Drawabox Lesson 1: Ellipses

[@avikadhikary1919]

I used to draw a lot, but I had to quit drawing for my academics and PR pressure. But now after almost 15 years I have started drawing again and I am really passionate about it and I feel really good when I draw. I find myself in the present moment when I draw(idk if it does make sense). I was always curiuos about those lines in professional's drawings. You are an absolute amazaing instructor and teacher. This is absolutely insane that you put so much time into it. Thank you.

[@Uncomfortable]

It's always great to hear about people who had to put drawing down, but who reached a point in their lives where they could pick it up again. Best of luck as you continue learning and growing!

[@usbgamers123]

I hope you are still going strong!

[@avikadhikary1919]

@@usbgamers123 yes I am sir, thanks 😊

[@matfen7978]

@@avikadhikary1919 Keep it up

[@CarolChiovatto]

I feel the same about out instructor! Helped me learn a lot!

[@countrycore]

I'm a big fan of your teaching style! (the construction method) I'd love to see a human anatomy/figure drawing tutorial from you in the same fashion 🤩👏

[@thanatos454]

I recommend checking out Moderndayjames' stuff on perspective, poses, drawing like a gi, drawing like an even amundsen. He has a ton of stuff for figure drawing.

[@countrycore]

@@thanatos454 Woah! never knew that since I discovered Uncomfortable just recently, and thanks for the info

[@Uncomfortable]

Yeah, unfortunately that is an area I haven't invested enough time to be confident. Instead, I've opted to focus on refining and revising the core material for Drawabox to be as succinct and well expressed as possible, leaving other topics for other instructors who are better suited to them.

[@countrycore]

@@Uncomfortable Totally understandable, I really appreciate all your tutorials. Looking forward to seeing your future vedios 🙂

[@lewecusgame7598]

@@thanatos454 “Uncomfortable wasn’t comfortable” lol

[@DS-ic5ps]

As a beginner, this is where I really ran in to problems! I found that practicing individual ellipses with my eyes closed helped a lot!

[@Cieln0va]

Holy crap, the way you drew that first ellipse after you explained the minor angle thing made me understand on so much of a deeper level. It's like an orbit. Your hand orbits around the centre line before marking the page.

[@ragingpiano9887]

you kidding me?! I literally did this lesson this morning. Haven't watched it yet I hope nothings changed

[@causingdesert5409]

I started my Draw-a-box journey today, I still call myself a self taught beginner, I’ve only been drawing for about 3 years with my goal to eventually draw my own characters and comic. I am by no means good at drawing full body characters, but I’ve just had this mindset that I need to improve, so I started your course today. I know you said that this isn’t supposed to be fun, but I have been enjoying it. At the beginning drawing straight lines and ghost lines, not so much but as I moved to the ghost planes and I could see how the perspective fundamental of drawing came in and I began to recognize what makes something big or small I found it fun and I enjoyed the fact that I had learned something. So in short, beginner is happy that they are learning fundamentals to one day make their own characters.

[@StarBomber_4]

exactly! same here

[@causingdesert5409]

@@StarBomber_4 good luck to you!

[@StarBomber_4]

@@causingdesert5409 thanks a lot! i wish you good luck too

[@ryder4915]

1 year has passed, how are you doing?

[@causingdesert5409]

@@ryder4915 I actually got to the lesson about insects, I had to stop drawing for the past four months or so due to college. But luckily my skill hasn’t gone down that much!

[@kakak3282]

Heyo! I've started this course once again because last time I wasn't doing it regulary and I just gave up.. I know my mistakes now and what I reccomend to everyone is that you try your best to draw regulary even for 10 minutes a day and to not draw 2 hours or even more one day and then just stop for few weeks. For the author, I'm really thankfull for what you are doing! You are amazing for sharing this all information with us!

