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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![]()
![Alexis Sosa]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Suzanne]()
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![@nyarlathotep738]()
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![Kevin Gasanli]()
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![Nero]()
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![Garrett Kavas]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Kyle Johnson]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Juho Korhonen]()
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![Liam Gordon]()
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![Juho Korhonen]()
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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]()
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!
Here's my submission for this assignment! Did quite a few and did my best to include which image is associated to which drawing. Also in some images were there are multiple seals/sea lions, I made sure to indicate with an arrow which I drew. Critiques are more than welcome and would be highly appreciated! I think the main issues I faced was sometimes using straights or other lines just for the sake of having asymmetry, when sometimes that could lead to the identity or anatomy of the subject being lost. Furthermore, some sketches did have some scratchiness or mess to them, which did lead to some of the flow being lost. Regardless, I had fun drawing and admiring these seals & sea lions!
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2d
Great work on these! And way to think about using straights and how scratchiness can change the character of your work. The more you think about your art, the faster you will grow.
Learning where to insert straight lines is one of the trickiest things in art. I find the two places I use it the most is places where I want to show structure and weight, like where two forms meet, or going around a curve. The other place I use them a lot is rhythmically. For really long curves, sometimes throwing a straight in there can really add a nice break. I can tell you already have a natural sense of it, just doing it more and gaining confidence is what you need now.
As far as the scratchiness, well, I don't think that is inherently bad at all! Maybe that's because I am a very sketchy artist too? haha. But the problem can be, as you pointed out, that it can get messy. The way to keep the energy of the sketchiness, without making a big ol mess is to draw much lighter with these scratchy lines. Then you can search for the line with your pencil, and only once you feel like you've got it, go a little (just a little!) darker. I find this the best of both worlds.
Again, nice work and keep at it!
*An* attempt to make this little nugget a bit more dynamic. Does anyone have ideas on how to emphasize flow in such a seemingly motionless potato body?
Seal from reference with the picture number, and a couple from imagination. It definitely got easier as I went but the first few were really difficult! I found it tough to figure out the action line and to draw around it after. Curves for me as so hard to judge, but I ended up starting actions line with straights and angle and it was a little easier. As I went I found myself drawing around the action line more easily. I tried to capture the gesture, but I is hard to work with abstract shapes because my eye has trouble finding what is wrong with a simple shape. It'll get better of course!
I made many of these. Here are a few of them. I made mistakes, but later after watching the demos got a better hang of the exercise.
Fun exercise that went well I think. No idea why i couldn't capture the face of the seal lying on the floor.
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5d
You did! Great work on it. One thing to play with is overlaps. In your swimming one, if you have the line for the flipper and the body overlap a little more, it will help sell the illusion of depth. But again great work!
Level 1
Had fun. I enjoy trying to feel the flow. This assignment did also help me see that I want to practice my tapered line art more. Gonna add those to my warm ups. I like these little diva sea lions haha. Thanks so much for the lesson.
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6d
It looks like you loosened up a lot by the last seal. Nice work 👍
I went ahead and did a few more sketches.
Still trying to find the balance in the rhythm. With the laying one, I started by enveloping the whole shape first. With the last one, with the seal craning its neck behind it's back, I tried pushing the forms slightly.
Any thoughts?
Gonna try another one tomorrow. Need to play around more with the rhythm.
Thoughts on this?
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14d
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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21d
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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26d
Great shapes, and explorations, and I love the expressions in those last two! Those Force books are really solid, keep up the good work!
