Project - Organizing Line Weight

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

11K

Course In Progress

Assignments 1.5K

Downloads 8

Project - Organizing Line Weight

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

11K

Course In Progress

Assignments 1.5K

Downloads 8

In this project, we'll practice organizing line weight in our drawings.

Level 1 - Trace

Trace over the provided linear version of the photo to avoid getting distracted by proportions. Trace it twice, using two different line weight approaches discussed in the last video:

Hierarchy of importance method - Heavier on the contours of large and important shapes. Lighter on details within.
Shadows and light direction method - Reference the original photo to identify the shadows.

Note: Don't use the depth and form method yet.

Level 2 - Draw from Observation

Level 2 students, in addition to the tracing exercise, try to trace it again, but imagine the light coming from a different direction IF you’re ready for that.

Then, draw from observation, focusing on line weight. Choose objects around you and draw as many as you'd like. If you draw a landscape with a clear foreground, middleground, and background, you can use the depth approach to line weight.

Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is next Thursday (4/13/2023)

@justjen

•

14h

trying some additional drawings to practice making more clean and confident CSI lines and using line weight more accurately.

Jeremy Johnson

•

The first picture was just a warm-up to help give me a better sense of the underlying construction (Thanks, animal construction lessons). For the second drawing, I decided to sketch rather than trace a printout, and I focused on the hierarchy of importance. However, with the shadows and light method, I traced my drawing for the attempt.

@robertni

•

Did some extra exercises to get more familiar with the concept.

CooperLooper

•

Looking at all the other submissions only now I realize how orange all my lights are.

@robertni

•

Second attempt after watching the demo. Don't know why I never understand the projects before I watch the demo, maybe i should watch the demo before trying the project or maybe I should just try to concentrate a bit better the first time 🤔

@justjen

•

Any feedback is appreciated (3rd pic is just the reference drawing--I decreased the opacity).

Ana Valeria

•

Level 1-Trace. Here are my attempts on hierarchy of importance and light and shadow.

Rachel Dawn Owens

•

This is the most beautiful rendition of this exercise that I have seen. The hierarchy of shadow one especially. Nice work!

@tangerine

•

My first and second attempt after watching the demo, as well as the level 2 observation assignment

@justjen

•

I really like your second attempts for both properties. I like the changes around the eyes, especially.

@pug

•

The line quality is questionable, but I hope at least the line weight is correct

Chuck Ludwig Reina

•

Looks great! I especially like the shadow light one. I can really feel the directionality of the light.

@robertni

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Melanie Scearce

•

Great! I think you could go just a bit thicker with the line width in the shadow & light for clarity, but you're on the right track.

Marco Sordi

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2025/10/5. Good evening everybody. Here's the third assignment for this section. Thank u and good night.

Chuck Ludwig Reina

•

Nice job. I can def feel the shadow side.

Marco Sordi

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2025/10/5. Good evening everybody. Here's my assignment for this section. Thanks.

@justjen

•

These look great. Were they done on a tablet/device?

Nick

•

Hierarchy

Nick

•

Shadows and light

Gera Mve

•

All feedback and comments are appreciated :))

David

•

12d

Trying to incorporate the line weight lessons into a few sketches...Comments/critiques welcome! Thanks.

Chuck Ludwig Reina

•

Great looking tardigrade! The lines weights feel nicely varied. One thing you could try to take it to the next level would be push the directionality of the light. This photo has kind of an even lighting around it. Picking the top of the critter for example, and thinking out those lines could help with the feeling of mass for the little fella. Again though, great job, looks awesome.

Tanjiro Hisana

•

13d

The line weight project! Thinking about line weight was harder than expected. I believe my reluctance to loosen up did play a factor into my work, but the idea was to have fun and not only see line thickness as an option. Feedback would be very welcome

Melanie Scearce

•

12d

You did a great job varying the line width in the light direction drawing to clearly show that the light is coming from the right side. The line variation in the hierarchy drawing feels less differentiated and as a result the drawing looks a bit busy. Increasing the thickness of the important lines in that drawing will help further separate them from the less important lines. Overall though you did a great job!

Richard

•

14d

So been a bit busy so these were all over a few days. I did the rhino digitally because I do not have access to a printer at the moment, my line quality is worse but im not very familiar with using a drawing tablet. Rhinos: First one is shadow. Overall think, second is hierarchy of importance. After watching demos, I feel that the shadow one I could have varied the line weight more in places also I emphasized some areas with equal important to other areas. Probably overall needed to push the values a bit more too. The other ones I did Still life - Flip flops - Trying to combine techniques here as this was after watching everything. I used charcoal which again was perhaps harder than I expected for line quality. Street scene - This was mostly focusing on depth. The box was while I was watching Proko demo on this, did a different line angle.

Finn George

•

14d

Bruno Akune

•

15d

Tried to draw my dog

Richard

•

14d

Oh my goodness, they are so adorable. As for your drawing, I like it! if it was me, I'd probably have made the eye lines darker and towards the back much lighter as this hair while an important part, is not as important as his face. Though love the lines around his fluffy snout.

@nelorin

•

15d

Here is my rhino. I tried to make darker lines around the head to emphasize that part of its body since it seemed to be the most interesting to me.

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.