drawabox box challenge critique guide

This is a quick guide to help people who feel they aren't ready to critique box challenge submissions.
Just like with the lesson 1 guide, it's definetely not meant to substitute feedback, so even if you have this guide,
submit your homework to the website. As stated on lesson 0, feedback is super important and if you don't get
it there are things you will miss, so don't skip it!

I will point out common mistakes to look out for, but feel free to add your own observations and whatever you feel important, keep in mind these are just guidelines:

1.Extending lines in the wrong direction.

When applying the line extension method, lines have to be extended away from the viewer.
A way to make sure you do this correctly 100% of the times, is to always extend the lines away from the center dot of the Y, as shown here:
https://imgur.com/iNpIubA
Worth mentioning this to people who are struggling.

2.Divergences and parallel lines.

A box in 3 point perspective will ALWAYS have their lines converge. They can never diverge, or be parallel.
It is possible for them to converge very slightly, but they have to converge, even if it's really hard to notice it the convergence has to be there.
Sometimes students will start trying drawing parallel lines instead of trying to make their lines converge, so keep an eye out for it as well.
https://imgur.com/mWLlnYl

If you are critiquing someone and they still have trouble making their lines clearly diverge, you can point them to this tutorial and tell them to follow it step by step: https://imgur.com/3zoQA65 It makes sure they will be able to make most of the lines converge, so it's a good start

3.Hatching lines

Hatching lines are optional to do, but if the students aren't doing it, I normally recommend them to start doing so, as it's valuable practice and clarifies which face of the boxes are the ones that face the viewer.
A common mistake on hatching lines is fraying in both ends. Just like in lesson 1 ghosted lines, the student should place carefully the pen at the start of each line (in the line of the box) so it can only fray in one end in the worst case.


4.Lineweight

Just like in lesson 1, lineweight should only be added to the silhouette of the boxes, and with a superimposed line, one is enough, as it's important to keep it subtle.
When doing this superimposed line, it should be done ghosting and drawing it confidently, having it lose accuracy is acceptable, but having wobble is not. As always, confidence > accuracy.


5.Wobbly lines and repeating lines
Here apply as well all the mistakes on lesson 1, but as these are pretty common I wanted to mention them. Basically, no matter how off a line is, the student should not repeat it, as it will make the drawing messier. With wobbly lines, same as I mentioned earlier. All lines have to be drawn by drawing first its starting and ending dots, ghosting it, and drawing it confidently with the shoulder prioritizing confidence over accuracy.

6.Similar orientations with boxes.
Sometimes students will tend to draw constantly the same box, or same boxes over and over. When following the initial Y on the Y method, the length of the lines of the Y can have any proportion, the right line can be super long and the other ones be super short etc. And same with the angles, the combination of angles between the lines of the Y are limitless, as long as the angles are always over 90 degrees.

Here's a diagram that shows different orientations of boxes, so check it out to get some ideas. Keep in mind that in the box challenge you should always draw from imagination, not from reference, so don't use them to copy.
https://imgur.com/Kqg6uMX

7.Inner corner.
The previous mentioned issues are the most important mistakes to catch, but one issue that tends to be pretty common on the challenge, though with less priority, is inner corners. It's pretty normal to have the inner corners come out pretty off, as they are affected by the accumulation of previously done mistakes.

A way to improve them is to start thinking about the relationships between lines instead of just thinking about the lines in pairs. When drawing the lines of the boxes, the student should keep in mind all the other lines in the set, comparing their angles and making a guess based on them. This diagram explain this more clearly:
https://i.imgur.com/8PqQLE0.png
The diagram can be pretty hard to understand at first, so if you don't understand it, don't get frustrated, keep reading it from time to time while practicing regularly, and it will click eventually.

A thing I've found that helped me inmediately to improve the inner corner while I was doing the challenge is to change the order I drew boxes in. By drawing the inner corner before the last line of the box, I found it easier to use the previously mentioned info of thinking about the relationship between lines, and made it easier for me to get the convergences right. Here's the order I'm talking about:
https://imgur.com/a/DHlA3Jh
This takes into advantage something explained in the rotated boxes exercise too (taking advantage of lines that are very close), so give a look at the page if you want to know more about it.


-Advanced exercises

Lastly, if you feel the student is having the convergences and the inner corner pretty good regularly, you can recommend him to start practicing the advanced exercises.