Day 1 / Draw a Box
Lesson 0
Wow. Oh. Wow. Let me tell you, I was not expecting todays process to be so long. I finally hopped onto Drawabox to start taking a look at the lessons, but before I could even begin I was hit with a “Lesson 0.” This was actually 4 separate pages full of information and rules, along with a video for each page. Everything took me a really long time to comb through (as in 3 hours,) so I won’t cover all of it here, but I’ll give you the basic run down:
Firstly, Drawabox is designed to teach the very basic fundamentals of drawing. A starting point for any aspiring artist, so that they can go out into further topics with more confidence.
It’s a completely free program, and you can get advice and critiques from the discord community. However, there is an option to get your work professionally critiqued for a small price tag (I’ll likely be taking this route.) Drawabox is at your own pace to an extent; but if you want to get help from the professionals, you’ll be restricted from moving too quickly.
Here’s the biggest kicker for me though: Digital work is off limits. At least for the exercises and homework. Now technically since all the course work is publicly available for free, you could ignore this rule and follow along digitally anyways. But the reasons against digital practice are explained in this YouTube video. And since I’ve decided to put my trust in this program, I’ve decided to follow it’s rules.
There’s just one other teeny tiny problem… regular pens and pencils are also off limits. The course requires a .5mm fine liner pen. A pen that isn’t sold in the shops near me (I went shopping today for just this reason.) Luckily a ballpoint pen is allowed until reaching lesson 2. So while I wait on the required pens to arrive via amazon, I’ll just have to do with some old printer paper and a classic .5mm ballpoint pen.
I won’t lie, having to use pen and paper is frustrating. I don’t fully understand why digital is an issue for learning, but I’m hoping that as I progress I’ll come to understand the reasoning. For now though it’s just frustrating.
Lesson 1
Okay. We are finally here. With all that set-up and frustration out of the way, it’s time to actually begin my art journey!
Straight away, lesson 1 goes into something I wasn’t quite expecting: How to use your arm. I’ve never stopped to considered which parts of my arm I use for different tasks. Once you learn to move as a kid, moving just becomes second nature. But the first thing that’s asked of you is to go back to focusing on movement. Drawabox teaches you the different functions and uses for each joint section of your arm as it pertains to drawing. It specifically highlights using your shoulder to draw straight and fluid lines, which will be the majority of work in the first lesson. From this point forward, I won’t be going into detail about course materials and rules. The intent for this blog is for me to have something to look back at my progress and write about how I’m feeling as I continue to grow as an artist. (honestly I might go back and re-write this blog to make it more streamlined.)
Anyways…