[@ragnarockerbunny]

I used to draw a lot when I was younger. I was an avid chicken scratcher. Some point I fell out of love with it. Life had other things in store for me. During a game jam earlier this year I noticed the ocean of difference between me and our artist, who we had to pitch in to help because we were on a massive time crunch. I found myself frustrated that simple things were very very difficult for me. And truth be told, I found myself deeply jealous of the skills he had. I'm a coder, I come from a coding background but I'm also a solo developer. I'm used to doing projects where I do everything myself. But while I had enough of a music background to make passable instrumental tracks, and I'm confident in my ability to code... I wasn't even an amateur artist. I came to drawbox with that in mind. I have no aspirations to be incredible. I have no aspirations to become the best there ever was. I want to be good enough so that when I'm jamming with an artist and there's something they do not have time to do, I want to be able to pitch in. I want to be able to make passable art and animations for my own games. So I'm here now. I have filled a good 20 pages with superimposed lines, ghosted lines and ghosted planes. It's taking a lot of corrections, I noticed how slowly I used to draw lines, how little confidence I had in my marks. I'm attempting to implement the 50/50 rule (although I have not been as dilligent) but I've notices the ocean of drawing between the first one I made since starting Draw A Box and the latest one. My lines are smoother instead of thick and scratchy. I used to be deeply worried about overshooting, and I do a lot, but I'm stunned at how a small amount of overshoot... Is nothing. It doesn't actually ruin a drawing. It's incredibly stunning. This thing I used to be so afraid of, when I was conscious that it would happen and I just resigned myself to it being an inevitability... It actually matters so little it's comical. I'm continuing this course until the end and then I'll see where my art journey takes me. Probably will have to do figures and gesture and all that. But relearning the fundamentals has undoubtedly improved my art. Looking forward to becoming an amateur. After that, maybe I'll even graduate to becoming kinda good

[@kateor4502]

Wow I watched the old version of this a few minutes before this went up

[@borodmislovich8239]

Day 25 of seducing women with my perfect ellipse drawings. No success thus far.

[@Uncomfortable]

You'll get there, don't you worry.

[@lightlawliet3526]

just a hunch but those women know how to draw their own ellipses.

[@prawtism]

any success?

[@MiloTheOpossum]

How about now

[@tonyanimations5377]

12:17 It look like a top right view of a wall with paintings on it ! With only a line and some ellipses ! So incredible.

[@WeAreBlank18]

I have been putting this off for no reason other than a subconscious fear that I can't explain, but today I have been doing all the lessons, simply because I pushed through taking that first step. Cliched, I know, but I'm working on it. I haven't won anything in my life, but if I can win at this, it might start a domino effect.

[@SANDHYATRIPATHI-rl8eg]

Same

[@lemonlord7587]

I was doing the homework for the table of ellipses two days ago, and i finished it. I was confused because the articles and the video was different xD turns out you just updated Thankyou so much for always updating these contents!! I love the lessons!!

[@p4t091]

same, I am reading everything again with joy

[@beazurbano110]

I'm really having trouble at elipses, but thanks to this video. This helps me alot😊😊😊

[@Uncomfortable]

I'm glad to hear it helped clarify some things!

[@animegod5768]

This made me understand them immediately.

[@buizelmeme6288]

​@@animegod5768😊 better now then never

[@brettinabox5607]

Circles are only a construct, everything is an cylinder, nothing is real.

[@Anh-zz4go]

Couldn't agree more myself. It just make more sense the more you think about it.

[@nofx7058]

what do u mean

[@brettinabox5607]

@@nofx7058 even if there is no space in between, there are still two circles creating a cylinder. If the outline is thick it means the two elipses are different sizes.

[@nofx7058]

@@brettinabox5607 between what?

[@KomeGetGood]

@@nofx7058 "there are still two circles creating a cylinder"

[@nadiach1271]

I really like that you explain "why"s and reasons behind every exercise! It makes me understand them better when I know why I'm doing what! :D

[@celestialgirl9456]

I read the lesson for ellipses and didn't understand well it all when I watched the video, I was getting really sleepy I thought it was bc my last few brain cells said goodbye and disappeared but when he said that we would get headaches I was so glad that I wasn't meant to understand it all

[@diegotoledo6798]

I really love that every now and then you update the lesson videos, and I keep getting surprised because I get a peculiar feeling that this wasn't the same video I was watching, until I look at the upload date. Makes it interesting when I go through another loop of the lessons.

[@MoarHam]

A visual aid for those that have difficulty with 3D space & concepts: take a tall glass jar (you don't mind marking on), and lay one of its flat sides on a flat surface. With a permanent marker, and something for it to rest on, turn the *jar* (keeping it flat) and let the pen mark a complete circle around it. Without moving the height of the pen, flip the jar upside down, and turn it again to make a second mark that creates another complete circle Keep doing this with taller and taller supports (eg: a pill bottle cap, then the pill bottle on its side, then with the cap, then upright, etc.), flipping the jar for each mark so the marks end up the same distance from the center, until you get a mark or two marks that are close to center. With one eye closed, hold up the jar so the center circles look like straight lines. Now holding the jar still, you can see how the circles that move away from the center create different shaped ellipses. Bonus assist: Move the jar further away, see how the ellipses at the outer edges get thinner? Now move it closer to you, and the ellipses at the outer edge get wider!

