Project - Gestural Architecture

1.3K
Course In Progress

Project - Gestural Architecture

1.3K
Course In Progress

You'll be assigned two projects to practice gestural perspective. This first one is a little easier, while the second will be mainly for level two, but I encourage everyone to try both. The main focus is on creativity, iterative improvement, and applying your perspective knowledge intuitively.

Level 1

Warm up with a simple doghouse. Use deformation methods to create an interesting shape. Avoid random deformations; make purposeful changes. If a deformation doesn't look good to you, change it.

Then design a more complex building, such as a house, apartment, motel, cottage, or church. Add multiple parts to the building, like a chimney, room extensions, or separate buildings. Apply the deformation methods to give them personality.

  • Make decisions with a purpose but also have fun and explore.
  • Follow your gut and make changes if something looks wrong.
  • Spend time on the project until you're proud of it.
  • Iterate and improve your design; don't just copy my example.
  • Practice multiple times to make it easier.
  • Focus on adding gesture and personality to your forms, not just accurate perspective.

Level 2

For level two, try designing a tree house. This is trickier due to the interaction between organic and inorganic forms, more complex design problem, and lack of a solid foundation.

Deadline - submit by July 9, 2024 for a chance to be in the critique video!

Newest
@deepanshu12
@sosoph
6d
:)
Natasha Johnson
Wow this was awesome cool and awesome hard . I did the pentagon with the idea sharp angles vs soft pillow lines can make a building seem different . Great exercise . Im even looking at peoples faces picturing if they’d make a great baddy or a hero .
Kyle
14d
Worked through a few reference buildings to get some interesting shapes. They were never as whimsical I wanted them but this definitely improved my ability to draw perspective.
Melanie Scearce
Nice work @Kyle! If you want to add a whimsical narrative element, you can ask yourself some questions about the purpose of the building before and/or as you're drawing. Is it a house or a place of business? A fairy cottage, or a wizard's workshop or was it built in a universe with a completely different system of physics? Thinking about the purpose, who or what would be living/working inside, the environment can all inform your design to give it more character. These look great and would be a good foundation for those narrative elements.
@harrow
22d
It took quite a few iterations before I got something I liked.
@harrow
20d
I tried a tree house as well. It didn't work out as well as the bird house
pinkfin
21d
this is so good!
Axel Gyllenstierna
To me, this level two assignment was the most challenging in the course so far. Had a really hard time simplifying shapes (both structural and organic) to mix and merge in an interesting way. I feel as though my final result is a fairly "boxy" house, just placed in a tree. I'm still fairly happy with the final outcome, but mainly thanks to the rendering (which wasn't the point of this exercise). Onwards to the next project, can't be stuck here forever!
@landsloth
25d
Tried to do a few more grounded pieces of gestural architecture. I’m really struggling with constructing the roofs I just can’t seem to get them to look right and I’m not sure how to fix that.
Melanie Scearce
It might help to bring a little bit of structure into these. You wanna keep up that really nice gesture you have here, but think about building these out of simple shape blocks. Don't be afraid to use construction lines if that helps you make sense of the shapes.
@landsloth
26d
Went a bit mad with this one. I was having a lot of fun with it so I decided to play around with different brushes and such. Definitely went heavy on the distortion though haha. I tried to draw more grounded architecture afterwards but kept getting frustrated with pitched roofing so any tips in that department are welcome too!
Stephen Worthington
I guess this is a wizard's house? I think it has wizard energy. Tried to mix up my line weight, I think some works, some doesn't. Not sure my twisty building is *quite* right? But also I'm not going to beat myself up, there are aspects I do like! Edit to add: definitely took some cues from Axel Gyllenstierna's project below, awesome work! So if you see this Axel, thank you!
Axel Gyllenstierna
Glad to hear it, I really like this piece! Especially enjoy the tower design.
Stephen Worthington
Just did a quick pass to darken up the contour, which I think pushes the detail into the back a little, and gave the chimneys a small rework
@lauralana
1mo
Axel Gyllenstierna
Had a rough time getting into this. However, I found great inspiration from previous student projects below and finally got in the zone and enjoyed the process. Took inspiration from Franklin Booth and Bernie Wrightson for the clouds, simple yet effective! I could've made the buildings more gestural, might give it another go before moving on to the treehouse.
Lau Dabo
1mo
I love this!
@brimarie
1mo
Your composition is wonderful. I also love your lines because you've created depth with them too. Great job!
Axel Gyllenstierna
Maestro
2mo
Here is my try
Rachel Dawn Owens
Nice twisty buildings
Michael Longhurst
This was a pretty fun assignment. I tried to make the building more imposing by having it lean forward. Also by placing it higher on the page so the view is looking up at it. I’m undecided on how much the distortion of the towers helped that, but I had trouble finding a convincing way to make the cylinders lean.
Rachel Dawn Owens
This is amazing! You nailed the imposing feeling with the design of the castle, the composition, and the colors. If you wanted to take it up another level, maybe add some variation to the colors in the windows. I’m not sure every light in every room would be identical. Some rooms might be dark. Others could be dimmer lighting. Creating some variation there could add some more life to your awesome illustration.
@deadsm
2mo
Yay! This perspective's awesome, it makes me feel so much better. I wanna master it someday so everything feels way more put-together. I totally get what you said about taking your time, and posting it online felt like the best way to make myself actually do it. Here goes nothing!
hobodios
2mo
Lines got messy/perspective kinda off because I was in a rush I've learned my lesson now :/ I had a lot of fun making this any feedback is welcome!
You Ji An
2mo
Bloated and imploded stilt houses
Aubrey Hannah
I practiced both the doghouse and a church building for my project. My portrayal of the church building was actually inspired by a nightmare I have once of a church that came to life. It was a strange, alien creature with bizarre and haunting movements. To express this, I tried to make it look as strange and unsettling as possible.
Tommy Pinedo
I really like the twisty church, and interesting dream about the church coming to life. I can definitely feel like the church is moving just by looking at it lol :D
Tommy Pinedo
Here are my level 1 attempts. I tried to incorporate twisting, bloating, curving and leaning. Let me know what you guys think. 😅
Aubrey Hannah
Wow, fantastic! The buildings look very expressive!
@brimarie
2mo
They all look great - very vivid!
Tyson
2mo
That twisty one just doesn't look right. (I'll show myself out)
Chauncey Holder
The project was fun but challenging. It makes realize I need to do perspective stuff a bit more and shapes but overall it's fun to do. I wanna push designs more. I have some I drew from imagination and the other I used a reference
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About instructor
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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