Project - Gestural Torso Boxes

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

1.5K

Course In Progress

Assignments 239

Downloads 6

Project - Gestural Torso Boxes

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

1.5K

Course In Progress

Assignments 239

Downloads 6

Level 1

Imagine the body with the limbs, arms, legs, and neck removed, focusing on the boxy area from the shoulders down to the hips.

The goal is to turn, twist, and lean this box to mimic poses. You can also bloat certain areas to represent the rib cage or hips. This exercise helps to practice intuitively drawing dynamic forms in perspective. Draw these simplified torso boxes from your imagination. Believe it or not, doing this from photos can actually be more challenging because of the anatomy that can be distracting and hard to interpret.

Fill multiple pages with these simplified forms.
Aim for at least 20 different torso boxes.
Experiment with various angles, twists, and poses.
If you struggle with certain poses, try them again with slight variations.

Level 2

I've attached some photos for you to work with, that you could find in the downloads tab. You'll notice each photo is numbered. Please label your drawings with the corresponding photo you're drawing to help me and the community give you a critique. Otherwise it would be very difficult to know which box matches each photo.

Draw the same dynamic torso boxes from the photos. Focus on interpreting the overall shape and gesture rather than copying anatomical shapes. The goal is to capture the essence of the pose in a simplified form.

Exaggeration

If you'd like to make it even more challenging, you can exaggerate the pose. Exaggeration can make your poses more dynamic and interesting. To exaggerate effectively imagine a baseline or neutral pose, observe how the actual pose differs from it, and push those differences further. Be careful not to overdo it. Subtle exaggerations often work best, maintaining believability while enhancing the dynamism of the pose.

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

Aubrey Hannah

•

Gesture is definitely a more challenging subject for me. Combining perspective with various deformations can be difficult. I think I could use some more practice in this area.

CharmLotta

•

Level 1 from imagination. The hardest part of this exercise was visualising multiple poses that were actually possible for a human body. I tried to imagine myself doing my fitness and it was very helpful. Level 2 from reference. Heeelp! After watching all videos I still can't comprehend how to show the twist, when a side plane is visible - poses 6 and 8 for example.

Aubrey Hannah

•

23h

Yours look better than mine! By far the most challenging part for me is matching the deformations with realism. You don't want the box to look too stiff, but you also don't want it to be stretched to the point of losing its shape.

@deadsm

•

I like how you can "feel" if you are thinking in 3D when doing this. For me, it was easy to know that if I keep struggling with a pose, it is probably because I am not thinking about the object I am drawing in space. Learning to identify this in future work is an exciting prospect!

hobodios

•

I did 24 torsos but couldn't add all the images (20 images max). Some of them were pretty easy and others I had no idea what i was doing haha. I would really appreciate it if I got some feedback!

Chauncey Holder

•

18d

This was really challenging coming up with poses! I really struggled with the twisting form cus I think I get so lost in tryna connect the part to another

Aubrey Hannah

•

23h

Oh yeah, twisting can be quite challenging! One thing I found that helped me with twisting a box is to try and visualize each of the corners of the lower square connecting to a new corner in the upper square. That way, you don't end up lost.

@xeixas118

•

28d

Do'ing the gestures that proko did in the demo before watching so I can compare the thought process between the two

@xeixas118

•

29d

my submission to the project toke a break now time to catchup

Melanie Scearce

•

29d

Very well done @xeixas118! These have great gesture. The second box is a bit thin at the top so just be careful not to squish your boxes too much. The one in the top right corner of the page looks more accurate to me.

Randy P

•

1mo

My solutions for level two.

Randy P

•

1mo

Level One gestural torsos/boxes from imagination. Not going to lie. Took me a few days of practice and watching the demo video before I got the hang of twisting and posing the boxes. This exercise was also actually completed after level two as the reference photo exercise was a lot more helpful for me to gain the intuition I needed to create a range of poses from imagination.

@pmirko

•

2mo

Dani Torres

•

2mo

I find the twisting torsos/cubes really hard unless I exaggerate them 😕

Evan Wray

•

2mo

Did a few pages from imagination and then tried level 2. Tried to limit each level 2 attempt to 10 minutes. Did #10 a second time because I left the front plane showing too much on my first attempt. The twist on #4 took me a while to figure out but I think ended up being my favorite. Still not sure it's accurate but I like the shapes.

@dollydigital

•

3mo

oof 14 is a struggle

Melanie Scearce

•

3mo

That was a difficult one! Challenging perspective. You have it here as a C curve as if she was bending forwards. I see her torso as bending backwards in a C curve shape and the ribcage slightly twisting towards the arm that is reaching down. I may have pushed that curve a bit more than is true in my drawing, but I think that it should be more of a convex curve. You did a great job with the twists in the rest of your boxes. I really like the deformation in #15. Keep up the good work!

Yevhen Syrchin

•

3mo

from proko's refs pack

@mightymike

•

3mo

These are from imagination and not meant to represent real torsos. Instead I was just playing with the motion of the boxes. This was fun but also exhausting for my brain 🫣 Feedback is welcome!

Daniele Olevano

•

3mo

Melanie Scearce

•

3mo

Very nice work! Keep pushing them. Some of your poses can be exaggerated to make them more gestural. Pay attention to both sides of the body -- when one side is stretching, the other side will be compressing. Emphasizing that relationship is a good way to give your drawings more energy.

Luke

•

4mo

I definitely started running out of ideas by the end of the imagination boxes. I was also experimenting with line weight and quality. I think I started to get the hang of it by the end, but I also tended to make the torso not wide enough for how deep they were. I also think I possibly moved too far away from boxes at some times, I usually focuses on the hard(er) forms of the pelvis and rib cage, then connected the two with a softer section. To end on a positive note, I do like how most of them felt tangibly 3D. Some were pushed too far, but as they say, if you have an omelette without broken eggs, something probably went wrong.

Carlo Julian

•

4mo

This was a lot of fun. The first two pages without numbers were from imagination. The rest are from reference. After torso number (9) I watched the critique video. From 10 to 18 I tried to exaggerate the gestures.

Osagumwenro Igiehon

•

4mo

Here are my attempts! I redid some of the lv 2s that I didn’t like. I think that I found it a bit hard to do the lv 2s at first but, I feel like focussing on shape initially helped me make the form look good.

Angelica

•

4mo

Here is some Imaginary boxes. Not always sure how to connect the boxes but I did my best to try to figure it out.

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.