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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.
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Benjamin Gustafsson]()
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![Samer Fakiani]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![Rafael Gonzales]()
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![@ralk]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Wofard Dunk]()
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![Petar Ristic]()
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![Ilan Jones]()
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![Sabyasachi Goswami]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![francesco zanardini]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Catherine Supnet]()
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![Nat]()
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![@etin]()
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![Blaise Burns]()
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![Geo Lovinaria]()
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![Clément Douziech]()
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![Daniel Cho]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
It’s time to draw the figure! Use the rhythms method I showed in the previous lesson to draw the poses from the photo references in the downloads tab.
Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is 10/6/2023.
- Capture the gesture of each pose using rhythms.
- Spend at least 5 minutes on each pose, ideally 1-2 hours per session. Take breaks as needed.
- Shoot for accurate proportions by eyeballing placement of the rhythms. Have an idea of where the line will end before you execute the line.
- Use the the template as a starting point, but observe the pose. Remember that each pose might have some of their own unique rhythms that differ from the template I proposed. This will develop your own rhythms over time.
- Balance loose, energetic lines with more committed singular lines. Don't let it get too messy. Consider what we've learned about line quality.
Level 2
There are a few ways to make this more challenging. Mix and match based on your comfort and experience.
- Set a timer for 5 minutes to force yourself to draw only the most important rhythms.
- If that's too easy, go for 3 minutes.
- Practice developing the overhand grip.
- Try charcoal pencils (sharpened like a bullet) on newsprint paper.
- Add another layer of smaller rhythms indicating the muscle masses. You can add some time to the clock.
Hello everyone,
I watched the lesson video 3 times and the project video about 4 times by now :') . Every time I try to actually do the assignment, it comes out weird and disfigured with no clear rhythm. I find it hard to really observe and make confident decisions while also trying to keep good line quality and interesting shapes.
Eventually, I allowed myself to be chaotic and messy. The results (photos below) are nowhere near as clean or interesting as what I’m seeing in the comments, but they’re still way better than my previous attempts. I’m wondering how it’s going for all of you and what your process is for tackling this one.
Any feedback is appreciated <3 .
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2d
Nice work, Samer! I really love what you did with the second pose. The simplification of the limbs and the connection between the torso and pelvis feel very rhythmic and fluid.
Remember, rhythms are just a tool for exploring connections in the body, they’re not meant to be a finished drawing. That’s why the second pose works so well, the forms feel connected and unified. Even though both poses are built on a similar idea, the first feels stiffer because the rhythms are more separated and static.
In the second pose, your limbs flow together with longer, cleaner curves. In the first, there are more stops, starts, and directional changes, which breaks up that sense of flow. A good example is the weight-bearing leg. In the first pose, it reads as three separate parts: the foot, lower leg, and thigh. In the second, you simplified the entire leg into two graceful connected curves, which creates a much stronger gesture.
Try to think more like the second pose moving forward. Look for ways to connect separate body parts into one clear, simplified idea first. That strong underlying rhythm will help everything stay unified when you start layering more complexity on top.
It’s really difficult to observe and confidently translate what you see into an appealing design, but you’re absolutely heading in the right direction. Keep at it!
This was a little hard for me, but wanted to show a couple that I've done so far. Will definitely do this assignment a lot since I want to go towards character drawing and design eventually, it's getting me pretty motivated! I'm trying to catch myself before I get caught up in the details and just go with the flow (or rhythm to go with the theme of the lesson!).
Since the assignment description didn't mention "pick a few", I assumed we had to do all of them. The 1st-2nd day were quite taxing. At the end of the second day with ~10ish total done, I could feel my brain throbbing; such is the immense strain needed to process what we see, extract information, then attempt to relay it on paper (or the digital equivalent).
I didn't want what little I knew of anatomy to affect how I would see things, but it was an unfounded worry, because I've never drawn anything from reference before this course, nor any person in such complex poses! Some of the more static, disjointed poses are real brain-teasers.
