How to Draw Structure in the Body – Robo Bean
How to Draw Structure in the Body – Robo Bean
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Figure Drawing Fundamentals

Robo Bean

How to Draw Structure in the Body – Robo Bean

1.1M
Mark as Completed

How to Draw Structure in the Body – Robo Bean

1.1M
Mark as Completed

The assignment for this lesson is pretty straightforward. Just find some poses (plenty available at proko.com/poses) and draw the Robo Bean for that pose. You’ll probably have a bunch of questions, concerns, and mistakes you might have made. So, after you’re done, watch the examples of me drawing the Robo Bean which hopefully will address some of your questions.

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Lenserd martell
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Samantha Maggard
Looks good
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Samuel Sanjaya
Doing robo bean again. I hope I can get some critiques and feedbacks..
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onigi *pronunce [on-ie-gee]*
I'm not sure if I simplified these photos into robo beans correctly. I would like to hear some critiques!
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dooby
This one was more frustrating than I expected it to be. Especially number 5, I gave up on that one. Those subtle twist of the torso really boggles my brain for some reason. Critiques would be much appreciated. Thanks
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Eveline Rupenko
hi! here is my assignment for this lesson! First I've tried to find a robo-bean on a body using landmarks, Then, I was trying to draw a robo-bean on my own! Before this, I was drawing along with Stan, watching examples videos. Noticed that it is much harder to get the same dynamic on my own as well as line quality.
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Jesper Axelsson
These, and the once you've posted after, look GREAT! You've really understood the concept, and the placements in your tracings look accurate. I would recommending moving on to the next lesson💪 - I don't have anything to critique, but I wanted to share some thoughts about the robo bean: I think it's good to be aware of that the robo bean is one way to approach the torso and not necessarily THE way. In an initial drawing for example, you might find yourself using only round forms, since they allow you to place things in 3D without having to commit to specific edges, so that you have an easier time modifying and replacing. And you might stick to the rounded forms all the way through the drawing, because you like how it looks. But your awareness of the robo bean planes, and your ability to draw them, allows you to add straights and strong structure where you want it. The robo bean is a great tool, but not the only way to draw the torso. You might find other ways to turn the torso into simple masses, coming up with your own creative solutions. Cheers! PS: if you haven't already, start practicing drawing the figure from imagination as well.
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Arman Jucutan
Hello everyone, here is my submission for the robo-bean assignment. This was a struggle but I hope you folks can give me some point of improvements/critique on my work. Before I move on to mannequinization or redo this assignment. Thank you!
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Arman Jucutan, I think these look pretty good! - I would work on the proportions. You tend to make the gap between the boxes too large, the ribcage to thick, and the hip too short. I would recommend practicing drawing the robo bean from imagination to get an intuitive feel for the proportions. You could use the green robo bean at 04:58 in the lesson video as reference. Drawing the connection between the boxes, that the green robo bean in the video has, might help with keeping the space in check. - Some of the angles are off. In reference 7 for example, the torso overall leans to the right. In your drawing it leans to the left. Trying this process might help: Start each drawing by drawing the normal bean, to capture the gesture and overall volumes, placed properly. Then add the boxes. Hope this helps :)
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Vera
2mo
Hello, I drew some robo beans. I had difficulty with the proportions of the part between the two boxes, I think sometimes I drew it bigger than it is. The other thing that was difficult for me was the twist. Advice on this would be helpful. Advice and critiques are welcomed. Reference images are from line-of-action.con
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Liandro
Hey, @Vera, nice job overall! I see how you think the area inbetween may have gotten too big in some of the drawings. On a real human body, that space is really not very large, it’s just about the same width as the palm of a hand. When you’re drawing the robo-bean, as a “rule of thumb”, you can consider that the area inbetween the boxes is about 1/3 of the bottom box’s height - this is the approximate ratio of the anatomical distance between the ribs and the pelvis on a neutral standing pose (however, keep in mind that motion and perspective could change that ratio depending on the pose). As a visual cue to this, I’m attaching some notes based on Hale’s proportion diagram which Stan shows in the Human Proportions – Cranial Units lesson (no worries if you haven’t got to that lesson yet, just something to be aware of). About twists: I think you did a nice job on these ones. But twists can be a bit more challenging than other poses indeed. One helpful thing is to observe the model and notice the two parts of the torso as planes: is the front plane of the upper portion (ribcage) facing the same side as the front plane of the bottom portion (pelvis)? If they’re facing different directions, then there’s a twist. Some twists are pretty subtle, but training to observe the reference just in terms of “front, sides, back, top and bottom” usually helps us notice even the most subtle ones. Then, when drawing, make sure to draw the correspondent planes of the boxes accordingly to what you observed. I’m attaching a few drawings of my own for the sake of illustrating what I mean. Let me know in case you have any additional questions or comments. Good luck in your practices!
