Alright! Give it up for unit 2!
Each week will feature a different lesson. Lesson 0-1 for week 1, lesson 2 for week 2, and so on–this gives us three weeks to complete the first four drawabox lessons. I may or may not add an extra week or two for the challenges–that will probably be the case. For now, though, I’m working through the course, one lesson at a time.
I have done the first lesson of drawabox multiple times, and I feel like it really helped me rewire the way I approach drawing. That, in itself, is incredibly useful. It also teaches the mechanics of drawing from the very bottom; this will be very useful for anyone who’s newer to drawing than I. It even helped me iron out some bad habits. There are other resources, but they have the same information as Drawabox, just presented differently. Drawabox is concise, exercise-oriented, and informational–and most of all, it’s free!
Day 1 | Lesson 0
Day 2 | Lines: Using your Arm, Lines: Markmaking, Lines: Homework
Day 3 | Ellipses, Ellipses: Homework
Day 4 | Ellipses: Homework, Boxes: The Basics, Boxes: Foreshortening and Vanish Points
Day 5 | Boxes: Rotation, Boxes: Simplified Guidelines, Boxes: Homework
Day 6 | Boxes: Additional Notes, Boxes: Homework
Day 7 | Boxes: Homework
In the spirit of being ahead of the game, I started day 2 today. So, lesson 0 was a breeze–I already have plenty of art supplies, already know Drawabox’s tools and methods, and was ready to work, so that’s what I did. Then, I completed Lines material for day 2, and half of the Lines homework.
Today, I finished the Lines homework. So, line work effectively completed! I definitely noticed an improvement on the straightness and trajectory of my lines after completing these exercises. The first plane on the Day 2 page is quite curvy, because I was coming in cold. I went and did the second superimposed lines homework and came back to the planes, and noted a marked improvement.
By the way, anecdotal note: I’ve done this homework a few times before, and it rewired my brain regarding linework. I attribute a good portion of my current drawing skills and linework style to the way that Drawabox teaches markmaking. So, very cool! This is a good review of material for me.
I’m slowing down a little bit, but still trying to put aside consistent time for my studies. My ovals definitely need more work, but I’m more comfortable with the shape now. I tend to speed up and forget to ghost my lines, so I’ve been making a point out of remembering, even if it slows me down. Ellipses homework all done!
Something that clicked while I was working on this day was one of DaB’s objective statements. DaB makes such an effort towards markmaking, so that you don’t have to think about the mechanics of drawing as you draw; you should only have to send the information from your brain to the page, instead of brain, to hand, to page. There is so much work that has to go into drawing in the brain, that the extra layer of figuring out how to make those marks physically is an unnecessary expenditure.
This was a sort of an aside when I read the lesson, but as I’ve been drawing in my free time, I’ve noticed some incredible moments where the lines were just pouring out of me, like my hand was working on autopilot while my brain was calculating overtime. That must be part of why the 50/50 rule is so important; the mental shift I’m experiencing, I can really only discover while I’m drawing for fun. It’s an amazing and addictive experience.
Just a really top-tier experience.
I actually did not realize that I didn’t finish the last box on the third page until just now–after I’ve already uploaded the pictures… I will not be going back to fix that. But, anyway, I will say that this is about the point in every other drawabox attempt where I’ve backed out. The box challenges just seemed too daunting.
Drawabox does state that part of the lesson for the second page is to learn to differentiate messes of lines, and be able to follow shapes and lines through the mess. I definitely see an improvement in my ability to do that, and that part of the drawing doesn’t confuse me like it used to. It will become an important skill later on.
This is actually my last day working with this lesson! I ended up working ahead of the days–I thought it would be a lot slower-going, so I wanted to give myself a buffer day-to-day to not burn myself out. But, it turns out that I do not need seven days for this. I did end up spanning it out over a month, mostly due to the fact that I did not work on it during winter break, but I pulled through in the end, so I’m happy about it.
I will admit that I did get a little lazy with the second organic boxes homework. I did realize I’m not as good with perspective as I thought–a lot of my boxes ended up with invalid vanishing points, or unnatural perspectives. That’s a good thing to know!
This is the first time I’ve ever completed all the drawabox lesson 1 homeworks. This gives me a good feeling for the future, as I know that I am capable of doing things that I previously considered too hard to do, or too difficult to wrap my head around. Now I will be tackling the 250 box challenge!