I think I was trying to see if I could link everything with rhythms at the start, but gradually as I moved from pose 1 to 24, I forced that linking less, and slipped in a bit of measuring (just rough height), a bit of negative shapes, a bit of eyeballing angles, and only did rhythms for the bigger shapes. The arms/legs are indeed very challenging to get right, and more than once I've mangled them to the point that they don't look like convincingly load-bearing appendages.
I've flung any insistence on measured proportions to the wind, but interlocking rhythms with some negative shape checks prevented people from turning into aliens.
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9d
Lovely work 👏 these have some serious style.
i always feel stupid commenting on anything on here, cuz i don't know what I'm doing. but, i think you're very good at gesture drawing.
Enjoyed this project a lot. I downloaded some additional poses from a couple of the posture kits to get more variation for the lesson, but also, I figure I'll try and stick with doing a few hours per week as well to constantly improve my rhythms, so might as well grab some extras!
My sketches below are a bit scratchy, so I need to improve on that. All of them were done against a 10min timer w/ charcoal.
Sorry if these are hard to see. I've tried gesture drawing before and was never happy with the results. I'm feeling more satisfied by these after Stan's instruction. I still admire those who make gesture drawing seem effortless. I'm thinking i need to make this part of my daily routine.
What the Hell !! This is some serious shit people are submitting here. Such clean lines and proportions
Really feeling intimidated posting my stuff now. But frankly it was fun. Seemed like I am getting on the Big boy stuff. Well attaching my submission for Pre-demo. Will do more.
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15d
Hey! Your work is some serious....you know what too! Really solid gestural lines. And remember, someone is looking at your work and feeling intimidated too. Every artist has someone they admire, and feel intimidated by. That never goes away. Keep up the good work!
This has been the most enjoyable exercise for me so far.
I started with charcoal but didn’t feel comfortable with it, so after a while I switched to a blue pencil (I only regretted it once I’d scanned the images because the lines weren’t very clear; from now on I won’t use it for the exercises anymore)
Looking back at all the exercises, I’m happy with some of the poses, whilst in others I notice they’re mainly off in terms of proportions. I’m continuing to practise gesture drawing daily and find it a brilliant exercise.
I’m open to any kind of feedback and thank you in advance.
P.S.: I’ve uploaded the rest of the images in the comments
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21d
You're on the right track! Getting a good handle on gesture drawing takes lots of repetition, so I'm glad to hear you enjoyed this project. Have you tried timing yourself doing these drawings yet? That would be a good next step in your practice if you haven't already.
Had fun with this one! pardon my anatomy and proprotions, i'm still working on those. I tried to do 5 mins on this first run but I ended up going beyond a bit. I would love to hear what I can improve on these!
My first try.
It took longer than I would like it to (a bit over 1h on all 3) but it is very unnatural for me to hold the pen with overhand grip. I had to switch sometimes back and forth to tripod one cause I was getting frustrated (especially in the beginning of every pose when I was trying to be a bit more loose) but I can absolutely see the appeal of lines with overhand. Very fun anyway, can’t wait to draw and experiment more. ❤️
used HB and then switched to 4B pencil
This was fun, very interesting, and challenging. I have to work a lot more on the big rhythms, I think I'm too stuck on the contours without a simple enough first pass with better lines, and struggling a bit with proportions, but I feel like it's improving.
I definitely struggled here. I think I was trying to get "good line quality" so much that I didn't really look for the rhythms too much. I also surely missed the proportions for most of the poses.
That said, the exposure to the idea of rhythms and gesture more generally has been fascinating to me and I'm glad we learned this.
I've certainly moved from "unconsciously incompetent" to "consciously incompetent" when it comes to gesture.
First attempts, will definitely add this exercise to my daily practice. I found that showing a body part to appear closer to the viewer to be difficult but I will get better. Still working on my line confidence as I go over them decent amount.
First attempts before watching demo and critics, I really enjoy to do these figures !
The first dozen were done in 5 minutes each, and the second half was done in 3 minutes per pose.
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2mo
Wow, these have so much weight to them! Fantastic work. 3 minutes is a great pace to work at for this kind of exercise.
