Project - Measure Proportions

Lesson by

Assignments 898Lesson NotesDownloads 6

Project - Measure Proportions

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

Assignments 898Lesson 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

J M

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

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

Kyle

•

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

•

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.

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

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

•

11d

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

•

14d

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

•

14d

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 :)

@shaaneeq

•

17d

Made an initial attempt I ended up abandoning due to going a way too overboard with the measuring that just became too confusing. After taking a step back and reevaluating I decided a simpler approach was better. The horizontal and vertical plum lines were a big help, but instead of comparative measuring I found some carefully placed horizontal and vertical lines set at key points across the reference were more helpful in measuring out the proportions. I’m happy with how it turned out, just the edge of the hat on the left side needed to come out a little more.

Laurent Van Acker

•

16d

Smart to have a physical printout!

Laurent Van Acker

•

17d

Somewhere between "stage 1" and "stage 2", so I think/hope I'm about halfway in. It's been a while since I didn't just eyeball proportions and angles. Wanted to post some observation for this project: I'm missing the link to the subject of shapes! Measuring, especially using the guides from the previous lesson, is very line based (eg plumb line). I think I expected more to explore the shapes themselves for consistency, like we do in negative space, to fit in this project... The only concrete follow up from the previous project is to start from the big 'simple' shapes and not get lost in details. But that's more about constructing a drawing than it is about the shapes themselves.

Laurent Van Acker

•

17d

Finished, about 2.5 hrs total. Had a feeling it was a bit more squad than the reference but didn't know how much... Goes ahead to show the snowball effect of the measurements! Excited for doing this again! From the self-feedback check in Photoshop, I feel like I've missed a good measurement equivalent for vertical and horizontal comparison, which gave a scaling issue in one dimension. Finding a large-scale reference that I can use for both, and cross-examine it ASAP, should be a key starting point in future drawings.

Jeffrey Powers

•

17d

Spent about an hour and a half on this. Worked on 18 x 24 in drawing pad took up a good portion of the pad. Patience and drawing larger seems to help me. Once I got the larger shapes layed-out I could zoom in on screen and get smaller ones drawn in.

Jeffrey Powers

•

16d

I took another try. I feel I came closer the second time around.

Gloria Wickman

•

21d

Unfortunately I wasn't able to use a paper size as big as recommended so this was done on a 9×12 sketchbook sheet. It was a fun exercise and I tried my best to stay away from drawing contour lines and focus more on straights and slight curves. I think the proportions of the face are more accurate than the cravat and shoulders which I originally wasn't going to fill in but then was having fun and decided to go for. Critiques are always very welcome!

Rodolphe MIGON

•

22d

Here is my attempt; it wasn't easy.

@jbarra

•

22d

I gave it two tries

Tyson

•

27d

I forgot about just using straight lines somewhere along the way.

Emmi McKee

•

28d

My Attempt at the portrait before watching the demo. Ive never been confident in my ability to draw people so this took me way out of my comfort zone. Im fairly happy with how this turned out, there are somethings id like to change but i think i need to move on.

Tommy Pinedo

•

28d

The first three photos from the left are my first attempt showing the steps before watching the demo. The last three photos are my second attempt after watching the demo and as well showing the steps. The demo helped me get a good idea how to start this drawing, because at first I was a bit lost. One major thing I learned was that this is a very hard thing to do, which is to get accurate proportions. Watching Stan not get it perfect made me realize ok, its hard even for him so I should not be hard on myself. I think this requires tons and tons of practice patience, and experience. So for anyone that is having trouble please don't give up because this is very hard which is normal. It is hard for me too. Fun exercise which I will be doing.

Tommy Pinedo

•

28d

Also wanted to share how I compared my drawing to the actual portrait. The left one is my first attempt before the demo and the right image is my second attempt after watching the demo. This is great self feedback! Thank you for this! :)

@lstr

•

1mo

Ended up doing this one digitally (using a faux pencil brush and a paper texture), because the analog method of standing up and holding out my arm with the pencil etc. got so frustrating and physically uncomfortable for me. Measuring digitally felt a LOT easier, almost like cheating - though of course I still stuck to the intended method and didn't start actually measuring in exact pixels or whatever, and it did still take a few hours. I'm happy it did at least turn out as accurate as it did. Being able to just leave measurement lines and notes overlaid on the image instead of trying to keep track of everything mentally felt especially helpful. Eyeballed all the upper body clothing bits extremely quickly because I was feeling so Done by the end, lol.

Văn Hiếu Võ

•

1mo

The girl was so much more difficult to draw because her face doesn't have as many sharp angles and straight lines, and I also drew her bigger. Not brave enough to draw her hair. I found the nose hardest to get right because in both drawings I got it wrong. I think because it kind of "floats" in the middle of the face. I had to double-check once with the guy's nose and twice with the girl's in Photoshop to figure out what went wrong.