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You’ll learn the most important foundational concepts for drawing anything and soon you’ll be drawing pictures out of your imagination or from reference.
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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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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Shreyans]()
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![Aran Piris Lasaga]()
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![@pyeon2005]()
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![Zach McCoy]()
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![Atomosophere]()
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![Zach McCoy]()
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![Zach McCoy]()
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![Zach McCoy]()
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![K. Williams]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![R081n]()
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![Paul]()
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![Samer Fakiani]()
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![Estel]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Benjamin Gustafsson]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![Benjamin Gustafsson]()
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![Samer Fakiani]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![Rafael Gonzales]()
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![@ralk]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Wofard Dunk]()
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![Petar Ristic]()
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![Ilan Jones]()
It’s time to draw the figure! Use the rhythms method I showed in the previous lesson to draw the poses from the photo references in the downloads tab.
Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is 10/6/2023.
- Capture the gesture of each pose using rhythms.
- Spend at least 5 minutes on each pose, ideally 1-2 hours per session. Take breaks as needed.
- Shoot for accurate proportions by eyeballing placement of the rhythms. Have an idea of where the line will end before you execute the line.
- Use the the template as a starting point, but observe the pose. Remember that each pose might have some of their own unique rhythms that differ from the template I proposed. This will develop your own rhythms over time.
- Balance loose, energetic lines with more committed singular lines. Don't let it get too messy. Consider what we've learned about line quality.
Level 2
There are a few ways to make this more challenging. Mix and match based on your comfort and experience.
- Set a timer for 5 minutes to force yourself to draw only the most important rhythms.
- If that's too easy, go for 3 minutes.
- Practice developing the overhand grip.
- Try charcoal pencils (sharpened like a bullet) on newsprint paper.
- Add another layer of smaller rhythms indicating the muscle masses. You can add some time to the clock.
I attempted these poses with the overhand grip using charcoal pencil. Sure handling with overhand grip much harder than I expected, but also I'm kinda confused as to why my line quality is so rough and smudgy, also I'm not able to get that light stroke like Proko using the charcoal pencil. Is it just a skill issue or there's something about the material?? Please give some advice.
I'm having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the overhand grip. Should I keep pushing through with this new grip, or maybe mix it with the tripod grip I’m more comfortable with?
I don't mind the discomfort if it's going to make me better. However, right now I feel like the overhand grip forces me to focus so much on my technique that I'm losing track of gesture and rhythm. Has anyone else struggled with this starting out?
I’ve probably spent more time on this assignment than any of the others. After watching the demo video, I think my drawing has improved, but I’m still not sure if I’m doing it correctly. I’d really appreciate any feedback.
Around the 3rd drawing the shapes ans rythms start to look really nice, and on the 4th onward it looks like you're really starting to get it. I think maybe work to complete all your shapes and be a little more intentional with line weight, but your figures are starting to look very inspired. Keep it up!
A few of my own gestures, all 5 minutes. Criticism very welcome, sorry that they’re pale. I have to admit, rhythms is something that mostly goes over my head right now—seeing lines of motion that aren’t actually visible is a challenge I haven’t grappled with before, and I worry that I’m still trying too hard to translate those rhythms into outlines instead of using them more organically. When I try to push my sketches more towards what I’m feeling rather than literally seeing, my shapes get very wiry and sometimes stiff. I’ll keep working steadily until I can at least partially understand this concept.
I did a couple more today while watching Stan's demos, but then did a couple more on my own in the last image and I'm starting to get it a little more. My line weight needs more work and my line quality needs to be more consistent, but I'm starting to see and translate more rhythm in my gesture. Progress!
Trying to work these in more consistently, because I know it's something I need to continue to improve on. Here are some more I've done
Wow, I definitely know that I'm starting to understand things better, but I have such a long way to go. It seems so important to leave indications as you go in a language that you can very intuitively move between, and I'm certainly not there yet. The first couple took longer than 10 minutes(!!) so I stopped resetting the timer after those because it just felt like it was taunting me... I did 6 in just over an hour, but I did feel like towards the end I was moving a little quicker (probably closer to 7 minutes?)
The last one I switched to a red colored pencil and I feel like things may have started to click just a bit, which was nice. I think I tend to go dark too fast with graphite, and it makes my drawings messy, where with colored pencils I subvert whatever hardwiring I'm trying to undo with graphite.
Comments and suggestions very welcome, thanks for your time!
I have more of these, but I don't really want to share them. To be honest, I've been getting frustrated because I intellectually understand the concepts, but can't get my hand to produce something I like.
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20d
Don't beat yourself up over it. We all start there! It's a little counter intuitive but try getting even looser, even messier. Just have fun with the pencil. If you have fun drawing, and don't beat yourself up for it not being "perfect" you will grow so fast and suddenly you WILL be drawing what you have in your mind. Cheers!
