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.
Study of Dave Malan.
lines: focused on trying to get the energy/rhythm of his lines and patterns. i know not all of the lines are matching his but i wanted to focus on the technique and not creating an exact copy of his
proportions: pretty happy with the proportions although I do see now her eyes are a bit bigger than they should be and her right hand (screen left) is a bit smaller than it should be
Conan after Karl Kopinski, mermaid after Claire Wendling. I was very disappointed with Conan. I teared up with my disappointment. So today I had to clean the slate, I feel better about the second.
First submission here for me. I decided to study a caricature done by Mort Drucker of Marlon Brando as Don Corleone in The Godfather.
I have always found the work done by the MAD artists super fascinating and inspiring.
I know we weren't supposed to shade, but I couldn't resist my self in some areas. The drawing is blocked-in with the Loomis method, I used a 0.45 mm Pigma Micron and a fine brush pen for the line studies. Should probably used a thinner fineliner some places.
This is gonna be a fun project to revisit.
I'm a big fan of both Loomis and Drucker, so really appreciated seeing your Brando line study today. Good work! My only constructive critique would to be to keep an eye on the relationships of the lines, shorter neck, distance between forehead lines to side hairline, etc. so that we can feel more of the heft of this character. While it's still very clear who it is, this slight difference makes him appear more slender and posh, akin to a David Niven character. You're close, however, and it's still a wonderful rendering. I hope to see more of these from you!
Nice job, and you picked such a fun master work to study from :D
Overall good work capturing the tapering of line weight and the line efficiency/cleanliness. The only other thing I would point out from the original is that the outer linework uses heavier weight than the inner line, which helps it stand out, create a hierarchy of importance, and feel cohesive as a whole. Hope this helps!
Here is a partial copy of an illustration by P. K. Russell. I decided to focus on the head, instead of the whole illustration. I noticed a couple of mistakes myself. But I'm interested in what other people notice. I'm going to retry after getting feedback.
I think you did a good job capturing the shadow of the nose. As for the mistakes that jump out at me the most, when it comes to the linework- the original has a lot of sweeping, uninterrupted, confident lines in the curls of the hair, and I'm not seeing much of that in yours. As for the overall picture, the proportions are a little off- the lower half of the face is a bit elongated, and the mouth placement is a bit off. I'm sure this will be a fun one to try again down the line to really see your progress!
Hello Everyone, hope you‘re doing great today.
I did master studies of:
Eliza Ivanova and Tim Mcburnie. The references are attached.
I started with Tim Mcburnie Scene. I really liked the scene but it was hard for me to get a feel for the lines, maybe because the differences were really subtle.
So I tried the Eliza Ivanova one as a second try because I was more to able to feel the lines and understand their purpose more clearly. If that makes sense.
Yeah, I would agree about the Mcburnie scene. It has beautiful use of line, but it's rather difficult to make it out for its own study given how well it's integrated with the rendering. As for Ivanova, the study is quite close, but there are a few notes I think can help:
- The line weight is used most heavily around the areas of emphasis. You applied it properly for the area around the face, but you can also notice it in the original for the toes grabbing on the branch and the fingers grabbing the fruit. Having not just one place to center the attention helps continue the flow throughout the piece, avoiding a static focal point.
- Ivanova's use of strokes for fur detail is very economical and distinct. With rare overlapping, each stroke feels very purposeful and intentional, and the simplicity prevents weighing down the drawing or creating unintentional focal points.
- It's a very masterful piece for line flow, and I think warming up with line quality exercises beforehand as seen here https://www.proko.com/s/iu1Q can really help loosen up a bit and get closer to that level of fluidity. Of course, it's not an overnight thing to achieve, but every practice session helps.
This was a really fun assignment! I did master studies of two artists:
Jahnoy Lindsey and Mingchen Shen
I like Jahnoy's line art because it's very sketchy and I see a hierarchy of importance when it comes to his lines. The contours of the characters are heavy compared to the "light and scratchy" lines within the contours.
Mingchen's lines are very loose. The reference attached is more of a sketch, but I wanted to study the line variation of these characters.
Good work! You have the same hierarchy of line and line quality in the Jahnoy digital studies. I would just say that the Mingchen study could practice a greater range in line weight like seen in the original. It may have to do with using traditional tools, so practicing tapering towards thicker lines would be beneficial to incorporate into your warmup. You may find this video from earlier in the course helpful as well: https://www.proko.com/s/M8iG
Very cool! You captured the tapering of the strokes, the confident lines, the curving and continuity of lines in certain places like the nose and brows. I do notice that the original has an interesting rhythm to the hatching, like around the bottom left area for the hair for instance, that has a repetitive quality that I think lends itself well to overall geometric composition. It's always amazing seeing the smaller details that build up to a very harmonious piece from a master artist.
I started studying the line weight but then I got the urge to try to finish the whole thing. That made it really hard to focus on studying line. But I really like doing these and I'm going to do a few more. I'll keep them simpler now though going forward.
