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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."

2016-08-01 16:36

Always keep in mind that while the first two lessons seem simple at the surface, they have great depth to the challenges they put forward. You are never expected to nail any of the exercises immediately. Even if you're submitting the work for critique, I only mark the lesson as complete when I see that you understand what you should be aiming for - not that you've achieved it - and leave it to you to continue practicing the exercises as warmups as you continue to move forwards.

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."

2016-08-01 16:35

I think it's definitely worthwhile for any skill level, considering that it starts at the absolute basics.

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."

2016-08-01 16:32

Nope! I scanned the two sketchbooks in their entirety. There was maybe 30 minutes at most between the drawings on page 20 and 21. There were a couple of factors that led to the change. The first thing that comes to mind is that I switched from using a 0.3 tip (I believe that's what Peter was recommending to us) to a 0.5 tip, and found that my lines started to feel bolder and more confident, which led to me feeling more confident in general, which led to my lines becoming somewhat less stiff. The other major factor was that before drawing the palm tree, I watched Peter do a demo of that same shot, so that influenced me to make certain correct decisions that I may not have otherwise made.

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."

2016-08-01 06:33

I'm glad I could have that kind of impact on you!

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."

2016-08-01 05:23

Honestly, I've seen a lot of self-taught artists get caught in the pitfall of defaulting to a rougher "style". I remember doing that ages ago, it didn't do me any favours because it just let me avoid learning how to properly control my mark-making.

Ultimately there's a lot of people who fall into the category of self-taught artists with fundamentals like swiss cheese - full of holes. It's one of the primary reasons I started this subreddit, even though I likely have more beginner students than self-taught ones.

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."

2016-08-01 03:20

3 hours of class a week, plus maybe 8ish hours of homework for that course alone (I was taking a couple other courses as well, though this one got the bulk of my attention). Admittedly the workload was considerably lighter than the drawabox versions, especially for the first two lessons.

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."

2016-08-01 01:24

Glad you like it! If you want to see similar kinds of drawings done more recently, you might want to take a look at the big dump of demos I did a couple months ago: http://imgur.com/gallery/udZZ8

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."

2016-08-01 00:59

It was probably the single biggest factor in me improving from the level of a sloppy self-taught hobbyist to someone who could manage to scrape up lower-end work. I mean, I had a wide variety of experience and skill from the decade I spent teaching myself, but it was all scattered and disorganized. This class really helped me bring it all together. One year later (although not strictly just because of this class) I got my current job, as a concept artist at a small game studio.

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

2016-07-31 20:05

Generally you're doing well, and some of your constructions are quite nice. For example, the dead center of page 2, the scorpion and the earwig are well done. One thing I'm noticing across your drawings however is that you don't always draw through forms. You do here and there, but more often you stop drawing where another form overlaps. This results in each individual form flattening out and reading more as a 2D shape, rather than a solid part of a larger construction.

Also, you're not really drawing through your ellipses (different meaning of 'draw through', I'm referring to this). I fully expect you to draw through every ellipse you draw for my lessons, without exception.

Back to the whole construction thing, take a look at the 'other demos' section of the lesson 4 page, especially the wolf spider and the ladybug. Look at how I start out those constructions - I'm not concerned with how the forms intersect with each other or how they occlude one another just yet - I'm just laying down those forms, focusing on making each one read as being solid.

Part of it may have to do with your line quality - things are a little shaky and uncertain at times. It's important to draw your lines from your shoulder, and to avoid drawing too small on the page.

Overall you do seem to grasp the primary concepts, just be sure to continue pushing yourself to draw through everything. Look again at the drawing in the middle of the second page - its tail is a great example of constructional drawing. You drew the bulk of it as a simple shape (although you should have drawn it as a solid enclosed form), then you constructed your ribbing around it, section by section. It's much cleaner and better put together than the scorpion below (which has its own strengths, though its tail is very flat and a little sloppy).

Anyway, go ahead and move onto the next lesson but keep what I've mentioned here in mind.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"

2016-07-31 19:18

I am!

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

2016-07-31 19:07

Getting better. I'll mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the 250 box challenge. Also, keep in mind that you should still continue practicing these exercises as warmups.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"

2016-07-31 19:04

Aaand here's your promised demo/critique: http://i.imgur.com/0VLORiT.png

I'll mark the lesson complete, so go ahead and move onto the next one. I warn you though, the next two lessons are all about ignoring detail and pretty much treating it all like a bunch of geometric forms that you're mashing together. You also may want to look at the 250 cylinder challenge before attempting it, to get some experience with that, since pretty much all vehicles and every-day-objects are just cylinders and boxes.

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

2016-07-31 17:42

Generally okay, though some of your exercises give way to a hefty serving of sloppiness. Your lines section is fine. Your ellipses are a little loose, and you should be more mindful of applying the ghosting method's preparation techniques to them, just as you would to every other line you draw. Or rather, just as you should. I also see that in your funnels, you stopped drawing through your ellipses. I expect you to draw through all of the ellipses you draw for my lessons. Always push yourself to draw them with a confident, smooth pace, and strive to tighten them up, but always draw through them twice before lifting your pen.