[@dio_licious]

Really like this updated version, clears up a lot of things.

[@sotakoun]

dang, i just got past ellipses yesterday, time to revisit i highly appreciate the ellipses tips at the end!

[@oight]

i remember watching some of these videos a few years ago, and they really helped me soooo much with understanding more dynamic perspectives when drawing faces! i want to start these lessons back up again in my spare time when not doing commissions, and i hope i will. however recently, i've been struggling incredibly to keep drawing for the past few months 🙁 i've seen that a lot of artists have been using 3D models to trace + paint over as a tool, and how much it has been helping them. i am glad it's helping artists who didn't use 3D models before. but for some irrational reason, i just can't help but feel completely overwhelmed about it for myself. i want to stop thinking this way, and i know it's a good tool to use. however, i just feel defeated that all i learned about perspective/lighting etc has been made a bit redundant. i feel worried that eventually it will become incredibly easy to use a detailed, stylised 3D model, and then change it around a little bit and still translate it into some really great 2D artwork without much foundational knowledge. i guess i feel (most likely irrationally) worried that my career/hobby is becoming a bit more automated, and that i will be easily replaced. or that my method is inefficient if i'm not using 3D always and will be left behind. i'm not sure aaaa, i'm sure there are valid reasons why my way of thinking is wrong. if anyone would like to shake some sense into me, i would be so grateful. i just want to feel normal about it + start doing these lessons that i really loved again 😩

[@Uncomfortable]

I think a lot of that uncertainty comes from the distinction between one approaching drawing/painting from a fine-art angle, versus a commercial art one. With fine art, *how* you go about creating the image matters... if you want it to, anyway. It at least contributes something to the piece, and so someone looking to paint something and sell it may take into consideration the specific techniques they use beyond how they impact the end result. Commercial art, on the other hand, is all about achieving that end result, whatever it *needs* to be, using whatever tools are necessary to get there. Speed and efficiency matters too, because the faster you work, the less time you're spending to make the same amount of money on a given contract. It's very common for those just starting to think about these things to be aiming for commercial art (creating illustrations or concept art for larger projects, or creating comics - basically doing anything to contribute to creating a product for others to purchase) while mixing in the more arbitrary aspects of fine art. This causes some people to feel like they're "cheating" (or conversely, like others are cheating, and they themselves are holding true to some arbitrary value system) by using things like 3D to be painted over, photobashing (even when any copyright issues are sorted out). The most important thing for you to do is determine what exactly it is you're looking to do. If you're pursuing fine art, then fine. You're welcome to determine the rules you wish to follow, and abide by them. If however you're looking to become a commercial artist, working for clients or at a studio, then it's important to recognize that first and foremost, you'd have a job to do. Completing that job quickly, efficiently, and well becomes your responsibility, and a false sense of misplaced, misunderstood integrity, will interfere with that. Of course, if you're just doing all of this as a hobby, then it's neither here nor there. You just need to decide what it is ultimately important to you, and whether you're tricking yourself into looking down on the use of these additional tools. At the end of the day, tools like 3D blockouts are just that - tools. They don't make you a good artist, they merely help do some of the heavy lifting to free you up to worry about other things (like design and stylistic choices). A beginner artists will not be able to effectively use 3D tools in this manner - one of course still has to learn how to use the 3D tools, but they also have to learn how to draw on top of them effectively. It still requires an understanding of all the fundamentals and more. When a beginner tries to use 3D as a shortcut, it *really* stands out, because they end up allowing the 3D to make the decisions for them. They don't use it as a tool - rather they use it as a crutch, and rob themselves of the agency that would otherwise make their work stand on its own. Those who *can* use 3D effectively and produce high quality work are usually the same who can achieve those results *without* 3D. They simply opt to use it to speed up the process and maximize their earning potential. I hope that helps give you some perspective on the matter.

[@PayterPlays]

Only halfway through the video at the moment, but I had a minor epiphany. When I would draw cups/glasses/cans, the ellipses that'd make up the top and bottom would always be parallel. Looking at the two cylinders in your video I now realize that either the top or bottom ellipses could be drawn with a greater or lesser degree to change how far or close the object would appear to be to the viewer. I hope that made sense. It was just a big "Huh" moment for me since I'm not used to spatial thinking when it comes to drawing.

