$159
Bundle discount Each additional course part in your cart adds 3% off all courses, up to 15% off.
Full course
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
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
DOWNLOADS
project-learning-to-sketch-from-observation.mp4
121 MB
project-learning-to-sketch-from-observation-transcript-english.txt
3 kB
project-learning-to-sketch-from-observation-transcript-spanish.txt
4 kB
project-learning-to-sketch-from-observation-captions-english.srt
5 kB
project-learning-to-sketch-from-observation-captions-spanish.srt
6 kB
ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![@cybermoose]()
![]()
![Camille Varner Kolafa]()
![]()
![Fallon]()
![]()
![@marienl]()
![]()
![Алишер Тухтасинов]()
![]()
![Martha Muniz]()
![]()
![Camille Varner Kolafa]()
![]()
![Precious]()
![]()
![@creachur1]()
![]()
![Camille Varner Kolafa]()
![]()
![@frat14]()
![]()
![Melanie Scearce]()
![]()
![@noahmoss]()
![]()
![Lucy Ellams]()
![]()
![Eric E]()
![]()
![@noobartist]()
![]()
![@kuscheldrache]()
![]()
![Melanie Scearce]()
![]()
![Andriy Nykolyn]()
![]()
![Camille Varner Kolafa]()
Use the three reference images of clean line drawings and sketch them using simple loose lines. Don't try to match the cleanliness of these drawings. Instead, sketch them out with energetic, tapered strokes. Don't hesitate. Just practice moving your arm with confidence. If you draw some lines and then you realize that, Oh, shoot, I need to curve that more. Go ahead and just draw the new curve right over it. As you get more confident that you've found the shape, you can darken those lines and the lighter lines start to disappear. Focus on the big idea and the shapes the lines represent, rather than on each individual line.
For you, Level 2 monster trucks, I want you to start with this Level 1 project as a warmup, and then head over to the Learning to Sketch from Imagination project page for your instructions.
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.
Good luck and please have some fun!
Posted my drawings on the wrong video at first. But these are mine before the demo. I went a little whacky with the proportions. In my head the penguin is chonky so I made him chonky in spite of the reference photo. The feet I struggled with as I ran out of space. I also had some graphite shavings on my desk so I stuck my thumb in them and swiped it across the wings and beak on a whim to make it more fun. For the hand I definitely need an anatomy lesson as my thumb is way out of place. I tried defining a wrist. Robot girl was a little wonky because of all the turns i needed to do. I liked the legs but not the upper body. Overall I’m satisfied with the result even though there’s very clearly a lot I need to improve upon. Point is I felt confident in my lines and I’ve improved since I first picked up the pencil 2 weeks ago!
•
10h
It looks like you may naturally work big, so it might help to draw a boundary box in which to contain your drawing, that way you can be sure things don't go off the page or you don't have to forcefully squash anything to make it fit.
You'll certainly get to learn anatomy with this course! For this project in particular, anatomy isn't super important, as it's meant to get practice in replicating what you see. You've got a good start! I would suggest trying to do a little bit of measurement. You can do so by holding your pencil up to the photo and using your thumb on the pencil to determine how long or wide a part is for when you bring it back down to the paper. A good piece of advice that Stan says: imagine the shape, and move your hand to match the visual.
I am overall pleased with these sketches. I did them initially with a 4H pencil and then finished with HB. I think my proportions are quite good, except on the VR girl, whose torso appears too long. I tried very hard to focus on blocking in initial shapes with energetic lines and filling in details later.
Ran out of space for the hand. Proportions and planning remain difficult. Pretty happy with the penguin though.
I'm sorry, but the edge of the page decapitated my heroine. Very tragic. My apologies for my overactive imagination.
•
15h
Oof, haha! That's one way to go about it for sure lol! But as a tip for the future, especially useful when drawing from observation, start with a light sketch of the very basic outline for where you plan to place your drawing. It being very basic and simple, it could be as much as a simple circle for her head, rectangles for the torso/arms/legs, and triangles for her boots. This helps you be able to catch any potential decapitations and change it before you get too far along in the drawing process. Keeping it very light so it's barely visible, it can serve as your guideline as you go in with darker lines and more details. So that way everyone is safe and sound! :)
•
3d
Love the improvisation lol!
Think i did okay im going to keep practicing like proko said perfectionism is hard and i run into the issue of running into wanting clean less messy lines - i started listening ang watching disney animators try to help me see that its okay to be a little messy also tried to do more csi practice but i think its just a good outline idk :/
did them in the order of vr girl > penguin > hand
i mostly drew the vr girl super quick just to see if i could, and while plenty of it is scuffed for the most part she looks OK lol... hands suck though!!
the penguin ended up quite wide despite being pretty aggressive with measuring but somehow all of the proportions still suit their new width??
i thought the hand would be the hardest but it was actually the one i had the easiest time with, some of the perspective is whacky but for the most part im very satisfied... i can definitely see the usefulness of line weight with this one, though.
great activities overall, really forced me to learn some new stuff and try out what works best for me.
•
2d
You did great on these! I think on the hand you got caught up a bit in the details, but I can tell you had the easiest time with it! Proportions aren't super important with this assignment, I think you successfully captured the spirit of it, sketching more loosely with energetic, tapered strokes. Keep up the good work!
•
4d
Your lines in the penguin and hand drawings are great! Exactly the spirit of the assignment. Your proportions are a little off, but that makes sense because you're experimenting with getting loose and using more expressive lines. As you practice you'll be able to focus on everything at the same time, but at this point it's really those expressive curves and straights we're looking at. Those two are definitely successes!
Fun drawings; proportions on the hand were definitely tough. Really need to remember to not over-grip. Appreciate any feedback!
My first attempts on the Level 1 assignments! I feel like I didn't keep them sketchy enough...
First try at the VR girl. I used an H4 for some underlying shapes that were probably more expressive than the HB layer. I think I was trying to get too many of the details and should've kept it as simpler shapes, so I'll try it again after watching the demo.
I tried not to take too long and focus on the lines and making sure to use the searching lines tactic to lightly sketch and eventually get things going. I'm feeling better about it the more I practice this exercise. If there's anything that sticks out that can help me learn faster, I'm all ears.
Here I mine, I did not use an eraser for this exercise, just tried to keep the initial strokes light and then add some darker lines:
•
9d
Oh wow, these are great! This is exactly the spirit of the assignment. Your lines in the hand and penguin drawings are perfect. You start to get a bit more segmented and rigid with your lines in the VR girl drawing, which could possibly be because you got caught up a bit in the details. Just watch out for that, and slow down if you need to to process those more complicated areas while drawing.
I tried to keep my lines loose, use my arm and shoulder, and not spend too much time on each one. The hardest part for me was getting the proportions right at the beginning. I have a habit of erasing a lot at first, but once I get the approximate shapes and forms down, it becomes much easier to finish the drawing
•
9d
I think you nailed it :)
