Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
2:31 PM, Thursday May 2nd 2024
Here goes nothing
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9:03 PM, Thursday May 9th 2024
Hey, congratulations on getting through lesson 1! Here is some feedback. Just a heads up--there will be some revisions requested, but if you do them, they'll help you.
Lines
Line confidence looks to be the #1 thing to work on here, but I do see signs of improvement by the end of the lesson.
When my lines start to get wobbly, I "reset" myself by just drawing a bunch of loose, straight lines (not superimposed or dot-to-dot--totally free) on scratch paper. Then I do some superimposed lines, and then I go back to whatever I was trying to do.
Eventually you'll find your optimum speed--fast enough to be confident, slow enough to be reasonably accurate.
Ellipses
This looks very new to you, and ellipses take a while to get down. It took me a couple of months of including them in the 5-10 minute warm ups for them to look decent. (I'll still sometimes get weird ones.)
It looks like one of the tables has one pass on most of the ellipses, and the other has more than one pass. I'm going to assume you reread the instructions and learned that you need 2-3 passes.
Ellipses in planes and funnels: These are good attempts. However, these ellipses need 2-3 passes.
For ellipses, try a similar thing to smooth them as with lines. First, draw a few quick super loose ones (not in a table or anything--just free on the page), then a few aligned with a minor axis (like this: https://imgur.com/a/FVVPp6Z ). Afterwords, try constrained ellipses (like one or two panels of a table).
Boxes
Plotted perspective: This looks solid.
Rough perspective: Looks like you understand the idea here. The horizontal and vertical lines are correct, and the rest aim at the VP.
Rotated boxes: This is a good effort. You'll understand how to do this more as you draw more boxes in space.
Organic perspective: I see you've rotated the boxes and made a good effort. There are a lot of divergent lines, but the box challenge will train you to make them converge, so don't worry about that now.
Next Steps:
This is tough, but I'm going to ask for 3 redos.
Frayed lines, 1 more page: (This is assuming there are no medical issues that cause the wobbles, and that you just need to build muscle memory.)
Focus on confidence and moving your entire arm, even if it means the lines aren't accurate at all! If you see wobbles, "reset" yourself by just drawing a bunch of loose, straight lines (not superimposed or dot-to-dot--totally free) on scratch paper. Then do another batch of superimposed lines.
Ellipses, 2 things
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1 full pages of free ellipses. This wasn't in lesson 1, but I think it will help. Don't put these in boxes or funnels or anything, just loose so you can focus on smooth line quality. Pass through each ellipse 2-3 times.
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1 full table of ellipses. If you feel they're getting wobbly, do a few free ones on a piece of scratch paper and then go back to it. Focus on smooth lines and pass through each ellipse 2-3 times. I'd rather you miss the edges of the table lines than make a wobble.
Once you redo these, post them here and then move on to the 250 box challenge. Each day you do boxes, spend 5-10 minutes warming up with frayed lines or ellipses. It will take time to learn the muscle memory, and it's best to do that along with moving forward, rather than spend a month just doing ellipses and nothing else!
You'll need smooth curved lines and ellipses for lessons 2-5. Doing them as warmups during the 250 box challenge will give your arm a chance to learn this motion before you need it for the next lessons.
Finally, when you do the 250 box challenge, post some of your first 50 on the discord so they can be checked. That way you can know you're doing them right, or fix anything that needs fixing.
9:10 PM, Thursday May 9th 2024
Thank you so much man, I really appreaciate your time, and honestly I expected revisions and that line confidence was a big problem for me, I don't have any physical problem so this is all on me
I'll do the revisions as soon as I can
Just one thing, what do you mean by "free ellipses"? just drawing a bunch of them randomly on a piece of paper?
10:17 PM, Thursday May 9th 2024
Yep, like this: https://imgur.com/a/Gnu4CqI
A good rule of thumb is that if a task is difficult enough that it's just not working for you, find a way to make doing the main important part simpler. Then when you get that, try the harder thing again.
Also, I highly recommend finding an accountability buddy who is on a similar lesson/timetable. I spend a couple of weeks finding a group, and would have given up many times over without them. I just finished lesson 7, and another guy in the group is working on his last vehicle. You may go through a few people--just find them in whichever lesson sub you're in.
This course really does take over a year. Also, don't worry if you don't do the entire thing this time around--even getting through half of it is hugely beneficial.
The Lesson 2 texture unit is a difficult roadblock--when you get through that, Lesson 3 is more straightforward. The difficulty also ramps up with your skill level, so it's hard the whole time and it may feel like you aren't improving, but you really are. It shows when you do stuff outside of drawabox. Heck, even if all you get out of this is line confidence, that's worth the time spent.
10:49 PM, Friday May 10th 2024
I did a couple more than requested because I felt like I needed them. Any new instructions?
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