Now, as I mentioned, you should be applying the ghosting method to every line you draw. It's fairly clear that you're not, however - your rough perspective boxes, your rotated boxes and your organic perspective boxes are all examples of this. With additional preparation and planning before each mark, your overall line quality would definitely improve. Also, I notice that as you move further through these exercises (and perhaps get more tired), you start getting considerably sloppier - immediately reinforcing or correcting after drawing a line (a very bad habit you should work towards avoiding, and that the ghosting method helps to mitigate). When you make a mistake, don't correct it. For now, leave it alone, though in the future you'll gradually see ways to incorporate the mistake into the drawing. If you correct it immediately, it'll merely draw more attention to that area by making it darker and more noticeable.

In all but your last page of rough perspective boxes, your hatching is basically just sloppy scribbling - every mark you put down is important and contributes to the overall quality of the presentation. Hatching should always be made up of consistent, parallel and individual lines that stretch all the way from edge to edge. Your last page of this exercise was much better.

Your organic perspective boxes certainly need work, but that's by design - that exercise was included as an opportunity to taste the struggles and challenges involved in rotating and manipulating boxes freely in 3D space. It's not a simple task, and you are by no means expected to develop a solid sense of 3D space by the end of this lesson.

I am going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next, both as an opportunity to get more practice rotating and manipulating boxes, but also to work on your use of the ghosting method, and ultimately the patience required to use it. Be sure to read through the notes on the page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms - this is something that was mentioned in the rotated boxes exercises that you did not put into practice, and ultimately it helps you get a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space, making it easier to construct them on the page.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-07-31 17:27

Congratulations on completing the challenge. One thing that you should keep in mind as you move forwards is that when someone struggles with a concept, they tend to draw things smaller - and in every scenario, drawing smaller leads to having far less room to think through spatial problems, ultimately making challenging things more difficult. Long story short, avoid making small, cramped drawings. The smaller the drawing is, the fatter the tip of your pen will be relative to the overall drawing size, resulting in clunky, awkward lines.

Also, don't forget that the first step of the ghosting method involves placing points at the start and end of the lines you wish to draw. If you extend that to placing points roughly where you think the corners of your box should be, you can plan out your boxes without immediately committing.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-07-31 17:17

You certainly have a lot of room to grow, especially when it comes to drawing leaves that flow through 3D space, rather than merely being lines across a flat page. That said, I'm going to mark this lesson as complete and let you move onto the next one - hopefully tackling the problem from the angle of a different subject matter will help.

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

2016-07-31 02:41

Just as with every lesson, there's an orange button on the top of the webpage labelled "View Lesson Submissions on Reddit". It will take you to the corresponding submission thread.

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

2016-07-31 00:35

Pretty nice work. Just a couple things I noticed.

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"

2016-07-31 00:28

So I do agree that you're improving. One thing to keep in mind is that these concepts are a lot like reading a compass. Once you're done, you know what direction you should be heading in, but there's still a lot of practice to be done.

Now, there are some things you're still doing wrong - for instance, the biggest one is the way you're capturing the ribcage. In most of your new drawings, you capture it as a fairly vertical ellipse. Consider what the animal's ribcage looks like, and how it's shaped. With horses, rhinos, etc. the ribcage is going to be quite long and run through about half of its torso. Its angle is also worth thinking about.

I've highlighted this issue along with a few others here: http://i.imgur.com/7PRSqzp.png

Before we mark this lesson as complete, I just want to be sure we've caught every major issue that might pose a problem for you. So, I want you to do one last thing - just one more drawing.

Draw this goat. Unlike previous submissions, I want you to show me the various stages of your drawings. Early lay-in of your three major masses, constructing the torso form from the ribcage/pelvis, all the way down to the completion of the construction. You may then add whatever texture and detail you like.

Don't forget that there's a lot of helpful demos on the lesson page, in the "other demos" section. They are worth reading, and rereading. Don't expect to soak in all the information at once, it often takes time and repeated visits.

Lastly, when drawing this goat, make sure you spend the majority of your time actually observing the goat. Beginners often have a tendency to jump into the drawing perhaps too eagerly, and rely far too much on their memory. Human memory is completely unreliable. The second you look away from your reference, your brain will start to process and oversimplify what you saw, throwing the bulk of it out and keeping only a few key points. Admittedly, this has helped us survive as a species, but it hasn't helped us accurately reproduce the world around us on paper.

Try and see the landmarks through the goat's fur - identify where its ribcage sits and how it's angled. Same with the cranium, the pelvis. Draw large on the page, and draw from your shoulder.

When you're done, I'll do my own demo of that goat, and we can compare your process with mine to see where yours differs. Then I'll mark this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-07-30 23:57

Overall, I do want to mention that your homework's kind of disorganized, and that it follows less the layout of assigned homework, and more a sort of casual, unstructured bunch of doodles. The drawings themselves are actually quite nice (even those that don't quite follow the principles conveyed in my lesson) but there is a certain degree of discipline that is lacking and that will ultimately hinder your progress.

