Project - Learning to Sketch from Imagination

10K
Course In Progress

Project - Learning to Sketch from Imagination

10K
Course In Progress

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!

Newest
Temoki San
I usually draw the people, so drawing an animal was a good challenge. Still trying to draw a tiger. Please feel free to critique, I would love to hear some feedback :D
Dondon
2d
A fox lunges at a mouse, but the mouse darts away swiftly.
Lau Dabo
3d
Here's my assignement! my final cat was inspired by The Black Cat, the short story by Edgar Allan Poe
@brimarie
They all turned out great. My favorite is the cat on the book:-)
Martha Muniz
Great studies and final sketch!
Mike Racki
Daniel Cortes
I am not sure if the result is what is expected for the exercise. In the end, I used many dirty lines to figure out the structure of the elephant and a new layer to draw the clean final version. I think the difficult part of the exercise is to understand the structure of the animal and create something new.
C3
5d
Good job I like your line quality
Nathan CIPIERE
Here is what I tried
C3
5d
I like the combination between the two….there are really energy and flow in your lines
@chikki
8d
Cooolll...
Grant
10d
Here are my attempts plus the references used. The first second page was a result of me not being satisfied with the first page as I kept trying to find something that would work.
C3
9d
Good job
@linetime
14d
C3
9d
excellent….good idea.
@kuhmu
14d
C3
9d
Good using of the line energy
Melanie Scearce
Great explorations! Keep up the sketching, and remember to keep your sketching lines very light until you find the best line. It should be a gradual build up and result in long, loose lines instead of short, hairy lines, kind of like in the GIF below.
@vonsu1
15d
Above are a few observational sketches and two drawings from imagination (the frogs with cigarettes and the frog standing on its tongue). I can see some nice progress — before starting the course, I definitely wouldn't have been able to draw such a dynamic pose from imagination. Any feedback is very welcome :)
C3
9d
Nice using of lines
Osiris
17d
This exercise was a lot of fun, definitely drawing with imagination requires research, observation, simplification and practice and a little creativity.
Lau Dabo
7d
this is so good! well done!
@brimarie
16d
Wow, well done:-)
@ronydai
17d
Been out of the game for a minute trying to get back in! My son loves fire salamanders atm, so i tried doing something with that. Critique on fellow students!
Tiago Dávila
This was ... insanely difficult to me. I spent probably a couple of weeks pushing my hardest to come up with at least something and I'm pretty proud. I tried running away from Pinterest guides to draw something and focused only on some google image references. Some examples:
Tiago Dávila
Than I tried my best to make my own with so many tries. Final one is the vampire bunny. Since all my tryouts always came up to be angre asf
Disha
19d
this is so much fun but truly an exercise. I tried my best to draw from my imagination but i couldnt and hence took some help from reference.
Brad Hewitt
Decided to study and imagine my bff. She’s not feeling well right now. Trying to find that emotion…..
Melanie Scearce
Sorry to hear she’s not feeling good :( hope she’s on the up and up now. The shape of the eyes convey a lot of emotion. She has very sweet, gentle eyes that turn downwards with heavy lashes. Try playing with those ideas — how would you convey them with simple shapes?
Melanie Scearce
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
21d
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
21d
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
21d
Wow!
Flo
24d
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
24d
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
24d
My reference pictures. I found them on wikipedia
Full course
You will be given unexpiring access to watch the videos online .
View course details
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
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.
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!