Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8716 submissions
Vance Viggiano
When you can't decide on Level 1 or Level 2. I thought it might be fun to try it on gray paper. Everyone's work is inspiring! Happy to be learning with you all!
LESSON NOTES

Alright guys, let's jump into the deep end and see how you do! I feel like we've been talking a lot and not drawing enough. So, before we move on to learning about Lines, I want to give you an opportunity to spend some time doing a simplified drawing. You’re going to draw a pear or portrait if you’re doing the level 2 project. I know… A fruit isn’t the most exciting thing to draw, but it’s going to allow you to focus on the process I’m going to show you, instead of being distracted by a difficult subject matter.

This will let us see where you're at with your skills. It’s totally fine if you're at zero. Kind of expected actually. But, you'll identify right away what you struggle with. And you’ll be introduced to a lot of the skills that you’ll be working on improving in this course.

You can draw from the photos I provided in the downloads tab, or find your own fruit and draw from life. Pick a fruit that has an interesting shape you like. Put the fruit on your desk and shine a light on it. Move the light around until you like the balance of light and dark shapes. 

If you don’t want to draw the photo I provided, or you want to do more than one, feel free to find your own photo. Just make sure you choose a photo with a strong single light source that creates a clear separation of lights and shadows. Many moons ago I wrote a blog post about good photo reference.

Make sure you take a photo of it from your point of view, so you can include it when posting your drawing in the community. If you want to be critiqued by me or others in the community, we'll need to see what you were drawing. 

Join us in the premium course to get access to this lesson, full lesson notes, assignments, demonstrations and critiques!

DOWNLOADS
jpeg
level-1-pear-1.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
level-1-pear-2.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
level-1-pear-3.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
level-2-portrait.jpg
1 MB
mp4
project-simplify-from-observation.mp4
183 MB
txt
project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-english.txt
5 kB
txt
project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-spanish.txt
6 kB
file
project-simplify-from-observation-captions-english.srt
9 kB
file
project-simplify-from-observation-captions-spanish.srt
8 kB
ASSIGNMENTS

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.

feeradraws
My pears 😋
Carlos Luna
Hi everyone I'm new here to the site here's my first project of the pear drawn from life I really have trouble with shading, and drawing things identical... any help would be greatly appreciated thank you!
@mirple
15h
Here's my before and after the demo of the portrait! The portrait was significantly harder than the pear, it took me wayyyy longer than i thought it would lol. I fumbled the proportions and definitely could've done better highlight shapes in the hair but i think its better than before watching the demo. Any advice or critiques are appreciated, thank you!
Ash
5m
Nice work!
Lara Morgan
Hi here is my pear from the first assignment, I'm a beginner and all feedback is very welcome Many thanks
Liel Attias
there is my attempt on the portrait :)
Zatriana
23h
hi again! after pear I tried level 2 and it was fun!
@seths_crypt
This is my first time trying out these projects. I know that I have alot to improve, but it was still fun drawing these pieces.
Martha Muniz
Good proportions and placement overall! I think you can push the darkness on the darker end of the value scale -- try adding a layer or two on the 2nd darkest value. You also only need 5 values instead of 6, so removing the 3rd lightest value in both of your scales would be an easy fix to make your value steps more evenly divided :) It's great that you did a value scale for each of the drawings, so those modifications can be easily applied to the scale and then to the drawing itself, making it more approachable to push your drawing to the next level. Keep up the good work :D
@alex1246643
@fatima12345
need critique please
@austintt
Mah pears.
Tim
2d
My first assignment and my 8 year old son’s pear who I am trying to take along with me on this journey. Very much open to feedback. Also feedback I can give to my son in friendly and motivating manor is appreciated.
Tati
2d
Melanie Scearce
This is a nice pear! The proportions look great. For the value shapes, it's a little hard to see, I think because of the lighting in the image, but it looks like there is a darker value shape in the top middle of the pear. It feels a bit out of place based on how the pear is lit in the reference image, and this is why: Looking at the reference image, we can see that the light source is angled down from the top right corner, so we can assume that the top right of the pear will be the lightest, and the shadows will become darker as they move to the lower left of the pear. Bounce light and variations in the form create a bit of complexity there, but in general that's a good rule of thumb. Because the pear is a three dimensional round object, the form eventually turns away from the light source. The degree that the surface is turned away from the light source determines how light or dark the value will be. It helps to think of the surface of the pear in "planes" for this project. Like a low-res 3D model made of a bunch of polygons. I drew the wireframe on the pears below as an example. Note that there is a pretty distinct separation between the light value side and the dark value side in the black and white image. If there is a darker shape where the viewer would assume the light is hitting the pear more directly, it confuses the form and flattens the image. Consider the position of each plane in relation to the light source. I hope this helps!
Tati
2d
I am open to criticism or suggestions please
Sieraa
2d
The first portrait was without the demo and the feedback videos the second portrait was after for some reason it looks a bit wired to me I think it maybe because of my proportions or the values I used even though they are the same ones I used for the first portrait I'm not sure what it is would love some feedback.
Anastasiia
hello,I am a new student from Ukraine. Happy to join this community. No way I get it right but it’s my first try of a pear sketch. Wish you all good
@nyarlathotep738
Here are my attempts at the pear before and after watching the demo. I was definitely not ready for the portrait but I'm glad I gave it a try!
Liel Attias
hi, This is my first attempt. Currently I have only H, F and 4B pencils. I'd love to get feedback :)
@nellydotcom
This is my first attempt at drawing the pear for this project. I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback and assessment—whether it’s good or bad. Next, I’ll try drawing another pear, and after that I’ll move on to the portrait.
Nate H
4d
This was much harder than I initially expected. I feel like what I struggled the most with was establishing the different values, but I’m open to any criticism or observations.
@bjp
4d
Hello world! This is my first time posting on Proko.com (and the first time I am posting my drawings online, if I'm not mistaken). I enjoyed drawing these little fellows and I feel like the demo and the advice so far have already helped me draw something much better than I would have done only a few days ago. I did struggle with recognizing the half tones in the pictures, my pears don't look too round in those areas. Would be happy to receive any feedback or hear your general impresssion!
Pedro Del Moral
Went with the face assignment. Only having those two shadow values forced me to go with lots of lost lines so the neck line and the hair blended into one mass but hey ho. Overall I’m happy with the outcome. In terms of self-critique the distance between the eyes is slightly off, and right cheek is slightly too wide, plus some of the shirt wrinkles aren’t quite right to the reference material. sketch is without watching the demo. One thing I notice I started with the darkest shadow value whereas Stan started with the lightest shadow value. I’ll have to try that next time.
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