The best way to do these lessons is to set out a reasonable chunk of time to dedicate towards them. Lay out your pages thoughtfully, and most importantly don't get caught up in the art of it all. Presentation should go about as far as a clean, organized layout and avoiding wasteful drawing behaviour (sketchiness, chicken scratching, scribbling, or using several marks where one would suffice). For the purposes of these lessons, colouring really only serves as a distraction.

Anyway, onto your work - we can split the material into two parts. Tubes/cylinders (mostly plant stems, and more geometric elements like flower pots), and leaves. Your tubes and cylinders start off somewhat uncertain, but by the end of the set they're coming along quite nicely.

Your leaves, however, preeeeetty much ignore the constructional method altogether, and focus entirely on drawing from observation with no constructional component. Here's a bunch of demos on leaf construction, some of which you've likely already seen in the lesson and elsewhere:

The core of it is that a leaf consists of numerous components. First off, there's the entire flat shape that flows through 3D space. Then there are the smaller deviations in how its edges may be frayed, or wavy, or cut in a particular way. The leaf may have thickness to it, or it may be flat. There's a lot to worry about, and trying to tackle it all at once is going to result in something that is either overly simple or something that is quite complex, but flattened out with no real flow through three dimensional space.

The solution is to break it into multiple steps, dealing with one challenge at a time. Effectively, that's the constructional method. You start off by drawing only a single line - a line that flows through space, that you perceive as moving from one point to another, from being further away to closer or vice versa. A line moving through a 3D world. Next, you build in the simplest terms possible - two basic curves with no more complexity than that - the general shape of the leaf. All you're doing is enclosing the shape, building it around the original flow-line. Now you have the basic scaffolding for your leaf, and you can start building more complex information around that.

I see what looks to be an attempt to apply this concept here: http://i.imgur.com/UX5rhcs.jpg. The problem is that the leaves do not flow at all - that central line requires much more thought, more planning, and more consideration. It may seem unimportant and simple, but it easily outweighs every other mark in terms of significance.

Now, if you go back to the lesson page, you'll notice that there's an initial exercise - the page of leaves - that I added a few weeks ago. I want you to do two pages full of leaves - don't use a small sketchbook, as the limited space will restrict your ability to think through spatial problems. Draw on standard printer paper, 8.5"x11" or larger. Fill it completely with leaves, as much as you can, then submit that to me. Don't worry if you make mistakes, just move onto the next free space on the page and continue.

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

2016-07-30 23:31

Generally well done. I do have a few concerns to share, but you're moving in the right direction.

My biggest concern: draw through your ellipses. I'm very adamant about this - every ellipse you draw for my lessons should apply this technique.

Aside from that, your organic forms with contour curves are reasonably well done. Your dissections are good too, aside from a couple - the riveted metal, the old stone wall. These are patterns rather than textures, which is why they ended up coming out more cartoony than the others. The texture would actually be the surface of the metal itself, whether it's smooth, rusted, dented, etc. or the cracked, porous, gritty surface of the stones.

Your form intersections are pretty well done, though you did ignore the instruction about avoiding overly stretched forms and sticking to those that are more equilateral in their dimensions. Also, again, draw through your ellipses.

Lastly, your organic intersections are generally okay, though I do want to stress the importance of keeping your forms simple and straightforward. The more complexity in a form, the less it's going to be able to maintain its illusion of solidity and weight. You've got a lot of forms that get wavy and irregular through their lengths, and they start to resemble deflated balloons, in that sort of flimsy way, rather than solid, weighty, voluminous forms.

Also, always remind yourself that these objects exist in 3D space - it's very easy, especially as a beginner, to lose hold of that illusion, to no longer be convinced of it, and to revert to simply drawing shapes across a flat page. Those organic forms move through space - they go from being closer to you, to further away, and sometimes parts of them will hide behind other forms. When one form rests against its neighbour, it's going to wrap around it, because it's flexible - and it has weight. It sags if nothing is supporting it. Certain orientations are simply physically impossible. When you're caught up in the illusion, when you've gone and fooled yourself, your brain won't even consider such impossible configurations as something you can draw on the page. Always push yourself to buy into the lie of it all. It'll be hard at first, but keep pushing.

Anyway, I'll mark this lesson as complete so feel free to move onto the next one. Of course, don't forget to keep practicing these exercises as warmups.

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

2016-07-30 23:21

Your images are absurdly small, so it's a little hard to see things clearly. From what I can see:

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

Also, don't submit such tiny images in the future.

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

2016-07-30 23:12

Generally well done, though there are a few things I'd like to draw your attention to.

I am going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. This will give you plenty of opportunity to further practice the challenges first met in the organic perspective exercise. Be sure to read through the notes on that challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This approach should help you improve your box constructions, as it goes a long way towards improving your understanding of how each box sits in 3D space.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-07-30 19:38

Everything's sorted out. I'll be getting to today's critiques in a few hours.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-07-30 19:30

Your imgur link doesn't actually lead to your imgur account, and if you're using another reddit account, I have no way of tracking who you are. You're going to have to send me a message from your old account or from your patreon account.

