Project - Learning to Sketch from Imagination

9.7K
Course In Progress

Project - Learning to Sketch from Imagination

9.7K
Course In Progress

Pick an animal, a bug, or some kind of creature, and find several reference photos to use as inspiration to sketch a new character.

Don't copy the photos. Feel free to explore with proportions and exaggerate or simplify things to make it your own. Do multiple sketches to experiment and try different ideas.

Once you think you have a clear idea of a character, do one full page sketch. Even in this final sketch, try to use loose, confident lines and focus on the shapes of the character you have in mind. We're trying something new here with this project by starting to develop our ability to draw from imagination. So it might be a bit of a challenge, but don't sweat it.

Let's keep it loose and rough with our sketches and just focus on letting those creative juices flow. Don't focus on the cleanliness of your lines. We're sketching, and when you post your assignments, please include the photos you found and all your experimental sketches.

If you'd like to have a chance to be included in the upcoming critique videos, you must submit your drawings below by March 9th 2023

And don't forget to have fun!

Newest
Rayden
23h
Did some manta rays.
@christalynn
Found another squirrel. I am working between pencil and my iPad, so it it’s hard to stay organized.
@christalynn
Coquettish squirrel-I am definitely not there yet on line quality—but this was a fun project.
Melanie Scearce
I like the facial expression you chose out of your sketches. I think it matches the theme of your coquettish squirrel the best!
Ben
2d
This is my evil moth! I have much more respect for the intricacies of insects! This is my first assignment post and I have been really enjoying the course :)
@luc_
2d
Introducing: Ciri The Rat!! yeah. The one from the Witcher. Cause she was a part of a crew that called themselves “Rats”. Get it??? Anyway. I’m really happy with how it turned out, but if anyone has some advice or critique I’d love to hear it!
Brando Gould
Wow, these have so much personality! Beautiful renderings. I love the line weight you've chosen, but if I were to be picky, maybe the drawings could have more diversity of line weights. Specifically on the characters with clothing. I think you could tune down some of the bolder strokes on the clothes and choose to go bold only on the areas where you want to bring the viewer's attention OR in moments where there is one form overlapping another to give us a sense of depth. But I love your creativity with these! solid understanding of the forms and proportion. There's an amazing book by Patrick J Jones called Drawing from Photos that helped me understand how to correct for camera-altered proportions. In the Rastafarian mouse photo, the lens is clearly foreshortening the mouse too much, I found that if I can correct those proportional things, I can have a better drawing. For that one specifically, the far leg and the lower body should not taper quite so much as the photos suggest. The lens that was used created a stronger taper since it was likely shot on a wide angle while very close to the subject.
Joe Burris
Im definitely not level 2 skill wise but this assignment sounded fun so I figured Id give it a try. I chose an alligator and the only two things I wanted to accomplish going into it was showing off their silly fat pouch on their necks as well as their tiny arms. I think I may have gone too small on the arms. Its sloppy but I tried to keep it all loose. Hopefully I succeeded somewhat but at least I had fun.
Franck
3d
What kind of drawing were you aiming at ? realism or more goofy ?
Dylan Jagiello
This was a lot more difficult than I thought. The first two drawings were from observation and the third one was from imagination.
Rachel Dawn Owens
These are really fun drawings and I love your reference. You did great simplifying the strange little critter. You could probably even take the simplification a step further on the the head. I love how you drew the bony hands. I love the pose that you went for. He still looks like a primate although his ears may have gotten a bit to big and his arms too skinny. I went over your work with my own drawings. Mostly because I also wanted to draw a Tarsier. Hope this helps. Thanks for sharing and keep going!
Maren
6d
Weasel Guy
Franck
3d
These are well done! What do you need help for ?
Blane Nasveschuk
Gesture with a crab? Took a while to think of “story”. Wished I had some other views
Franck
3d
They are awesome!
Julio Serrano
Ugh, that was tough.
Jennifer Andrews
Here is are some of my drawings! I tried to draw something I've already learned how to draw but not from imagination so I drew pandas! I couldn't get the pictures that I used for inspiration because they wouldn't upload but I just used some panda pictures I found on the web
Merry Lee Sharin
Basic Drawing- Learning to Sketch from Imagination. I love how baby goats just leap like they've been electrocuted and they think it's the best thing ever! I chose to draw them "from imagination" climbing on objects because I wanted to attempt some round perspective. I would like some feedback about my sketches from the photos as well as sketches from imagination. Thank you to Melanie and everyone else who's commented. I really appreciate it.