Nice picks :) You captured the use of line weight and hatching details in the Otomo study very well.
I think for the Ivanova study, flow is a very good quality to note and emulate. There's a certain rhythm to her linework that carries flow throughout, starting from certain points of tension in her hair and leading downwards into the figure. Everything starts from a "pinch point", expands, and compresses again, creating a pleasing ebb and flow with balance.
As for Kley, he's the master at explorative and imaginative linework, something reflected in his "scribbly" lines left in--like around the small figures indicating the floor or the clothing folds. It's almost like watching his thought process unfold, while also creating an interesting continuity and motion for the piece as a whole. I'd highly recommend checking out Marshall Vandruff's series going through Kley's work more in depth, it's such a treasure trove of information: https://youtu.be/NJYnHNCmHFY
I chose David Malan & Oleg Yurkov. I love how loose Oleg is but his lines are so perfect and confident. It was really hard to mimic but I’m going to keep trying. It’s not necessarily the style I want to have as I grow but it’s fun. And Dave Malan is awesome I love his lines and it’s challenging to copy, I know my proportions are wrong but I’m going to keep doing these studies. I got behind on the course and am trying to catch up, I had a baby but now I’m finally finding a little time to draw again!
Nicely done! I think you captured Malan's hatching style quite well. You've got the variation in weight and thickness that gives it three-dimensionality. Malan's choices seem largely informed by the plane changes, which will be covered more in-depth later down the line or through the portrait course, so it's good to start getting a feeling for it. For Yurkov's studies, I think you captured the most important part, which is his construction through-lines that set up the structure for the drawing, along with the searching quality of his strokes. If there's something to take note of for future practice, it would be his use of line weight that he applies to tighten up the drawings and add more volume. Overall good studies, great work! :D
Masters:
Cris Metzen (bear thing creature)
Tatsuki Fujimoto (Girl with horns)
Kentaro Miura (Girl without horns)
I feel like I completely failed the exercise, most of my lines look the same and I'm not even sure should've I tried to ink stuff since I'm complete noob with it, especially brush pen (girl with horns).
Furbolg was done with liner and I kind of like it more but it's still feels like messy lines, where when you look at Metzen sketch - it shows fur. It's kind of funny to look demo or critiques and easily observe and understand line types and differencies but when you start doing it yourself its just 3 lines that you're able to execute : thin, thicker, super-thick.
I think these were pretty successful, especially the ink examples. They show your understanding and careful attention towards line weight and variation. The pencil study also shows some variation but it could have a greater range, though you could just be being limited by the pencil itself. I would recommend (re)visiting this video to assess your sharpening/grip: https://www.proko.com/s/M8iG
When it comes to using line to render fur, something I noticed in the original was that it used the tapering to indicate volume, both by curving around the "egg" shape of the arm and adding the heaviest line weight at the core shadow. You could try tapering strokes or playing around with different line variations in a single stroke as a warmup, but you're on the right track. I hope this helps :)
Took a cue from Stan in the critique and only focused on a small part. It’s to easy to become overwhelmed otherwise. I see the value in this but it’s not as easy as it looks.
Hi! Such a beautiful example you picked for hatching, it blends so smoothly into the shading but you can still see the individual lines close up. It's a good idea to take a smaller section to study, and the neck is an especially good pick. Something that I think stands out about the original is the cleanliness of each placed line--try starting all the lines from the same direction and being intentional about their placement rather than going back and forth in one go, in order to prevent a messy zig-zagging. This will also help with controlling the line weight, as the lines taper out in the same direction in order to indicate a change in value as a group.
I chose Jim Lee, Ivan Reis, and Bruce Timm. It's interesting to see how different the lines are from each artist. I'm surprised these turned out as well as they did. Looking back I think I could've made Batman's brow lines and bottom of the eye thicker. I also should've taken back more of the line that makes up the end of his nose. I think the absence of that line conveys the roundness of his cowl?
Here are my Master Studies from Shiyoon Kim, Glen Keane, Stephen Destephano and Steve Lowtwait.
I struggled to replicate the confidence seen in the master's strokes because I was also making sure the drawing matched the original work. I know Stan said it is not supposed to be a direct copy, but I find it hard to strike that balance.
All critiques are welcome!
Awesome job! I love all the examples you picked and they all have such great qualities to learn from--looseness, confidence, and weight variation. I think you did great replicating their work, though something that stands out to me from Glen Keane's work is the presence of his searching lines as they add a sense of movement and gesture and give insight into his process. You can see this especially around the arms for the Tarzan examples, where he starts to mark the general area before going into smaller details, but the lines give a sense that he was thinking and working things out on the page in a continuous flow. I think these lines are worth studying as they help you get a sense (and muscle memory) of the rhythm that eventually led to the tighter, cleaner final drawings that carried such energy and feeling.
Reply
Show all replies (1)
Gift Cards
Gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store
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!
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.