I have a guess as to who you are, and it looks like that account's been nuked off the face of the earth, so if that's the case you'll have to message me through patreon. Once you do that, I'll transfer the completion badges to this account and add you to the homework queue.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-07-30 19:18

Unfortunately in order to receive a critique for this lesson's homework, you must have first submitted and completed lessons 1 and 2.

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

2016-07-30 15:47

But.. but... ballpoint pens are ink!

I'm guessing you're asking if you're allowed to use ballpoint or if you have to use felt tip/fineliner. Felt tip is always encouraged, but if you can't find one for the life of you, same rules as lessons 1 and 2 apply, and you are allowed to use ballpoint. Lessons 3-7 are felt tip only.

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

2016-07-29 18:41

You generally look to be doing well, but you should read the instructions more carefully.

If you do choose to submit, please be sure to complete the homework in its entirety (all three parts as prescribed: lines, ellipses and boxes) in the required medium/media. While I am happy to help out, it does take a lot of time, and I'd greatly appreciate it if the time is taken to fully read and digest the material.

Don't submit your homework until all of the work for the entire lesson is complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-07-29 18:39

Definitely an improvement - I'll be marking this lesson as complete. I do have one big fat issue with your construction of leaves though. Despite all of the instructions to start simple and build up complexity, you're still starting much more complex than you need to and I don't understand why. I've mentioned it to you several times, both by linking you to the constructional method article and drawing on top of your homework. Why are you not following my instructions in this one area?

Here it is, one last time: http://i.imgur.com/IsRFFVr.png

Aside from that one issue, your general sense of form and construction has improved considerably. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

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

2016-07-29 18:25

Some of your work is alright, but much of it is quite sloppy. One thing to keep in mind is that the very basis of these lessons is the ghosting method - that every mark you put down should be the result of planning and preparation, and that you should never draw anything by reflex and without conscious thought.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that your organic forms with contour lines undermines this notion completely. Your lines are sketchy, you reflexively reinforce your contour curves with additional lines, rather than taking the time to draw each one with planning and forethought once.

Additionally, your contour curves generally do not carry the illusion that they are wrapping around the organic forms convincingly. I talk about this issue more here: Contour Curves Do Not Wrap Around Organic Forms. Lastly, while you are drawing the central line through many of your organic forms, you're not using it to line up your ellipses as described in the second step of the exercise description (figure 1.10).

Keep in mind that you're also inevitably struggling a lot due to the fact that you're drawing all of these organic forms very small, and sometimes needlessly complex. Focus on drawing simple sausage forms. Making things more complicated than they need to be is not going to improve your skills faster - if anything, it's going to hinder your progress and make it harder to grasp the basics.

Your dissections suffer from many of these same problems - poor contour lines, scribbly linework, etc. When drawing textures, I get that the details can at times seem overwhelming, but you should never just sketch and scribble without thought and consideration. Just like every other mark you put down, your textures should be the result of observation, planning and forethought.

Your form intersections are reasonably well done. You would benefit from drawing through your forms (as covered in the box challenge), however, and you also clearly ignored these instructions from 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 reasonably well done, and demonstrate a better use of your contour curves than the actual contour line exercises.

For now, I'd like you to redo the entire organic forms section, as well as the dissections. You may also want to read through the notes on the 25 texture challenge page to get a better sense of what you're doing wrong. Don't do that challenge now, but be sure to start on it once you've completed lesson 2.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-07-29 18:03

Great work! Nice use of line, solid corrections, and good use of line weight. Keep it up, and consider this challenge complete!

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

2016-07-29 18:02

Generally you've done a pretty good job. Just a couple minor things that I'd like to draw your attention to.

Keep it up, and consider this lesson complete.

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

2016-07-29 17:48

So you've got a few issues, primarily with your organic forms with contour lines, that run through the entire lesson. The biggest of these is that your contour curves, more often than not, don't give the impression of properly wrapping around the rounded organic forms. As they reach the edge of the form, their curvature should accelerate, giving the illusion that they hook back around and continue on along the other side. This is a common issue, and I talk about it more here: Contour Curves Do Not Wrap Around Organic Forms.

Looking at your organic intersections, I did see a couple of instances where you did a good job of that 'hooking around' acceleration - I've highlighted them in this image: http://i.imgur.com/kTiZRTs.png. Notice how the start to curve much more quickly than those I highlighted as bad?

Generally when drawing contour ellipses, it's easy to get that sort of curvature, as you're forced to follow through an entire ellipse, whereas here it can be a bit of a struggle at first, since the curve simply stops at the edge. One way to connect the two in your mind is to overshoot the ellipse and continue on slightly after the line hooks around. You can also see this in the overdrawing I did of your organic intersections. Over time you can overshoot less and less, until eventually your curves stop at the edge, but for now it's a good idea to use this approach for all of your contour curves.

