Regarding big drawing boards: Slice a section of a styrofoam "pool noodle" or water-pipe insulator lengthwise along one side and stick the edge of the drawing board into it (then it won't jab into your thighs). I also re-purposed the acrylic from a very cheap poster frame and glued it to my drawing board because it's lightweight yet provides a flawlessly smooth surface under my paper. I agree that binder-clips are the way to go, because the hinges fold flat, you can reposition the clips wherever you like, and you can clip more to the bottom sides if it's windy etc.

Well, at-least Sean Connery is not alive to see this insult! Now that I "see" where some of my problems were, I'm going to try a series of all the 007's- despite that I feel it's much more frustrating to draw someone famous (or a family member) than a stranger because you're trying to capture their iconic essence. I tried multiple times to follow Stan's Photoshop overlay instructions. I found if I played it back at 0.5 speed, I could follow along. But literally I spent more time trying to get it the "recipe" to work and then trying to use "adjustments" (and I use Photoshop a lot!) than I did drawing this. Eventually I gave up, and just had the photo on one layer and reduced its opacity, and then had my drawing on top in a different layer.

Hi :). Here is my assignment. I drew in my 9 x 12 sketchbook. I would love to try a bigger surface.

Drawing Basics- Shapes- Measuring Proportions. Well, 2nd ever human portrait. I made his face too round- looks more like Jon Voight than Kevin Bacon guant.

Drawing Basics- Simple Animal Portraits- Level 2-- Not quite daring enough to completely transform the horse, but I tried to follow Melanie's advice (thanks!) about considering the complete shape: I drew a general "shapes" horse, deconstructed it to make sure there were actual shapes, then reconstructed it and detailed it up a bit. Then I also tried the 3 sushi-chef shapes: circular, triangular, rectangular.

General poll: Do you tend to make your circles clockwise? counter-clockwise? And are you right or left handed? I haven't discovered a strong disposition toward making clockwise circles (I usually start at the bottom) or counter-clockwise (then I usually start at the top). I'm generally stronger on my left, but write & draw with my right hand (I'm old enough that being left-handed wasn't "allowed")

Apropos of nothing, but I love Proko! In 5 weeks I can't believe how much I've improved! Kept the pages from my daughter's 2023 page-a-day calendar of horses. I drew this while watching this livestream (sorry-I couldn't just sit watching 2hrs of monkey head shapes). I won't include the horror of how poorly I was sketching a year ago when I was watching Draftsmen and trying to summon the courage to sign up for Proko, but I'm SO glad I did. Can't wait to compare in another couple of months. Jeff Watts is right- 10 years goes by quickly. You can be 10 years older, or 10 years older AND a better artist!

I stuck to mainly level 1 - this was even harder than the CSI lines, imo. I went over the 10 shapes limit a couple of times. Ref list outside of the ones given in the assignment: Unsplash: - Wolf by Milo Weiler - Cobra by Asad Ys - Owl by Sonder Quest - Leopard by Gwen Weustink Cat and Young seagull photos by me

This is what I did first, I'd like to get some feedback because I feel like I'm struggling a lot with breaking everything down into 2D shapes (because I tend to make them 3D). I'll keep practicing until I feel comfortable!

Drawing Basics- Shapes- Simple Animal Portraits. Materials Fail- Thought I'd try the "red pencil" technique for my background shapes- but after I shaped out the water buffalo on the left, I discovered my "colored pencil" is really a "wax pencil" for marking glass, metal etc. So my red lines are WAY too dark, which made it challenging to control pencil line quality and still have it show up over the red. Off to the dollar store tomorrow for colored pencils. I re-drew what my "basic shapes" were off to the right of each pencil sketch. I still feel like I'm never confident what exactly we're supposed to do for the assignments. I don't like to "cheat", so I just submit my projects and THEN watch the Demo (and mutter, "Oh NOW I get it.").