This week, practice drawing the bean from the pose photos at proko.com/poses. It shouldn’t take you more than 30 seconds to a minute for each pose. Look for tilting, leaning, twisting, and foreshortening. Exaggerate the motion and draw the two volumes, the skin in between, and the centerline.

Post your work and participate.

thesmokingrotoscope

Another truncated attempt at the bean on both a handful of poses from the demo videos, as well as some poses found on other reference sites (the rest of my attempts are spread out amongst the demos; made the mistake of posting them there rather than here.) I'm still having some trouble figuring out how to determine which oval overlaps the other (though I started to see that it has at least something to do with proximity to the viewer), as well as the path the center line takes in figures with a greater amount of twist to them. As always, any help is appreciated!

h3art

Gave myself 1 minute to do each one. I messed up mainly on the twisting ones.

Ren

Here are all of my bean studies from this week! Things might look a little repetitive since I often would draw my interpretation first (beans marked 1) and then study proko's drawing (labeled 2) as I made my way through the example videos. Also started incorporating the bean into some gesture drawings, which has been an interesting exercise since I usually start figures with the head. Going to spend another week practicing beans and gesture together before I move on to the next section!

michael gilbert

needsmuchhelp

12d

I tried a couple would love to know how I can improve

nemuiyo

27d

angelina andreas

2mo

colesdawg

1mo

That 6th bean is nice. with the others I think you might have tried to over complicate it a tad. for some of them, try to just see where the two parts of the bean (torso/pelvis) are in relation to each other and then you can add stuff like the folds etc.

Yuliia Poperechna

2mo

Jesper Axelsson

2mo

Hi @Yuliia Poperechna, nice drawings! I think you did a good job capturing the gesture of the torso! - The mass for the ribcage and the hip feel a bit inconsistent. If you compare the two bottom left drawings for example; the ribcage and pelvis masses are more wide than they are tall in the drawing to the right, while they are taller in the drawing to the left. Try to keep the ribcage and hip mass consistent (while keeping variations between individuals in mind). If you want a template, you could think of the ribcage as an egg, and the hip as a flattened sphere. - Related to my first note, you might find it useful to think of the bean as being actual pieces; a ribcage piece and a hip piece that both stay quite consistent, and a middle piece that reacts to how the other pieces move. You could think of it like you're having a puppet in front of you that you're posing to match the reference. Thinking of it as a movable puppet built out of distinct pieces can help with: making the drawing feel more three dimensional consitency in proportions figuring out tricky poses, such as twists making sure that your not losing any parts (forgetting the waist for example, or making it too narrow) I hope this helps :)

michael_idahosa

2mo

Bean drawings. Any area to improve on?

colesdawg

1mo

The beans are looking good. This maybe a bad point thats completely wrong, but I feel like you might be drawing a tad too tense, at least thats what I feel from looking at the lines. Try to relax your hand a bit, you can still be accurate.

slyx

2mo

bean moment,, any critique would be greatly appreciated!! these were drawn with a 6b and an 8b pencil, i tend to prefer the smoothness. I'm looking to incorporate gesture drawing and maybe the bean into my daily warm ups. I'm curious as to how you guys go about it? Thanks!

colesdawg

1mo

not sure what specifically you need to work on to improve, i think this is a case of just carrying on and remember to keep a keen eye when doing this.

Noe Luis

3mo

Day 2 in studying the Bean these 3 pictures on the right were tough to figure out because of the the more action the models are given

Noe Luis

3mo

Day 1 in studying the Bean I choose the picture on the right to see if capture the form because they were quite a challenge for me

Charlie Nicholson

3mo

yeah, those are some difficult poses to capture, but it looks like you did a good job realizing them

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David

3mo

Here are some beans I did as 1 minute gestures. Still working on the right amount & angle of overlap

decentworking

3mo

Looking sharp! I would encourage you to focus on line quality - Some of these look like they were drawn carefully and slowly - If you watch Stan’s examples he will pause to think, ghost the line a couple times, then place it smoothly and quickly. Drawing with the shoulder and elbow definitely help.

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ben

3mo

Here are my attempts at the bean, would be great if someone could let me know if I'm doing it right lol, I would greatly appreciate it 😁

ben

3mo

Can someone help me here, on a pose like this I really don't see the relationship between the two, and sometimes the bean is draw with the bottom overlapping the top, and the top overlapping the bottom, and I don't know why?

John Harper

3mo

Hey Ben, I did a quick 15 minute example of Marcia, showing how the direction of the pinch is downward (the hip is closer in the photo). I hope this helps. Paramount is that Stan and any other artist draws what they feel. Sometimes, the direction of the pinch gets mixed up... in this case it is safe to say that the pinch should have come down. But any one of us could have made that mistake. I'll bet Stan did that bean in about 30 seconds tops. I spent 15 minutes.

John Harper

3mo

Hey Ben, the purpose of the bean is to rapidly come up with the thorax. There will always be some kind of pinch (the overlap line) and a stretch on the opposite side. You use the line from the bottom to cause the focus to be on the lower portion of the bean (as if it's closer and the top of the bean leans away). Reverse the effect by making the overlap line come from the top of the bean. Does that make sense? I hope that helps.

ben

3mo

Another question, the model here isn't bending forward or backwards but the bean here seems to be leaning backwards?

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decentworking

3mo

Here are my bean drawings, from this class and from other poses. i feel like I struggle most with subtle twisting, especially if the pose is almost in full profile. Done in either B6 pencil or ballpoint. Request any critiques!

decentworking

3mo

Day 2 of beans! The 6B pencil with overhand grip is kicking my ass. Some of the linework is sloppy, which makes the drawings less pleasing and less articulate.

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Micaza

4mo

Do you guys think I get the Bean practices right and applied it properly in the gesture drawings? I was so skeptical of my Bean practices, I had to try including them in my gestures drawing if it aligns well? I think I’m blind in terms of my own mistakes so feedbacks are highly appreciated :) Thanks!