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About instructor
Designer, Illustrator, Instructor
assignments 33 submissions
I can see this exercise being beneficial when I progress to the figure drawing course. To ease into drawing, I want my first marks of a session to be playful and free from expectation. This exercise meets this criterion, but there is also an opportunity here for more consequential practice.
I began page 1 with random marks and shapes, since this is how I normally begin my warmup sessions; it represents how it might look if I actually incorporate the exercise into my routine. I did use a reference to redraw the rotating figures on page 2, as the original proportions were somewhat embarrassing.
LESSON NOTES
In this lesson, I show you a fun design exercise designed to help you make dynamic poses and forms using only boxes. Don’t feel the need to think inside the box when working on these box men-- this exercise is meant to flex your creative muscles!
DOWNLOADS
drawing-exercises-for-beginners-box-men-explained.mp4
1 GB
ASSIGNMENTS
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Assignment
Now that I've shown you how I draw box men, it's time to try this exercise for yourself. Let your imagination and designer mind take over as you work through this exercise. Experiment with size, as well as the amount of box men you draw on a page!
I really appreciate what you're saying here about "just" drawing the box men. You mention that it's a common exercise but when I search online about it, I can't seem to come up with any other instruction about this type of exercise. The reason I'm asking is that I feel like I need a bit more foundation to understand how to make a "box man". I'm really struggling here. Can anyone point me in a good direction?
I’m new to drawing, but this was a lot of fun. It’s exciting to piece a box person together. Thanks for the great lesson, Steven
Hi, im new to drawing and art, any critique is good, i tried drawing this 3 expressions. Pure imagination.
First attempts - very fun and I want to do a lot more of these guys! Finding it fun to roughly shape them out and then redraw over them to better define certain shapes
First couple of days of boxfolk -- I tend to have longer limbs a la robot from castle in the sky but hey this has been a lot of fun.
Done in fineliner to avoid eraser temptations
I love this teaching style, I really needed to hear from a person with a “do it anyway” mindset. As a beginner, I was so overwhelmed by anatomy, perspective, etc. that it made me AFRAID to draw. But if I don’t draw, I can’t improve!
Steven inspired me to just try it in this video. I finished a page of boxmen and the exercise really helped me tie things together. Hopefully I can continue to ditch the perfectionism and learn as I go instead!
I'm kinda embarrassed to share this stuff. First time drawing anything in 30 years. Got a lot to learn, but I'm happy to be here!
Great to have you onboard, valerioshi! It is, indeed, quite brave to put your work out there for others to see, but I am looking forward to seeing more from you.
I think my favorite is the guy who is sort of waving to the people to beside him as he walks by.
Do you need to understand anatomy to do the box man exercise?
As you improve in your knowledge of anatomy/figure drawing, your boxmen will also improve. However, the exercise isn't necessarily supposed to look good. It is intended to be a way to get your pencil moving, without stressing out about the result.
When I posted my assignments for this course, I tried to make what I showed publicly meet some minimum threshold for quality (which was, by the way, unnecessary), but to really do the exercises in the spirit that the instructor intends, you should have someplace, like a sketchbook or a stack of cheap copy paper, where you feel comfortable making a mess of things. You don't have to show what you draw there to anyone else. Nevertheless, drawing there will help you grow and build skill.
I hope this helps. I look forward to seeing what you make, if/when you feel comfortable posting your work.
Well can we also talk about how when I thought I could draw ok, that I can't seem to draw a boxman correctly?
I found this both really helpful in terms of thinking about body composition and positioning, and really difficult in terms of actually drawing what was in my head! As others have said, this feels like it’s aimed at people who are a bit past beginner, and it would be great to have a lesson before this one that gives a little more guidance for how to make a box man in the first place. That said, here are my attempts:
Box men HW. Had alot of fun with this and helped ease anxiety on making figures any feedback is welcomed! Thank you!
