Project - Measure Proportions

Lesson by

8.2K

Assignments 921Lesson NotesDownloads 6

Project - Measure Proportions

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

8.2K

Assignments 921Lesson NotesDownloads 6

Deadline: Submit your assignment by 07/25/2023 for a chance to be featured in the next critique video!

Use the reference photo and all the measuring methods you learned in the previous lesson to practice drawing a portrait with accurate proportion.

Keep in mind that your layin will get harder as you move from big shapes to smaller details. Don't draw too small, otherwise the shapes of the features will be too small and harder to draw accurate. Keep the photo next to or in front of your paper to avoid distortion.

Expect a careful layin to take about an hour. Don't rush. Worry about accuracy, not time.

Remember - big to small, use straight lines, measure units, double check, find plumb lines, judge angles. Try to have fun!

Level 2, you're doing the same thing for this one. This exercise doesn't change no matter what your experience level is.

The Musketeer photo reference is from the Musketeer Model Pack by Grafit Studio

Mason Stroud

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The self check is incredibly helpful. Definitely shows me how much more I need to practice.

Randy P

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22h

Measuring proportions assignment and self check.

Rynhardt van Vuuren

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This took me about 2 hours and a lot of focus to find plum lines and proportions correctly and use the relational techniques to get the picture drawn. I found this rather intensive and difficult to follow. I was so focused on getting the hang of the plum lines vertically and horizontally and creating relational proportions withing the image. It was a fun and challenging lesson this one! I will evaluate my work by watching the critique later on.

@mwalker

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Oof. That was hard. It took me along time - mostly because every time I sat down to draw I found myself measuring a whole bunch just to draw a mark that didn’t seem quite right - repeat, repeat, repeat. I even brought this into photoshop and overlaid the images to do a little self-critique - still not great. This literally took me days - it was getting hard to want to do this particular exercise. I’m posting this now before I rage-quit. I’m not particularly happy with the result but i did take some solace in the fact that my phone camera recognized the drawing as a face ;) I look forward to learning and practicing more so I can look back on this project and hopefully say “remember when I thought this was so hard I just wanted to give up? Glad I didn’t!“

Stephanie N

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I felt so overwhelmed starting on this project. Here is my attempt. Critiques would be much appreciated

Franck

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Hi, What overwhelmed you ?

@bovine_designs

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I'm very happy with how this came out! This was challenging especially the ear proportions but I think I got the hang of it! I mostly used the hat-to-brow as my measure. I would appreciate any critiques!

Melanie Scearce

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Great job with the vertical proportions! The horizontal proportions are a touch wide. I think finding the correct angle of the cap above the ear and comparing the width with a unit, like the nose as an example, could help. Keep in mind that the facial features all form parallel angles in general. Your line quality is looking good, keep it up :)

@p4nd0ra_007

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I dragged my feet a little with this one. It's not bad, but I know something is off. Overall I'm happy with it though.

Shou

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I think I did pretty good on this one. Critiques would be appreciated :)

Dandy Ben

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Man, I tried framing the main part of the head, then finding relationships starting with the chin to the nose to the top of the forehead.

@lynzendra

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10d

Rachel Dawn Owens

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10d

Very pretty lines here and the measurements look great!

@osrour

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12d

@bovine_designs

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Oooh awesome!

Melanie Scearce

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11d

Nice work!

@pmirko

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13d

didn't go all the way into small details....

J M

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19d

as stressful as it was - this was a pretty fun project I highly recommend getting a new sketch book if you don't have the recommended size (14x17). I thought going out of my way to purchase a new one was an overkill but as I was drawing, I was glad I got it. The small shapes were a massive pain - can't imagine trying to do it on a smaller space. Not sure how I did - everything seems a bit off to very off. Seems like I stretched out proportions horizontally. If I edit the dimension of my drawing by stretching it vertically, that gives me a better fit. Anyhow - I will have to watch the critic to understand how well/bad I did.

Melanie Scearce

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19d

It's a common mistake to stretch the proportions horizontally. There is a convenient unit we can use to divide the proportions of the face vertically -- the hat -- but when it comes to justifying the proportions horizontally, we have to get a bit more creative. You could use the same measurement that you take for the hat and apply it horizontally to find the measurement between the corners of the forehead above the eye, or find the width of the hat. These measurements aren't exact so you have to adjust for that. You could also find a different unit that makes more sense to you. There is a lot of back and forth here but it gets easier with practice!

@jackb

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19d

I feel like some bits might be off a bit but overall am happy with the product, figuring out how to do measurements felt like a proper brain workout 😄

Melanie Scearce

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19d

The process is pretty painstaking but it will help you build your ability to intuitively eyeball proportions. Nice work!

Kyle

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20d

This was an interesting project. I’m happy with how it turned out but I can still tell some measurements are off. I tried to not use anything other than a pencil so I’m sure the plum lines aren’t perfectly vertical or horizontal since I didn’t use a ruler. Plum lines and measuring is also quite helpful but getting the line angles to match was also quite difficult.

Angel Kritikos

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20d

This is my second attempt in this. I really struggle with measuring. I used a combination of measuring with techniques for constructing the head that I got from Michael Hampton. I clearly prefer the grid, hands down.

Anawin L.

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20d

Finished my first attempt in around 1.30 hour. Had a hard time simplifying the mouth and eye shapes, and I think the proportions are a bit off. Going to do a lot more. Any critique would be appreciated. Thank you!

Melanie Scearce

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20d

Very nice! The angle of the shoulders and width of the hat are slightly off, but you nailed the face and facial features.

Pale Night

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22d

Time spent on most of it: ~1 hr. Time spent on the eyes: a lot more than I'd like to admit Proportions continue to be a weakness of mine. Must measure more, must draw more. Done on A5 sketchbook paper with B9 pencil

Melanie Scearce

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22d

You've done a great job here! The facial features are stretched out a bit vertically but the overall proportions look pretty good. The only area that was off by a larger margin was the shoulder, which is an easy fix. Keep up the momentum :)

Laurent Van Acker

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25d

Before watching the demonstration, wanted to challenge myself with the one Stan has done there. 2.5 hours! After comparing digitally, I have to say I'm very happy with the features and overall results, since I draw using the image on my monitor and use hand+pencil for measuring. But it's also glaringly obvious that the right side is not wide enough: I noticed after further measuring it was much too wide, but it seems that I overcompensated and made the right side of the face too small after corrections... And never cross-checked it again afterwards (it's quite obvious now). As a result, the neck is also much more narrow, as I based most of the right side features on the ears. So, I'll need to keep working on that!

Kira Hays

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28d

This is definitely a hot mess. I got very very *very* frustrated with this. I'm not sure why I was having such a problem, except perhaps a particularly low confidence. I struggled hard with this, and I know it's not really that great. Even so, I wanted to give it a shot. This is very much an extremely rough sketch done digitally. I don't know why, but none of the measurement techniques helped me? Maybe it's a lack of practice, but my brain could not process anything with measurements. I literally wanted to take a ruler and measure it out 1:1 I might try again later and just start from scratch

Melanie Scearce

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27d

You're not as far off as you think 😁 You have the main shapes vertically, just need to make a few adjustments horizontally. If you were to try again, that may be a good place to take a break and then come back with fresh eyes before you work on the tertiary details like the facial features. I would use the hat as a unit to lay out the facial features. It breaks the face into fairly even thirds. You got this! Trying again from scratch might be beneficial. Recall what you learned in the CSI lessons and try to be as light and loose with them as possible. Good luck :)

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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.