Lesson 0: Getting Started

Introduction
Intro Video

Drawabox started out as being completely text-only, which made things admittedly difficult to
absorb, especially considering just how much information there is to share.. These days I try to
convey what I can in video form alongside a much more detailed written lesson, but while the
videos do cover the major points, I still strongly encourage you to go through both.

Not only is there information that will be better suited to either video or text format, but there's
also only so much that can be compressed into a single video. Furthermore - and perhaps most
importantly - you'll find yourself understanding the information better if you receive it in a
number of different formats, and if you re-watch and reread them frequently.

This video is mostly going to explain the points I mention on the next pages of this lesson - they
may seem like superfluous, unimportant points, but they are critical to understanding what
Drawabox is for and how it's meant to be used to be most effective for you.

Watch the video and read through the text content before moving onto the lessons and exercises
so you don't risk wasting your time later on.

About Drawabox
This page explores what was covered in the intro video (from the last page) in greater detail.

What is Drawabox all about?

There are plenty of drawing tutorials and lessons all across the internet, and many of them are
free, or at least pretty cheap, but one thing they tend to have in common is that they appeal to a
beginner's desire to create something pretty right now. In doing so, they'll breeze past the
fundamentals - sometimes giving them a light touch, and often skipping them altogether - in
favour of getting to the good stuff. After all, those beginners can just learn their fundamentals
elsewhere, right?

Learning the fundamentals on the internet - at least for free - is actually surprisingly challenging.
The information is strewn about, and a lot of people have different ideas of what the
fundamentals are. Many of the resources that do exist also tend to take a path similar to most fine
arts oriented schools, focusing heavily on "just draw what you see, and keep doing it until it
clicks".
Drawabox is my attempt at providing the information beginners need before they dig into the fun
stuff. Rather than providing flashy "look what you'll draw in 10 easy steps!" promises, it's about
introducing you to solid, proven exercises that work - given patience and determination. With
some cases - for example, learning the ghosting method covered in lesson 1 - simply changing
how one approaches and thinks about what they're doing will yield immediate results. Practice
and mileage will always be an important component however, and your success will rest heavily
on your willingness to push through, to accept, and to value the many failures you'll experience
along the way, rather than fearing or hating them.

At its core, what Drawabox is meant to teach can be summarized in a few points:

 Conscientiousness, the patience to plan, prepare and think through each mark you put
down
 Confidence, the willingness to push forwards without hesitation once your preparations
are complete
 Spatial Awareness, not just an understanding of the forms you're drawing as they exist
in 3D space, but an actual belief in the illusion that you're crafting - that you're not simply
drawing lines on a flat page, but rather creating actual solid masses in a three dimensional
world
 Construction, the ability to see the complex objects around you, break them down into
their simplest components, and use them to recreate them in your drawing, building up
from their simplest core elements and gradually breaking them down to greater levels of
complexity
 Visual Communication, the skills required to take the ideas you have and convey them
clearly and directly to an audience

Drawabox is about learning how to get started on this journey of yours. I'm not promising you
mastery in any of these areas, but rather equipping you with what you need to start trundling
down that dirt road in the right direction.

How should Drawabox be used?

To keep it short and sweet:

 Follow the instructions exactly as they are written

Don't interpret or alter the exercises as you see fit. Many of the exercises here are, by their very
nature, bland and uninteresting. They're also quite effective at building towards very specific
goals. If you alter the exercises to make them more interesting, while you're busy being
entertained by your work, you'll also be more likely to miss the point of the exercise altogether,
or at least diminish its effectiveness.
Do not rush. A lot of beginners will come in asking, "how long should I take" or "am I going too
slow". You take exactly as long as you need to in order to complete the work to the best of your
current ability. If that takes a week, a month, a year - it doesn't matter. Don't be afraid to take
breaks either. If you catch yourself feeling tired or bored, it's better to give yourself a rest rather
than accepting the sloppiness that will follow. Your stamina, just like everything else, is
something that will grow with time - you may not be able to sit and focus for more than half an
hour right now, but you'll be able to go for hours in the future.

Each exercise comes with a recommended number of pages. That's not a minimum, and you're
not expected to do more than that as part of a lesson's homework. That's the number of pages you
should expect to do, for now. While doing them, strive to make efficient use of the page - don't
draw three lines in the center and call it done, fill as much of it as you can, while putting the time
and effort in to do it to the best of your current ability. That said, know that once those pages
are full, you can and should move on.

The goal isn't to master each exercise on your own, it's to create a body of work that consists of
the best of what you can do at this moment, so someone else can then take a look and point out
any major areas where you're misunderstanding important concepts - something that is extremely
difficult to do on your own

Once you've completed a lesson and moved on, you will still be expected to incorporate those
lessons into a regular warmup routine. Pick two or three exercises at the beginning of each
sitting from all the exercises you've learned thus far and do them for 10-15 minutes. That'll
allow you to continue honing those specific skills without impeding your ability to move
forward.

Who is Drawabox for?

The lessons here were written with two distinct groups in mind:

 Complete and total beginners

These fresh-faced newbies are great, because they come in without much in the way of
preconceptions or arrogance, and are much more likely to follow instructions to the letter,
as they're meant to be, and therefore absorb the information as intended. Their
inexperience is in many ways a considerable advantage, being a clean slate as they are.

