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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.
assignments 2818 submissions
I love the line work by Bernie Wrigntson, the way he varies between hatching that follow the form and hatching that follows the rhythm/gesture. How he uses thin lines in the light and indicate texture, and in the shadows he uses think lines/shapes in a more abstract way.
LESSON NOTES
In this new project, you'll practice to improve your line quality by doing master studies!
DOWNLOADS
project-line-master-studies.mp4
150 MB
project-line-master-studies-transcript-english.txt
4 kB
project-line-master-studies-transcript-spanish.txt
5 kB
project-line-master-studies-captions-english.srt
7 kB
project-line-master-studies-captions-spanish.srt
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
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![@rods2292]()
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![@thesmokingrotoscope]()
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![@lucyadair]()
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![Martha Muniz]()
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![@matt22german]()
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![Vanessa White]()
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![@ravagesquirrel]()
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![Sarah Birkett]()
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![Corey Walker]()
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Pick a master drawing you find amazing and study it, focusing on the artist's use of lines. A big part of this project is about taking some time exploring different artists to figure out what you like.
Select artists you admire, do multiple small studies, and focus on studying the lines. Ignore any shading.
Don’t forget to share your drawings! Include the original master drawing and make sure to credit the artist.
Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is May 11th 2023.
Study of Ayami Kojima, before watching the demo. Proportionally it's a bit of a mess, and I think my focus on that lead to stiffness in my lines. I'd love any critiques on it
I did a study of Dave Malan. Despite the fact that I was clearly not able to capture the same facil expression of the girl, I would like to know how close/far I am from the capturing the lines
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6h
Your drawing looks great! You did draw it at a different angle though, she is more forward-facing in yours. With the lines, I think should try to be more "intentional" with your lines and try not just to match the original. Dave's drawing combines weight and subtle curves in his lines. I notice yours are mostly straight and come across as rigid, and don't replicate the "effortless" feeling of the original drawing. And the mouth, in yours her upper lip is really sharp and triangular in shape, but he kept her mouth line more defined but the upper lip soft and round. Notice the scribble he made at the right side bangs, it is very loose but the line still connects. Follow his lines with your eyes to try and replicate moments like that!
I did a master study of Claire Wendling's "Fée au Champignon". I looked at a bunch of different line artist but her work tickled something in me with its whimsical subject matter and effortless lines. I am a bit torn, very proud of what I was able to accomplish but in the same time have done her work an injustice. I feel as though I was able to capture some of the essence of her work, but lost a lot of the effortless airy nature in the lines (my lines were not effortless at all and it shows lol). I am glad to have found an artist whose work resonates with me and I can feel and enjoy, and for what I learned in this master study and have gained some things I wish to incorporate into my own style on my journey.
In watching some videos of her work (which is memorizing) I saw that she (at least in the videos) uses colored pencils. I would like to try another master study of her work using colored pencil instead of graphite in the future.
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4d
Claire Wendling is such a good choice for this project! My biggest suggestion would be to get some more varied line weight in your drawing, most notably in the fairy's body. Claire's line weight looks a bit subtle in parts of this drawing, but it's most visible in the underside of the mushroom. She also went a bit dark there in general. It can help if you're using a regular pencil because you can hold it on its side to get the thicker part of the pencil to do the thinking for you!
For my studies, I decided to focus on Kamome Shirahama, author of the Witch Hat Atelier series, and Takayoshi Sato, the character designer for the Silent Hill series. The struggle with translating Shirahama's work was the larger areas of black in the drawing, and thinking about how I could translate that with line. Looking at the thumbnail from a distance, it seems to have worked decently, but I'd be loathe to make that same assessment if I was closer. Studying a manga panel in particular was illustrative of just how fine the strokes on a page can get, and part of the challenge was controlling thickness as much as tonal quality.
Sato's sketchwork was much more difficult to emulate, however. Something that I'm not only noticing in hindsight is how the line work around the side and front of Eddie's (the character) face indicates the plan on which the lines are traveling, informing the directionality of his sketch, something I definitely think I missed, looking back at my own attempt.
