$125
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Full course
This course teaches students to draw realistic human heads, from basic structure to detailed features, using Loomis-inspired techniques.
$125
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Educator, painter, and art historian. Author of Figure Drawing: Design and Invention and Gesture Drawing: Dynamic Movement and Form.
assignments 221 submissions
Hey Michael Hampton, Thanks for the class lessons and critiques. I was hoping you can help me understand the equatorial line? The equatorial line cuts the sphere in half, and that determines the brow to ear relation? For some reason I cant fully grasp it. I end up putting the brow line much higher or lower than the relationship of thirds of the face.
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Use the provided references to draw the heads using only the four step method we’ve been working on. Good luck and have fun with the process! If you use a photo reference that we did not provide you, include them in your post here in the assignments so we can see how you did!
Trying out drawing in Procreate, which I find quite challenging. Also, pretty sure I've missed something about this process. On to the critiques to see where I've slipped up.
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3d
Cool idea to create a narrative with the prompts for these! They came out very expressive.
I knew going in that heads/faces are a huge weak spot for me. These heads will be the first of many. I think i was getting the hang of things near the end.
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7d
Looking good!
I had trouble understanding how Michael was getting the neck.
Hi Ed,
Not sure if you still have this issue. It may be that after watching subsequent videos you've come to some conclusions. If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I've also had some questions about this and, so far, what I think is that there's a couple of things happening here. One is that, I think Michael is merely capturing the gesture of the neck at this stage - unless everything is perfectly straight, there's going to be a stretch on one side and a pinch on the other. Because it's a gesture, and therefore more design than trying to depict, it's often not going to closely resemble what we’re actually seeing in the photos.
The second is that Michael does mention that he’s exaggerating the gesture. I think he also says in a later video that when he builds on those two gesture strokes to add the muscles of the neck it often pulls back the exaggeration.
I’ve seen a number of the Proko artist advisors who help critique our submissions talk about designing rather than copying in the Drawing Basics course, and I think, at this very structural stage, that’s probably what we need to be focused on. If how Michael depicts a neck in a drawing doesn’t make sense to you, perhaps try designing it in your own way that you feel works for you. There’s always more than one way to draw a cat, said probably no one ever. Anyway, hope that helps in some way.
Cheers!
Redoing this course and actually submitting the stuff I do. Here's my assignment. Critique welcome and don't be afraid to unleash your inner Terrance Fletcher from the movie Whiplash!
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1mo
Very nice, Josh!
Hello, Mr. Hampton! This is my first class at Proko and I'm really enjoying it! I've had your book- Figure Drawing: Design and Invention for many years...I've read it many times! Attached are my head drawings. Thanks much and have a great day!
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2mo
These look great, Peter! Really nice work.
This was definitely a fun assignment to do, and for sure a bit of a brain scratcher from time to time, not super sure of the ones with a looking up or down angle but here goes. 😎
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2mo
Nicely done!
I just finished the first assignment. It was really challenging but so much fun! I’ve been doing figure drawing as a hobby, and this course cleared up so many of my questions. It’s been incredibly helpful. Even from across the Pacific, I'm so glad I can take such a great course online.
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2mo
Great starts!
Woof. Done over two days, and somehow the second day of practice was worse than the first. But really encouraging to be able to pose a head with some sort of emotion! Looking forward to watching the critique and revising.
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3mo
Great starts! Looking forward to seeing your progress.
this was so fun to learn, necks and jaw undersides are definitely the hardest part for me
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3mo
These are clean! Agreed; the underside of the jaw is hard to capture. Just remember to use trapezoids under there!
I seem to be really struggling with the jaw, especially from the underside. Is there a clear or I guess definitive issue with how I am setting this up to where I am causing myself to struggle depicting the underside of the head. Any feedback is amazing and appreciated.
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4mo
You're on the right track here. The key for me is moving the chin up and into the initial sphere and then creating that plane back and connecting it to the neck (this is how I establish that under plane). I'm sure I review this in the first critique video. Check that out if you haven't already and let me know if it helps.
Dear Mr. Hampton, Your course is a major breakthrough for me in the way i go about drawing portraits now, I am a self taught hobbyist and I always struggled with finding the right step by step approach for me and Your course has been a blessing. I am attaching the project for feedback and I am very much looking forward to receiving it. Have a great day!
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4mo
These are fantastic! Excellent starts. So glad to hear the information resonated with you. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
Hi, is this one correct? I struggle with imagining how does the jaw look like from different angles.
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5mo
Yep. Looks correct
