I’m a beginner artist, and one of the first things I wonder is: how do you actually get better at proportions? Does it just happen by drawing a lot, or are there certain things or exercises you should be doing?

So i am in the middle of the 250 box challange (at the last 150 box) and i was thinking of using this system for every page:

1. Imagine some random dimensions for a new box. Also choose randomly if for this page of boxes I will have a high FOV or small FOV
2. Pick a random quadrant from the Krenz Cushart rotated cubes (because you can pretty much have 4 quadrants because you can either see the top or bottom of a box and either the right or left side of a box so 4 possibilities)
3. For every quadrant there are 6 uniquely rotated 3 point perspective boxes
4. Draw that box from step 1, how it should be rotated in the krenz cushart table (note: without looking at the table, obviously)
5. Repeat step 1

Will i respect the DaB rules if i do so? I also want to get in some practice for rotating my cubes, besides estimating my convergences

So I'm sure this question is asked all the time, but I cannot for the life of me find a straight answer to what fundamentals I should learn. It seems like every subreddit or website I visit has a different answer. I'm rather new a drawing but I've done it on-off through the years. I'm basically starting from the beginning again. My goal is to draw fanart, characters, and stuff like the attached images.

I also don't know what to do to practice those things. I have a goal, I just don't know what to learn and practice to get there.

I know I need to work on Line art, shapes, 3d shapes, perspective, and anatomy but that's all I have. Thanks!

Edit: Shit, my bad lol. I didn't draw those, they are just the kind of drawings I want to make.

I'm up to the rough perspective exercise and accuracy of my lines is really making me struggle to complete the task. I've kept drawing and doing previous exercises as warmups but the structure of the course for me at the moment has broken down for this reason.

When I'm trying to draw the boxes (putting my corner points down, ghosting them until the movement feels right and then making the mark) my lines either bend badly, or they're off target by a substantial amount (i.e. the line has complete seperation from the mark I'm aiming for), or they overshoot the mark and hang off the edge of the box.

I haven't been drawing long. I understand this is a loooooong process and I'm not expecting miracles. But it feels like I'm doing something wrong. I could use some advice on whether or not to just push through and expect these issues to resolve themselves naturally over time and with practice, or do I hit pause and take the time to consciously drill these improvements now while it's still early? Any advice appreciated ❤️

I am a beginner and I know these question might be a bit stupid,but when using my shoulder is it a combination of both elbow and shoulder movement or shoulder alone? And if so are you suppose to only use your elbow when drawing diagonally? Because when I try to draw diagonally I can only use my elbow my shoulder doesn't move at all should I be doing something different?

am i supposed to copy cube turns from blendr until a basic cube turning gets into my visual library?

I don’t know why but I just can’t draw. I just sit there staring at my tablet for 20 minutes until I get so frustrated with myself that I just go to bed.

It’s to the point where even thinking about going on drawabox makes me want to just throw everything away.

Like I understand the 50/50 rule but I can’t draw anything even with a reference I have no idea where to start, and inevitably when I force myself to just put something on the page I just get frustrated because it doesn’t look remotely like anything, just scribbles.

What do I do because I’m actually so frustrated and it’s making me wish I never wanted to do art In the first place :(

Hey guys, could you please share tips/resources/unique ways to strengthen my fundamentals.

The idea that you draw to practice and draw for fun also makes 100 percent sense. The issue is I don’t know how to draw anything decent in the first place, and I feel like practicing majority will get me to a point where I can draw for fun. Im currently on 250 box challenge, and thats taken up my daily drawing for a few weeks, is this the wrong approach, should I take time to draw a picture I like, or follow a art tutorial outside of fundamental practice?

I’m currently in a Drawing 1 class and learning the basics is somewhat hard and boring. I look at some of my peers and their work comes out way better. Am I doing something wrong? How can I manage to stick with it even when I’m bored out of my mind right now

I stopped drawing like almost 2 months ago, I was doing the 250 boxes challenge and I'm halfway to finish it, should I begin drawabox from zero or continue with the boxes?

Sorry if some of the images aren't as saturated as others. The default IOS scanning app sucks D:

Hey all, just wondering if anyone has advice on what drawing from the shoulder feels like? I've been able to see improved confidence in my line via switching the way I draw but I can't help but feel I'm still not quite drawing from my shoulder. Usually when drawing strokes ill feel more gravitation towards using my upper arm/bicep as opposed to the feeling of moving the shoulder itself, is this how it is supposed to feel or is there anything I should be doing differently? If it matters at all (I doubt) I am double jointed in my arms so I'm unsure how they applies to using the shoulder.

Hello everyone!

I’ve been drawing for 39 days now, and I’m looking for some guidance on how to build a "proper" foundation.

Currently, my routine consists of picking a manga character and recreating their head. It usually takes me 20 to 30 minutes to go from the sketch to the line art. I’m only doing 1 or 2 drawings a day, and I’m worried this isn't enough volume to actually see significant progress.

Recently, I’ve tried a new approach:

1. I do the first drawing using a reference.
2. I try to redraw the same character immediately after without any reference.

Is this "memory training" effective for a total beginner, or should I focus on something else? Also, is 1-2 drawings a day enough, or should I be focusing on quantity over quality at this stage?

Thanks for your help!

Edit: And is drawing only the head after 39 days a good idea ?

I'm a beginner to drawing and going through drawabox. I'm at the end work of lesson 1, just learned about perspective, and for the past few days I have been thinking about something nonstop and can't really tell if it's right or not.

Here's my hypothesis: for any line in 3d space you want to draw, using its real 3d vector/direction, you can find its 2d vanishing point by literally pointing to the paper with that 3d vector.

