Project - Learning to Sketch from Imagination

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

10K

Course In Progress

Assignments 1.7K

Downloads 5

Project - Learning to Sketch from Imagination

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

10K

Course In Progress

Assignments 1.7K

Downloads 5

Pick an animal, a bug, or some kind of creature, and find several reference photos to use as inspiration to sketch a new character.

Don't copy the photos. Feel free to explore with proportions and exaggerate or simplify things to make it your own. Do multiple sketches to experiment and try different ideas.

Once you think you have a clear idea of a character, do one full page sketch. Even in this final sketch, try to use loose, confident lines and focus on the shapes of the character you have in mind. We're trying something new here with this project by starting to develop our ability to draw from imagination. So it might be a bit of a challenge, but don't sweat it.

Let's keep it loose and rough with our sketches and just focus on letting those creative juices flow. Don't focus on the cleanliness of your lines. We're sketching, and when you post your assignments, please include the photos you found and all your experimental sketches.

If you'd like to have a chance to be included in the upcoming critique videos, you must submit your drawings below by March 9th 2023.

And don't forget to have fun!

Melanie Scearce

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It really helps to pull from your experiences when you're drawing from imagination. I worked out some shapes first using reference from the kiki pictures on the left. Then I started to think about some cats that I know in real life. I thought about how upset my roommate's cat gets when you don't play with him and that gave this little guy a lot of attitude.

@brimarie

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23h

Dear Melanie This is a wonderful approach that I want to try out right away. Your cat has become super great and very expressive, I love it🐈‍⬛

Flo

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Hahaha. I definitely can relate to my cat. This really fits the mood of a grumpy slightly annoyed cat. The foot sells it to me. Love it!

Art Stark

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Wow!

Flo

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I don't consider me lever 2, but this I triend anyway. I choose the european olm als my species. It's a very interesting creature that lives in pure darkness and doesn't have eyes. However, there is on cave population in Slovenia with a little light, there the olm turns bkack and has eyes. My idea was to make a only half blind one. Also these guys look like little dragons and that's kinda cool.

Flo

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Well, seeing it now, the head looks realy flat and formless. I do not have more time today, but it should look more like this:

Flo

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My reference pictures. I found them on wikipedia

Oliver Wan

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Had some trouble with this one, but still a fun exercise.

Flo

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Cute!

Camille Dlb

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Melanie Scearce

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I really love your explorations on the first page, especially the drawing on the bottom. His eye is so expressive!

@rcworshop

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I had fun drawing my cats and making them into characters.

Jessica Ambron

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Nancy Larson

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After viewing the demo and the critique I did this assignment a second time with a new model, the praying mantis. I was quite challenged the first go around even after a second attempt at drawing from imagination with my first character, the prairie dog. So, I decided to try again. It's been a very good exercise for me beyond the sketching skills parts. Now I feel like I can move on with the course. Though I will do these again in the future for my continued learning and growing.

Flo

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I like that humor!

Enzo reda

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I know, i cheated by not creating my own character but just trying the last exercise with my own images. The drawings are far from perfect but it was fun. Challenging for sure but it taught me to really think if i should use strait lines or curves ones. The final outcome varies a lot depending on that choice :)

Rachel Dawn Owens

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Nice work laying out your sketchbook page. Keep making pages like that. Fill it up. The balance of straights and curved lines can have a huge impact on the final drawing. Here is an art tip I made a while back explaining just this-

Katie King

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I decided to try a praying mantis and am really happy with how it worked out! I worked off of the references for my practice page to get an idea of shapes and proportions, and made my full page character off of those. I started way too close to the side of the page, but I still like how she looks. I tried to focus on confident lines and feeling out the sketch, but I kept falling back into searching, chicken-scratch lines. I also tried adjusting my work space to encourage drawing from the shoulder and elbow rather than the wrist. It is making a difference but it is taking a lot of effort to break the habit. Either way I had a lot of fun with this one, and have a new love of mantises.

Melanie Scearce

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Searching lines can be beautiful, just keep them light! Overall your lines look good, but I see what you mean about getting a bit scratchy. I suggest trying to incorporate more of your CSI lines to try to mitigate the urge to use shorter, scratchier lines. These drawings are great, I love the shapes that you used to simplify the face!

@chrisdzy

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Tried some new pencils while studying reptiles then went off imagination for the little claw guy

Nancy Larson

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10d

A Level 2 assignment is a challenge for me, and then the added imagination component made it even more so. In any case, I came up with a rock star prairie dog. A good exercise for me to stretch.

Martha Muniz

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10d

Such a fun idea! I think with blobby creatures like these, it can help to think about two balls attached together (one small one for the head and a larger squishy oval-like one for the body). Breaking it down like that can give you more control to move and pose the figure around, so you are less attached to the reference and can work with looser lines from imagination.

Henry H

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11d

My son asked to do a great white shark. Here are the inspiration photos, and the wildly different approaches we took to the assignment. Frankly, I'd rather hang out with his shark than mine, I think he did a better job of reading the assignment, lol.

Marisa Del Campo

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14d

I used Kangaroo references for this assignment. I struggle a LOT with confidence when it comes to drawing from imagination and often have trouble coming up with good ideas. Anyway, I found their bodies really fun to draw. Hopefully this post goes through and stays up. Don't know if anyone else has had any issues with posts disappearing or if I'm doing something wrong.

Le Hai

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15d

I post assignments. They took more than 30 minutes to finish. I used 4b for the outline after finishing the sketch with 3h. That's really fun.

Dylan Trahan

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17d

I'm a level one, working through the course after falling off of it last year. I drew all the rough exploration sketches this morning from reference images I found on Google and then just worked from imagination for the final drawing. I just kind of dove in to putting the large shapes in for the baby T-Rex. And then added in some detail and reworked it a bit but decided I was getting too much into the detail of it so I figured I should post it before I started overthinking.

Melanie Scearce

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17d

It's perfect for the assignment! Great use of CSI lines. I love the details you included, like his eye trained on the fly and the wagging tail. All really great narrative elements. Looking forward to seeing more :)

@chadcando

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17d

I wasn’t to sure what to draw from imagination, so I asked my wife and she requested a scorpion. Which didn’t really help me but after asking what would she like the scorpion to be doing she said that it needs to be a chef with a spoon in its tail. It’s was fairly challenging to draw, so did a few simple thumbnails to figure out the shape of a scorpion. The face was hard as not knowing what the face of a scorpion looks like but I feel like I came up with a good concept in the end.

Marisa Del Campo

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14d

Nice job! My husband hasn't been much help when I ask him what to draw. But maybe if I'm more specific 🤔

Daniel

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21d

I try to make long movements with my arm and as spontaneously as possible.

Melanie Scearce

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20d

Really nice! This idea will be covered a bit later in this course, but looking for rhythms in the pose can help you really practice those long movements from the shoulder, and help create cohesion in your drawings. And as usual, using a variety of CSI is great for creating visual interest. Keep up the sketches, these are looking great!

Carmen Ciumber

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24d

Difficult exercise, especially when trying to draw divas :)

Rachel Dawn Owens

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24d

These drawings are fun! Your shapes are looking very nice. My only critique might be about the line quality. Try using fewer marks. This will give your drawing more clarity and energy.

Ryan C

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27d

I chose langurs for this project. It was difficult. I had fun studying the reference images, but I had a hard time nailing the shapes. That got even harder when I had to work from imagination. I can see why people get "cramps."