Wormhole cheese. Included the pencil to ink iterations. No ruler except to check the main lines were more or less on point before inking….the fridge door was somehow way off and needed a redraw. Broke some of the assignment rules a little bit in the finer detail but….meh. Might try to colour it.

Level 2 attempt after watching the demo…not sure if I went too far with structure to detriment of gesture (?)

Hello all. For these attempts I tried to find as many rhythm connections as seemed appropriate….may have over complicated them a bit in the process (?). I figured out each pose in pencil first then went over with charcoal pencil in a vain quest for that elusive line quality - frustrating, and charcoal pencil was not a miracle cure. The flow was ok but the taper does not want to reveal itself for me. I must be sharpening the pencils wrong 😑. Made some attempts from other artists whose figure drawing/photography I admire (Moebius, Bruce Gilden). Goal was to make a bridge to drawing from imagination by trying to figure out poses without all the landmarks of the naked body and when covered with clothes. Even got a dog in there, which was nice. Let me know what you think!

Great explanation - particularly how to rationalize the concept! I guess it becomes quite strategic in terms of how to build this into complex images where shapes and emotions can compete or aggregate to form different meanings.

I found it difficult to analyse real time the concepts Stan showed in demo and precursor videos for dynamic shapes.....suspect there is some randomness in peaks and placement with respect to opposing peaks and such like.....also partially erased the initial loose sketchy lines and went over with a more solid line which I think was a mistake for this exercise as it stiffens the image up. Arrgh. Good lesson to learn for next time and I really need to improve my searching lines so I dont feel the need to cover em up!

Post summer catch-up but finally managed to start this project. Pretty astounded how the measuring techniques help. First pic is the basic shapes lay-in using the measurement techniques Second pic is the photoshop proportions check….I got a bit off the mark with the body (took Stan’s advice to relax outside the head a bit too literally) but the head was much closer than I’d have thought I could get. Third pic is my ref print with mark-ups. Fourth pic - before using the measurement techniques I did a 10 min eyeballing lay-in. Came back 30 mins later and was obvious how badly off angles and proportions were. Ok, I’m sold - measurements are necessary. Right, on to the small shapes…

Rooster, Hippo and Aye-Aye - al fresco sketching

I wanted to start with something simple and clear and then work my way up to more complex line drawings. I started with studies of one-line-drawings from Picasso. I love their ingenious simplicity, their level of abstraction. I used a marker (I think Picasso used a brush). The bird was easier to copy than the elephant. My elephant lakes a bit of the easy stretching / reaching out that Picasso's elephant shows. Next I went on to Heinrich Kley whom I admire for his casual and at the same time very informed line work. The energy of his figures is fantastic. He indicates anatomy with few, sometimes innovative lines such as an arc with the little loop on the belly of the dog. He omits part of the outline of the chest and draws a wavy line for the ribcage instead. Again I started with one of his relatively simple drawings (the dog) and then tried one of his elephants with a lot of hatching. For the Kley studies I used pen and ink - first time for me. In both cases I did rough pencil underdrawings first. Critiques welcome!

Tried five very different Masters. It is a fine line (sorry) knowing when you are copying vs studying…but feel like I learned something by emulating them all. Chris Riddell Moebius Eliza Ivanova Sir Archibald Geikie (19th Century Geologist who sketched outcrops) Scott Robertson With hindsight I should have put notes on the opposite page!

Always a ton of additional insight from these critique videos! Thanks Stan and team. A question to all - any tips on how you are structuring your practice? We’ve learned a good few fundamentals now and still the course has lots to come. I find I’m sitting down with my limited practice time (young kids, full time job mean probably average 1 hour per day) and struggling with what to do outside of the course assignments…seem to drift into extended warm-ups rather than starting any new e.g., drawings from observation. Already feels like any progress on early learnings is becoming rusty as I focus on new stuff……yes, I have given up TV and try not to spend so much time watching Proko videos on my mobile 😂

Tried this with Mario mushrooms…reworking lines to try to get them to flow is not always successful but can see how tone and thickness of lines can be used to position the viewer or light source in what starts as a flat image. Not the best subject matter for hierarchy of importance however..

It’s a Sunday morning in 1996. Pop tarts are in the toaster. You’re gonna stay in your pajamas all day. Life is good. Fun little throwback to show line weight in foreground, middle, and back ground. Line quality seems off and I feel like it could be better. I find it difficult to know when and how to make heavier ‘shadow’ lines without making them seem all bumpy and ugly looking

For level one line hierarchy, emphasis on head, horns, body outer contour and legs. Decided to put weight on base of feet and where legs join body…logic decision to emphasize where the mass is loading…but for feet could be better visually to lighten so joins to ground as per the Clare Wendling ref in video…hmm..logic vs visual…? Level 1 & 2 light and shadow lines, first did the 5 tone thumbnails we did in ‘getting started’ classes which really helped, especially imagining light distribution for level 2. Level 2 lines for depth; used a Stephen Shore photo and traced fore, mid and background with different width ink markers. Didn’t really have any lines that reach through all three to taper but will try again with different image. Went back to Rhino and did a final sketch from imagination - a world of decision making for what lines to emphasize but great fun. Loved this assignment!

Here’s my 6 pages of 5 in 1 warm-up combos - helps me come to terms with warm-up pages in sketchbook 🤓. These were nice exercises in maintaining consistent focus - I generally have the attention span of a puppy so this helps. A question on rotating the page- is the goal to be able to pull the lines with quality in every direction or would even experienced drafters work with arms moving in a preferred direction and rotate page as needed?

Wow - video was super clarifying. Realize I was totally focussed on each line and not the bigger shapes /ideas/rhythms etc Here’s my post video efforts (red) and perfectionist, unfinished, pre video attempts example (graphite). Gonna need to shop for a new red pencil…

I’m definitely a ‘lost lines’ by default but it does really help to quickly express and refine ideas. One question - when moving from the neater searching lines to clean lines, would you always need to trace (light table or scan and digitize) or do clean lines come for an entire drawing with ease once you get the experience? If the default is trace how do you not lose the dynamic line quality? Nice video to show the options 👍

Here’s my level two effort - an Aye-Aye (they live in the Madagascan rainforest and have weird finger and tooth adaptations for digging grubs out of tree bark). He quickly turned into a bit of a slob in my brainstorming…there may be some psychology here…a kind of self-portrait perhaps 😂 I’m surprised by how I was able to get my mental picture out of my head and onto paper (thumbnails to practice sketches to mapping the main shapes out to CSI tapering), but I see my line work is a bit hit and miss - probably it was a bit too many fiddly and complex forms for this exercise. So, I’ll keep practicing them lines! One tip - I spent ages trying to find references of hands in the right position but couldn’t find any…then realized that I have hands. So I used those. Probably just me but, you never know 🥳

Back to the boots, attempting tapered csi….shorter lines still got a bit scratchy but longer lines feel good. Any thoughts on tapering vs ellipses and minimum line length I.e., to taper, or not to taper? That’s my question…trying to taper several lines to make a complete ellipse seems a bit pointless but I could be missing something. Guess I should try the laces tomorrow 😭

A camera to finish

Another simplified portrait in 5 tones….quite a lot of side by side shapes/forms with same tone but tried to ‘shade’ an edge zone rather than just outline to keep them separate. Only real lines define the forms of the white shirt. Photo credit: Bruce Gilden