Project - Simplify from Observation

Lesson by

35K

Assignments 6.1KLesson NotesDownloads 9

Project - Simplify from Observation

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

35K

Assignments 6.1KLesson NotesDownloads 9

Use the reference photos in the downloads tab or go find your own reference and start drawing! Remember, this project is all about simplifying to clarify.

Make sure to keep these 3 things in mind:

Shapes - Draw your shapes with straight lines
Values - Use only 5 values. 2 in the shadow and 3 in the lights
Edges - Make every single edge sharp!

I'll publish my drawing demos of both levels next Tuesday so you can watch me go through the problem solving process. For a chance to be included in the critique videos, you must submit your drawing to the community by January 26th, 2023, so I can begin filming and producing the critique video.

Richard W

•

56m

Here it is (pear2). Done with HB and 2B pencils Fabriano 1264 sketchbook. All comments are welcome

@eyeeatlight

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21h

Struggled a bit to keep the values consistent and the shading not too messy!

Gwen Post

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Any tips are welcome:) looks quite wonky..

@theinvader01

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First attempt at the exercise.

Jenn Merritt

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My first attempt. I struggled with the values. I get the lightest and darkest but my mind wants to fill in all the gradations and then I get lost. Feedback welcome!

@grahaml

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My first attempt. I'm not entirely happy with the values but it's a first try so here we are.

Bohdan Fedorchenko

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Happy with the shape, but I messed up and overcomplicated shadows. Applying values is hard

Pulsarch

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Hello! Drew pear 1. Had to draw on 8.5x11 and drew the pear too big :( had to cheat and use another to extend. Realizing the value of a pencil other than HB now. Struggled a bit with that casted shadow :(

Melanie Scearce

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This is an excellent pear. In think it's better to draw too big than too small. It shows confidence! Next time you could try making some light marks to show the boundaries of your drawing on your paper to better fit it to size.

Camille Dlb

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Hi Here is my first attempt. Have a good day.

Melanie Scearce

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Excellent!

@roblewisart

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wow, for a first attempt that is amazing. Well done.

Ken STACKS

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After a couple of lessons, I've decided to come back to this to try my hands on the level 2 of this exercise, This is my first time doing this. It was challenging sure, but It was more fun than I thought.

@brimarie

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Hello everyone My first attempt before the demo...I learned a lot about the different shades of gray today and realized that I have a hard time sticking to the 5 gradations given. I am grateful for any helpful tips:-)

Daniel Cortes

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This took longer than I expected. It would have been much easier and less messy to achieve uniform tones on IPad but I enjoyed the process of experimenting and understanding the paper and pencil. It was hard to simplify some areas and decide which shape with which tones to render.

@brimarie

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The build up of the different shades looks great and so does the end result, wow!

Rachel Dawn Owens

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Wow. This is perfect. The extra time and patience really shows. You made it look great at every stage.

Hetty

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Here's my attempt at pear no.2! I did it digitally with SAI2.

Israel Massena

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First time picking up a pencil to commit to drawing in like a decade. Lot of work ahead but this is what I did before I checked out the demo and critique video. Constructive criticism welcome…..

Melanie Scearce

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Heck yeah! Glad you're picking up the pencil again. You have a strong foundation to work off of, looking forward to seeing more!

Darren

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@sillysniper17

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Here's my pear: One thing that is very tricky is pencil control. Like: 1) Shading a region and ending up with a clean rectangle without scribbly edges. 2) Shading an exact value. ... are both pretty tricky, and you can tell I kind of cheated the edges by drawing them, as otherwise I would get a blurry transition. Here's to improving fine motor control both in my wrist and my arm, haha.

@carlidge

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Working through the pears.

@pensivepen

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I’m pleased with my first attempt as a complete beginner. There are plenty of mistakes with the shading and values, and areas I’d like to improve but I’m trying to be kind to myself too. Proud that I did this without jumping ahead and watching the demo first. I’m sure we will all look back on our pears in few months time and be able to see some great progress.

Tony Zhang

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I’m baaaaack. I will follow through with this course this time, promise. CM punk! Raw vs adjusted. I had fun and I will do better!

David Lightle

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Hey all, so I tried this twice, the first attempt is the second drawing and I did it off youtube about a month ago. The first drawing was done today (3-23-25) after I had started the actual course and am using this reference plus the hard shading. I feel like both attempts highlighted my lack of fundamentals lol. Are there any suggestions on how to improve?

Martha Muniz

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Hey there, welcome! I definitely see an improvement between each attempt as your values are clearer and more defined. I think the main thing to focus on would be to have an equal difference from value to value, so darkening your middle grey a touch and lightening your light grey a little would create the difference in values you need. That way, the first greys are more distinguishable and clear from one another, and don't blend together. Also, try using straight lines exclusively, as this makes things both more simplified and easier to get down accurately. I hope these tips help, let me know how it goes!

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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.