Project - Learning to Sketch from Imagination

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

12K

Course In Progress

Assignments 2K

Downloads 5

Project - Learning to Sketch from Imagination

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

12K

Course In Progress

Assignments 2K

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!

Clément Depature Lançon

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Hello, here are my drawings after seeing the demo and the critics. It's better than my first attempt even if I have some difficulties with the physics of the wings :)

Wieke Pierhagen

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I went fo a kangaroo because of the nice lines it has. I'm used to draw whatever the reference picture showed, but I've never created my own drawing this way and I never thought I could actually. So this really was an amazing assignment for me; to discover that I CAN do it!! That I don't have to stay restricted to a picture, but that I can learn to create an image that will be correct and exactly what I want. Sure, I got a lot of learning to do here, but this really has been an eye-opener! And yes, I had fun ;-)

Melanie Scearce

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So glad to hear that you enjoyed this project! Great explorations. Your final drawing has good gesture. Keep up the sketching :) the more you practice this the more natural it will feel!

Jose Anton

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I chose to do the exercise with a Pokémon, as it's easier to understand the proportions and try to create poses.

Jico

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Rachel Dawn Owens

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I love these cows!

David K

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manta ray sketches

Lane Campbell

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Chose to do elephants on this one, always love seeing videos of these big dudes so i wanted to draw some. The shading is honestly what i have the most problems with, had to go over the sleeping elephant multiple times to try and get it correct, and im not entirely sure i did, but i like how the drawing turned out for the most part. Very fun assignment, enjoyed it alot!

Christian R

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Love the elephants, the sketches are good, and I see where you were determining the 3d forms.

Christian R

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Any suggestions I am more than welcoming. I did a study on Gorillas. I drew many variations, sometimes losing the plot on what I was trying to do. I feel I learned a lot about what subjects I need to learn about: seeing in 3D forms, manipulating these forms, learning perspective better and learning about the right amount of line work to make a sketch not appear over worked. I was able to improve on these skills over the time I worked on this assignment but I need more work. Ultimately I was able to find a picture that sparked a character for me: a gorilla clasping its hands with a sly grin made me think of a super genius James Bond villain. So I give you Dr Banano, or Dr Kinshasa Goodall. couldnt add all photos so I made sure to add the photo that inspired the character at the end.

Christian R

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Added more of my references. One was a drawing on Pinterest but couldn’t find the artist name

@naf

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Day17

Nico Grab

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Hi everyone ! I was trying the challenge to draw from imagination and took some references to draw a squirrel. The idea is to draw a character for a children's book. Could I have a critique on this ? Don't be easy on me, i'd like to improve.

Ash

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This is really cool! The only critique I have is that there is not much detail in the "hands" as there is in the feet. Draw some fingers on the character holding the acorn. If you're making something for a children's book, the design needs to lean more into cartoon instead of realism.

Steve Wright

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10d

I wasn't sure whether I was going to post this, I thought I'd give it a try as a level one student. I tried to create a dancing tablet from imagination using a few references to help come up with a basis of the idea. I used Elder kettle (from Cuphead) as the idea for the face, tom (from tom and jerry) for the eyes, Roz (from wild robot) and just a picture of a tablet. I think the idea came out okay, the hands look a bit funny I was going for the old cartoon style hands like mickey mouse wears, I think maybe not using a reference for them and going a bit fast made them look quite rough, I wanted the eyes to look a bit crazy as he was just hyper focused on dancing to the beat and getting lost in the music. I'm not sure if what I've done is what the assignment was asking, I'd love to give this a go when I get more knowledge going through the course I found it quite fun. If anyone has any advice or feedback, it would be much appreciated.

Melanie Scearce

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10d

I love it! This is exactly the idea of the assignment. The best thing you can do moving forward, if this was fun and interesting to you, is keep a sketchbook and continue to explore the idea of taking inspiration from the world around you and combining things into something new. Drawing from imagination is all about pulling from your visual library, which is built by drawing what you see. I have a pocket sketchbook that I bring everywhere and draw whenever I can. As you continue through the course and grow your technical skills, you'll find it becomes easier and easier to get things that you have in your head on the page.

Mahfam Zohrabi

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11d

I think my lines are a bit messy.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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11d

Your line are a little scribbley, but I can still read your drawing. I like your Guinea pig guy. It’s a good idea to keep the smaller details constrained to the focal areas. Like the face and hands. Nice work 👍

Juan Sanchez

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12d

The animal that I chose to sketch was a shark, it was really fun, however I still feel like drawing from imagination is very difficult.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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11d

Keep using reference when you need it. Drawing from reference is how you build your visual library which will help your imaginative drawings as well. These sharks are so flowy and full of action. Adding the sharp teeth to more of your shark drawings might make them even more convincing.

@naf

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13d

Day12

Martha Muniz

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Good studies! It can help to break down the subject matter even further, like sketching in lightly ellipses for the head and body as the two main masses. Placing this can help you then get a feel for the line placements on top afterwards and help you then rearrange the pose and draw from imagination at different poses/angles. Give it a try! :)

@d3lizabeth

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14d

I had so much fun with this little guy

@hatmouse

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12d

The last picture killed me, because it fits your upright version so well haha, i love it

Arca Ludo

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16d

White shark: I looked at Reference 1, then sketched it from imagination trying not to look back at the reference. I did the same for References 2 and 3. Then I drew the final sketch.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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15d

This guy is great!

@smileylemon

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17d

My attempt at this assignment, I didn't really get how much the animal had to differ from the original so I would like to know if I should work more on that for next time

Christian R

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12d

The friend to all animals. Love the drawings

Chuck Ludwig Reina

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15d

I love me a capybara! And they are a great critter to work from because their head is so dang boxy. As far as how different it has to be, that is up to you. You could try exaggerating even more if you wanted to. Could you make that big blocky head even bigger and blockier? Totally up to you! Great job.

Andrew Spinney

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19d

My first attempt at this assignment, enjoyed the challenge of doing a solo character although I feel like I missed the mark with the eyes as they are not very cartoon styled

Kyle Johnson

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20d

I’m not sure I got the whole tapered lines thing down on my characters…I’d get into it but I tried to do a blend. But yeah this was fun. May not be the best work but I did my best!

Melanie Scearce

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20d

It definitely looks like you had fun. Great character exploration! This is a difficult project to achieve tapered lines, especially if you're not used to drawing from imagination. Just keep trying your best 👍

Christoffer L

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21d

This was really, really hard! The ”Drawing from Imagination Cramps” was a great video, and contained what I needed to hear. I definitely fall into the category of ”When me technical skills are better I will be able to draw from imagination” and will practise this much more, and as a skill somewhat separate from technical skill development.

@alexnim

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22d

I choose an Otter to draw for this project. Tbh It wasn't the easiest but it was fun as it built my confidence since its my first time to draw an animal other then a cat. The page before the last on the right is from imagination and the last page. Please give me advice to improve or youtube videos you recommend to help me improve drawing from imagination.

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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.