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You’ll learn the most important foundational concepts for drawing anything and soon you’ll be drawing pictures out of your imagination or from reference.
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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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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![@juhok87]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![@youkon]()
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![Araphel]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![@justsev]()
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![@justsev]()
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![Jeremy Johnson]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![Rob Simmons]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![@justsev]()
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![Ash]()
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![Jon B]()
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![Oya]()
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![Rain Kipper]()
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![Martha Muniz]()
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![@coldemptyvoid]()
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![Ben Kraske]()
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![Nicholas Allott]()
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![Ben Kraske]()
Download the photo reference images of seals and sea lions.
Level 1 - Draw from Reference
Draw their gesture and design dynamic shapes using the concepts from this lesson and the previous lesson.
Remember that gesture is not the contour, so don't just copy the outlines. Look for the movement and energy throughout the shapes. Use your whole arm and use the looser sketch line that we learned about.
Level 2 - Draw from Memory or Imagination
Start with the level 1 project and after 5 to 10 poses, turn the page, put away all the reference photos and do more drawings from imagination or from memory.
You can try to invent your own poses and design those shapes to be dynamic. Or you can try to remember the poses you already drew and use those as inspiration. Try to push and design with a focus on drawing dynamic shapes. It doesn't matter how accurate you get to the original photo, it's more about designing the shapes to look dynamic and interesting.
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Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is next Thursday (8/24/23)
* Because of the large amount of reference images, it would help a lot of you include the reference you used for each drawing. I'm more likely to select your submission for the critique. Thank you!
Gonna try another one tomorrow. Need to play around more with the rhythm.
Thoughts on this?
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2d
I really like the pose in the reference image. This sea lion reminds me of a high diver poised at the end of the diving board. There's tension there, he has potential energy. He's over the edge slightly at the front but still firmly planted on the ground, anchored by his back flippers. There's a really nice taper as his torso swells from his head and thins back down towards the tail. I think you did a good job interpreting these rhythms and including them in your drawing. I like the straight line to show the compression of his body on the ground, and the S curve that tilts his head upwards.
I think you could better show that forward momentum and the planting of the back flippers on the ground by following the vertical lines and noting how each part of the seal is stacked. The head is directly over the front flippers and the back flippers don't curl under his body. Remember to use your CSI lines, it helps to simplify! Overall good job with this; as you practice, you'll develop your eye.
This one was a confidence boost after the last portrait project 😂. I feel like I was able to look at the sea lions and draw something that looked like the sea lions.
some from my head and others from reference. looking at other submissions I wonder if maybe I'm too loose? would love to get some feedback
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10d
I think I prefer the lines in the first set of drawings than the second set. While they are a bit too loose, what I like is that you used longer strokes and the curves are made with one line instead of multiple lines broken up. There's really good energy in those lines. If you can take that energy and dial it in just a bit I think you'll nail it!
(30/40)
I felt like I was adding too much detail in my first 10, so these *should* be more simplified and gestural. They're on the clean side because I traced over the explorations I did on paper.
I did the last 10 on paper but my phone sucks at taking pictures, so you'll just have to believe me on that one lol.
L2: Sadly, I really dislike everything I draw from imagination, I hope I'll improve this mindset someday. Pink are from memory, and purple are from imagination.
Mike Mattesi's Force Demos, particularly his Animal Force Drawing book, really guide me through this.
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15d
Great shapes, and explorations, and I love the expressions in those last two! Those Force books are really solid, keep up the good work!
I focused more on the gesture than on making interesting shapes, but I think I got some interesting shapes as a byproduct. I know the assignment said to use sketchy lines, but I've been working on ghosting and tapered strokes, and I think I got a lot of them on the first try.
Turns out you can get somewhat calligraphic strokes even from a standard pencil sharpened to a point when you use the overhand grip, and focus on whether you're pulling thin lines by pulling along the length of the pencil, or pulling wider lines by using more sideways strokes. Progress!
(the right-most one in #12 looks like a pig lol)
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16d
Yes!! You got it. Gesture is a big part of piecing together good shapes. Nice work with the overhand grip practice. It really opens the door to those gestural strokes and variable line thickness. I really love the shape and gesture of #3.
I really tried to push the gesture, but I think I got caught up in adding too much detail, as per usual...
I'll try to ignore them even more in the next ones.
They were initially done traditionally and I traced them digitally.
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16d
This is awesome!
How much fun are these??
So happy with these ACTUALLY looking like sea lions ha! First time since I started drawing last month where I didn't feel it took me ages to get the core shapes identifiable and roughly proportioned.
I'll watch the demo next and retry - felt like I still didn't quite know 'what' or 'where' to push zor emphasise to really capture the sealine energy or pose. It was fairly simple to see the structure and support Vs non, but really hard to know where to push peaks, bounce angles etc - feel like I didn't even have scope in my brain for most of it.
On a positive I REALLY worked hard to be loose and sketchy - final result is 2b lines in but the underlying was loose and tapered to help me emphasise the flow of the body/limbs (I figured that was an equivalent substitute for 'motion' in the fish case - harder when some of these may be static). Ofc line work itself is a bit sloppy and needs far more time if I was going to dig into line weight/importance etc properly!
Suspect the demo will really show me how to 'pop' the flicks of the neck/position of the flippers.
Comments/critique/thoughts welcome.
Your line weight is drawn really well! The sea lion proportions are very accurate too! Keep up the great work
Level 1 attempt. In learning chess it is said that winning-losing ratio should be 1:3 for fastest learning. I think this attempt captures the target well... I liked the exercise.
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1d
I like that chess advice, it's definitely applicable to art, too! You learn a lot through trying and 'failing', or as some say "getting the first thousand bad drawings out of you". It's a great mindset to have as a student overall.
With this assignment, I like what you've got going already. Some tips to push the dynamic quality are to
1) Look for more areas where you can emphasize the overlap. That adds some depth and interest with the twist/turn in the seals.
2) Push for more asymmetry. This can be in the angle of the curves (having one side straight and the opposite curved is a strong example of this), or pushing the pose to be more towards one side than the other. Visually, it's more interesting to have things different than all evenly spaced and neutral.
I've marked up two of the examples for visual clarity, but these tips can be applied overall. Hope this helps in your artistic and learning journey :)
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23d
You have some nice shapes! I like the flow of the seals' bodies that you've drawn here, good work!
My Level 2's. Two from memory twice and the last image has 3 from imagination with not much reference. 😌
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23d
Great work with your notes and observations! I love the poses you imagined for your seals :) Nice!!
