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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![]()
![@4grounds]()
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![kathryn martinez]()
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![@ndeboar]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Devon Smith]()
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![@ndeboar]()
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![Vanessa White]()
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![@lawrencke]()
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![Vanessa White]()
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![Mariah]()
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![@mattr]()
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![@mattr]()
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![Ash]()
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![@mattr]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Lucas Finney]()
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![@ctellez]()
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![Balaperdia]()
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![Daniel Rodger]()
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![Scott Mooers]()
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
Here is my assignment, the first one if my attempt at doing it on my own then second red one is using the phot adjustment method.
I sort of got going on the drawing and forgot what the assignment was. Here is an outline drawing with some small amount of detail. No rendering. Whoops, the guy is looking the wrong way...
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3d
Agreed with Devon! This is a skill that improves with repetition- not necessarily with the same reference over and over, but like how Devon explained, the correction of mistakes does a lot for your progress. Try this one again and keep moving on to the next.
you really should take another swing at it. I know its boring to draw the same thing, but identifying and correcting your mistakes will give you the most growth.
i think i need to break down my units more. Im guessing anything thats less than 1, and i think it shows :)
Hi everyone! I'm currently working through Stan's lesson on measuring proportions, and I'm really struggling with the actual process of applying the measurements to my drawing. 😭 I spent HOURS on this assignment, and I'm really just running in circles.
I understand the concept of using a measurement unit. For example, in the demonstration, Stan uses the height of the hat as 1 unit, then compares other distances to it (e.g. the face is 2 units high, or the distance from the leftmost point of the hat to the inner corner of the eye is 1 unit). I understand what he's doing and why these comparisons are useful.
However, I'm struggling with how to actually go from the reference → measurements → my canvas.
A few things I'm confused about:
1. How do you determine where to place the first anchor point on your canvas? For example, if the leftmost point of the hat is used as an anchor for other measurements, how do I know where to initially place that point? Am I just roughly estimating it?
2. I'm finding that some measurements result in things like 2⅓ units or ¾ units, which makes me feel like I'm constantly trying to calculate fractions. Is that normal, or am I approaching the measuring process incorrectly?
3. I'm also finding myself putting a LOT of measurement lines and dots on the reference, to the point where I'm confusing myself and can barely see the original reference anymore. I'm worried I'm over-measuring, but I'm also scared that if I don't measure everything, I'm not actually learning and applying the method correctly.
I think my biggest confusion is that I understand what a unit is and how to use it once I have it, but I'm struggling with the process of finding the right measurements/anchors and knowing which things I actually need to measure.
I'm a complete beginner, so maybe I'm overthinking this, but I've spent almost the entire day on this assignment and not getting anywhere. I feel like at this point, I can't even pinpoint where I went wrong.
Would really appreciate any advice on how you approach this exercise, especially the step-by-step workflow from looking at the reference → establishing measurements → placing the initial shapes/landmarks → actually starting the drawing.
For context, I'm drawing digitally on Procreate.
Thank you!!
I am just another student. But here are my advices :
1. You can place wherever you want as it is a reference point. Everything must correctly placed from that point afterward. As for choosing it, select a sharp feature of the model : the tip of a pointy hat, the tip of the nose the iris of an eye, a crease etc...
2. totally normal. I work with 2 to 3 well chosen units and build everything from them. So fraction calculation are common. I prefer having only a few units that trying to avoid calculating fractions personnally
3. You can use line weight and layer opacity (if you work digitally) to better see /distinguish them. Avoid hacing to many construction lines as well. At some point, they become confusing and less efficient than just eye balling the remaining features of a model.
Struggling to find the right unit is normal, only praticing teaches to find the best suited one. Is is also a creative process. It will totally depending of the model, If it is cleary defined (two sharp features horizontally or vertically aligned ) to allow to calculate all the needed distances in 1/3 to 6 units, you are good to go
From what I gather from your issue, you try to set up too many units and construction lines and you end up struggling building from there. Maybe try having less of them and trust yourself to use eyeballing for rest
Hope it helps!
This is my best attempt after 2 days of struggling 😭I find it very hard for me to get the placement for the eyes
This was humbling 😂 I took a little over an hour for layout and then got a little lost in the sauce with my measurements. To be fair, I didn’t have a printer to print the image out so I was looking at my iPad the whole time. I’m definitely working from a physical copy in the future! But I made an overlay and found that my width is off, and his mouth sits lower on his face than in the reference. There were a lot more inaccuracies I was able to find but those two stuck out the most. Overall I learned a lot and I’m excited to try another portrait from a photo reference!
Couldn't help myself. Did one more whilst watching the critique video. Made some mistakes that cascaded. Especially with the width of the hair. What's interesting is that because i made the mistake on the volume of the hair I was really struggling to see the neck because it looked so off in my drawing. When in reality it wasnt too far off but the volume of the head looked out of place. Managed to spend an hour here which is an improvement in slowing down. Found this one challenging. Onto dynamic shapes!
Last attempt before moving on (will definitely be practicing this more in the future). Managed to slow down a bit and completed this one in 45 min. Could benefit from slowing down EVEN more. Pushed her left cheekbone out too far which cascaded into some issues on the left side of the face. Also I pushed her nose too far down.
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10d
Nice work!
Gave it another attempt, mostly eye balling. Think this one turned out decent. I did catch myself rushing and managed to fix some mistakes as I was making them. Did this one in about 30min, think I need to work on slowing down.
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12d
That's great that you were able to catch your mistakes in real time. Keep that up! Slowing down will give you more room to think about those kinds of things. You got a really nice likeness in this portrait. Nice work!
Wow. This assignment was really hard for me. I feel like I spent way to long on it at 3 sessions and about 2 hours. I definitely need to practice this skill a lot more. I think I did okay trying to find some good shapes, but I definitely got lost in some of the proportions, particularly on the right eye.
I tried it once, and ended up really really unhappy with it, so I tried it again and ended up a lot happier. I still think I have a LONG way to go before I feel confident with measuring proportions
I'm failing to simplify things again... I think I'm going to practice that a lot, because otherwise I'm wasting time—or at least that's what I think.
I had a couple of goes at this. I found I had better overall proportions on the second go. Very tricky and the more detail I added the less happy I got with the pictures. Good exercise though.
I did two, one before and after watching all the demos. It's been a while since I've tried to be super accurate with measuring, or just doing portraits in general, so it was a fun challenge. I haven't had a chance to check how accurate they are, but I feel like I'm off in a few places.