[@fizzingcola8201]

I love how the lessons get updated and refreshed regularly :D thanks Comfy!!

[@banndsand]

Thank goodness for this video. I was having a really hard time understanding how you got from minor axis to normal vector until I saw the toothpick through the cardboard disc.

[@pepperpan794]

I will forever be grateful for your lessons sir. I started the course around the start of the pandemic, fell out of it, tried other online courses but ultimately came back to yours because you're basically teaching us how to think like an artist. Unlike other courses, you're not teaching us how how to draw a head or the torso, but how to draw *anything*. I'm sticking around for the second time around. Excited to learn, especially with a dedicated teacher. Thank you!

[@Uncomfortable]

Thank you for the kind words!

[@hyperionnova2854]

Yoooo been loving these new recordings!

[@flowerbloom5782]

Thank you. I never understood the minor axis and how important it was until you explained it as the "spine of cylinder" and started rotating the cylinder cut out. Thank you. I thought the minor axis was the narrowest width of the circle. Thank you for explaining it.

[@errohaze2683]

Wow! The point about the minor axis and normal vector is game changing! This'll be a great way to determine the accuracy of elipses!

[@ShadowTheParrot]

This just opened a whole new world...

[@fsb4561]

i finished the whole course in quarantine and started a different one but because of work i had to stop now im back here again and it seems ur videos have changed...glad to be back..and keep up the good work ur the best ma man

[@alinktoana]

oh wow i thought i saw something different! i tried watching this vid yesterday but ended up falling asleep because i was crazy tired, and here it is a whole new one! lol thanks comfy!

[@Uncomfortable]

Hahaha, little comfy gremlins, swapping out your drawing lessons while you sleep.

[@sulynncho9299]

I think the ellipse is the hardest one so far. I have to ghost multiple times and still overdraw/underdraw the top/bottom lines. Practice makes perfect :)

[@Gossamer24]

Thank you for making this video! It was really helpful in understanding the space and physics of the ellipses.

[@GlenrynSilva]

Just found Draw a Box a few weeks ago, and it was great! Keep it up, dude!

[@itsmamind]

Me reading Junji Ito's Uzumaki Manga and beeing terrified about ellipses.

[@jesteringray]

😂😂

[@experimentooo.2783]

These lessons make me see things differently i will try my best to understand every teachings and ya i am enjoying a lot while watching ur videos i will never give up and will one day surpass u master (sensei this is my nindo way ) thank u so much for this lessons .❤

[@frasco6799]

Thank you, sir, uncomfortable for updating the class 👍👍

[@meat981]

I learned something about ellipses today

[@tomkitbumrung3972]

Thanks for the shoulder trick!

[@GuilhermedeMeloPinheiro]

Explodiu minha mente pensar que toda elipse é um círculo em outro ângulo

[@Uncomfortable]

Honestly I totally agree. Once someone points it out, it becomes obvious, but prior to that one's brain never really makes the connection.

[@crimsomnia1415]

I would also like to point it out as some might find it a bit counter-intuitive, but if you divide your 90-degree angle by half into 45 degrees it *DOES NOT HALVE THE MINOR AXIS*; the minor axis has a multiplier of sin(x) where x is the offset angle from our full-view angle. In fact the minor axis still has about 71% length of the major axis while turned "half-way of becoming a mere line."

[@julemadita1159]

this is eye-opening - thank you so much 👀🙏🏻

[@Abaramotorai]

Also a great lesson of perspective.

[@a.c.2650]

i love the new intro it's appropriate haha

[@jessapi6328]

Lol I’ve been drawing between studying for finals. One being my physics 2 final. Originally was bothered I had to take it for vet school but now it’s crazy how it comes up in EVERY subject!

[@prizprazpruz]

reviewing this before jumping into the 250 cylinder challenge. I just finished lesson 2 and I know uncomfortable suggests to hold off until lesson 5 but I ain't going into lesson 3 plant construction without understanding ellipses. It became very evident in my sausage exercises that I do not understand ellipses.

[@carlosleo4485]

Bro, the minor axis thing blew my mind!

