Project - Dynamic Shapes

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

5.6K

Assignments 868

Downloads 6

Project - Dynamic Shapes

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

5.6K

Assignments 868

Downloads 6

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!

Tyre Blackshire

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Here are my drawings. I appreciate any feedback and critique.

Aubrey Hannah

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Here are the sketches I did for dynamic shapes. Admittedly, I think I may have focused too much on the contours, Next time I'll try and focus less on accuracy and more on the shapes themselves.

Kristen Budovski

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I ran wild with this project! I had an absolute blast and just kept making more and more. I could use some work on making the shapes a bit more dynamic but I think this was a great start!

Patrick Bosworth

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Nice job! You can really see a progression with these three pages. The top left seal on the third page is really excellent. Clean line quality, great shape design. Keep up the good work!

Mason Stroud

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I feel like I can definitely push the gesture WAY more, and need to explore more shapes. Now that I've looked at this drawing again after 20 minutes, they seem flat. I also could not figure out how to draw that last seal... It looks too much like a strange dog haha

Rachel Dawn Owens

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Haha I like your sea lions. Maybe use some more straights to balance things out. Here’s a few tips I made for other students that may apply to this as well:

@sosoph

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Hi :). I loved looking at the reference pictures, they were full of emotions. Trying to have good line quality while drawing an animal that I'm not familiar with was challenging, as well as using my imagination/memory to figure out poses for level 2. Stan's line quality is truly inspiring. :)

Melanie Scearce

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Happy Monday! Here's some colorful seals.

Shayan Shahbazi

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Great work, Melanie.

Brandon

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lol, the face

Philippe

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Not really sure if I did well or not, I feel like I'm not quite sure what to do. I tried to look for the 'flow' and exaggerate it, but I feel like sometimes I've stretched the forms too much so that the original gesture is not longer there. Any pointers are very welcome.

Melanie Scearce

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I think you are definitely getting the idea. Pushing the gesture too much is better than not pushing enough, so no worries there. It seems to me that you might be getting too caught up in the contours for this assignment. You don't want to over-simplify, but a bit of simplification can go a long way especially when you're trying to find rhythms. You can always go back in after you've laid in your gestural lines and add more structure to the shapes, which in general results in a stiffer drawing. There is a constant balancing of gesture and structure in drawing. Using this pose for example, I found two long rhythms that form the majority of the shape of the seals body, from the head to the tail. I invented the tail because I felt that it adds a bit more context to the pose. I didn't focus on the specific anatomy of the seal and instead simplified to create an interesting organic shape. I drew through the flipper and the tail to keep those long lines. Overall your seals are looking really good. I think simplifying a bit more will really take them to the next level!

Philippe

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Tried to improve it a bit. Came to the realization that not everything needs to conform to the flow of the body. The feet offer stability, and you need to exaggerate that as well. The same goes for the face, it changes angle relatively quick, changing the direction of motion.

Lost 247365

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I had to relook at the images and then put them away to do the memory part.

@christalynn

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This is a fun assignment. We were in Victoria BC on a whale watch last year and saw and smelled a lot of these fun guys! I need to continue to practice line quality. But this is a fun way to do it.

Melanie Scearce

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These are really fun! Yes, I agree with your self critique -- try to avoid those 'hairy' lines as much as possible by starting out really light with your stokes and darkening as you find your shapes.

Luis Ángel Ruiz de Gopegui Rando

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11d

Here are the rest of the seals and the ones from my imagination.

Luis Ángel Ruiz de Gopegui Rando

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11d

Hi, I'm posting the rest of the seals I still had to make. I have to say there were quite a few, ha ha ha... but I enjoyed the experience. I got the lines right the first time, meaning I didn't make any changes, but I still like Proko's lines much better! I'll have to be patient to improve that. I'm also posting the ones I made from my imagination, and I think they've helped me learn some details about seal morphology, thus expanding my visual library. Contributions and criticism are welcome! Thanks!

Rynhardt van Vuuren

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19d

I only started to understand the concept of pushing a shape in a direction after watching the demo, instead of trying to repeat what I am seeing. Focusing on the gesture of the image and where the weight and direction of the piece should move to.

@thenotsogrim

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20d

This is before watching the demo, I'm not sure how well I got the assignment but at least it was fun!

Nicole

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23d

Favorite assignment so far, references are Yo-chan and Niko. I'm not sure if I got the gesture correctly, but I wanted to capture their energy.

Tommy Pinedo

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21d

I love this exercise too! For some reason after doing this exercise, I started encountering seals more in my life like in tv, social media, etc. strange right lol

@mwalker

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23d

It was harder than I thought to get started but then I felt like I found my groove. so after watching the demo (after posting these) I realize I should have been trying to design shapes not just focusing on the gesture lines.

Melanie Scearce

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22d

These are very dynamic. Keep up that spirit!

Merry Lee Sharin

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23d

I think these are very nice, fluid lines. Even without the photos, you can instantly tell these are seals and sea lions! 🦭

Tommy Pinedo

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23d

I think you have nice gesture lines so I look forward how you implement it with shapes. :)

Rachel Dawn Owens

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24d

This was another great assignment. Sea Lions make such good models

Shayan Shahbazi

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19d

Mind opening tips. Thank you.

Tommy Pinedo

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23d

Thank you for this 😊

@androida

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24d

Keeping the lines loose and flowy gets harder the more complex the pose is. I tried to identify gesturelines (turned out to be more action-line focused) and then draw the shape around the motion with one side more fluid and the other with more nooks. With the last image I think this was not working out very well, but there's something almost like a beginning of a spider there. :)

@bovine_designs

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24d

First three are from reference, fourth blue one is og.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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24d

The last page of sea lions from imagination are the most dynamic. Some of the green ones get a little stiff. Youdid great!

Arsen

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27d

I feel like most of the shapes are boring, I tried to add some variety but it doesn't really help. Would be thankful for advice.

@paperpumpkin

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24d

Whenever shapes look boring the two main culprits are: straightening angles and creating symmetry. Try pushing sharper angles on different parts of the body to see if it helps (I like measuring with my pencil to see if my angles match the photo.) Also their bodies are looking pretty symmetrical. The two lying around just look like tubes. Circles and ovals are fine to start with, but there's so much more going on. Adding thoses differences will make your drawing look more interesting as well. Hopefully this made sense and was helpful. More than anything just keeping practicing and experimenting.

Axel Gyllenstierna

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28d

Critique welcome! This so mcuh fun to do. Favourite project so far! Something really calming about drawing these creatures. Being able to combine simple shapes, line weight and gesture made it feel like a culmination of what we've learnt so far. The video drawing animals with Aaron Blaise also helped!

@paperpumpkin

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24d

Your seals look fantastic!

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.