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Samuel Sanjaya
This is my robo bean attempt. I would really like to get some feedback since im not sure im heading in the right way and should i proceed with the lessons. I still have some trouble in side view and twisting torso
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Liandro
Hey, @Samuel Sanjaya! I think you’re getting the overall idea of the Robo-bean. I also see there is some room to improve in terms of laying in a clearer gesture and of connecting the 3D forms to that gesture. For now, I’d recommend spending a little bit more time practicing quick sketches just with gesture, the Bean and the Robo-bean. Maybe you can split you practice sessions in three parts: for example, if you’re practicing for one hour, maybe spend 20 minutes just on gesture, then another 20 minutes on the Bean, and the 20 minutes left on the Robo-bean. As you practice, you could also review Stan’s video lessons as much as you need. For the Robo-bean specifically, one thing I’d recommend is to try and simplify even more - don’t get caught up in any anatomical information yet, just think of the motion + simple 3D forms. If it helps, try to face the Robo-bean not as part of a human body yet, but just as an abstract 3D object. It should represent the same sense of movement and spatiality of the figure you’re using as reference, but it doesn’t need to actually look like the model’s body. Later on, as you gain confidence with these more basic skills, then you can try to start fine-tuning proportions and even adding some of the main anatomical landmarks. As you keep practicing, make sure to post your sketches here in the community and ask for feedback. If you’d like to get any comments from me specifically, feel free to tag me in your posts. Hope this helps!
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Helen Ali
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chantelle holt
hi stan and team. thanks for making this course. here are a few suggestions to improve it: 1) it would be really useful to have prokos commentary over his example drawings - other courses do this and it is very helpful for the artist to verbalize their process so others can learn from it. 2) it would be helpful if you could draw the robo bean in more regular poses first, rather than diving into leans and twists, ideally with commentary about how you are identifying the landmarks, reinforcing the gender differences and other basics. 3) it would be ideal if the images that proko draws examples from were available to download - screen grabbing the images results in blurry photos which it makes it difficult to identify the landmarks, especially for someone who is less familiar with them. hope these comments are helpful for you to improve your course/future course and support your pupils.
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Chris Martin
Warming up for the day, getting into the robo bean mood. Also including my work on the assignments.
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teetree
A few of my robo bean attempts.
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Red
6mo
Non-shaded beans were my first attempt. The shaded beans I tried to reduce length of midsection.
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bleachdog4923
i cant even draw a circle lmao
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kotka
This was the most challenging assignment yet. I'm struggling to simplify shapes into boxy shapes when beans and cylinders feel very natural. While I can imagine and draw any box in perspective, as soon as I start to put two boxes in relationship to each other, I think I start to second-guess and get distracted by their spatial relationship. Folded poses and extreme poses with a low horizon level are the hardest. These were my first tries after this video. I used Yoni refs for the poses. What should I do?
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @kotka, yeah, the robo bean is tricky, but I think you did a pretty good job with these👍 You show a good understanding of gesture and a box's perspective. "as soon as I start to put two boxes in relationship to each other, I think I start to second-guess and get distracted by their spatial relationship" - To get them in the right relationships, you could step out of the 3D mindset, and just look at how the different points of the boxes relate to eachother when thought of as flat 2D shapes. Then when you have things in the right spot, go back to 3D thinking. - It might also help to practice drawing the robo bean from imagination, to develop a mental standard reference to refer to when drawing from photos. I notice for example, that in the 010 robo bean, the hip box is too short, and the ribcage box too flat, based on what I think the robo bean should look like. When practicing drawing from imagination you could refer to the green robo bean in the lesson video (How to Draw Structure in the Body – Robo Bean at 04:57). Drawing the cylinder for the spine between the boxes really helped me keep the distance between them in check. Try drawing it from imagination, then check with the green robo bean to see how close you where. Notice what specific things you're off at, then redraw it with correct proportions, refering to the green robo bean. Then draw a new one from imagination and repeat the process. - To make spatial thinking more intuitive, it might help to activate your imagination and imagine touching the forms as you draw them. - It might help to start with a normal bean, then draw the robo bean on top. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