[@kabyamtalukdar3066]

Hello Brother, have you deleted the older drawabox tutorial videos.....i can't find them in the playlists😢

[@Uncomfortable]

I created a new playlist, because I realized that people were just accessing the videos through the old one, instead of actually going through the written material in the website. Those older videos weren't meant to be used standalone - they are just supporting material for the written material. So you can still access them through the website itself, as you should be using this course. I am working to make the videos I'm releasing now more standalone, so that the content covered in the video and the written material are more or less the same, so the current playlist only includes videos that have been updated. For everything else, you'll just have to use the website as the instructions state.

[@kabyamtalukdar3066]

@@Uncomfortable oh... Okay.... Then i guess I'll be using the website from now on.... That would be better👍

[@solosisas1764]

Thank you so much for including subtitles. These are very very helpful to me. I'm learning lot from you.

[@dubble268]

Awesome video

[@kingcookie9485]

wassup my elliptical peeps

[@alyssamarie5377]

I like that. elliptical peeps

[@texkokes1]

Hi

[@alextorres-sm4yu]

here we go again, second time going through drawabox

[@dandanzinhas2]

Pensei que ia escapar de matemática, e no desenho tbm tem. sofroh

[@Uncomfortable]

Mathematics are the universal language :P

[@Mimoas66]

I'm a complete beginner into the drawing area but ironicaly the normal vector was the only thing i understand immediatly as a Blender (beginner) user.

[@winteronmercury1]

Thanks so much for these lessons! I went to school for illustration, then was sick for many years and am getting back into drawing. I noticed it was much harder, where in the past I had improved a lot. So your lessons going back to basics, and teaching some in ways I never learned them is already so helpful! I want to join the Discord server, but both links I've encountered have been invalid. Do you have a current one? Thank you so much!

[@Uncomfortable]

The links should still be valid - I have run into some cases where people erroneously received the invalid link error when they were already part of a ton of servers. It can also be a caching issue in the browser, so clearing the cache may help. Before that, though, try using the "add server" function inside of the discord application itself , with the + at the bottom of the server list. This should give you the option to directly paste the invite link in, and that *should* work.

[@pattyyung]

Interesting. The correct way of doing the tube looks so wrong, but that's probably because that's how I always see it. When looking at your cardboard cutouts I can see that it is correct.

[@bobsmithy3103]

I was just reading the lesson 1 ellipses, and noticed that you don't touch on the fact that the ellipses you draws are all in isometric view and not in perspective view. Wouldn't this pose a problem when we try drawing 3d objects in perspective? Edit: nvm, later on we draw the ellipses onto a planes. By drawing the ellipses onto planes, the ellipses are distorted and through this distortion they are correctly represented in perspective

[@basileus9343]

3:56 So basically its different from when during high school i did technical drawing where we used isometric projection which is easy to "understand" but its not truthful "to real life" perspective

[@Uncomfortable]

They're all ultimately different sets of rules we use to capture something three dimensional on a two dimensional page. Isometric is a form of axnometric projection (where all lines that are parallel in 3D space are also parallel in 2D space). It's not that this is untrue, it's merely a different abstraction. Perspective projection - where lines that are parallel in 3D space converge to a shared vanishing point in 2D space - is indeed more accurate to how our eyes actually perceive the world, however, and is what we'll be focusing on in this course.

[@yanivkorobkin7512]

Hi :) Thanks for your videos. They really help me :) There's something that's been bugging me: Are the minor axis and the normal vector in the same direction? I think that they are perpendicular to each other I do agree that the minor axis can represent the "direction" of the ellipse. If I'm wrong I would appreciate it if you will correct me :)

[@Uncomfortable]

I think you may want to read over the written notes for this section as well: drawabox.com/lesson/1/5 There I discuss in greater depth how we're trying to understand how what exists in 3D space (like the normal vector, which shoots out from the surface of the 3D circle) relates to the things we draw in 2D space to represent it (like the minor axis line that cuts across the 2D ellipse). When drawn on a flat piece of paper, the normal vector does indeed follow the same 2D path as the minor axis line.

[@lloydlibrando2555]

at 10:56 what does he mean when he says i shouldnt be steering with my eyes? i dont really understand it but i feel like its a mistake ive been making

[@Uncomfortable]

So by 'steering with your eyes', I mean the tendency we have to stare at the tip of the pen and try to guide the path it follows moment by moment, rather than employing the ghosting method to get our arm familiar with the motion we want, then just trusting in our arm to do what it has practiced.

