Project - Dynamic Shapes

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

4.9K

Assignments 747

Downloads 6

Project - Dynamic Shapes

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

4.9K

Assignments 747

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)

* 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!

Ben Whitfield

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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.

Carlo Julian

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Really enjoyed this exercise. These ones are all from reference.

Carlo Julian

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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.

Andrea Anaya

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This was my attempt for today. Some of my seals from imagination look a little funny because I couldn't exactly remember how their heads are shaped.

Quinton Larrimore

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10d

Attempt 2: I would appreciate any feedback if anyone has any for me. Unsure if I did the gesture portion correctly. I feel like my lines have a decent amount of energy in them but it's still feels hard to put that concept into practice. Either way, thanks!

@brazenjimbo

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14d

This was my first attempt at drawing this seal. Personally I feel I captured the mood. I know I wasn’t supposed to shade in but I just wanted to add a bit of something to it. Absolutely loving this drawing course before this was an absolute beginner so thank you.

Melanie Scearce

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14d

I love this seal drawing! You definitely captured the seal's sun savoring contentment. The reason for making these drawings for this assignment sketchy and loose is the encourage you do do many different drawings. Especially starting out, the more mileage you can get behind you the better. Doing many short drawings will help you develop your skills faster than one long drawing. That being said, long drawings are important in your journey as well. Just some food for thought!

Lyla

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15d

Submission! This was fun. I am absolutely someone who uses reference as a clutch and I feel it's quite obvious in my drawings. I need to draw from imagination more. It's so hard to break away from it when I know I can get a better result using reference but it can be so limiting, I don't want to be so dependent on it. Critiques always welcome and much appreciated I'd love to hear about how people overcome the hurdle of drawing from imagination and breaking away from reference!

Melanie Scearce

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14d

Think about drawing from reference and drawing from imagination as two separate muscle groups. When you draw from reference, you are exercising those muscles and they become strong and flexible, but like the guy who only works out his upper body in the gym, your other muscles will stay the same or atrophy. Suddenly you look down and your draw-from-imagination muscles look tiny compared to your giant draw-from-reference muscles. It's important to practice drawing from imagination even though you know those drawings will not come out to your standards compared to drawing from reference. It's a tough pill to swallow because nobody likes making drawings they aren't proud of, but you've done it before to get to this point, and you can do it again! Just my two cents. It will be difficult at first but you got it :)

Mika Vermeulen

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15d

This is my submission. The first 5 are from reference, the other 6 from imagination. I find it hard to really think about how I can make the shapes more interesting. Feedback is appreciated!!

Andrei Sorokin

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18d

David D

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23d

Some were more successful than others, had a lot of fun and was definitely something I had never thought about before while drawing. I feel like the most success was seen when most thoughtfully considering the dynamic shape design and “guiding the eye” of the viewer. Would love to hear what you think.. how successful was my attempt at the dynamic shape design? this assignment was a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to the example videos and critiques to more deeply integrate this into my drawing practice!

@nahdlee

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25d

Spent a few days working on these. I think they came up ok. Some definitely better than others. The dynamic shapes in some of them worked well but I feel like I was drawing without too much intention. Would love some feedback

Urban_Meerkat

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25d

Took a longer break from the course. Drawn before demo.

@veryartthing

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25d

I've always struggled with gesture related stuff in art, so this assignment was a bit stressful for me. I still tried my best to work with it though.

14 Virág

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1mo

Martha Muniz

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1mo

Great drawing! I think the line quality in this example is quite good, as it has a nice looseness and taper to it already. If you would prefer it less thick, I would suggest starting out your drawing very lightly, and only adding the dark outline for it once you are already certain of the lines you want to put down. Also, continuing practice of Warmups to Improve Line Quality before you draw, especially the Light, Medium, Dark Lines exercise can be a great tool to keep improving and gaining confidence in this area. Hope this helps!

@silver847

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1mo

i struggled at first but got better as I continued

Melanie Scearce

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1mo

Looking good! Keep going

@falv4397

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1mo

Back at it

Martha Muniz

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1mo

Great flow! Try incorporating more areas of straight lines to counterbalance the curves, as that can bring a more dynamic change into the curving rhythm. Also, look for areas of overlap in the seal's outline, such as whenever the neck would be in front of the body or the seal twists in a way that creates folds. Emphasizing the overlap can really make the shape take more definition and dimensionality. Hope this helps, keep up the good work! :)

@goobish

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1mo

Submission for the gesture project the first 2 pages are from reference while the second 2 I attempted from imagination. gesture is something I've struggled with in the past but I think this helped me get a better grasp of it.Any advise or critiques would be welcomed thanks.

Alan Massey

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1mo

I'm a bit rusty. I won't lie. I've been focusing a lot on my writing, so drawing fell by the wayside. But I'm back. I have a new disdain for seals. They're kind of boring. I remember doing an assignment where we could pick an animal of our choice; mine was a blue heron. I had a lot more fun doing those guys for their dynamic shapes. These seals are just blobs, but I see the purpose in drawing them, turning the blobs into something. The first two pictures are from the refrences, and the third I tried to do from memory (again, for the blue heron I found it a lot easier). I'm glad to be back here, though. Cheers. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Michael Longhurst

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2mo

Two more pages from references and then two drawings from imagination. I tried to be a lot more gestural on these which I felt like came out better.

Melanie Scearce

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2mo

Great seals! Gesture breathes life into your drawing. I like to start with finding that action line, usually the longest line connecting the top to the bottom. It helps a lot when drawing from imagination to create a more cohesive and dynamic drawing. You can get so many different poses and energies with one line.

Thien Minh Pham

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2mo

My pre-demo attempt

Rachel Dawn Owens

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2mo

Really great flow on these seals!

Michael Longhurst

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2mo

The first two were ones I did from the references and the third was from imagination. I struggled with the less active poses and only had one imaginary one that wasn’t really bad. I think I’m going to do another round of both then watch the demos and critique.

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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.