Project - Dynamic Shapes

5.1K
Course In Progress

Project - Dynamic Shapes

5.1K
Course In Progress

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.

---

Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is next Thursday (8/24)

* 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!

Newest
ANX804U
16h
level 1 done, onto level 2.
Rachel Dawn Owens
Keep it up!
@bland
3d
Hello! I would appreciate some feedback hehe
@sharonkush
From reference.
Arthur Nesbitt
I attempted some from reference and Imagination. This was a fun one 👍 I do think I struggle with being loose when I was using reference. Definitely a practice I'll have to come back to
Tanya Gulchin
More seals from reference. With the last three here I tried to be more loose and quick with my sketching. I have a tendency to get lost in copying the proportions, I do feel that I loose time and the purpose of most drawing exercises this way. But its a long time habit, trying my best to break from it. And also, I mean, come on! I've spent a few minutes dying from laughter before drawing the last seal. Look at him! seals are hilarious XD Any feedback would be much appreciated
@emi78
12d
My attempt for level 2, any comments appreciated
@sanosuke123
my attempt for the level 1
Martha Muniz
Lots of fluidity in these! Great start, though there are couple of occasions where the seal only follows the curve without as much pinching, overlap, or other indications of the change in mass -- which could risk flattening the shape. Whenever there's a curve, keep an eye out for folds or which line would overlap over the other, as this is a good way to introduce depth and mass into the shape. Also, keep CSI in mind here too, as finding S's and I's here can bring in more variety to all the curves. Hope this helps!
@fraxls
15d
Here is my level 1 submission. I'm quite happy with 11 and 24, but not so much with 3 and definitely not 14. That position for 14 is really hard to draw.
CatMastaJazz
Here are mine. Five Level 1s and one Level 2
J. Menriv
16d
Project - Dynamic Shapes | Level 2 - Draw from Memory or Imagination
Shayan Shahbazi
beautiful!!!
J. Menriv
16d
Project - Dynamic Shapes | Level 1 - Draw from Reference
Tanya Gulchin
This assignment made me realize seals are awesome :D Would appreciate any critique
Natasha Johnson
Omg Tanya . They’re the cutest . Im level 1 myself , but a bit further ahead of you . I love your line quality and line weight ! You are going to blitz the lessons ahead . Im so happy for you . And you are right seals rock !!! All the best
Chauncey Holder
The assignment was pretty funny, I noticed I really need to work on my line quality a bit more but it has been getting better than before after after the projects. I
CharmLotta
24d
First six pages are level 1, the last without numbers - level 2. After putting away references and my own drawings I felt a sudden emptiness in my brain, I didn't remember the poses sketched a minute ago! I did some seals from memory, but it was really challenging.
Juan Muniz
27d
Had a lot more fun with this project than I thought. Some came out better than others as I realized that making the body round while keeping the fins a little sharper made for some nice contrast. Gonna see the demos to see how it can be taken even further.
@dollydigital
trying a few of these before watching demos
@dollydigital
Gilles Dubuis
Man, I'm so tired of these structureless things... Yet, I now understand how someone designed Jabba the Hutt.
Tanya Gulchin
Nice shapes! You've simplified them enough to make a good point. Love the confident linework. Would be nice to see more of that gesture centerline. And the seal #4 (the one after iguana) looks like his body is slit in a strange way. But overall, great job!
Melanie Scearce
That lizard drawing looks really cool. I like the shapes.
Antonio Santiago
This assignment was very fun although i do think I have to remember to not focus on recreating the seal perfectly and just focus on the gesture itself. Any critiques appreciated.
Ben Whitfield
These were fun to do. Not sure how well I did with the construction of the shapes. I will attempt to do these again after watching the demo. Any feedback is appreciated.
Tanya Gulchin
These look like contour drawings more than shape-focused ones. Try using more construction lines, they'll make it easier to spot if different body parts connect nicely or not.
Carlo Julian
Really enjoyed this exercise. These ones are all from reference.
Carlo Julian
I just watched the level 1 demo. I think I need to redo these. I didn't think to break these guys down into multiple separate shapes like head, body, tail, feet, and design each individual shape. With this course I always feel like the real lesson is in the demos / critiques. I get tempted to watch those first but feel like I need to try the exercise myself first before watching.
Full course
You will be given unexpiring access to watch the videos online .
View course details
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!