Another thing I noticed was that you're not drawing the central line through your organic forms as shown in figure 1.10 of the exercise description (the second step). Rather, you don't do it at all for your contour ellipses, but you do (sort of) for your contour curves. The problem is that you don't take advantage of them.

These lines serve as the minor axis, to which all of your ellipses (and therefore also your curves, which can be thought of the visible portion of a larger hidden ellipse) should be aligned. The minor axis, if you remember from lesson 1, is the line that passes through the narrower dimension of an ellipse, such that it cuts the ellipse into two equal, symmetrical halves. So, each ellipse should be aligned to this central line in such a way. Maintaining this alignment will also help keep your contour ellipses and contour curves perpendicular to the general flow of the organic form, which will make wrapping the curves around the rounded form much easier (having a lopsided angle in turn makes it quite difficult).

Now, I don't want to lead you to believe that all of your contour curves are bad. Looking over the set, I can see some areas where you already are benefitting from overshooting your curves - many of these however suffer from having that alignment lopsided, so while one side of the curve wraps around nicely, the other one ends up failing to do so. You do however have other curves that may be aligned decently, but aren't drawn with any thought to the illusion of wrapping around.

For your dissections, you're making a good start at experimenting with different textures. It'd be worth while to look into the 25 texture challenge - it's a very time consuming challenge, so expect to spread it out over a long period of time while working on other lessons, rather than expecting to do it all at once before moving on.

For your form intersections, there's a couple bits of instruction that you seem to have missed, or ignored. First off, in the exercise I say the following:

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.

Also, in my critique for your lesson 1 work, I encouraged you to read the notes about drawing through your forms. You don't seem to have applied any of that to this exercise, and as a result many of your boxes are lopsided.

Lastly, you don't appear to be drawing through any of your ellipses - I very firmly insist that every ellipse you draw for my lessons applies this technique.

Now, before I mark this lesson as complete, I'd like you to do one more page of organic forms with contour curves, and one more page of form intersections.

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

2016-07-29 16:30

Always use pen.

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

2016-07-28 20:05

Very nice work! Your lines are confident and smooth, your ellipses are even and well planned, and your boxes generally demonstrate a budding sense of 3D space.

One suggestion I have in regards to your rough perspective boxes is that you go over your completed work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. Also, I updated the notes for the rotated boxes exercise last weekend, so if you haven't had a chance to look at them you definitely should - they're considerably more detailed, and while you did a decent job of them, they'd be worth reading.

Your organic perspective boxes are also pretty good. I do want to recommend that you give the 250 box challenge page a read - you don't have to do the challenge (though it may be a good idea), but the notes, especially those about drawing through your boxes, should help you get a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space.

I'll be marking this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one when you feel ready.

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

2016-07-28 20:00

Not bad, though I did notice a few things I'd like to point out.

Below you'll find a few links that lead to explanations of certain issues or recommendations I have for you:

Additionally, I noticed in some places (more early on, so you are improving on this point) you seemed to be losing control of your ghosted lines a little bit. The lines were smooth, which is good, but after a certain point they'd just kinda turn into a wobbly wave. Keep an eye on that.

I also noticed that here and there you have a habit of immediately reinforcing a line you've just drawn with another one. This is a common habit, but not a good one - it's really just drawing by reflex, instead of planning and preparing before every stroke you put down. We're all about the ghosting method - every mark you put on the page should be the result of forethought. The automatic reinforcing of lines, on the other hand, generally comes from a lack of confidence - one we're working to snuff out.

Lastly, keep in mind that the rotated and organic perspective boxes do need work, but these exercises are really just intended as a first taste of the overwhelming challenge that is rotating boxes freely in 3D space. You are by no means expected to nail it this early on, so don't fret too much over that.

I am 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 freely manipulating those boxes in 3D space. Be sure to read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This technique in particular will help you get a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space.

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

2016-07-28 19:55

Fine point sharpies are okay - a little bit thick, but aside from that, they are felt tip pens so they'll do just fine.

Looking at your work, I see one trend across all of it - you have a tendency to draw slowly and carefully, and as a result your lines are coming out quite stiff and wobbly. This is something I talk about in a few areas, summing it up somewhat in this comic: http://drawabox.com/comic/1

I also talk about it here:

This is definitely something you'll want to work on, as it's quite important.

Next, in your rough perspective boxes, to stress the importance of keeping your horizontals parallel to the horizon and your verticals perpendicular to it, I'd like you to read over this: Guessing, Instead of Knowing. It's also a very good idea for you to go over your completed work for that exercise as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point.

The rotated and organic perspective boxes are particularly challenging exercises - you are by no means expected to develop a full sense of how to work in 3D space by the end of this lesson, so the exercises really only represent a first taste of the challenges of freely rotating boxes without any explicit vanishing points to rely upon. That said, looking at your rotated boxes, it looks to me like you haven't yet had a chance to read the new instructions that I posted on Saturday - definitely give them a read, as they're considerably more detailed and should help you wrap your head around the exercise a little better.