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Gian Amir Calibuso
Hello guys this are my Robo Bean sketches any critics are always welcomee.
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Dwight
Hello, I really like how clean and clear these are. I only notice two things, both appearing on the right most image. I'll start with the one in the top right. I think the ribcage is slightly to far away, and the centerline a little wonky because of that. Other than that, I just have a minor point. The centerlines for both the bottom middle left robo bean and bottom far right robo bean are slightly off center. But other than that, I really like it!
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Anna Gorny
Here there are some of this weeks robo beans. Critics and comments are aprreciated :)
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Denat
I think these are great and you can really tell the pose/gesture. It seems to me that some of your RBs are probably too long in the waist area. I noticed that in Stan's examples the rib cage and pelvis tends to be closer than in my sketches and that is also what I see in your work above. But, top three from the right look accurate to me.
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rcaro
I did some practice. Any thoughts?
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Dionizio Lopes
Hello everyone , these are my Robo Bean assignment drawings, any critique would be very appreciated ,@Jesper Axelsson i would also appreciated your feedback as well.
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John Harper
My Attempt at your first Robobean, with notes.
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John Harper
Good first try. I like the fact that you are choosing dynamic poses. Dynamic poses are much harder to draw, but they make you a better artist. For example, your first pose, by D.A. MJRanum: 308 Love #14, is highly foreshortened because Marcus is taking the picture from just outside the model's right foot. Notice how the model's body parts grow as they get closer to the ground. Your RoboBean does not show how far back the model is leaning. It also straightens out the pelvic bucket too much. I'll give this a try, or two, or more to make a RoboBean that shows what I'm observing. Look for that later on today or tomorrow. This is a challenging pose because of its angles, but even more so because the model is wearing all black and it is difficult to "see" the landmarks.
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Dionizio Lopes, nice studies! Pretty good gesture and construction. My favorite is #3; I really like the clean lines. - The perspective of the boxes look good for the most part, but in a few instances the convergence is off. This is especially clear in #3, where the bottom edge of the ribcage box isn't converging together with the top edges. This could be intentional of course, maybe you chose to bend the box with the gesture, which is something I think Stan does in his demonstrations. But if it wasn't, which is my guess, I would highly recommend rereading this critique I gave you https://www.proko.com/s/A6st and practice more boxes. If you decide this is a good idea, feel free to tag me when you post your box drawings :) - In some of these I might have changed the orientation of the boxes. See paintovers. - I would recommend paying a little more attention to the proportion of the boxes, to better represent the figure you're drawing. - I appreciate that you've placed the reference and drawing next to eachother. To make the images clearer, I think it would help to not cut out the images around the silhouette of the subject, since the sharp cut-out competes for attention. Rather cut out a rectangle of the image. - Along side drawing from reference, I highly recommend practicing drawing the robo bean from imagination. Its a challenge :) but It will make you even more familiar with its forms, functions and proportions. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
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Luan Chan
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Luan Chan, looking good! - I have a feeling some of these are a little "tame". There might be more room for gesture and strong stretches and compressions. - You might want to draw through the boxes, especially in tricky positions, to get better contoll over space. In the 2nd row, drawing to the right, the ribcage box might be a bit deep, the way the edges are converging. - If you still have the reference, I would retry the robo bean to the left in the 2nd row. The squishy part between the boxes feels slightly uncontrolled, as if you've pasted details seen on the reference on top of the bean, instead of constructing something that interacts with the been in the space it exists in. It helps to simplify. I like to think of the soft part as the rubber thing on a skateboard truck; intact form, but with flexibility. Hope this helps :)
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vukbo
Here are my first tries on the Robo Bean. Need to be doing a lot more to really get a feel for it. I am open to critique.
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