 Self-taught amateurs

I don't say amateur to be rude - it's simply the most accurate term to describe someone
who's got experience under their belt, but is still finding their way. Having been one
myself when I was introduced to the concepts I present here, I actually started out hoping
to help those who'd been largely self-taught and unstructured in their approach to
learning. Such students tend to have some of their fundamentals sorted out, but there
 tends to be plenty of holes and inconsistencies there. This requires them to unlearn habits
and fill things in as they go, and they end up fighting a great deal against what they
already think they know. While this results in a great deal of struggling near the
beginning, it usually results in somewhat more rapid improvement as well.

All in all, everyone would benefit from going back to the basics and refining their ability to
capture the illusion of solid form and weight, but these two groups are the main ones I'm looking
to help.

What matters most is that if you've decided to follow these lessons, it means you've put a certain
degree of trust in the approach covered here. So long as you hold enough trust in this source to
continue following it, then do so in its entirety. Don't half-ass it.

A critical warning
Drawing for fun is mandatory

There's something I've found myself having to say a great deal over the last few years, so at this
point I think that it's critical that I state it here, and equally critical that you understand. As such,
I've separated this out into its own page to give you the best chances of actually reading this.

You should not be devoting every moment you spend drawing to your growth as an artist.

Too many students think that the only way they'll get good is if they do nothing but practice, and
they feel that any time spent drawing but not doing exercises is time wasted. This is simply not
true, and more than that, it's extremely harmful. I recommend that of all the time you spend
drawing, you only spend half of that on improving - however that may be. Whether it's working
through Drawabox, some other course, or even just doing structured studies of your own.

The other half should be dedicated to drawing for the sake of drawing. You've likely gone into
this endeavor for a reason, and unless you pursue that goal throughout, you risk losing grip on it.
That means trying to draw those characters, vehicles, props, clothes, cultures, worlds you love
now, whether you feel you're ready or not. And no, you won't be ready at first, and you won't be
ready for a long time - but it doesn't matter.

Sure, if you grind your studies every moment you can spare and you somehow manage not to
burn out along the way, you'll come out with considerable technical skill. You'll also have no
idea of how to apply it - and as many will tell you, facing that reality and overcoming it is
perhaps more difficult than learning to draw in the first place.
 Tools of the trade

Pens - Fineliners, size 0.5

At its core, Drawabox consists of seven lessons. There have been others, and there will be others
in the future, but when you think Drawabox, you're thinking of lessons 1-7. While the other
lessons have had other recommended tools ranging from Pierre Noire Conté à Paris pencils to
digital media, the core seven lessons should be done with ink.

Specifically, a style of pen known as "fineliners", "felt tips" or "technical pens". Basically, as
you can see in the image above, their tips have metal barrels with a felt nib.

I'm not here to try and teach you how to draw with ink. Thank goodness for that, as I'm a digital
artist myself. I have chosen these kinds of pens however because they complement the lesson
material and the concepts being covered, and more than anything, they help encourage the kinds
of habits and respect for your linework that goes hand in hand with everything else I am trying to
teach. I explain this in greater detail in this article, "Why Ink?".

They do that by producing a rich, dark line regardless of how much pressure you apply - their
only dimension of variance is in the weight of the stroke. The 0.5 size for most brands is ideal, as
it allows for a great range of weights. I do not want you to use different pens in the same drawing
- don't go drawing in a 0.3 and then going over it with a 0.5 or anything like that. Ideally if you
can, pick up the 0.5's in bulk.

The brands I use include Staedtler Pigment Liners and Faber Castell PITT artist pens (their
sizing is different, F is the equivalent to 0.5), but you're not limited to these. There are many
other brands, ranging from Copic Multiliners to Sakura Microns and hell, even Sharpies (the
ultrafines and the Sharpie Pens) will do.

Just make sure that when you're drawing with these, that you're not applying too much pressure.
Students have a tendency of damaging their pen tips this way, which reduces the flow of ink and
forces one to draw with the pen held at a higher angle to achieve the same rich marks. Most think
that their pens have just died, but these things can actually last for a good while, even with all the
drawing that we do for these lessons.

That said; do expect to end up buying quite a few if you're in it for the long haul, from lesson 1
to 7. Pens can get a little pricey, so find a brand with a price point and quality balance that works
for you.

Paper

All I ask is that you don't draw on lined paper... or like, napkins. In fact, above all else, I highly
recommend using regular printer paper. It's a great size (A4, 8.5"x11") and will allow plenty of
room to think through spatial problems (as you get smaller and more cramped, this can become a
problem), it's not going to fold back over while you're drawing like a sketchbook might, and it's
not going to leave you feeling afraid of ruining a sketchbook.

If you insist on using something fancier, try not to go too small, and if it's a sketchbook, ringed is
better as it lets you fold the pages back and get them out of the way.

Other tools
Certain lessons and exercises will require other tools as well, ranging from simple rulers
(generally you can use any sort of straight edge) to ellipse guides and french curves in lessons 6
and 7.

Ellipse guides/templates come in sets and can get expensive, but you can usually shop around
online and find them for cheaper on places like eBay. They are extremely useful, however I
wouldn't recommend buying them until you've actually reached those lessons. Once you do, they
are a sound investment.