Now, I am going to mark this lesson as complete. Keep in mind that you're expected to continue practicing these exercises as you move forwards - I further explain this here: http://drawabox.com/comic/2. I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next to get more practice constructing arbitrarily rotated boxes, as well as the chance to continue working out your wobbly lines. You are fully expected to apply the ghosting method to all of your linework, so take your time to apply its preparation techniques before executing each line with a smooth, confident stroke - not a slow, belaboured one.

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

2016-07-28 19:46

Excellent work! Your constructions feel very solid, especially as you push through the set, especially the cylinder-heavy ones, which start off a little uncertain on that first page. One thing I did notice you struggling with was the computer mouse, and for good reason. For something like that, I would play around with creating a cross-section of the object first, and extruding my object off of that. I've got an old demo of that principle you can see here: http://i.imgur.com/Mi2xVdj.png. As you can see, a lot of people tend to have trouble with computer mice.

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

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

2016-07-28 19:37

There certainly are some things you can work on. Your lines section is generally well done. Your ellipses, however, are very stiff and uneven. This happens when you draw too slowly, and allow your brain to course-correct while you draw, rather than applying the ghosting method to prepare and build up muscle memory, then trusting your arm by drawing the mark with a confident stroke. I discuss this in a few places:

I noticed that in your plotted perspective boxes, your vertical lines are slanted every now and then. This, in turn, flows right into a lot of your rough perspective boxes' lines being the result of guesses and uncertainty as to how each one should behave.

In any perspective system (one, two, three point perspective) there are only a few possible behaviours that can be applied to any line. You should never be guessing - instead, you should take a step back and think through which behaviour should be applied to the line you wish to draw.

In two point perspective, you have two sets of horizontal lines and one set of vertical lines. Each set of horizontal lines go off to their own vanishing point. The vertical lines, however, have no vanishing point. They all run perpendicular to the horizon - basically, straight up and down.

The same principle applies to the rough perspective boxes, which were in 1 point perspective. You have three sets of lines - those that go off into the distance (and all converge towards the vanishing point), a set of horizontal lines, and a set of vertical lines. The horizontal lines have no vanishing point, they run perfectly parallel to the horizon. The vertical lines also have no vanishing point, and run perpendicular to the horizon (straight up and down).

I talk about this more here: Guessing, Instead of Knowing

Your rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes certainly need work, but neither of these exercises were included with the expectation that you'd nail them so soon. They were set here to help expose you to the challenge of freely rotating boxes without any explicit vanishing points in the frame. Don't worry too much if you're struggling with them right now.

That said, for your rotated boxes, looking at your work it seems to me that you may not yet have seen the new notes in posted this past weekend on this exercise. You should definitely go back and take another look, as the new, more detailed notes should help you understand how to better tackle this exercise.

I'm not going to mark the lesson as complete just yet - I'd like you to redo the table of ellipses exercise (to sort out the stiffness), and then I'd like you to do one page of plotted perspective boxes and one page of rough perspective boxes. Once those are done, you can submit them to me and I'll mark the lesson as complete.

Then I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge for more practice with rotating boxes freely in 3D space. Be sure to read through the notes on that page before starting the work, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This approach in particular helps to give you a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space.

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

2016-07-28 19:27

One major thing I'm seeing in your work is that you appear to have a tendency to rush through things. Fairly early on I stress the dire importance of applying the ghosting method to every mark you put down, be they straight lines, curves or ellipses. Your ellipses however are drawn very quickly with next to no planning - it appears that you're merely repeating the action over and over without pause. Because of this, your precision suffers immensely. Your lines are smooth, and a certain degree of inaccuracy is expected in favour of drawing confident, even ellipses, but your ellipses take it too far and end up being very flimsy and overly loose.

The same applies to the lines you've used to draw all of your organic perspective boxes - you're not going through the three stage ghosting method, you're merely reverting to a loose, sketchy approach. The construction of the boxes themselves also needs work, but I don't hold this point against you - the exercise is a very difficult one that was included largely as a first point of exposure to the challenge of freely rotating boxes in 3D space. You're not by any means expected to nail it by the end of this lesson.

Your plotted perspective boxes are well done, and your rough perspective boxes are pretty good too (though I highly recommend that you go over your completed work for this exercise as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. Your lines section is also generally well executed, though I see that you skipped the ghosted lines exercise and jumped straight into the planes exercise.

First, I'd like you to redo the tables of ellipses exercise. Take the time to apply the ghosting method to each ellipse, and work on maintaining both a smooth and confident stroke while also keeping the ellipse as tight and solid as you can. The first point takes priority over the second, but you should definitely be capable of drawing them with greater precision and solidity than you have demonstrated here.

Once you've completed that, you may submit them to me and I will mark the lesson as complete. Once that is done, you will move onto the 250 box challenge. This is both to further practice your use of the ghosting method, as well as to get you some additional practice on constructing those freely rotated boxes. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This approach in particular will help you to better understand how each box sits in 3D space.

