Demo - Measure Proportions

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Demo - Measure Proportions

67K
Mark as Completed
Course In Progress
Stan Prokopenko
Time for a portrait drawing demo! I'll show you how to approach a drawing to get accurate proportions and then check your own accuracy in Procreate.
Newest
@smogo
5d
Great exercise! I felt, something wasn't right but never I would have assumed that my eyes are too high and the eysockets too small! And now it is so clear that the neck was way too big!
Rachel Dawn Owens
Since she’s looking up, it makes sense to make that mistake. You did great 👍
@karmam
15d
My first attempt before watching the demo. Pretty happy with the result, some outer facial structures I missed, but most key features are sharp. 1. Drawing 2. References I took (documented them in Paint -- no measuring there) 3. Differences (procreate)
@na_talie
24d
This is my try at this portrait. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!
Michael Cassidy
Attempted before watching the demo. Please critique!
@na_talie
27d
Hi, one thing I realize, is that the angles of your eyes, nose and mouth are all different. The left eye should be lower than the right one, the nose seems good and the mouth is again hanging a little to the right side, instead of to the left. But all in all it looks really good :)
Mimir
29d
My attempt after the video. I can see that I'm gaining more confidence and speed in measuring ;)
@dustyp
30d
@sillysniper17
This was really hard! Especially since faces have lots of complex proportions, and humans are hard-wired to notice things off with faces. It made me laugh. That said, I see why they went with faces since: lots of proportions = lots of practice, and being easy to see mistakes on faces = students can be their own grader. In any case: Compared to my first assignment in "Project - Measure Proportions", I did much better! Besides some things being off when I eyeballed them, for the most part it looks good! That said, I made so many reference marks. if you look at all the marks and plumb lines I made (3rd picture), it almost looks like a grid. It was so much, that I got lost in them and made the eye brows one notch higher, hahaha. I guess the goal is that with enough practice, the number of measurements you'll have to do will go down, as your eyes get better at approximating proportions. I look forward to having that skill.
@lynnare
1mo
It’s hard not getting impatient with the measurement - and also not getting lost in it. I think it is not exactly my cup of tea but I’ll keep trying. Used some different approaches. The grid feels like cheating though - won’t use that again.
Jack F
2mo
I think instead of taking a picture, You can put the paper against the screen too. At least if the drawing isn't too large and fits the screen?
Marcus Kruse
My attempt with the portrait from the demo.
Grey Souffle
did a couple more before moving on to interesting shapes. This is gonna become a regular exercise for me because I love faces and would love to someday draw them well. I'm getting more comfortable with finding several measurements to use for big shapes and then slowly work down to details. definitely lots of room to improve however. I notice my brain tends to see things as too wide a lot of times and then once I compare with layers I realize I made something too narrow in response. Estimating diagonal lines is still very tricky, but I'm realizing I can use plumb lines to measure height difference and it really helping to get closer.
Grey Souffle
I really tried harder to measure and compare landmarks to find relationships but once again I ended it up winging it by eye in a lot of areas. One thing I remembered that helped with the brain melting of doing these measurements was to take brief breaks and juggle...I'm serious doing an activity that engages your brain like juggling or bouncing a ball really helps to refresh and reset your mind for deep analytical studies. This was a great photo to study and draw. loving the choices!
chad gelinas
Stepping back I notice several mistakes I made here. Her whole face needs a slight adjustment to the left, her head doesn't look like it's side profile at all. And I'm not blocking things in well enough 😅 I'm still just trying to draw what I see vs shapes. Overall I think I captured her likeness tho
Enzo reda
3mo
Gustavo Duarte
Tough exercise. I've spent hours to drawn those. But seems to be extremely important. Don't give up, keep going :)
Youssef Ateya
after watching the Proko demo. I focused more on keeping everything structured with big-to-small shapes, straight lines, and measuring units. I still had to eyeball some stuff If you spot anything I should watch out for, I’m all ears!
Sofy
3mo
Good job! Especially on the girl, that one is hard!
Sofy
3mo
Sofy
3mo
Sofy
3mo
I have spent almost 3 days on this now and getting nowhere. Send help! First I tried replicating Stan’s measuring, but I start getting confused about 15 min in with the horizontal measurements and the placement of the nose. So then I tried starting with an envelope and putting in the bigger shapes before moving on to measuring, but I keep on making the face too big (which I also did in the previous assignment btw) and I don’t know why and I’m not learning how to measure. Please help me, I’m feeling very stuck.
Melanie Scearce
You had the right idea to use the envelopes. Try it with the largest shapes you can make, like grouping the hair and head into one shape for example. Find the overall proportion of the biggest shape, and then work smaller and smaller until you get to the facial proportions. It will take a lot of justifying in all directions and will be tedious but will be worth it in the end. Hope this helps :)
CharmLotta
3mo
Don't worry, measuring of complex objects is always overwhelming at the beginning, but after some time of practising you won't get lost.
Sofy
3mo
@notapirate
Honestly, this was fun to do, BUT ... I did make a mistake when I was measuring the horizontal proportions that I was not able to catch on to until I was looking at other people's drawings -_- ... Now, I believe I fixed it, but Im still going to show the mistake and correction (note to self, trust your gut feeling when drawing. (ಥ﹏ಥ)
Nancy Larson
Well I really wanted to make an improvement from the first (on left) to the second (on the right). I did better with using straights, the proportions are ok in some places but maybe not so much in others and the axis/angle of the face is completely wrong. I do not have photoshop or other digital software to create an overlay of my sketch to check. It is unlikely I will develop that skill anyway at this time, if ever honestly. But I can see clearly how off it is. If anyone has other methodologies to check the work that is not using digital, please share.
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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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