leave you with none of that.

Your stems are generally okay, except for two things - you're probably drawing way more contour lines than you need, and when you draw contour ellipses you're not drawing through them as you're supposed to be doing for every ellipse drawn for my lessons. Jumping back to that first point, when people draw so many contour lines, it usually tells me that they don't fully understand what they're supposed to be getting out of them. More often than not, two or three along a single for will do just fine - the intention is to communicate to yourself how the surface of that form is distorted through space, so that you start being more convinced of its existence as a 3D form, rather than a 2D shape. Also, how you space them out will have an impact on how the form reads. Spacing them out regularly will result in the forms reading as being more man-made, while clustering a couple together with another as an outlier further out will feel more natural.

For the most part, you are showing a decent understanding of how to apply construction to these drawings - just not in your actual final drawings. Your side studies are significantly better, because you're not worried about applying texture, or the resulting image being a proper "final" drawing. All of these drawings are really just that kind of side study - we don't care about creating a pretty drawing, we care about understanding the forms themselves.

I'd like you to do another four pages of plant drawings, without ANY texture or detail whatsoever. Just construction.