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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.
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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.
LESSON NOTES
In this project, we will practice measuring with a portrait drawing. Accurate proportions are essential for capturing a likeness. We'll break the process down into steps, starting with the biggest shapes and working our way down to the small details. I’ll also show you the various measurements and strategies I use when going through this process.
Join us in the premium course to get access to this lesson, full lesson notes, assignments, demonstrations and critiques!
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Dana Cross-Payne]()
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![@sketchenstein]()
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![Kim Solon]()
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![Nicholas Allott]()
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![Henri Wirth]()
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![@sketchenstein]()
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![Larry]()
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![@sketchenstein]()
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![@sharone]()
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![Anirudh]()
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![Tofu]()
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![@sketchenstein]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![@shadesea]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Max]()
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![Aran Piris Lasaga]()
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![Gerardo Spira]()
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![Darren]()
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![Darren]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
Deadline: Submit your assignment by 07/25/2023 for a chance to be featured in the next critique video!
Use the reference photo and all the measuring methods you learned in the previous lesson to practice drawing a portrait with accurate proportion.
Keep in mind that your layin will get harder as you move from big shapes to smaller details. Don't draw too small, otherwise the shapes of the features will be too small and harder to draw accurate. Keep the photo next to or in front of your paper to avoid distortion.
Expect a careful layin to take about an hour. Don't rush. Worry about accuracy, not time.
Remember - big to small, use straight lines, measure units, double check, find plumb lines, judge angles. Try to have fun!
Level 2, you're doing the same thing for this one. This exercise doesn't change no matter what your experience level is.
The Musketeer photo reference is from the Musketeer Model Pack by Grafit Studio
I got incredibly frustrated with this assignment and eventually had to step away and eventually decided to stop at this point in order to get feedback rather than continuing to spin my wheels.
the blocking out approach did improve my ability to align features and is a marked improvement to my other attempts. However, I struggled with this perspective and the eyes. I like the left eye closer to the edge of his face but the right eye seems the wrong size.
I’ve submitted assignments in this courses previous projects and have yet to receive feedback, so if someone could please respond to this, I really need constructive feedback on this to help identify where I need to improve. Thanks
Another try at measuring - Cate Blanchett. Drawing looks younger than photo, and despite the layover showing a pretty good match, the drawing doesn't have the spark of character as the photo. At a loss what is needed. Thx for any constructive criticism.
This is so hard, I feel like using grid lines is much more easier, but this is much more connected to the previous exercises. Hopefully I will master this someday.
Drawn on an A2 pad (16.5 x 23.4 in). It took a bit to get used to compared to A3, but it was nice for the smaller shapes.
My first attempt, overlay and second go. So much easier to get the placement the second time with the overlay as a reference.
It took a while to learn how to overlay in Krita (the same as in Photoshop), but the feedback is definitely worth it! I’ll use it again for proportion practice and checking.
Was surprisingly a very fun thing to do! I focused and learned a lot even tho I hate the topic proportions.
Have you guys noticed how much the participation has fallen off in these forums since we started with the Pear? I just posted my pic and the next earliest post is 5 days older. Most people give up fast! Congrats on still being here.
I agree! Keepdrawing and don’t give up! Let’s encourage each other and get through this course. Congrats to everyone that’s drawing a little every day.
Patience...patience. Somehow in my drawing he looks more like a Mountaineer than a Pirate.
Looking at some others, I realize I didn't do steps 1-2-3.. I just went right to 3 all at once. I find it difficult to stick to the "big picture" at the begining - step 1.
Took around 3 hrs. Used my mechanical pencil for measurements initially, but they were off and so mostly did the eyeball method. But useful to simplify shapes and more easily get face elements in proportion before launching into the details of step 3.
Learnt alot in this assignment , will try again later. Please any critique is welcome 🙏
Took about 3-4 hours. Even though it didn't match up perfectly, i actually expected it to be way worse. Some parts were real close so i'll take that as my win for today haha.
The first thing i noticed is the misplacement of the eyes and my drawn nose is too small. I drew a horizontal line as i thought the eyes should align with the start of the ear...but the eyes ended up too low.
You nailed it! How did you put your drawing on top of the photo, in photoshop? I have no PS skills but see it would be valuable feedback.
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14d
This is very close for a first try! Great job, and nice analysis 👍
I did two portrait sketches! They are not perfect but definetely decent
Trying to get into digital
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16d
Cool to see you working digital and traditional. Love them both, although I'm a little weary of digital cause I take too many shortcuts some times!
Drawings look solid. One thing to look out for, and this is super common drawing portraits, is to make sure you give enough volume for the hair. Even though the sketch is almost a perfect match, the top of the hair seems a little low / lacking the volume. When in doubt, I err on the side of making more top of head.
Keep it up!
I took a one month break due to work, but I'm back! I'm just jumping right back in where I left off, and the rust will definitely show. ^^;
Here is my attempt, spent about 80 minutes on it with A3-size paper. I'll probably do a few more of these with different reference photos. :)
Challenging one, but very rewarding! The part where I struggled the most was drawing the details. I had to redraw the eyes multiple times because I couldn't get the accurate shape of the model, and I just couldn't get the angle right.
Both of the drawings are actually a little bit stretched out because my paper was longer in height than the photo reference... Sorry William xd
Hi Gerardo, looks like you started well in placing a big envelope shape to capture the whole of the portrait, but in the next step, before trying to place the feather, you forgot to first find the centre line and measure out your thirds. This would have helped a lot in placement and proportions of the feathers. I recommend watching Stans demos again and again until you start to have an idea of the process, and don't be afraid to write out the steps before starting the exercise of finding the shapes as a reminder. Well done, keep going!
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21d
Style 🤩 Great lines. I like the exaggerations you made. The larger hat looks super cool, and while you changed the relationship of his facial features, it still holds up as a whole because you used the idealized ratio: same distance between hairline and browline, browline to bottom of the nose, bottom of nose to bottom of chin. It's not true to the reference image because his face is not idealized...he has extra length on the bottom third of his face. Really cool drawing and great example of how changing proportions using the rule of thirds can transform a reference image into something with your personal flair.