First try at the Jeff Watts master study! I did it with a pencil because I'm not really comfortable with charcoal.
i guess i'm not a big fan of master studies because i really had to force myself to "finish" this assignment.
i did two studies of eliza ivanovas artbook and already had a hard time with the lines. Her lines often seem to be drawn in one stroke? Which looks nice on paper but was hard to replicate. Also there are these random lines that just happen during the drawing process. Can't tell if i really learned something regarding lines, but at least i tried...
feedback as always much appreciated.
I tried to do a couple different studies. I did Charles Gibson, Glenn Keane, and Jose Garcia.
I think my proportions are off, but I hope it looks somwhat like the artists style!
It was very hard to replicate the artists' tapered lines. Also, drawing faces is hard lol!
Does anybody have any tips on how to do thick tapered lines?
I can do fast, thin tapered lines okay but when I look at glen keanes work, his lines look thick/ darker but very smooth.
Is there a better pencil I should use or is it using the overhand grip or drawing with the sideof the pencil rather than the tip or something else?
I use an HB/2B pencil most of the time.
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7d
Hey there! These are good selections and pretty good studies! I see what you mean when you ask about thicker, tapered lines -- how are you currently gripping your pencil? Using more of the side of the pencil tip should get you more variety in weight and ability to get thicker lines. Also, sharpening your pencil with an artist's blade, so more of the side of the graphite/charcoal is exposed, combined with an overhand grip, will get you thicker lines as well. Check out https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/sharpening-6-types-of-drawing-pencils for more info and experimentation on what you prefer to work with! But even just with an HB/2B, angling it so you get more of the side of the tip should get you to the level of thickness Keane is using. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!
My attempt of a crocodile by Heinrich Kley. All the fine details are hard to get with pencil but I hope I am getting the point of this exercise. I got thick dark outlines, the small lines following the form, more darker hatching in the shadow areas. Any feedback and critique is appreciated
I saw a submission using Studio Ghibli reference, absolutely loved it! Which reminds me of an underrated Ghibli movie, The Tale of Princess Kaguya. A really beautiful film, slow paced, but really got audience rethink about many things. (Highly recommend anyone to watch it if you have the time!)
So I decided to go with this. The lines were quite subtle in my opinion, but also emphasized when needed to. So here’s my submission. Appreciate any feedback that can help me improve! :)
Studies from Dan Mora from Superman issue #39 and Kinu Nishimura from the 25th anniversary Art of Street Fighter.
Line Master Study of Hayao Miyazaki and fellow animators at Studio Ghilbi. It's not the most complex drawings but I have always been drawn to how Miyazaki creates such expression with key lines on the face. I definitely learned how to enhance expression with character design- sometimes less is more! (sorry the pencil is so light)
I chose this charcoal study Norman Rockwell did of Ticket Agent for his April 24, 1937 cover of the Saturday Evening Post. I don’t know how many hours are in this drawing but I would say more than 20. There’s also a bit of value in it. Even though I seem to not be able to completely follow the instructions, please let me know what you think.
Amidst all of you guys' amazing master study, would anyone give me tips on my humble sketch? I'm trying to wrap my head around how the artist draw their line weight, but I feel like I can't seem to grasp a simple sketch like this one 😭
Any tips are appreciated! And hopefully I can also serve as someone's motivation to post here even if their drawing is as bad as mine haha XD
Original art is by glen keane
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21d
Even though it might seem simple, that can be deceptive! Glen Keane has a strong understanding of anatomy and how to translate that into gesture. A major thing I'd note to be aware of in his art is how the chest/torso/body are all started with one curved stroke, and built out from there. It's important to let your pencil follow through as you draw, and not cut it off abruptly.
As for line weight, definitely utilize the side of your pencil's point, and draw lightly to gradually build up a thicker line.
This video on rhythms may be helpful if you're interested in drawing more figures, as it details some methods for how artists sketch the body and connect the different parts together through the natural flow. Keep up the great work!
https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/draw-any-pose-from-any-angle-rhythms
My studies are after James Montgomery Flagg. I did some research and learned that he used brush and ink for all of his line work, so I ordered a sable brush and ink for the future. But for this assignment, I used my Micron liners and brush pens to try recreating his lines as best as possible 😊
