Drawabox course

Date: 2021-10-22 13:53:45 +08:00Date modified: 2021-11-07 00:33:58 +08:00

a good roam:Illustration course for absolute beginners; though, this is not a good course if you're exclusively following this; I advice to mix other course

Lesson 0

this is a chapter that is quite more insightful than I thought
it mainly preps you up on expectations, attitudes, and prerequisites needed to tackle the course more effectively
among them is the separation between fun and training (e.g., 50% rule)
it is an interesting point that training and drawing for the sake of drawing (e.g., for fun) should be separated
it also sets the expectation of the author to their audience; for example, the course itself is set for absolute beginners and self-taught artists (that hopefully realized how little they know about things); the course also expects students to follow the instructions to the letter and emphasizes how exercises should be used
grinding and mastery over the exercises is discouraged mostly because it is a waste of time that could've been used somewhere else; the focus is to build a foundation similar to Start small and improve later
do some warm ups before taking on the exercises

since writing and drawing both involves the pen, there are some habits that we bring when starting to draw; one of the most common form is our grip;
we mostly use only our wrist which is suitable for creating precise and finer detailed lines; this is perfectly fine for letters but not for lines that come in a variety of length
beyond our wrist, we can use our whole arm and shoulder; this enables to easily create longer lines with confidence
this course also enforces to draw with the whole arm; the way to do this is to simply glide and practice with the following exercises
if you're familiar with or have seen figure drawing videos, there are some certain beliefs to grip the "correct way" with the backhand grip; just like in Programming where people insists the best way to code with different paradigms to the point of dogma, there is a resemblance when it comes to arguing the best way to hold; it is best to know however that things apply differently in different context (i.e., the backhand grip is only applicable to pencils, not pens)

Superimposed lines - this is an exercise enforcing to draw with your arm; it is a straightforward exercise so far
Ghosted Lines - this is where the ghosting method is introduced which is essential as more exercises will build upon this technique; it is an interesting exercise especially for me having some hand-eye coordination issues ;p
Ghosted Planes - this is "Ghosted Lines" exercise but on steroids; enforces the ghosting method even more
Tables of Ellipses - this is where I have problems with creating smooth ellipses; I eventually realized my problem is how I grip and how it fall backs to creating ellipses with my wrist instead of my arm; it's harder than I thought to draw circles with a pen; it's a disaster; this is a habitual problem and will work out on this; I'm very tempted to restart this exercise but as the course says "No grinding and attempts at mastery before moving to each exercise"
Ellipses in Planes - I've done a little warm up with creating ellipses with the ghosting method and it indeed improve my ellipses unlike the previous disastrous result; most of the ellipses appear to be confident but not much in accuracy; that's the next thing to be worked on the upcoming warm ups, I guess