[@julfikarhaque2823]

9:00 Yes, plant your seed in me mr

[@ados380]

10:20 This makes it sound like there are marks that are better off not going through the shoulder? So far it seems like almost universally we should be drawing from the shoulder.

[@Uncomfortable]

That is the case for the majority of the marks we'll be making throughout this course - I sometimes like to think of them as "structural". There are however some marks which you'll encounter when getting into tighter textural detail which will benefit more from being drawn from the wrist, which will help afford them tighter control, at the cost of more stiffness. This is addressed here: drawabox.com/lesson/1/2/simplified

[@ados380]

@@Uncomfortable Thank you for clarifying! I love the course so far!

[@AdventureCJ]

ohhhhhhh I'm watching this before homework but so ghosting is the momentum technique the analogy is when swinging a heavy object when beggining to swing an object on a rope it isn't quite the perfect movement not smooth but when the time is right the object will swing like how in drawing with a pencil we will draw 2 circles overlapping but with liners the first circle or the few imperfect circles done on air the good circle on paper edit: you wont get the perfect shape the first time but will you the 5th time after 4 in the air

[@user-og9nl5mt1b]

Think of a neddle , and how its end are cut .

[@HarshCreatives]

Hello Sir, thank you so much for these awesome tutorials. These are helping me a lot. I just wanted to ask if you are planning to make figure drawing classes too. I saw in some of your old videos that you had figure drawing classes but now there is not. Is there any way for me to check them out. Thanks again. Hope to here from you soon 😊

[@Uncomfortable]

Unfortunately I have no plans to get into figure drawing. It's not an area I have enough experience in to properly teach, and I feel my time is better spent focusing on revising the core drawabox material to be as solid as possible, leaving other topics to the instructors who are more comfortable with them.

[@HarshCreatives]

@@Uncomfortable Okay sir, but what about the videos you have already published on this topic. Is there any way for me to access it ? Since I was not able to found them on your website.

[@Uncomfortable]

@@HarshCreatives I'm a bit confused. If you're referring to the old Ellipses video, for example, then those have been removed because I'm replacing them with new content, and the new video covers everything the old one did, but a little more effectively. As to all the other videos that haven't yet been replaced, they are all available on the website. They come up in the lessons as you go through them, just as they always have.

[@HarshCreatives]

@@Uncomfortable Sorry for the inconvenience but I am talking about the figure drawing videos you had on your website before (i.e. : Lesson 8,9,10,11 and 12) They are not on your website now. So I wanted to ask if I can access them now. Thank you so much for your precious time.😊

[@Uncomfortable]

@@HarshCreatives Ohhh. Yeah, those lessons were removed years ago, and are no longer available. I don't have any plans to revisit figure drawing - I'm focusing my time instead on the core curriculum, to make it as strong as possible, and am leaving other topics to those who are more confident in those areas.

[@TheRevAlokSingh]

Mathematician's nitpick: rotation does not happen about an 1d axis, but _in_ a 1d plane. The axis definition only works in 3d and is not any more intuitive than the idea of turning in a plane around a point by some angle.

[@delfinaferrari4553]

Thank you so much for all these lessons! The updated version really helps aswell. I have a question that may be silly but im having trouble understanding the part 8:44 of the video, when we have a cylinder and the viewer is on front of it, he sees the angle at 0 degrees right? Which is a straight line.. When we see a circle at 90 degrees it means we are looking straight at it? And in that case we dont have a cylinder just a regular circle, same thing that would happen if we just see one side of the box i think. Also the diferences between sphere and circle/ellipse its just that the first one has form and the other one just "flat" but affected by persepective right? Again thank you so much and sorry for my long comment, i think it may be because english is not my first language that i couldnt understant it clearly.

[@Uncomfortable]

When you see a cylinder such that you're looking at it head-on, like how one might look at one end of a telescope, then the ellipse representing the end of that cylinder is going to have a degree of 90 - meaning it'll be perceived as a full circle. As for the difference between a circle and an ellipse, it's not that one has form and the other doesn't - it's just that we are talking about the circles that exist in 3D space. Like the ends of our cylinders are always circles, regardless of how we rotate that cylinder in the world. But the shapes we use to depict them on the flat page are ellipses, because depending on the rotation of those circles in 3D space, the ellipses may get wider or skinnier.

[@delfinaferrari4553]

@@Uncomfortable Got it, thanks for your time and detailed answer! 😊

[@gentleso7359]

Very nice! How would this apply to a curved elipse? Say for example a Pepsi logo on a bottle or a can?

