Stan, thanks for the Demo. The box size, (diminution), rhythm, sticking to the original blob, pencil weight, foreshortening, the twist, convergence, I think I have a better understanding in my head box. I go practice.

I am so ready for the demo!

Day 4 of practicing these and guess what, I’m starting to like it! I gave level two another try, after I warmed up with level one. I feel like I could fill an entire sketchbook with these to finetune this skill. Pretty pleased with my progress so far. I’m starting to recognize in what direction to converge a bit faster (but not always correctly yet so if you spot errors let me know) and I’m eager to get comfortable pushing the convergence a little harder. I see some of you really get into these torso’s and I find it very motivating! Way to go everyone!

I spent unforgivable amounts of time wondering such things as why the blob doesn't fit inside the box. Meaning that I constantly find my focus on solving the wrong problems. At least that's how it feels, but then, I guess one can't get through a thicket without clearing the way. I'm wondering if my boxes end up looking distorted because there is too much convergence? Or because my vanishing points are missing, or misplaced? I don't know, I can't put my finger on where I go wrong. I find myself drawing a box but thinking of an ellipse, and plan to draw the box in two point perspective but end up following three point perspective guidelines, so... perhaps just a little break? :P. Fun it is, nonetheless, I love this challenge.

Here are some exercises from me. The first page was done using reference, and the second page was done from imagination.

This was my first go. Drawing intuitively feels nice but also makes me question myself. Why am I doing it this way? Wait, what about the rules? I went in to make big changes a couple of times. I don’t feel like I got it yet, so I I’m going to make a page of each every day this week. To be continued!

Level 1. I tried to use the same blob multiple times and reinterpret it from a different angle each time.

Stan, when you said that this is the half way point of the course, that made me very happy, that there is going to be that much more of it. It’s been so great, and so helpful, so far. This course has been such a great investment! There were so many helpful concepts, so far, that I never fully picked up or understood from other courses, and or art lessons. Things that make everything else, that teaches concepts for line drawing, easier to manage. In that way, this course also adds value to all those other courses, for me. I just wish I would have had this course earlier because it would have saved me so much grief, and struggle. I really appreciate the thought and detail that you put into your lessons, Stan. Art teachers often explain things in ambiguous ways that leave me uncertain. But it’s clear to me that you really take the time to figure out how to explain things in the clearest way possible, and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate it. I am feeling really excited about drawing, and my art goals are feeling more attainable. I can not speak highly enough about this course! It’s already a 10 out of 10 and it’s only half way through! I absolutely love this course! Thanks for helping fill in the gaps of my drawing knowledge. Sorry it won't seem to let me post without hitting Request Critique. LOL

I appreciate these critique videos so much, thank you Stan!

I'm posting this here knowing that there will be others going back to this practice. I found it helpful to try the same composition again so I can see my progress as well as the things I need to work on some more. After the feedback that I received on my first attempt 2 months ago, I decided to dive back in and retry this same set-up. I've included the old version here as well. I think I made progress in that I kept constructing the x-ray vision lines and always constructed the basic form (in this case rectangles). Line work is 'still' something I work on, I do 15 minutes of line drills (+ 15 min circles and ellipses) before I get started.

Wow. This seems so hard. I am working small scale just to have an easier time with the lines. This is a paper doll cutout of a monster truck. I know there are several mistakes. I had to use some color to finish my drawing just to make this assignment seem like something else. Sigh. I’ll keep working on it.

I started with the simple toy like cars, going on to the monster truck (which I found challenging) and onto the tanks. I learned that I know little of tanks :) Also I doodled a couple of cars before I saw this project online. I guess it's a common thing to think of when you're working on boxes and cilinders! For me, drawing the boxes for the tires first worked better than to start with the body of the vehicle. Still I thought it was tricky, especially to find the right size of a wheel on the 'backside' of the vehicle. Also, many lines everywhere. It was hard to keep my lines clean, I certainly felt the urge to scribble. Quite a challenge this one!

Here are my level 1 cars.

Here is an animated illustration I did for my animation students about 1 to 5 point perspective. I also explain to them that these are tools to create the illusion of 3d space on a flat surface like a piece of paper, a screen or a cinema canvas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpkeIiTMCk PS: Marshall is a gem. I am so looking forward to his course.

Hi Felix, I’m not an expert myself but I’m practicing gesture and maybe it’s helpful to share my thoughts anyway. It’s good that you practice loads of these and stick to gesture practice! For this kind of gesture drawing, it might be helpful to choose the most important gesture line and base the figure on that movement. Here’s how I approach it. I pick the movement that stands out most for me and try to find a line that goes from down to bottom of the pose. Next, I build the other lines, around this most dominant flow (so it shouldn’t steal attention away from the main gesture). We’re drawing and not necessarily copying, so we can take liberties with exaggerating the gesture a bit. For example I found main gesture lines on two of your references. It might help add to your flow basing your drawing on 1 line from head to two, as I noticed that you tend to break up upper and lower body lines. I hope this is helpful, keep up the good work!

I really enjoyed doing this exercice, don't know if i did it right but at least i really enjoyed drawing this hand

I was so excited to start drawing hands, but I found it really hard to focus on perspective! I feel like I totally failed to apply 3-point perspective and was drawing too intuitively. I had a hard time sticking to box/square shapes and as I started to lose confidence, my lines got messy. I'm definitely going to practice many more of these!

For some reason I was unaware of minecraft. This partly explains why I made the first /big one so square, I could've done better research though. Anyway, I found out there was a minecraft piggy. Loved it! Also attached my warm ups. Is something off about the angels? Seeing the big and small one side to side, I feel something might be a bit wonky. If you spot something, feel free to let me know!