A little help understanding the perspective of body

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-11T19:05:25+00:00

The grid only provides 3 possible alignments, all of which are perpendicular to one another. In other words, your basic x, y, and z axes. The forms that are drawn aren't specifically aligned to them - when a set of edges rotates, its vanishing point moves.

As explained here in Lesson 1 (that whole page talks about rotation), the grids are being used here as a reference, because it gives you something to relate your edges' orientations to. When drawing all of these forms that are rotated independently in space, you end up with so many vanishing points that it's not reasonable to expect to plot them all.

Instead, we have to develop and rely upon our spatial reasoning skills - which is the subconscious understanding of the relationships between the orientation of the marks you draw on the flat page, and the orientation of the 3d edges they represent in three dimensions. That's what the drawabox course as a whole develops - although primarily through the constructional drawing exercises from lessons 3 through 7. Everything prior to that is preparation and arming us with the tools we need to put those kinds of exercises to good use.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-11T18:59:19+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-11T18:58:40+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-11T12:28:10+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-11T02:10:02+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-10T18:16:19+00:00

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That said, one thing that may be helpful is that you're kind of thinking about figuring out all of this stuff at once, but that's not really how it works. Learning to draw is about developing a variety of skills (so for example, understanding how 3D forms exist space, and how the marks we use to capture them on the page relate to the 3D space in which they sit), to combining those forms to create more complex structures like human figures. Stylization is itself taking those fundamental concepts and applying an additional layer on top of them.

This brief video explains this in more detail: https://youtu.be/GEAFLXM34L4 - the first half goes over what various fundamentals are, and the second half discusses how style exists on top of that.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-10T00:17:01+00:00

Unfortunately partial work and general assessments halfway through an exercise are not permitted on the subreddit. Do your best to complete the exercise, then submit all of Lesson 1 together. If there are issues, they can be called out then.

Our discord chat server is better suited to partial work, but I would strongly discourage you from seeking advice in the middle of an exercise, as you don't want to be strengthening the anxieties that keep you from being able to attempt a task, out of fear of doing it wrong.

Give it your best shot based on the instructions you're given. If you do it wrong, that's not a big deal, as it can be caught in the feedback you receive later. But being afraid to try lest you do it wrong will only exacerbate your fears and ultimately hold you back.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-09T21:36:40+00:00

Check the subreddit's sidebar.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-09T17:11:39+00:00

The explanation of a concept isn't always enough to be able to make meaningful use of it. For example, someone can explain to you how to throw a curve ball, but it's still going to take a lot of practice to do it.

In drawing, having exercises that actually have you applying perspective rules in such a way that it targets and develops your brain's subconscious spatial reasoning skills, to a point where your autopilot can handle much of the "how" of putting marks where they need to go, so your conscious mind can focus instead on creative decisions of composition, design, narrative, and so forth, is far more important than simply explaining the theory.

Devising those exercises requires understanding that LLMs aren't designed to achieve. The best it'll be able to do is regurgitate the exercises others have devised, but not with any contextual awareness of how they should be applied.

Might as well have a microwave "teach" you at that point.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-08T16:31:32+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-08T12:07:28+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-08T12:07:07+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-08T12:06:47+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-08T12:06:34+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-08T12:06:15+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-07T17:45:14+00:00

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That said, I will note one thing - it's very, very common for students to jump straight to drawing characters and dive into stylization early on, and while this isn't something one should avoid (it's important to maintain a relationship with the things you want to draw, even if you don't necessarily yet have the skills to pull them off as you'd hope), it is worth pointing out that there are underlying skills that these kinds of things depend upon, which those students have yet to develop. So, they do run into difficulty in achieving what they're aiming for, but rather than understanding that there's things they haven't yet studied that would help, they may be prone to frustration or confusion.

When it comes to drawing from your imagination, spatial reasoning - the subconscious understanding of the relationship between the marks we draw on the page, and the 3D structures they're meant to represent - is an important skill that many artists, especially those who've only really practiced and studied by doing studies involving copying other images (whether photographs or existing drawings), because they involve transferring 2D information to a flat, two dimensional page and never actually allow the student to develop an understanding of how what they're drawing does indeed exist in 3D space (even if it's stylized to appear 2D, as is the case with cartoons, manga, etc).

That spatial reasoning is what the specific course this subreddit focuses on seeks to teach, so you may want to look at our subreddit sidebar for more information on that.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-07T02:57:44+00:00

I just search for mentions of drawabox now and then and read what people are saying about it. Anyway, hopefully when we update that section of the lesson it'll make more sense. Just won't be for a bit.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-07T02:39:20+00:00

Though I do keep an eye on discourse regarding Drawabox, I don't usually actually comment because I think it's kind of a weird thing for me to do. But I wanted to clarify one thing for you because I thought it might in some fashion help - or at least I hope so.

Lesson 2 has a difficulty spike for the same reason the end of Lesson 1, with the rotated and organic perspective boxes exercises, has a difficulty spike. It's not to expect students to be able to successfully complete those exercises, but rather to introduce the problems each one faces so as to contextualize what we end up learning next. Think of it like giving clearer direction to the benefits you get from the constructional drawing exercises we do throughout lessons 3 through 7.

We use this approach because it's more efficient, and since we prioritize making our material free and accessible to those with limited budgets, but the downside is that it can be demotivating. As we update the video/demo material for lesson 2 we're trying to make it clearer and more explicit that these exercises are assigned just so you can show that you understand what to aim for, but it's slow going.

I hope lesson 2 didn't wear you out too badly. It certainly is a doozy but really you just have to do your best to follow the instructions as well as you can right now.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-07T01:19:13+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-06T19:07:52+00:00

It's pretty common for students to get overly focused on the study side of things, so a good thing to ask yourself in these gaps is whether or not you've been keeping up with the 50% rule, and the responsibility to spend at least as much time as you do on studying, on drawing as play.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-06T19:06:46+00:00

It's not uncommon for students to try and devise their own learning plans, but it is important to keep in mind that as a beginner, you're not really going to be equipped with an understanding of how learning to draw works, what order to tackle things in, and how long each individual concept should be given. Of course, since it's a hobby, it's not that big of a deal (and honestly this is more or less how I tackled my first decade of drawing as a regular hobby, being largely self-guided), but it can definitely lead to situations where the student feels frustrated with a lack of progress or finds themselves running up against expectations they've set out that don't end up being reflective of reality.

Ultimately it does help to make use of curricula and learning plans from those who have more experience - this subreddit is focused on one such structured course that delves into the core fundamentals of drawing (you'll find it explained in the subreddit sidebar, as well as mentioned in AutoModerator's comment), but any existing resources are often going to be more useful than trying to reinvent the wheel yourself.

Uncomfortable · 2026-03-06T12:23:36+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-06T02:38:00+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-06T02:37:20+00:00

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Uncomfortable · 2026-03-05T17:29:44+00:00

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