[@Uncomfortable]

That's honestly not really within the scope of this video (or this course), but everything starts from a baseline. Starting with a circle in 3D space, we can build onto it to achieve more specific, unique shapes. It's similar to how, if you can build a cube in 3D space (which itself is actually a very complex thing that we get into closer to the end of the course), you can create a three dimensional grid and build anything of any specific proportions within it, trusting that each section in the grid is in fact a cube.

[@gentleso7359]

@@Uncomfortable Then I will definitely be following this course 🙂!

[@timov13]

Do you recommend doing these exercises on an incline desk? I imagine it is counterintuitive working on a flat surface due to foreshortening >

[@Uncomfortable]

I actually discuss the use of inclined desks at the end of this video from Lesson 0: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5jbp2yarsiaa7M

[@AyanGohan]

Hey Just asking how do i draw elipse by using ghosting method?

[@Uncomfortable]

The ghosting method is essentially all about breaking the markmaking process into 3 distinct phases - planning, where we take a moment to consider the mark we wish to make (with straight lines we draw start/end points for this, but the point is that we're identifying for ourselves what mark we wish to make, so for an ellipse you'd just be considering where you want that ellipse to go, what it needs to be aligned to, and so forth), then preparation where you ghost through the motion required to draw it, and then finally executing it with confidence, and without any hesitation. So the only step that is any different is the first one, and it's still about adhering to the purpose of the planning phase, which may manifest differently depending on the type of mark in question.

[@AyanGohan]

@@Uncomfortable thank you!

[@elrichmc5336]

Im' not getting my head around the degree (width concept) It is supossed that a 90 degree angle is formed when lokking straight to the circle, but when i draw the diagram it is less. Can anybody help me defining it in other way?

[@Uncomfortable]

In which diagram is looking straight on at a circle not depicted as a ellipse with a degree of 90?

[@nadeslaqun7109]

What's the brand of your pen and size ?

[@Uncomfortable]

You'll find that explained here, in Lesson 0: drawabox.com/lesson/0/5/pens

[@chriscrawford6073]

im struggling with elipsees

[@Metzok]

Do you rest your hand on the surface?

[@Uncomfortable]

It depends - sometimes I feel the added stability of resting my hand on the surface is beneficial, sometimes I'll lift my whole hand off the page to avoid the added friction. In general, I do believe that resting your hand on the surface gently is fine, as I explain here: drawabox.com/lesson/1/2/hoverhand

[@Metzok]

@@Uncomfortable Many thanks for your reply :)

[@mutlufarewww]

I cant draw small lines with my shoulder what should i do:(

[@Uncomfortable]

Drawing small lines from the shoulder is difficult for everyone. That's why it's something we purposely practice. It's normal for things to be difficult - that doesn't put us in any special category, apart from the other students taking a course. It just means that we're beginners, and need to work at it.

[@silverbowftw5225]

my trypophobia exiting the chat

[@daryllozada9799]

where can i submit my assignment? becauss idk how to use discord?

[@Uncomfortable]

If you're looking for free community feedback, there are a few options. Discord is one of them, but you can also use the /r/ArtFundamentals subreddit (both are linked on the video description). You can also submit your work directly on the Drawabox website, as explained here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWi4nJVpnbmej7s . If you're looking to submit partial work (rather than completing the whole lesson as recommended), Discord is the only available option. In general, it would be beneficial for you to learn how to use discord, as the community is quite helpful and has its own critique exchange program to help students using the free community feedback to get eyes on their work. The paid official feedback, which guarantees feedback from trained teaching assistants is only available through the last option, posting directly on the website.

[@daryllozada9799]

@@Uncomfortable thanks!!!

[@makvala7656]

Hey, I've noticed you draw ellipses in counter clockwise direction. Is it okay to draw them clockwise too?

[@Uncomfortable]

Yes, that is fine as well.

[@makvala7656]

@@Uncomfortable tyy

[@黑人一笑身世难料]

I just finished the 250 box challenge ...

[@Something-nh5ds]

I really suck at drawing ellipses :/ They overlap almost everytime

[@Uncomfortable]

Aside from making sure that you're employing the ghosting method when executing your ellipses, the rest comes down to practice. Even after you're done with Lesson 1, this exercise (along with all the others) will continue to make up part of your regular warmup routine.

