Project - Blob to Box

Lesson by

110K

Mark as Completed

Assignments 304Lesson NotesDownloads 5

Project - Blob to Box

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

110K

Mark as Completed

Assignments 304Lesson NotesDownloads 5

If you struggle imagining boxes and drawing the angles correctly, it might help you to start with a blob!

Level 1 - Blobs to Boxes

Start with a Rough Shape: First loosely draw in a 2D shape that represents the size, placement and tilt of the box.
Indicate a Plane: For example, if you're looking down at a character, draw a simple oval to represent the top plane of the torso. This doesn't require perfect angles or a detailed box yet. Just an oval in the area where the top plane should be, and roughly the correct size.
Determine the Twist: To understand the form's orientation fully, you need to indicate the twist. This can be done by drawing a line that divides the front plane from the side plane.
Refine the Form: With the basic orientation of all 3 visible planes established, you can start refining the form into a more defined shape. The rough blob with the 3 sides will help you imagine a box. Now use what you learned in the previous lessons to draw the angles with proper convergence.
Finalizing and Cleaning Up: Optionally, you can draw over the rough box with a black pencil and clean lines, fixing any errors. This step allows you to do an additional step of refining the drawing.

Level 1, you don't need to draw the torso like I did in the video. Just draw individual blobs to boxes scattered on the page with varying sizes, angles, and twists. This exercise will help you slowly improve your visualization skills, making it easier to draw forms in perspective.

Level 2 - Blobs to Boxy Torsos

Practice a few blobs to boxes, and then move on to doing exactly what I did in the video. Draw a head, rib cage, and pelvis in various poses. The additional constraint of human-like proportions and the boxes interacting with each other makes this much harder.

Deadline: Submit by 04/19/2024 for a chance to be in the critique video!

J. Menriv

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Project - Blob to Box | Level 2

J. Menriv

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Project - Blob to Box | Level 2

J. Menriv

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DrawYer

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13d

These are my second attempt after watching the demo and the last one was after watching the critiques. I tried to use a gestural blobby figure, a gesture line, add a few caps to represent the sides, and work from there. I also explored other body parts like arms, forearms and hands and worked my way from boxes to “more complex / realistic form”. I like this “shuttle” between the reference and the drawing (i.e., reference to boxes then boxes to advanced forms, it’s like a sinusoidal where you move between simplification and complexification). Finally, I could not resist the temptation to have more of a finishing look as a “reward”. I also tried various mediums, like ballpoints or fine liners. Just exploring, I really loved the exercise. Any comments or feedback welcome :)

@aakerhus

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13d

Second submission, first one after seeing the demo. Trying to construct the boxes tigher around the blobs. Crappy line work, I know.

@aakerhus

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13d

First submission before watching the demo. Classical mistakes for box 1 and 12 with vanishing points towards the viewer, oh well!

@roddangelo

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16d

Carlo Julian

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23d

Enjoyed this one a lot. I feel like perspective boxes are slowly starting to become more intuitive. This feels like a tremendously useful skill to have.

Martha Muniz

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17d

You are totally right, once perspectives becomes more intuitive, it really unlocks how you are able to draw. These look great, love the interaction and dynamic posing between the boxes!

DrawYer

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1mo

These are my first attempts before watching the demo. I used some references from a gesture pose pack, started with a gesture line, 3 simple blobs for the head, torso and pelvis and tried to think what would be the best boxes to represent this pose. I also tried to break the torso in 2 Boxes when 1 box seemed a bit too rigid, but I did not like it. I made a few attempts for each pose, trying some variations to see where it was going. Each time I tried to visualise where I could start a “Y” on the reference and make it into a box. I found that having an arrow representing where the main plane of each box was facing helped identified “mistakes”. Then, I tried to move from the boxes to a more structured sketch before sometimes coming back to the boxes but sketching made me realised some mistakes. I prefer having a reference (instead of working on random blobs and boxes), so I will probably do a few more using human references or animals before watching the critiques. Any comments or feedback welcome :)

Rachel Dawn Owens

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1mo

These look great!

Luke

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1mo

With the last one, I tried to rotate the pose, but I think I changed the posture quite a bit by mistake. In hindsight, I think I misunderstood the blobs to boxy torsos section, I ended up doing full figures

Rachel Dawn Owens

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1mo

You pushed the assignment and the pose but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. That’s a great problem to have. I tried to doodle something quick to show you how I might have turned that pose. I matched the angle of the pole with that leg coming forward as a design decision. I like finding matching angles across the figure. You twisted your guy more and exaggerated the pose. That’s awesome. Great work on this assignment.

@osa

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2mo

Here’s my page!

Patrick Bosworth

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2mo

These are looking really solid, nice line quality, great work! Keep it up!

Amu Noor

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2mo

This was a fun project. Any critique is welcome! Any feedback for the figure in the bottom left? The pose feels awkward to me, as if it was falling.

Ethan Cossett

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2mo

These look great! Awesome line quality, I'm jealous

Sara

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2mo

oh I love them

Melanie Scearce

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2mo

Really nice work, I love the back bend guy at the top. The bottom left pose might feel awkward because it's unbalanced -- unless there's a block that it is resting its hands on. I think moving the weight bearing leg a bit more underneath might help also, and will give it a more dramatic gesture.

Angelica

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2mo

More boxes! I sometimes struggle to fit the box to the blob but overall I think this was helpful. Good exercise.

Thien Minh Pham

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2mo

My attempt! What can I improve

@josephl

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3mo

fun exercise, want to focus on adding more dynamic perspective and gesture. My boxes sometimes feel off but I cant put my finger on it, normally try to check convergence and proportion but maybe it goes over my head sometimes.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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3mo

Your boxes look great to me! I don’t notice any that look off

Jack H

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3mo

This project felt like a much needed break from the previous project on vehicles. It was relaxing to just draw blobs and form boxes around them and generally quite fun to do. But as always, any advice/critiques will be appreciated!

I did not Want to see that

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3mo

here is my level 1 and level 2 assignment! I had a little fun doing this and kinda just relaxed with this one since I have some experience with boxes, some look a little weird, but for this project I don't really mind since I just explored some things! If there is something strange that I am not aware of, letting me know is greatly appreciated!