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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![]()
![Monika Tafelska]()
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![Camille Varner Kolafa]()
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![Sebastian Rivera]()
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![Camille Varner Kolafa]()
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![Alekai]()
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![Alekai]()
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![Ash]()
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![Dallyn Siegrist]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Vanessa White]()
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![Martha Muniz]()
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![Mason English]()
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![@jjpowell92]()
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![Scott Mooers]()
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![@mattr]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![@mattr]()
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![@mithri]()
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![@mithri]()
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![@mithri]()
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![Daniel Rodger]()
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![Rob Simmons]()
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!
Hi! This is my first attempt. Overall, I’m happy with the result, but I’m not entirely sure if I did the project correctly. I know that the proportions aren’t always accurate, but I tried to focus as much as possible on capturing the dynamics of these animals.
All feedback is appreciated!
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6h
These look great! Utilizing that line of action helps a lot. In your final versions with cleaner lines, I think you loose the energy of your sketches. It may be because you bring in more rigid lines and create small points. You should try loosening them up a bit (without getting sketchy) and bring across the "flow" of your sketches. Exaggerating some of the form may help too.
Tried my best to get the shapes dynamic enough I need to get better at exaggerating the shape and sketching in the line.
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4d
Yes, I would definitely suggest starting with the line of action first, if you're not already! It helps because it quickly captures the movement and shows you how the outer contours should flow. Maybe to help exaggerate, you could think about where the weight lies the most and make that area bigger or rounder and the others smaller so they feel lighter from the heaviest point!
After a long 1 year period of non-drawing due to life stuff I retook the course and started with this project and well, it was hella fun! Seals are cute and funny to draw. For me, something seems off, I don't feel my shapes are dynamic in most of the drawings and I can't see why (yet, I hope!). I drew 10 seals just by watching the project and the next 10 ones will be after the demo and the rest after the critique. (lvl 1)
Hello again! I drew 10 more seals after watching the demo video! I felt they were better and have more interesting shapes but somehow I feel them still stiff, I think I'm focusing too much in being accurate rather than in forming an interesting shape. Now gonna watch the critique videos to make more seals :D
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11d
cute!
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14d
I think you got some good stuff going on here. Good line quality, and you have a good eye for the gesture of these poses. My suggestion is to try to incorporate more straight lines into your shape design. Straights can be used for a variety of different purposes. Like in this seal below, I used a straight line to show how the weight of the seals' body is resting against the earth, and the tension between the seal raising his tail and turning his head at the same time. Another thing to note in this pose is the pinch and stretch of the turn of the head, and how emphasizing that effect can help you design a more dynamic shape.
I’m not entirely sure if I did it correctly. Would appreciate any feedback in case I did the assignment incorrectly (e.g. I feel like I wasn’t really drawing “shapes”? Or are these considered shapes? How can I improve better to sketch the “shapes”?)
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18d
You definitely got the spirit of the assignment and are on the right track! You're getting some really good dynamic shapes here, so don't worry about being 'incorrect'. There is a good sense of overlapping and twisting throughout, so nice job on that as well. I would suggest looking for areas that have a straighter edge, as that adds a good counterbalance to all the rest of the curving outlines going on, making it more dynamic overall. But good work overall!
I ended up happy with how most of these turned out. I think one thing I'll have to work on going forward is varying my lines more.
I really like how the top two turned out on this one. I had a harder time with the bottom left, and I like the one on the bottom right except for the fact that it looks like he has a sad face. But either way, this is a fun exercise! I think I'm going to try it with a few more animals and some other references for a while before I move on to the next projects
I did both level 1 and level 2, also did them before and after watching the demos. I usually do gesture drawings as a fast warm up so for the second attempt I tried to slow myself down and I feel like it helped, I could probably push things a little more though.
I'm also sharing a couple more of my recent-ish Pokemon that I've drawn for the challenge I'm doing, I also got to the end of that sketchbook and I decided to try and draw a waterfall. Anyway feedback is always appreciated!
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26d
Oh, these are great! I love the expressions and extreme poses! Awesome work!
Really enjoyed this project. Not sure I've fully grasped the concept yet but will see how I feel after watching the demos and the critiques. The first two images are from reference and the last is from imagination/memory.
(Edit: This my third drawing set but for some reason the comment displays higher than the second set!)
After posting I kept noticing new things about the photos so I did a couple of these again :).
1) Pushing harder to convey wrinkles and tight twisty-ness in shape
2) Trying to better show the horizontal tension between the head and flippers
Did some more after watching demo. Narrowed it to just one subject matter, sea lions swimming underwater. Trying not to focus on contours, and to remember to indicate creases.
I ended up doing a lot of these, more than I've uploaded. I took quite a while to get my head into designing shapes rather than focusing on line quality or accuracy. I think it's something that as I develop I'll come to appreciate more.
Batch 2, trying to stay more true to the assignment. Using sketchier lines, trying to emphasize any overlaps, and using dynamic shapes.