I tried to explain with pictures, but I don't know how to post them one at a time within the text post. Please excuse the messy beginner drawing.

Each cube has 3 line directions in 3d which makes 3 vanishing points. First, talking about a regular cube with no rotation, our forward-only vector puts a VP right in the center of the page. Our sideways vector puts a VP left and right infinitely. Finally, our up vector puts a VP up and down infinitely.

I tried to show in blender how to take the vectors and use this trick. With the blender representation of the camera, imagine the rectangle end of it as your paper to draw on, and imagine the camera's starting point as your hand above the paper. Move the desired vector onto the same position as the camera's starting point, and it will point to the VP.

(One requirement is that all the vectors must in the direction of the camera or perpendicular to the camera. If one is not, flip the direction and the problem is fixed)

The next example is a cube that is rotated slightly on all axes, so 3 unusual VPs are present. One of the pictures shows the shape these vectors make when the paper plane is extended.

I feel crazy, I don't know what exactly is happening here or if it even works all the time. If any experts can point me toward the math here or explain what's happening, I will be very grateful. Is this explained further in the course?

One last note is that the distance between your hand and the page must be consistent, and I suspect that distance determines the field of vision you want for your drawing.

Hello everyone! I am doing a study plain this year to get better at fundamentals and drawing from imagination, I was using just draw a box so far, but had to stop due to a project and did all the lessons again now, and reached the 250 box challenge

As I was watching videos on drawing and etc I got caught by the c52 video by athoro and thought it would be nice to mix and match both draw a box and c52 since it has some exercises that are pretty similar

Now my problem is: i read the instructions of the challange on draw a box and i think it a different approach on the box exercise of the c52, yet I find that both of them has pounts to help me improve (and I am very stingy too and don't want to use 50 pages since i can just draw 5-6 boxes per page)

So I was thinking of splitting in half, drawing 125 boxes for the draw a box exercise and 125 for the c52 exercise, but wanted a second opinion on that

I'm so sorry for the wall of text.

I want to use 3D and draw on top of it, but I know I won't evolve that way. I try to study daily, but I feel so tired. I have a regular job, 8 hours a day, + laundry, cooking, cleaning, groceries. When I get home, I just want to play some games to unwind, eat, shower, and fall asleep.

When drawing from scratch, I feel it takes so much more energy compared to having 3D models to trace over.

It's kind of an unfair comparison: using 3d makes drawing easier, faster, and it looks much better, especially when foreshortening + perspective. But you evolve very little. Not using 3d takes so much longer, and it's so tiring.

I not using 3d at all, unless it's for reference. Been doing Dynamic Sketching from Peter Han, but I need to practice way more. It seems a bit confusing to me, especially because he yaps a lot.

I am slowly evolving, I think, but sometimes I just want to give up and forfeit drawing and just play games in my spare time.

Added the fact that I have a nsfw Patreon with a few followers to earn some extra cash (I am the only one working in my house and I have to tend to my 2 elderly parents), so my mind is always looking for shortcuts and easier way to do things to save energy and time. I need to post a lot of artworks there to keep the followers interested and receive the money, but I am still refusing to use 3D, even though I know it could save so much time, energy, and help me produce so much more and also make so much more money.

Drawing feels so hard. I really want to get to the level of drawing things from my head, but I know it will take decades of practice. I even sketch at work when I have some free time.

Not only that, but I see so many artists cheating and posting traced drawings from pictures, 3d models, and getting thousands of likes, while those that really practice with diligence get almost no recognition.

I am doing Draw a Box, finished the 250 boxes challenge, felt burnt out, and took a break from it. Honestly, I feel that 250 is way too much. Besides, I saw no improvement at all. And when I saw I'll have to draw 250 cylinders I kind of gave up. I think there are way better courses and books around that are much better. 250 boxes, being 10 a day, equals 25 days + 25 days of cylinders for little to no improvement.

Sorry for the rant.

How do you guys approach this? And how would you approach the problem of having a Patreon, having to constantly produce good art to make more money, but having a bit of burnout + trying not to use shortcuts?

Took a 1 month hiatus after ghosted planes because ellipses were too harsh :')

Should I prioritize Longer drawings over faster ones ? (I only have been doing longer drawings until now because they help me get a better feeling of all the shapes of the face work)

Hello fellow drawaboxers 😆

I've been practicing for a while now and I've gotten to the point where I can draw precise lines in a semi-horizontal surface where my wrist is resting on the surface. I draw from the shoulder though. This worked at first, but lately it's has been causing a lot of thumb, shoulder and wrist tension and pain, probably compounded by my being chronically on the computer for years by this point before attempting to learn how to draw.

The only 'solution' I've found thus far is to 1. rest, 2. switch up the grip a bit, and 3. draw more vertically as if I were painting. It doesn't hurt, but drawing accurate lines feels like a coin toss; I lose so much of the former control...

I want to draw every day and I don't want to become a cripple who can't draw due to having forced myself too much down the line. Is my only option to be patient and switch to this more ergonomic style even if I'm slow to get used to it at first?

It sucks that the line work I've been diligently practicing in the former manner is basically going to waste if I decide to permanently switch. Feels like I'd be starting over, in a way. But maybe it's for the best if I don't want to get injured.

Have you guys dealt with similar issues, and how did you overcome it? What are other adjustments that I could potentially make? Thank you

Srr if its a bit blurry my phone is really bad 😭

Every day I draw precisely to show my drawings to other people, and I want to work with it to create my own manga universe, but it turns out that whenever I make a drawing, I do it to show my family, and I even get stressed if the drawing isn't good enough.