Introducing Rhythms! A system to help you capture any dynamic pose from any angle. With rhythms we find visual alignments that capture a flow between the forms, making the pose feel more connected and convincing.
We've kind of been doing similar things to this in other lessons in this course. But now I specifically want to apply these concepts to figure drawing. Most of us will want to include some kind of people or humanoid-like characters in our art. I think it's really important to start applying a lot of these fundamental concepts to draw people.
It might feel harder for some of you, but thats only because you're very good at seeing mistakes in drawings of people. I mention some anatomy in the video, but very little anatomy knowledge is needed to use rhythms as a concept. Initially it's about learning to see visual connections.
I'll go over head, torso, and limbs, one at a time to give you a template of sorts.. to make this as approachable as possible for you.
Newest
Zach Pipher
12d
could i think of visual alignments, the term Stan uses when talking about Rhythms, as the arms in the Michelangelo: The creation of Adam. as Gods hand flows into Adams hands with the fingers touching. The Rhythms, the visual alignments is the flow between his arm and adams arm? I'm trying to wrap my head around it if possible. Thank you in advance.
Cedric Lafond
1mo
I've drawn using observation skills (replicating what I saw) then studied some of the poses with the image beside it, finding the relevant rythms. Most of them used quite a lot of time to do, about 15 to 30 minutes each.
Have a good day!
DreamMist
1mo
I haven't done these studies in awhile. I started learning gesture way back from your courses (along anatomy pretty much everything you guys do) and these lession are a real fun refreshers for the principals of gesture. Also just to note: I am using lazy nazumi at 25 smoothing, my lines are much worse on papier but I do try to practice regulary on my sketchbook to better my lines. I don't know where to post these really. **NSFW warning for the reference pictures !!**

@drawingdodo
20d
Great line weight!
Peter Tinkler
1mo
I've just finished the last of these, which were a lot of fun. It was good to try a larger body type too, which posed (no pun intended) a different kind of challenge.
1mo
Really clean, confident lines! Great job!
Show all replies (1)
Dvir Maltzman
2mo
Thanks for the lesson Stan -- I've been a long time viewer/fan of Proko! I'm really impressed with all of the work below, hope you guys like these :)
Peter Tinkler
1mo
Nice and loose and gestural. Good work!

Jake Jackson
2mo
Thanks to the Enchanted Wizard of Rhythm for showing us the rhythms of the Universe
@nick_laze
2mo
Hi people, I'm a newbie and I noticed that a lot of you are really good. That's great, I hope to get good too. Can you give me some feedback on a couple of quick sketches done by following this lesson? I've been doing a lot of gestures since I started and it feels good to change my routine a little bit with these rhythms (Which I find really similar to my usual gestures, just with a different approach). Have a nice day :)

@drawingdodo
20d
Great work! If I could have a critique, I think you might be complicating some shapes and adding them potentially too soon. Try to get a looser gesture first, and then try to add some more details and smaller shapes to complement the bigger things
@sanghxa
2mo
It was super fun following along this video. Thanks for the greag tips. Here’s what I did while watching.
@mogumogu
2mo
5-minute sketches, except the last which was 30 seconds. I made a lot of beginner mistakes, especially with proportions, I went off the page, made the legs of the figure too long/upper portion too short I think...
Peter Tinkler
2mo
I've done a few more. Really enjoying these studies, the poses are so dynamic....so I must keep remembering to get as much gesture in there as possible (within reason). Thanks for this video, Stan. A great freebie.
Peter Tinkler
2mo
I got a start on these today, still a few more to go. Always great to practice gesture and rhythm, and enjoyable too. Sometimes it feels like I'm being loose, and then when I see the drawings on a different format (laptop screen), it seems like I could have taken it further. Definitely going to do more of these......
Larry
2mo
Drawing with a band-aid sucks, my complements Stan.

@bert2
2mo
Do you guys look at the end point of where you line is going to end and whilst looking at that point pull to that point ? or do you more just feel that end destination and not think about it and just end up there?
Brandon
2mo
Hi stan, i tried to use rhythm to draw poses with clothing coz i want to do some fold studies (dun know if that is too advance for me, but i found lots of triangular and some rectangular shape) but i dun know if my process is right , as I m simply using the rhythm thing to find the bigger shape like how things connect and then move to the smaller details in it by following the contour. is it bad to to follow the contour in this case or just one approach of implementing rhythm?
Brandon
2mo
oh also i love clouds a lot, but does these random nature things have rhythm? I saw lots of background drawing on ig kind of designing clouds to direct viewers eyes to smthing, but these are designing the rhythm but in reality i can hardly find any rhythm.
Smartlin
2mo
I've come back and watch again and again. This is really a great complement to the figure gesture drawing lesson. I've created my own "book" while waiting for Stan's ebook. Thanks Stan again for this magnificent lesson!

Yiannis Artelaris
2mo
This is one of the greatest art instruction videos created. A goldmine of information for every artist of any level!
@kavika
2mo
First set leaves a lot to learn!
Lolo
2mo
Followed along, phew that’s a lot for my brain but let’s go!
mac hewitt
2mo
Hey guys, here are a few gesture sketches based off the references provided. Critiques are welcomed 🙏
George Rabbitearl
2mo
I am doing gesture drawing the last years, buts this is still the best explained video about it. I find the reilly rythm very complicated, and in this type of gesture drawing the torso part fitts better what you are seeing. Thanks
Use Code BLACK20 to Save 20%
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
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.