Project - Measure Proportions

Lesson by

7.4K

Assignments 817Lesson NotesDownloads 6

Project - Measure Proportions

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

7.4K

Assignments 817Lesson 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

Pablo Gutierrez

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It was fun doing all the measurments. I did find frustrating when noticing something was off, correcting it would make me see something else was wrong and so on.

Luis Ángel Ruiz de Gopegui Rando

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Hello everyone! Here I present my first lace. I have to say that I have learned a lot. When checking in Photoshop I gave myself a 96% correct rate... Do you agree? It's been totally wild...

@fluffybuttss

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I spent 2 hours so far and I’m still not done, yet I’m SEVERELY bored, I would rather do everything by eyeballing it but I’m pushing through it

Melanie Scearce

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Push through! These exercises will help you eyeball better down the road, it's worth it :)

@charliecasselart

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??? I love the process of being able to check my proportions at the lay in stage. Does any one know how to do this in Procreate or Fresco? Thanks in advance!!

Mika Vermeulen

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This project was draining, but fun as well. Feedback is welcome.

Agnieszka

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My drawing stages

@stitch_

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10d

Finished study, would love some feedback to improve.

@stitch_

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looking back, the eyes are definitely too big and the whole thing is stretched from doing it on a very large piece of paper, will fix that in the future.

Anupam Rai

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12d

What do you guys think?

@veryartthing

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18d

Tried doing faces with observing measurements rather than... uh measuring them. Results are worse but way less tedious to do. Main issue is I keep messing up the eyes and I dunno what to do about that really, I always get the angle wrong no matter how hard I try not too.

@veryartthing

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19d

Its been ages since I've done measuring like this. I usually just use eyeballing techniques, because frankly drawing like this is agony for me. Its soooooo difficult and tedious. I recognize that its helpful though, its just hard to motivate oneself to consistently do something this draining.

@silver847

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21d

I’ve done some of this before so I decided to include it as well. This musketeer proved to be very challenging for me and a reminder that I have to get better at drawing facial features

Aimee

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21d

Man this was difficult, lol. I feel like I did a somewhat decent job and I am somewhat happy with it. I also sort of feel like my lines are messy but that's alright. Will just do better next time. I'm gonna try another attempt or two tomorrow I think. I can see now that I made him a bit long just cause I messed my measurements up a little, that's alright though. If anyone has any feedback or tips I would appreciate it.

Aimee

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19d

Todays attempt. Honestly feeling like I did a lot worse, lol. My measurements were pretty off and I placed a lot of her features too high and just made everything sort of big. Everything is just very off, feeling a bit bad about it but maybe I will give it another shot tomorrow. I also have no idea how I messed the hair up that bad, making me laugh a bit.

Melanie Scearce

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20d

Very nice job here. Your vertical measurement look good. Like you said, he's a bit long but that can be easily fixed by finding the correct horizontal proportions. One thing that may be contributing to the longness is the angles of the features -- you nailed the angle of the relationship between the eyes, but the nose and the mouth aren't on the same tracks. It's a subtle effect but it can draw the face down. Hope that helps!

Oscar de Luna

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23d

This was so hard omg. I quit for some time because I could not handle those proportions but, anyway, I'm back, everyone gansgsta until eyes and noses appear isn't it? Let's do it better next time!

Melanie Scearce

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23d

You did a great job!

Lost 247365

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30d

I kinda misunderstood that we were supposed to be simplifying and went all out on the details. So I redid the simplified version. That said, I wanted to include my high detailed drawing as well so I am including it at the end.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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27d

Really really great practice! Very strong work! Nice job simplifying it.

Daniel Rodriguez

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1mo

@Martha Muniz Any and all constructive criticism would be appreciated. I followed both lessons as close as possible.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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1mo

Nice work! The proportions look close to the reference. I like how dimensional the eyes look. I think one think that could help you out is to use more tapered marks. Practicing ‘drawing through’ will help you out a lot along your artist journey. Good stuff. Keep it up!

Michael Koch

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1mo

Daniel Rodriguez

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27d

Well, done!

@goobish

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1mo

My submission for the Proportions project. It took me many tries to get this result though I know this is still probably not perfectly accurate. When practicing proportions is it better to do many quicker measuring + eye balling portraits for quick feed back on a range of faces with varying proportions or would it be better to focus on a single portrait at a time and do the photoshop self critique many times as you go and slowly try and chisel away at the face to train your eyes that way? Thanks very much any advise or critiques would be greatly appreciated.

@arthiecio

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2mo

Tried to understand more about how to quickly put some placeholders but take me 3 hours to end the measures.

Melanie Scearce

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2mo

Don't worry too much about how long it takes you -- speed with come with practice. You did a nice job filling in the details and it looks like you followed the simple to complex process. Really focus on the angles of the landmarks like the angle between the eyes, and the angle between the eye and the top of the ear. Finding those angles will be very useful to you in determining the placement of the nose, mouth, and overall angle of the face. Overlaying your drawing over the reference image shows that the angle between the eyes is a bit off, which give the effect of the face tilting in the opposite direction. Hope that helps :)

@dangerousnor

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2mo

Made some erorross. Also need to focus and be more conscious about my angles.

Greg Low

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2mo

First go (and this is my first time submitting homework - yay!). Not sure I did a goo enough job of simplifying the shapes. They are quite complicated! And this likely made it harder to get it accurate. Also this took me significantly longer than an hour... phew! I’d like to have another go at simplifying further once I've reviewed the demo + critiques.

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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.