As for your questions-

  1. This is a question I actively avoid answering - how much time you put in is up to you. I probably wouldn't go any lower than half an hour in one sitting (and even that's quite little, an hour would be better as a minimum). Overall it really depends on what works for you - rather than giving you time estimates, I will tell you this: if you start to get tired, take a break. Don't ever expect to complete an entire lesson in one sitting (or anything close to that, these are very time consuming), and plan to spread them out over several days or more. Focus not on completing them within a given time frame, but on completing each exercise to the best of your ability. Never rush, never turn in sloppy work. There's a difference between sloppy work, and work that simply reflects a a lower level of skill.

  2. A lesson being marked as complete merely signifies that you understand what to aim for with each of these exercise. You are absolutely expected to continue practicing them, especially in terms of the material from the first two lessons. You should pick two or three exercises from the material you've covered each day to do as a warmup, changing them up every day so as to ensure that you don't end up getting rusty at any one of them. I talk about this here: http://drawabox.com/comic/2

  3. I didn't go to art college. I did attend a private art school where I took individual courses for two terms (six months), but I never went to a proper art school for a 4 year program. I can speak to two things though - the benefit of a classroom environment, and the benefits a proper art school can potentially give you. To put it simply, a classroom environment gives you two things - first, face-to-face time with an instructor. Assuming they know what they're talking about (not all art schools are equal, and not all instructors within the same school are equal either), this can be extremely valuable. What I found to be even more valuable than this was the second point - the other students. Being around other students at roughly the same level as you can be immensely motivating, especially if you're the competitive type. You can get something similar from a group of friends, but the added pressure and discipline that comes from having the instructor around and the whole structure of the class is hard to find elsewhere. Then there's the benefits that the school itself can give you - not all schools will have this, and generally it's only the ones with strong reputations and strong connections to whatever industry you wish to pursue a career in, but some schools will give you access to job listings and resources that come into play after you graduate. Of course you can get a job without going to school, and going to school certainly does not guarantee you a job (nor does it guarantee that you'll improve all that much), but it's not an option I would discount entirely. These points should be weighed against the cost. Of course, there are other alternatives to 4 year programs. Online schools, private schools that serve courses à la carte, etc. Just be sure to do your research into all of these, as art education is a lot like navigating a minefield of scams and over-inflated prices.

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

2016-07-28 17:17

In some cases, specifically metal that has lots of reflective qualities, long lines (not exactly hatching but very similar) can work nicely but generally if something is smooth leaving it empty is best. Think of the texture marks as being little shadows cast by the tiny bumps and features on the surface of an object. If there are no bumps, then there are no shadows.

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

2016-07-28 01:52

That is correct. While sketching isn't inherently bad, people rely on it far too much, and end up being extremely wasteful with their lines. One important thing to learn is the concept of 'line economy'. To put it simply, it's a matter of not using more lines than you need. By being forced to draw with pen, and to carefully plan out every single line you draw in my exercises and lessons, you slowly develop the habit of thinking and planning before you make any mark on the page. Ultimately, even a person who reverts to sketching afterwards is going to have a split second before their pen hits the page that they will consider what kind of mark they want to draw, instead of simply drawing and hoping the line they want will appear somewhere.

Long story short, no loose sketching, no pencils. You are forced to draw only what is important, necessary, and ultimately helps you understand the forms you are drawing and how they sit in 3D space. Anything that does not accomplish a specific task is not to be drawn at all.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"

2016-07-28 01:27

So you've got some good, and some less good. I think when you copy the demos (the oryx, the bear) you do a particularly good job - the trick is really wrapping your head around why the demos are stronger (specifically what the demos are demonstrating) and applying them to all of your drawings.

There are a few things that you seem to be missing more often than you're hitting them. First though, here's some notes on your dinosaurs: http://i.imgur.com/4ghPjsD.png

So, things you're missing:

Anywho, you are doing a pretty good job, but I think you're being hit from all sides with a lot of information, so take it easy, and take it slow. I'd like to see another four pages of drawings - this time don't do any texture or detail - focus entirely on the construction. Don't be afraid to draw your lines confidently, we're not in this to make pretty pictures. For instance, your puffins show some timid, faint contour ellipses that end up cutting out halfway through. They're not inherently bad, but it's a sign of drawing timidly, of consciously not wanting these lines to show up as much as the others. Don't worry about it. Again, look at my oryx demo - I draw each line full and dark, and I deal with organizing all of it later on. As long as a line is valuable and helps you understand the form you're drawing, draw it confidently. If the line doesn't contribute, or it accomplishes the task another line already has done, then don't draw it at all. No middle ground.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-07-28 00:44

Yup, the alignment is a little bit better.

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

2016-07-27 19:48

Looking at how long ago you submitted lesson 3, I was expecting your work to be awful. It seems I was wrong though - you've done a pretty good job, and have demonstrated a solid sense of form and construction, and your use of texture is quite good (though I strongly recommend moving away from hatching or crosshatching, as it usually looks quite sloppy and is rarely the best choice when it comes to capturing most textures).

