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You’ll learn the most important foundational concepts for drawing anything and soon you’ll be drawing pictures out of your imagination or from reference.
$159
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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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project-learning-to-sketch-from-imagination.mp4
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project-learning-to-sketch-from-imagination-transcript-english.txt
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project-learning-to-sketch-from-imagination-transcript-spanish.txt
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project-learning-to-sketch-from-imagination-captions-english.srt
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project-learning-to-sketch-from-imagination-captions-spanish.srt
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![@peter_g]()
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![Christophe Mortier]()
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![Kevin Gasanli]()
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![Tee J]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![@beamoflight]()
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![Kevin Gasanli]()
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![DK Taylor]()
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![Petar Ristic]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Ingela]()
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![Ash]()
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![Blaise Burns]()
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![@spacecowboy850]()
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![@spacecowboy850]()
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![@spacecowboy850]()
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![Jessica Z]()
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![@4grounds]()
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!
I thought of this from the things I have observed in the past days. Proportions are still a challenge for me and especially the lips of the cat/jaguar were a big challenge which I did not pass very well
4 are from reference and the 5th one on bottom right is from imagination after learning how to draw a capybara.
Here is my second attempt. I tried to do it digitally this time. I tried to be more loose with my strokes, I also tried to make my lines confident.
I am kind off dissatisfied by the result. I think it is possibly because the design itself is not great, or perhaps there is a more glaring issue?
I might have to come back tomorrow with fresh eyes to see.
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3d
I like it! If you want to make him look more koala-esque, we can look back at the reference images to consider some features that are unique to a koala. Those strange hands for example...they have two thumbs!! That's an interesting idea to play with. Their noses as well are very unique to koalas. Thinking about how to design each individual part, and then the proportional relationships between each part (like the proportion of the ears to the head) can help you get a better likeness.
Fun fact: while looking at koala noses I found out that the pigmentation of each koala is unique like the fingerprints on humans.
I tried going for an owl that was glaring over his wing. Like when Dracula peered over his cape very dramatically in old movies. I couldn't seem to make him intimidating enough, and I felt like I was focusing on every feather too much. I tried a different emotion with the last drawing, as well as relaxing on proportions, amount of feathers, and bringing some character into it.
Here is my attempt of an interesting looking bird called ceylon frogmouth. I tried to exaggerate the final sketch as much as possible and try to almost create a caricature of the bird.
I struggled a bit but tried to remember to be quick and sketchy. I went for an animal that would allow me opportunities for straights and s curve lines. I'm trying to keep my momentum and not run from the challenge of the assignments.
I tried to set myself a bunch of challenges... easy (frog).. to medium (bat)... to hard (lions)... Frog wasn't too bad, nailing down the basic shapes was ok. For the bat, I tried to challenge myself and come up with a 'scene' - i.e. bat reaching for berries on a branch. I think the lines are smooth for both frog and bat for the most part and the creative idea was there. For the lions... I really lost the plot. Found them very hard funnily enough. It's fine to draw from observation, but found myself struggling with the anatomy in different poses (sketch looks more amateurish than the others). Oh well... all practice!
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12d
These are great Petar! I love that you're adding a little bit of personality to what the animals are doing. Poses like the lounging lions can be tricky for sure! With the arms foreshortened like that. With these types of drawings, it really helps to take it slow and go step by step, finding the shapes, and then working them up. I try to remember to always start with the biggest forms and work my way down to the smallest forms and details.
Again, great work. Keep it up!
(I was inspired so I drew a lion too, hopefully that shows what I mean with the shapes and building it up)
I decided to give my favourite seal a go! Harbour seal!
They are so fun to draw and have such lovely shapes!
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15d
all of these are adorable!
This project was definitely a first for me, as an adult I suppose. I thought it was really interesting what Stan said about drawing from imagination being a skill in its own right, rather than a result of gaining technical drawing abilities.
I was planning on skipping this one, as a beginner, but I'm glad I did it. It was certainly a new muscle flexing for me, and I didn't even really push my references too much anyway.
I found this assignment fun. I'm guessing the goal was to reorient a single creator, but the idea got into my head to combine a few so I did that, hopefully not straying from the idea of the assignment too much.
I did this again, more trying to remember the main shapes. As I was doing my studies, is come back in afterwards and do a quick shape study of what I had just drawn to try to solidify the shapes in my head. Drawings labeled photo were from references, drawings labeled imagination were from imagination.
I realize my final is not terribly different than one of the references but I was trying to rotate him a bit to get a more 3/4 view.
Shrug
Redrew my waltorphant on my old surface 2 to practice two things
1) get a little feel for digital work
2) to follow the shape of the creature to fix the bad shell in the first attempt and how the shoulders didn't feel correctly placed.
But largely same angle. It was very difficult to get clean lines as the pen was not in line with the cursor (parallax effect). I've heard newer technology is much better with this.
Save the bees <3 but seriously it took me a minute to figure out how to position those eyes lol
Decided to do one of my favorite animals, the red wolf. Tried to incorporate some more clear rough lines.
