This was my first time ever doing timed drawing—and definitely my first time trying to draw something in 30 seconds (let alone 5!). I'm usually a very slow, deliberate drawer. I tend to obsess over getting everything just right, which has held me back from getting real mileage. I erase way too much, and the idea of drawing fast has always felt… intimidating. That’s why this exercise was actually really valuable for me. It forced me to stop overthinking and just go—to make quick decisions, live with mistakes, and resist the urge to fix everything even when things came out looking ugly. It was surprisingly liberating. I definitely felt myself loosen up. * What I learned / struggled with: - Simplifying objects is really hard for me. I know it’s a key skill, but I tend to get overwhelmed the moment things get a little more complex. If it’s a straightforward boxy shape, I can break it down okay—but with something like a trumpet (curves, bevels, overlapping tubes), I struggled a lot. And when you add the time pressure? That just multiplies everything. I couldn’t figure out the construction in 4 minutes, and in 1-minute or 30-second attempts, I was barely hanging on. - Ellipses… yikes. I knew I wasn’t great at them, and this just confirmed it. But I’ll tackle that more deeply once I get further into Marshall’s perspective course. - My perspective and proportion totally fell apart in the faster drawings—especially on the machine object (I’m not even sure what it’s called). Overall, I think these quick challenges were beneficial. That said, I did feel a little conflicted while doing the harder objects like the trumpet and machine. It felt like I was just flailing—like I was drawing willy-nilly without actually learning to make faster, smarter decisions. I kept wondering: am I just being busy, or am I building intuition? After each challenge, I took time to draw the same object again, this time without a timer, to better understand the structure. Those longer studies (ranging from ~30 minutes to over an hour) are included in the comments below.

Hey everyone! Really impressed with how many iterations you’ve all managed to crank out this week. Seriously inspiring! I only managed one—got too caught up trying to make things perfect instead of just practicing more loosely. If anyone has advice on how to let go of that and build a more consistent practice, I’d really appreciate it! This is a two-story library inspired by the reference photo attached. It’s a mix of freehand and ruler work. It took me a lot longer than I expected, especially drawing through everything (including the ladder). Excuse the mess. I might go back and clean up the lines later. I wasn’t sure if the balcony and railing make structural sense. Does it seem believable? Also, I struggled with relative proportion. For example, where would you say the couch hits on the ladder behind it? Around the second rung? I just placed things by intuition, but is that what we’re supposed to do when objects are at different distances—or is there a better method? Any feedback is welcome. Thanks in advance! Always learning from you all 😊

Marshall, thank you for the detailed critique! It’s really helpful. Here is another attempt at dramatic foreshortening where both VPs are very close to us but one is closer than the other. The left wing, the more distant one, is noticeably shorter. Hope I got it right this time :)

After following along the demos, I drew the plane model as if we're looking up at it from an extreme angle. The proportion seems to be off, and in the rough version with the construction lines, the box for the left wing looks wonky - even though I think its edges converge at the VPs. Is it because the VPs are too close?

Freehanded the front, side, and top views of the toy plane. I have to say, these orthographic views are deceptively easy! It took me a good while to finish this. When I checked with a ruler later, some things didn’t quite line up. I think it’s because I failed to make the front view symmetrical at the start. Note to self: Mind the symmetry!

Struggling with One-Point Perspective for an Anchor – Need Help with Back Plane! Hi Marshall and everyone, I really need some help with my second version of this drawing. I decided to do a one-point perspective drawing of an anchor for a ship, thinking it'd be a solid challenge--but wow, it's much harder than I expected. The first version with the vanishing point on the side wasn’t too difficult—I think I got the general idea down. But my second attempt, where the VP is below, is really puzzling me. The main issue (with my second version): 1. I can't figure out how to draw through the back plane while keeping the anchor symmetrical. 2. When I try to make it symmetrical, the left arm sticks out too much, but given where the VP is, it shouldn’t be that visible - I think. 3. I'm struggling with defining the thickness of the form correctly in perspective. This project is making me realize that while I’m relatively comfortable drawing through a box, doing the same with a complex form like an anchor is a different challenge. I'd appreciate some help with how to construct the back plane and maintain the correct thickness of my examples. Any advice or tips on projecting complex forms is also welcome. Thank you!

Hi everyone, have we learned how to do orthographic projections in this course, (basically drawing front, side, top views in proportion)? I apologize if I've missed it. Just wondering if we're expected to learn it on our own or if it'll be covered later here if it already hasn't been.

Here are my submissions: a tin watercolor palette from direct observation and a hydra from imagination (multiple snake heads in different orientations). In both cases I found I had to sketch them out many many times to figure out the structure. Even with seemingly simple objects, it was not so straightforward for me to reduce them to simpler forms.

A bunch of boxes, some from blobs, others not. While it wasn't easy, last year's box exercises from the Proko Basics course helped. Nothing impressive, but it wasn't as challenging as the first time around. I'm hoping this means some improvement, however slow. I so badly want to improve my perspective skills so I can observe and draw forms better. Until then, one box at a time! One thing I've struggled with the blob approach is that when I start with blobs, my contour lines are off. As mentioned by someone else in the comments, contours are acutally ellipses..and I've realized that I don't really know how to draw them in perspective according to the kind of box I'm picturing. So drawing boxes straight-up (and not from blobs) feels easier to me. Is this something that I'll get better at once we learn ellipses? Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks

I tried the blob approach to drawing objects in front of me. The blob isn't that visible but it's there, I swear. The first object is a jar of rusk, the other 2 may be me getting slightly ahead of this course and myself and drawing 2 vehicles at an automobile exhibition I visited.