You're absolutely right that insect legs can be quite challenging - you've done a pretty good job with them however, and have been able to avoid the general pitfall of making them look stiff and awkward. You'll find that in certain cases, it's better to drop the emphasis on form and instead emphasize gesture and flow. This is sometimes the case with more substantial animal legs as well. You'll notice that in some of these demos: http://imgur.com/gallery/udZZ8 (you also should find some other helpful information in there on topics such as hair/fur and other kinds of construction)

The only thing I want to remind you of is the importance of continuing to draw through your ellipses. It may seem inane right now, but I insist that you do it for all the ellipses you draw for me.

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

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2016-07-27 19:43

Nice work completing the challenge. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

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

2016-07-27 19:34

Generally quite well done! Just a few things I'd like to draw your attention to.

First off, with your superimposed lines, your lines are fairly accurate, though they wobble quite a bit. What I can infer from this is that you're drawing slowly and carefully, rather than confidently. This gives your brain the chance to course-correct as you draw, resulting in a wobbly line. Instead, you should be drawing your marks with a confident stroke, relying on muscle memory and not allowing your brain to maintain such close control. This will allow you to maintain a smoother flow. Your accuracy will suffer, but you can compensate for that by applying the ghosting method's preparation techniques.

Jumping ahead, the only other thing I wanted to point out was that your organic perspective boxes do need some work. They're generally not bad, and this exercise and the rotated boxes exercise are intended to merely be a first point of exposure to the challenges of freely manipulating boxes in 3D space. They are difficult things to master, and you are by no means expected to nail them 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. Be sure to read through the notes on the page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This in particular will help you gain a stronger sense of how each box sits in 3D space.

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

2016-07-27 19:24

You've done fairly well. Ellipses and curves do take plenty of time and practice to really nail, so there's no expectation of perfection this early on. It will develop gradually, as long as you continue practicing these exercises.

For your rotated boxes exercise, I'd say one thing that is causing you to struggle with your scaling is that you're not drawing through your boxes, so you don't really have a full sense of where each box ends on its far side.

Both this exercise and the rotated boxes are really just the first exposure to the idea of rotating boxes freely in 3D space, so again there's no expectation of even beginning to grasp the concept. Your rotated boxes, aside from the inconsistent scaling, were quite well done. Your organic perspective boxes certainly need more work, but they're coming along fairly well too.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Be sure to read through all of the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your boxes - I've mentioned this in regards to your rotated boxes, and in general, it's a very helpful approach that allows you to fully grasp how each box sits in 3D space.

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

2016-07-27 19:20

Your arrows are fairly well done. Your organic forms with contour ellipses and curves are also well executed. Your dissections are alright, though the textures are somewhat simplistic - I believe you're jumping ahead of yourself in trying to simplify and organize your detail before having sufficiently developed the ability to really identify and capture the wealth of noisy visual information present in a given reference image. As a result, you don't have a whole lot to simplify right now. Doing the texture challenge should help in this area, as it forces you to first come to terms with capturing all of the detail of a particular texture several times over, before moving onto the organizational phase.

With the intersections, you did the main focus of the exercise well (drawing a bunch of forms in the same scene such that they feel cohesive and consistent). The actual intersections... well there's really not a whole lot of that going on right now, as you said, they're random and it doesn't look like you put a whole lot of thought into how they actually fit together. At the end of the day, intersection itself is not really what we're focusing on, and it's not a simple concept to convey so early on. So we're going to leave it as it is. Over time you may want to revisit the notes in the lesson section every now and then.

In your organic intersection exercise, you do seem to be getting just the beginnings of an understanding of the purpose of this exercise. I can see some attempts at having the forms interact with one another, conveying a little bit of how they'd sag against one another where their weight is not quite supported. That said, there's a lot of room to grow. As always, the most important thing is to perceive these forms as having weight and solidity to them, and considering how they sit in 3D space, going beyond just what you see on the flat page. You must be fully convinced of the illusion that they are 3D - your goal is to fool your viewers, but before being able to do that you must first be able to fool yourself.

Also, for the forms themselves, try to stick to simple sausage forms and avoid any sort of tapering in their midsections or swelling at their ends. Swelling at the ends is something I see often when people try to over-exaggerate perspective in a way that doesn't entirely make sense. At such a small scale, perspective and foreshortening tends to be fairly shallow regardless.

Anyway, I'm going to mark this lesson as complete - you should continue to keep up with these exercises as warmups as you move through the later lessons.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2016-07-27 19:08

Fundamentally you're not doing anything wrong. I don't really understand what's bad about your leaves being similar to the arrows in lesson 2 - they're supposed to be, both tackle the same challenge of flat forms flowing through 3D space. The most important thing to keep in mind is that when starting off the construction (drawing the central line around which the leaf is built), you should try and think of it as a line that moves between two points in 3D space. It's easy to get caught up in the two points simply existing on the flat page, but you need to think about how each one may exist at a different level of depth, a different distance from the viewer.

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

2016-07-26 20:31

Definitely better. I would definitely advise you to take a little more care applying the ghosting method when preparing to draw your ellipses so you can get them positioned snugly between the edges of your organic form (whilst maintaining the smoothness that comes from drawing with a confident pace), but generally you're doing much better than before. I'll mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.