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You’ll learn the most important foundational concepts for drawing anything and soon you’ll be drawing pictures out of your imagination or from reference.
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![francesco zanardini]()
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![Alicja Słowacka]()
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![Jonathan Fisk]()
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![@na_talie]()
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![@princerobot]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Jonas Stemme]()
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![Samer Fakiani]()
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![Dawid Zając]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Nat]()
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![@jportela]()
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![François Alligier]()
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![@etin]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![Samer Fakiani]()
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![Alicja Słowacka]()
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![Lily A]()
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![Geo Lovinaria]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![@saffer001]()
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![Ash]()
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![Blaise Burns]()
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![Sneek]()
Download the photo reference images of seals and sea lions.
Level 1 - Draw from Reference
Draw their gesture and design dynamic shapes using the concepts from this lesson and the previous lesson.
Remember that gesture is not the contour, so don't just copy the outlines. Look for the movement and energy throughout the shapes. Use your whole arm and use the looser sketch line that we learned about.
Level 2 - Draw from Memory or Imagination
Start with the level 1 project and after 5 to 10 poses, turn the page, put away all the reference photos and do more drawings from imagination or from memory.
You can try to invent your own poses and design those shapes to be dynamic. Or you can try to remember the poses you already drew and use those as inspiration. Try to push and design with a focus on drawing dynamic shapes. It doesn't matter how accurate you get to the original photo, it's more about designing the shapes to look dynamic and interesting.
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Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is next Thursday (8/24/23)
* Because of the large amount of reference images, it would help a lot of you include the reference you used for each drawing. I'm more likely to select your submission for the critique. Thank you!
It was a really enjoyable exercise, though it did take quite a long time. I’m pleased with how some of them turned out, whilst others, unfortunately, didn’t quite work out as I’d hoped. I tried to limit myself to a maximum of 10 minutes per reference and to use an overhand grip.
I apologise if, in some of the photos, the scan has unfortunately highlighted the difference in the lines, making them a little hard to see.
I’m open to any kind of feedback and thank you in advance!
PS: I've attached the other images in the comment
This was an interesting one. I am definatelly going to continue this exercise with different animals.
Possibly my favorite assignment so far! I chose oceanic whitetip sharks since I’m studying them for work right now, so I thought that’d be a fun double dip. For the first drawing, I really loved the downward curvature of the shark’s body, so I tried to accentuate that feeling by bringing in the dorsal fin and having it curve more, exaggerating the folds near the pectoral fin, and changing the shape of the tail fin some to continue the flow of the curvature more. I see now that I could’ve been even more aggressive with the curving down of the head!
For the second one, I wanted to really emphasize this feeling of the shark being above the viewer, with the sharks body curving ‘up’ / to their left some, and I wanted to make them chunkier since my previous one was more slender. I changed the perspective on the shark’s left pectoral fin and had it overlap with their dorsal fin to try to sell the feeling of being below. I made the tail less thick so that the body feels even chunkier by proportion; that makes them look a little odd as a result, but I’m glad I played around with it!
They look good! As far as I can tell, it is always a good idea to draw the gesture a little more extreme. At least in my drawings, what lands on the paper is often a little less gestural than what I intended to draw.
Some examples of drawing with the reference. I’m trying to be more lose and sketchy—but it feels forced and sometimes looks worse than when I just do one line? Though one line looks worse sometimes too.
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2d
Nice work! And yeah, whenever you're learning a new technique it can feel super weird and alien. That's normal. Don't beat yourself up about it. That's just part of the learning process! Keep at it!
I am trying a new study method for observation. Observe the subject, imagine drawing on a blank page, study subject again and notice anything you may have missed. Finally start a drawing of the subject without the reference visible. Once finished review again and note new or missed observations and repeat a few times only using the reference after a completing a study. It worked well for me. The two colored pieces are from imagination and the final for the project. Thanks for checking it out!
I enjoyed this assignment a lot. I tried to apply to my own characters or existing ones, hence the Gengar. Looking forward to hearing your feedback ❤️
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7d
I love the shapes in that fourth drawing. It's cool that you used a circle to build off of for the rest of the form. You did a good job incorporating CSI as well. Nice!
Well, funnily enough it was a struggle for me to be loose, I think the issue is more mental than physical though cause I am fine when I do my warm ups, lol. I definitely feel I could use some gesture exercises as I never did them before, which I am gonna try to figure out and do daily. Had fun with the assignment although I’ll probably stay there a little while to practice more since I am not 100% happy with my shapes. Good one tho, cute pups.
First ones, this is actually fun! Love being able to do quicker/messy/rough sketches, I feel the improvement and margin to try new things helps me learn and stay motivated. Will continue doing these!
Made about 10 sketchs with reference and I could really see the difference between before and after watching the demo and understanding the concept of pushing the energy !
Here are the results of my level 2 exercise drawing those from imagination after my level 1 :D
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14d
These are excellent! Great shape designs, I love the simplified lines, you're using CSI and not shying away from straights, you're mapping the gesture well and your lines are very clean. Great job!
As always, I am enjoying the assignment but it did turn out harder than expected. I did about 10 seals by now and here are the latest two.
I can see the improvement from previous attempts. Still they are not interested as I hoped they would be.
I appreciate any tips or feedback you give me!
I think you are making them too "geometric" (especially the one one the right). There should be more flow. But nonethless, they really look like you are not doing a 1:1 copy :)
It was a really difficult assignment for me. I'm not even sure if did it right, and I'll probably redo it after watching the demo.
Personally for me I found this assignment difficult, how ever I am my worst critic.
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24d
It's good you found the assignment tricky, that means you were taking it seriously and challenging yourself! You have the right idea. You did a great job identifying the lines of action and simplifying your shapes. Keep working on your tapered strokes: challenge yourself to pull longer lines, especially on those long curves. Try to make them one long stroke instead of pulling multiple shorter strokes to make the one line.
I was hoping I understood the assignment right, but looking at some of the other posts here now that I'm uploading, I guess not really.
Piglet is a bonus I guess, didnt want to waste this page :)
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29d
Nice work! +1 for Piglet lol
This was definitely a lot for me to think about all at once. It's kinda enough for me to just get what I'm seeing down on the page, much less the design/gesture. That said, I had never learned about gesture or shape design before, so I'm super grateful for the teaching, but my assignment was definitely a first foray into a very new thing.
Did some more digitally. Think I'm starting to understand it a little better. Need to find a different brush though, or just draw darker...