[@Something-nh5ds]

@@Uncomfortable oh you're still responding! Yeah I know I'll keep doing your lessons, thank you a lot for making it free :))

[@Something-nh5ds]

@@hobogardenerben idk if you got a response, can't see it myself. I picked up drawing again like 3 months ago, I'm enjoying it way more than before because I don't force myself to do anything, I just doodle what I want, it might take longer to get better but I'm alright with that.

[@Something-nh5ds]

@@hobogardenerben same 2u! Good luck with the course :))

[@lightlawliet3526]

that face tho O P O

[@frostyshdurak1703]

The minor axis is not the part of ellipse anatomy me think. So in the video is saying wrong.

[@evelynn1173]

Trying to pay attention to this lesson is hard when you have a cat

[@KingTubeAR]

or when you have ADHD

[@hunny585]

Pls guide me. As a beginner is this the first Lesson/Video i should begin with?

[@Uncomfortable]

This video is part of the larger Drawabox course. You can follow it in order by starting at Lesson 0, here: drawabox.com/lesson/0. I should tell you however that I'm going to be dropping new revisions of the first page of Lesson 0 on New Years, so if you can hold off and start then, you may be slightly better off. While the existing material is fine, every few years I try to update it to try and convey the concepts a *little* more clearly for students, where I can.

[@hunny585]

@@Uncomfortable ofcourse il wait but until then i just browsed Drawabox Lesson 0 and then there are several videos i find everytime...pls name and organise them like 0.1, 0.2 or sthng like that. I dont want to be watching later videos first and come to the basic ones later. Sorry m a confused girl but hope u understand. Thanks

[@Uncomfortable]

@@hunny585 I do understand, but keep in mind that the way students are intended to go through the course is on the website itself, starting from the first page of Lesson 0. You go through it page by page, and when videos come up, you watch them then. That way you can guarantee that they'll be in order.

[@hunny585]

@@Uncomfortable u truly must be a great artist to have such patience to reply to newbie like me. I didnt know we have to follow this course from website but now i opened n see there is only 1 video titled 'What is drawabox".. what m i missing or maybe il just find my way thru youtube thru typing Lesson 0,1 etc ?!

[@Uncomfortable]

@@hunny585 You may be missing the other pages by accident - each lesson consists of several pages. If you're on desktop, you'll find the table of contents on the sidebar along the left (as shown here: i.imgur.com/94smAVo.png ), or on mobile you'll find them by clicking the "table of contents" bar at the top of the page (which looks like this: i.imgur.com/6fGYtI0.png ), which expands to look like this: i.imgur.com/TGjsCpw.png . Either way, at the bottom of each page you'll find link to the following page. In this screenshot: i.imgur.com/gPxUeT7.png it's the orange "Changing your Mindset >>>" So if you go through the pages in order, you'll come across the videos one by one.

[@gazelle4204]

First I see them as ellipses Then I see them as circular discs flying at me Now I'm scared

[@Uncomfortable]

Pew pew pew!

[@kaleb749]

“May take you several days” try several months 😭

[@CyborgWolf]

My ellipses look like potatoes

[@tailung4849]

But mathematically a circle is not equal to an ellipse

[@Uncomfortable]

I'm unsure which part of the video you're responding to - but if you're talking about the general point that ellipses are used to represent circles, you're missing an important distinction. We're talking about using ellipses in 2D (what we draw on the page) to represent circles in 3D (what is being represented). Those circles in 3D space can be rotated freely in all three dimensions, causing them to be perceived as getting narrower or wider as they turn. This is demonstrated at multiple points throughout the video.

[@黑人一笑身世难料]

Nooo the old vedio

[@louiscorbett3278]

v i w e r -_-

[@yemikayode1915]

Uncomfortable I have a question,why does your oc look tired?I'm not trying to be rude sry

[@Uncomfortable]

:P Running drawabox takes a lot of energy.

[@maybeeart4286]

Its a four shorten circle. Pls say it in an accent.

[@dr-zieg]

Sloppy ellipses... :/

[@smurfyday]

ignore. 9:21

[@aneubeck4053]

Too hard

[@notatrueweeb9378]

Are u indian?

[@i5m5bob]

You really shouldn't be teaching. You are holding beginners back.

[@gbrl10]

@@gruckusgrackus5815 y u saying that?

[@cyansalvatore6011]

The only person holding anyone back is you telling people not to teach. He's helped many beginners and even advanced artists strengthen their fundamentals. Go eat a cactus.