Join me for a LIVE drawing basics demo! I'll be simplifying and stylizing animal portraits with simple shapes.
Newest
Anna Maria
22d
my loose sketches for this one, had fun! open for critics:)
![](https://static.proko.com/assets/images/avatars/scull-24.png)
Sumit Gupta
3mo
Please critique. I enjoyed thinking about big shapes first and enveloping it and getting to details later. Pr
Loot Rabbit
2mo
Loving the bull!
These look wonderful!
Food for thought, perhaps think of shapes like kneaded erasers or a similar, pliable substance.
Make em bouncy and then weld them together where they intersect!
You can measure it all but thinking of it as "chewy" specifically helped me.
If you play around on Blender (because free) you can throw primitive shapes together and see how they will overlap. That's the idea. Primitives are what you are building from, so on the one hand you can make everything extremely geometric but when it comes to shape language, I think the joy of simplification is in the "texture" of what you are welding.
Of course the preliminary is not actually a substance but feeling it as such as you operate assists secondarily in transforming from realistic depiction to cartooning or a hybrid thereof in the mental imaging.
If you have seen Hercules (Disney's animated feature) I am sort of referencing Zeus when he creates Pegasus from the clouds.
Clouds are amorphous and while you should definitely practice your cubes and spheres specifically to be able to weld anything in a measured sense, sometimes going outside and drawing clouds as they move slowly into varying forms helps to get the "wisp" into the hands.
Drawing softly lets you layer shapes upwardly.
The more control you have, the lighter a mark you can make and just wistfully indicate without overtaking the drawing via mark density of stroke.
I hope this helps!
![](https://static.proko.com/assets/images/avatars/cat-24.png)
Agnieszka
3mo
I don't know when those 2 hours passed. I had a great time drawing together.
β’
3mo
Wow! Pirate-looking monkey on the bottom middle is my favorite. Itβs already a really clean drawing. I think you could have just colored that one.
Donβt overthink it. Just keep having fun. These are awesome!
![](https://static.proko.com/assets/images/avatars/miss-e-lips-24.png)
@caroline4097
4mo
while watching, learn, copy, and apply the rules. super fun exercise!
![](https://static.proko.com/assets/images/avatars/straight-edge-24.png)
@goobish
4mo
monkey sketches during the livestream any critiques are welcome thanks
Natalie&Jeff VG
4mo
Not sure if this is what you are looking for. But it's my interpretation.
JJ Anyabolu
6mo
Hi After I watched like half of this video I searched up a few animals and applied my knowledge to simplifying their portraits. The part I watched was really helpful. THANKS!
ANX804U
6mo
Hii, I am back here wanted to thank you I don't know what you taught in this lecture bur I just made my first digital painting and it doesn't look like that anyhow. I am short of words how much this course is helpful to me. Though I made the outline by tracing but I just still couldn't believe that I made this. Thanksss alott. The one with Light colours is what I made and the one with dark colors is reference. Artist is kishimoto/ikemoto and manga name is naruto. The image is taken from official site.
JJ Anyabolu
6mo
Did my own version of this drawing as a kid...DIDNT END WELL
ANX804U
6mo
but he asked me choclateee ππππππ
ANX804U
6mo
half video done other after wack ass part time job....πββοΈ,... and this is my first project using graphic pen, it took alot of time as i am not used to it,,,,,,, sayonara until next time
@seyadeodin
7mo
Drawing along was so fun, spent some good hours on this one, and I loved all the tips given, specially the one on the textured paper background.
Aura
7mo
Only bc Iβm very proud of my banana monkey. Cheers!
Thomas Thornton
8mo
It's much harder than I thought--while I was doing it, it all made perfect sense, but now that I'm done, not so much. . . .
JJ Anyabolu
6mo
don't worry your not alone...
Brhody Wallis
8mo
It was great to watch this to understand the concept of design! This was great. I did a draw along and invented some of my own - I did a "refined" version of chunky monkey as well to get a better grasp of that aspect. I didn't think I could design on the fly - this gave me more confidence π
@breakfast
9mo
I did a draw-along while I watched! Some of these were to replicate what Stan was doing, and others were by imagination. As for the chunky monkey, I started with Stan and then decided to make him look like the Godfather. I don't know if it landed! What do you think?
β’
9mo
These are so good!
Try adding some of that confidence you have in the draw-alongs to your imaginative drawings.
Keep up the great work!
π΅π΅π΅π΅π΅
carla toms
10mo
just drawing along with the demo
β’
10mo
Very cute! Keep it up :)
Josh Fiddler
10mo
Stan, that's a chimpanzee. Not an an accurate monkey. Very inaccurate. But designed well? I'm torn.
@crowlle
10mo
my take on it i tryed
β’
10mo
These are awesome! I LOVE the chickens!!
Jamal
11mo
Followed along while watching the demo. I tried making more completed sketches of a couple of the drawings I did and I think the shapes came out really well. Especially the banana shaped one.
Ian McNeill
1yr
Followed along and tried my hand at making my own designs. I had fun with this once I got a handle on picking out shapes from one picture. I hope I can get the hang of it and keep going!
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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.