Hi! What you are experiencing is cognitive dissonance, in a nutshell your brain got the theory but your hand isn't able to keep up. Just keep practicing and eventually it will click :)
Well, this was fun to do. Proportions and really looking at what do I actually see is still a challenge. Also automatically focus on the contour which keeps me away from other lines (and therefore rythems). Although certainly not perfect I am quite happy with how they turned out and I start to notice that i am actually improving. Now im gonna watch how Proko tackles these photos and I think that I will learn a lot more just by watching how Proko draws these. I did most of these with tripod grip but some with overhand grip which, in my opinion, turned out the best.
Here is my results after a full week of daily practice 💪.
this assignment become way more enjoyable now. I will give it few more days and then move on to the next one. Any feedback that you could give me would be highly appreciated ❤️
p.s. should i attempt the level two assigment even if i have xero anatomy knowledge or should i skip it?
Many thanks!
I'm not good at gesture/rhythm drawing, although after watching the videos I think I am starting to get it: I focus too much on outlines and not one dynamic movements.
I will keep on doing these exercises.
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1mo
Nice work Estel. One thing I find helps is really focusing on drawing through the form. So If I'm drawing a leg for example, I will continue to sweep the line up to find where it has some rhythm with another part of the body. This helps me stay in the flow and give continuity to my drawings.
Again, good stuff!
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1mo
Beautiful rhythms! Great work!
Hello everyone,
I watched the lesson video 3 times and the project video about 4 times by now :') . Every time I try to actually do the assignment, it comes out weird and disfigured with no clear rhythm. I find it hard to really observe and make confident decisions while also trying to keep good line quality and interesting shapes.
Eventually, I allowed myself to be chaotic and messy. The results (photos below) are nowhere near as clean or interesting as what I’m seeing in the comments, but they’re still way better than my previous attempts. I’m wondering how it’s going for all of you and what your process is for tackling this one.
Any feedback is appreciated <3 .
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1mo
Nice work, Samer! I really love what you did with the second pose. The simplification of the limbs and the connection between the torso and pelvis feel very rhythmic and fluid.
Remember, rhythms are just a tool for exploring connections in the body, they’re not meant to be a finished drawing. That’s why the second pose works so well, the forms feel connected and unified. Even though both poses are built on a similar idea, the first feels stiffer because the rhythms are more separated and static.
In the second pose, your limbs flow together with longer, cleaner curves. In the first, there are more stops, starts, and directional changes, which breaks up that sense of flow. A good example is the weight-bearing leg. In the first pose, it reads as three separate parts: the foot, lower leg, and thigh. In the second, you simplified the entire leg into two graceful connected curves, which creates a much stronger gesture.
Try to think more like the second pose moving forward. Look for ways to connect separate body parts into one clear, simplified idea first. That strong underlying rhythm will help everything stay unified when you start layering more complexity on top.
It’s really difficult to observe and confidently translate what you see into an appealing design, but you’re absolutely heading in the right direction. Keep at it!
This was a little hard for me, but wanted to show a couple that I've done so far. Will definitely do this assignment a lot since I want to go towards character drawing and design eventually, it's getting me pretty motivated! I'm trying to catch myself before I get caught up in the details and just go with the flow (or rhythm to go with the theme of the lesson!).
Since the assignment description didn't mention "pick a few", I assumed we had to do all of them. The 1st-2nd day were quite taxing. At the end of the second day with ~10ish total done, I could feel my brain throbbing; such is the immense strain needed to process what we see, extract information, then attempt to relay it on paper (or the digital equivalent).
I didn't want what little I knew of anatomy to affect how I would see things, but it was an unfounded worry, because I've never drawn anything from reference before this course, nor any person in such complex poses! Some of the more static, disjointed poses are real brain-teasers.
I think I was trying to see if I could link everything with rhythms at the start, but gradually as I moved from pose 1 to 24, I forced that linking less, and slipped in a bit of measuring (just rough height), a bit of negative shapes, a bit of eyeballing angles, and only did rhythms for the bigger shapes. The arms/legs are indeed very challenging to get right, and more than once I've mangled them to the point that they don't look like convincingly load-bearing appendages.
I've flung any insistence on measured proportions to the wind, but interlocking rhythms with some negative shape checks prevented people from turning into aliens.
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2mo
Lovely work 👏 these have some serious style.
i always feel stupid commenting on anything on here, cuz i don't know what I'm doing. but, i think you're very good at gesture drawing.
Enjoyed this project a lot. I downloaded some additional poses from a couple of the posture kits to get more variation for the lesson, but also, I figure I'll try and stick with doing a few hours per week as well to constantly improve my rhythms, so might as well grab some extras!
My sketches below are a bit scratchy, so I need to improve on that. All of them were done against a 10min timer w/ charcoal.
Sorry if these are hard to see. I've tried gesture drawing before and was never happy with the results. I'm feeling more satisfied by these after Stan's instruction. I still admire those who make gesture drawing seem effortless. I'm thinking i need to make this part of my daily routine.