@luc_
7d
Okay wow!? This looks great, your drawing from imagination is truly incredible! Keep going!
@sasha_
9d
Would call it 'first kill'. He got big fish but kinda sad. Really like how soft and flowy otters look and tried to catch that. My problem Is definitely going too fast. My mind is ahead of my hands and they can't really catch up. That makes messy useless lines and distorted proportions. (Also I'm still waiting for my pencil order. Have only h7 and 2b..so it s either invisible or smudged)
Robert Gould Jr
Here is my draw from imagination. I tried to capture some of the elements from each of the three reference photos and then added some of my ideas to it. I hope ya'll enjoy and as always I welcome any critiques! Thanks for lookin
@androida
10d
I decided to draw 'Martial Owl' based on several photos of burrowing owl. <(o.o)> (They are so cute!) First on the left is the result, before it the practice sketches more or less following the refs Photo ref credits left to right : Hisham Atallah, Kirk Swenson, Ron Dudley,-- There was also one image on St Louis Zoo website I looked at / followed that I do not know the photographer for nor did I load it here => https://stlzoo.org/animals/birds/owls/burrowing-owl More refs in AllAboutBirds org for views from different angles and trying to catch a glimpse of the talons ( the raised talon in the final image is not from a direct ref) https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Burrowing_Owl/photo-gallery/620657722
Noah Myburgh
I tried drawing the big primary forms first before moving on, I had some trouble with cross contours and I also feel like I messed up the perspective of the legs in some of these which makes the drawing look off or awry. I see someone else had also decided to draw leopard geckos, always cool to see how other people draw, Interpret and create there own ideas using the same inspirations and reference photos as yourself.
Rachel Dawn Owens
These look so good!
Randy P
11d
I really like what you did with this. Your leopard geckos are much more expressive than mine. I also like the one where you pushed increasing headsize relative to the rest of the body, which is more in line with Stan's approach in the demo video.
Melanie Scearce
Great stuff! I love the shape that you used for the head and tail in your final drawings. These geckos have a lot of personality.
@hobodios
12d
Are my lines loose enough xd?
Melanie Scearce
I see you paying a lot of attention to detail here -- which is very good for a finished drawing, but can get in the way of exploring shapes and ideas quickly and efficiently when you're starting out sketching. The tertiary details such as the scales, and bumps -- think superficial details -- can wait until after the more important shapes are defined. Focus on the primary forms first. These are shapes that can be made with cubes, spheres, and cylinders. Keeping things as simple as possible in the beginning, you are free to experiment as many times as you like without feeling invested in any one idea. Your first idea will not typically be your best one, so your goal starting out should be to get a bunch of sketches on the page. After you've explored and experimented, you can pick a design or combine elements from multiple successful designs to flesh out more by incorporating anatomy, refining the simple shapes you created. You have a really interesting idea with the fish jumping into the gators mouth! I'd love to see a few more sketches with simple shapes. See how you can explore that idea further.
Randy P
13d
Chose a leopard gecko. Three reference sketches plus one from imagination. The third pic reminded me of a dog so tried a play on that with the gecko chasing a ball. Tried a second one of gecko with a “ball’” just trying to improve line quality.
Rachel Dawn Owens
These look great! Your imaginative geckos are so fun. The one with the ball has a lot of diagonals, making it a very active drawing. While the snow globe one is more flat and heavy and still. Some of your reference drawings got a bit stiff. I think some better reference might help simplify things. Try atleast one with a full body view of the Gecko. The foreshortening in your photos makes them more difficult to study. Hope this helps. Keep it up!
Randy P
12d
Took another go at this one to try to push it a little more.
Lionel Bethancourt
After drawing a few bears, I decided to draw one with a pose that came from my imagination (the one at the bottom right corner)
Risto Eskola
My go with the assignment: 3 pigeons from reference, another one without one
Rachel Dawn Owens
These pigeon drawings rock! The big, simple, squishy body with the little details around the beak and eyes and feet is a perfect way to tackle this project. If you wanted to give your pigeon more perspective, you might adjust the angles to look a little more like this. Note the horizon line. If it is low, the pigeon will look bigger. Like youre looking up at him. It’s a funny way to view a pigeon. I hope this is helpful. Keep it up!
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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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