Here are a few sets of blobs-to-boxes. I started with individual blobs/boxes, then combos, then box-people from imagination. Underneath the black box lines are faint sepia blob lines. The boxes ended up a bit messier than I would have liked and the proportions of the torsos are off. Oh well. I'll keep practicing. This has been a fun project, like doing the hand boxes. .

Here's my third attempt at the Level 1 head boxes. The changes tended to be fairly subtle from version to version, and i think (hope) my ability to analyze the perspeectives was beginning to improve with practice. But there is definitely room for further improvement. I did these in pencil and did erase from time to time. Next time, I'll try this using pen to challenge myself more. I found in this as well as in the previous 1-point perspective exercises, that it only takes a slight error in the angle of any of the box lines to make the drawing look "off." As I look at my latest version of the boxes, I am seeing a number of errors of this sort. Maybe that's a good sign--that the practice is helping to calibrate my brain so that I can detect finer differences. Who knows? Time and practice will tell.

Here's a 1-point perspective drawing of a room, which features a piano, a bookcase and other assorted furniture, including, of course, a kitchen sink with dirty dishes. In the chair at the front of the room, observing it all, is a fellow smoking a pipe. In keeping with this project, he's rendered as a block head (like me). Perhaps he stepped out of a George Bridgman drawing. I have also attached a picture showing parallel and perpendicular perspectives on perspective. I wish I had drawn it. It's a cartoon by Paul Karasik appearing in the October 9, 2023 edition of The New Yorker. Thought you would enjoy it. Cheers!

I did several versions of several seal/sea lion photos. Here is one set using the reference photos and another set done freestyle/from memory. The latter was more fun and better, i think, since more fluid. I think the drawings tended to work better whenever the shapes and the line quality better conveyed the gesture. It was fun drawing these beautiful creatures.

Here's my assignment. Measuring was a bit trickier than I thought it would be . . .

Here are my animal drawings. Each iteration of each animal became a bit easier and simpler and the variations in shapes seemed to cause their personalities to change. The buffalo's horns began to look to me like a bouffant hairdo, so I elaborated on that a bit. The dog took on a very serious expression, like that of a burgher in an old Dutch master painting; hence, the ruff.

Here are sketches of the penguin and the hand. I found the penguin to be a lot easier to do than the hand. Always a challenge to keep things simple. . .

Here are drawings of the snail, boots, camel, and skull. All were done before watching the demos. Making these drawings was really fun, especially when it felt now and again like the line I was making was behaving itself and was coming out in a way that looked and felt "right". What percentage of the lines actually did this? Much less than 100%! (Let's leave it at that.) But watching Stan's demos--drawing with freedom and intentionality--shows what's possible and what I will keep working on. Very helpful!

Here are two versions of the portrait, the one on the left in graphite, the one on the right done digitally on Sketchbook. It was an interesting challenge both to try to figure out how to simplify it into five values and then to try to execute it. I found it somewhat easier to clarify the values using Sketchbook, though I've never really used that medium before, so that was a challenge in itself. I think I was able to make a little progress with each iteration, but I still have a way to go, both in the seeing and in the execution. Practice certainly helps . . .

Here are some attempts at drawing the pear. The first was done before watching the demo, the others after. I was trying to get better at simplifying and in differentiating the 5 values. It's amazing how many little decisions you have to make to "simplify" things. This was really fun. I learned a lot from this.