Project - Organizing Line Weight

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

8.7K

Assignments 1.1K

Downloads 8

Project - Organizing Line Weight

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

8.7K

Assignments 1.1K

Downloads 8

In this project, we'll practice organizing line weight in our drawings.

Level 1 - Trace

Trace over the provided linear version of the photo to avoid getting distracted by proportions. Trace it twice, using two different line weight approaches discussed in the last video:

Hierarchy of importance method - Heavier on the contours of large and important shapes. Lighter on details within.
Shadows and light direction method - Reference the original photo to identify the shadows.

Note: Don't use the depth and form method yet.

Level 2 - Draw from Observation

Level 2 students, in addition to the tracing exercise, try to trace it again, but imagine the light coming from a different direction IF you’re ready for that.

Then, draw from observation, focusing on line weight. Choose objects around you and draw as many as you'd like. If you draw a landscape with a clear foreground, middleground, and background, you can use the depth approach to line weight.

Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is next Thursday (4/13)

@alysialynn

•

This is my attempt at the line weight exercise. Looking back, I should have used medium lines on the claws/toenails.

Alex Smith

•

There was definitely some choice paralysis on this one with a lot of the lines, especially on some of the skin folds (major vs minor shapes), but I definitely enjoyed this exercise. It was nice to trace something and only focus on line weight. I do need to work on my pen sensitivity settings though, those transitions from thick/heavy to thin/light aren't the prettiest in the shadow line weight drawing, but I hope it still gets the intent across.

Alex Smith

•

Seeing the shadow one as a thumbnail now, I can definitely see that the difference between the largest/darkest line, and the medium lines is too extreme. I could probably have made the minor lines a bit thicker.

Metatron

•

Had to do digital since printer out of ink. This is the first time since the pear I'm not sure I did it "right" maybe that's just getting used to digital though.

@mangosandtangos

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1st is hierarchy of importance, 2nd is light and shadow, I feel like I could've thickened the lines in hierarchy and I suppose I could just go over it again but I'm looking to move forward and I plan on redoing this project incorporating level 2 after I progress a bit down the line category

@sosoph

•

Hi :). Here are my two drawings for level 1. :)

Jens Messmer

•

I jumped right into the light-shadow variant. The first one is represents the lighting as shown in the reference photo. For the second one I tried to inverse light source, so that it comes from below left. For this version I used the rhino-red-line provided by Stan so that I did not have to trace it all again from scratch.

@allebaten

•

I really enjoyed how you divide the core shadow from light with the hatched line. Gonna steal that!

Kayley

•

10d

This was a refreshing project! It was fun to trace things. For the first rhino, I was kind of just playing around with stuff. For my second rhino, I was attempting the hierarchy and highlighting things that I wanted to be the main focus. I can’t say I’m too happy with it but I’m going to try again after watching the demo! For my third rhino, I focused on the light and shadow method. The light and shadow one was tricky for me because I didn’t want to darken too much of the lines to make it overwhelming or unreadable. Overall, I learned something new so I’ll take it! Onto the demo now and reattempting >:)

@squash

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11d

I felt a bit unsure doing these, but it all made way more sense after watching the demos. Hierarchy on the left, shadow on the right

Jose Anton

•

13d

1.hierarchy of importance method.

Kristen Budovski

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14d

They turned out pretty similar. For hierarchy I wanted the viewer to focus on the face and horns. And as the secondary the heavy fold on the right front leg. I tried to be quite bold with the light and shadow one to really display which parts where shadowed. Perhaps too bold.

@osrour

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15d

Attempt 1, light and shadow. I Think i will really benefit from the demo

@osrour

•

15d

Hierarchy of importance

Martha Muniz

•

Good work!

Nathanael Borjas

•

16d

Tried doing this one digitally which is new for me. Other than figuring out the brush and some line inconsistencies, I think that I struggled to communicate shadow in some areas on the light and shadow trace. I'm open to any advice

Tyre Blackshire

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16d

The first one is Line Weight Hierarchy, and the second one is Light and Shadow. I appreciate any advice.

Elijah R

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17d

1. Light and shadow 2. Hierarchy of importance light and shadow was definitely a bit longer then the Hierarchy of importance one since I really did have to vary the line and had to squint really hard for the wrinkles. Hope it reads well :)

Fabio Gamba

•

22d

The light and shadow method was really hard. Had a lot of fun experimenting between finding the shadows and finding the biggest contrast. With the changing backround it was definiteöy tough.

Fabio Gamba

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17d

Some studies with the hierarchy of importance.

Fabio Gamba

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20d

The two cups were really interesting shapes for studying the light and shadow and depth method with the round forms. Side by side the effect of the three methods are clearly more visible. However it was really hard to make the depth method work, even though it was clear which part of the cups are in the front and which in the back. Didn't really get there, would be glad if someone has some ideas :)

@shaaneeq

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22d

My first attempts before the demo. I don’t have access to a printer right now so had to do these digitally which I find a little awkward. Would much prefer to stick with pencil and paper as that is the main medium I want to work with. Hopefully I can get printed copies soon to try attempt number 2.

@sharonkush

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24d

Importance and light. This was so helpful, isolating this skill

@skylarsmithe

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25d

First one is importance and the first one is light. I'm happy with the first one. Second one I don't like the heavy mark on the back of the rhino. Minus that I'm happy with it.

@mx2

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25d

Here's my attempt at applying line weight according to the lighting... it was really tough trying to still communicate the shape of the rhino while thinking about the lighting. In particular, at parts that were bright but were immediately adjacent to a dark spot (i.e. the head, and then under the head), I had difficulties deciding whether or not to use less weight to communicate the brightness, or more to show the clear separation.

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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.