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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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project-organizing-line-weight.mp4
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project-organizing-line-weight-captions-english.srt
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project-organizing-line-weight-captions-spanish.srt
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Brandon Brown]()
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![Carlos Javier Roo Soto]()
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![Carlos Javier Roo Soto]()
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![Robin]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![João Rudge]()
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![Sean Haugen]()
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![João Rudge]()
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![Rich Acosta]()
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![Martha Muniz]()
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![@kotka]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Marty Runyon]()
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![Morgan Wiedmann]()
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![Morgan Wiedmann]()
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![Renato Besen]()
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![@etin]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Juan Albarracin]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![@toki]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![blendraw]()
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![Martha Muniz]()
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![Julia Sperfeldt]()
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![Kasper Mol]()
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)
Here are my attempts at the line weight exercise for both the hierarchy and light and shadow. Feedback would be greatly appreciated to ensure that I am approaching this from the right perspective.
Instead of doing the rhino again, I decided to go with this bike and combine the assignment with the blob approach from Marshall's course to consolidate skills like Marshall call it in one of the last assignments of part 1 of his course.
For the Hierarchy of Line I decided than instead of the overall silhouette, the body work of the bike and the wheels to be the main focus so I give the outer shapes of each fairing the heaviest lines and everything else became subordinate. I hope I was able to separate the light and shadow sides as you see in the little blob study I did in the bottom left, and that I was able to separate the front, middle and back parts of the bike.
Any advice for improving the line quality and communicating the intention correctly?
Forgot to include this little fanart I did for Valentine's Day, I was going for Hierarchy and it was last minute so turn out pretty scuff (Is that the right word?)
Found this a bit challenging because it was hard to create a middle line weight, everything felt like either a thin or thick line.
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6d
These look good Robin!
Depending on the tool you're using, line weight variation can be tricky. But don't worry too much about getting line weight variation in one stroke. It is totally okay to build up the line weight in multiple strokes.
Good stuff! Keep it up.
I tried one level two atempt... draw from imagination, using weight lines to convey depth and shadow... I think I had the right mind in conception but the execution had a lot of problems... quality of lines, perspectiva and a overall flow...
had to do these digitally since i don't have a printer. The first is the hierarchy of importance, 2nd is Shadows and light direction. I am level 1 but tried the change in light direction as a challenge for the 3rd one. They are a bit messy but i just tried to focus on the line weight and not how "good" it might look.
Here it goes my level 1 atempts. I like the final result but not sure with I stick in the right idea of the project or if I stylized too much.
This was tricky as I don't have a printer. I had to lay my laptop down and just trace from the screen. I ended up just tracing the outline and major shapes and just added the details from observations. I still tried to adhere to the lesson as closely as I could.
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13d
Great resourcefulness! And the line weight decisions all read very clearly and accurate :)
I decided to try inventing my own light directions and tried it out. Had so fun that I forgot to do the version from the photo reference. Then, I drew a collection of my art supplies and it spiraled into a whole-day project with several cleanup versions, iterations and testing to print my own line art from a Photoshop clean up.
I really love when assignments accidentally (?) propel you into a deep, immersive vortex of creation.
During the rhino drawings, I had a hard time deciding whether I should emphasize the lines creating cast shadows in the light sections, or leave them lighter to emphasize that these lines "belong" to a light area. I decided to do the latter and tried to stay very consistent with it even when it did not feel logical. These exercises make me really second-guess myself for some reason. Does this happen to anyone else?
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16d
I think you made great calls with these Rhinos. Line is an amazing tool for telling so many things about our work. And yes second guessing yourself is super normal. That's one of the tricky things with art. On one level, it is really important to be humble. We have all learned from those before us and we all can learn more. Art isn't about competition. But when we are in the act of creation it is sometimes good to toss away those thoughts and think we are the best artist to ever walk the earth, so that we can have confidence to tackle the work without pause or hesitation. That's okay too! (Just remember to come back to earth when you put your pencil down!)
So next time you're having that little doubt in the back of your head, try telling yourself "I'm am the world's greatest artist." and see how you go. Maybe it will help with the doubt. OR maybe not, and you at least get a laugh out of it.
Either way, your work looks good! And I love that you went above and beyond on the project. Keep it up!
Here are my attempts. These were actually done over two days. My lines are pretty shaky, but I had a revelation about laying down lines light enough. If nothing else, that's a victory to me. (I realized that I needed to treat my pencil like a brush and stroke it across the page. 50+ years of muscle memory is hard to fight.)
These look amazing, I really like the 2nd one with the focus on light and shadow!
Here is my attempt of the line weight exercise on procreate. Please tell me what I can improve, much love! <3
My attempt at level 1 assignment. After watching the demos, I'd probably change some of my decisions in the light/shadow image to emphasize contrast more.
Here are my attempts, hierarchy then lights and shadows which I found trickier, like deciding how thick to make small creases that are less important for the shape in shadow areas, how to exactly handle high contrast separations that are in light areas, etc.
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21d
Very clean work, nice job!
I'm not gonna lie, this was fun, and i liked doing it w the light and shadow method more. But also, i used Vellum paper for this, because i was originally gonna do it on my iPad but it felt way too slippery, like trying to walk on ice. Guess who's buying a paper texture screen protector ig.
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22d
Nice work! And yeah, those paper screen protectors are awesome. I can't draw on my ipad without one.
Here is my attempt at level 1 for this project. Line weight is something I never really used before, so this was really fun.
I think that hierarchy of importance went great and I do fully understand that one, but I did have some trouble with the light and shadow one. I get a bit confused with the lines that have shadow on one side of them and light on the other side. Like for example with the line that seperates the head from the torso or the 2 dark shadows from skin folds at the backside of the rhino. Where do I make the line thicker or thinner in places like that?
Any other critique is alsof welcome :)
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22d
Great job on these.
To answer your question about the shadow lines, the thing I keep in mind, is further back things get smaller. So shadow lines can actually be smaller the further back the rhinoceros you go. In fact all the lines can if you want. Another thing to keep in mind, is sometimes we are still thinking in terms of importance when deciding which shadow lines to keep, omit, or emphasize. At the end of the day, we are the artists, and it is our call what will make the drawing "work" the best.
Cheers! And good work!
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13d
Really nice variety, especially in the Light & Shadow example! It has a lot of character, which is great! With the Hierarchy of Importance practice, I would encourage you to find more of a middle weight line inside the rhino, using it for areas that are also important inside, like the face/eye. That will help transition the eye from the outer area towards the inner area more, instead of having a starker contrast without a transition. But overall, really good work!
Ooh, that was fun. I don't know if I've done that consciously before or if some things just happen automatically, but this time I consciously paid attention to my lines and I think it looks good.
More challenging than expected, so many choices to be made on line weight and any choice not thought through forces you to go back to the rest and fix it. Tried to put more weight on the shadow but then for my eye it was just pushing those edges to the foreground where they didn't belong. So it made me put more weight on other foreground elements to balance it back out.
