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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![]()
![@ianvannest]()
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![Philip]()
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![Logan Keller]()
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![@jfd]()
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![Rachel Dawn Owens]()
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![Bubbles]()
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![Rachel Dawn Owens]()
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![Jason O'Toole]()
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![Jeremy Fernando]()
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![@ixxpretentiousxxi]()
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![William Montalvo]()
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![Rachel Dawn Owens]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Sergey Kuznetsov]()
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![@brimarie]()
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![Keith Harrison]()
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![Charlie Forray]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Carlos Javier Roo Soto]()
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![Sergey Kuznetsov]()
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![Jose Anton]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Daniel Cabot]()
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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.
Interested in critique on what to focus on to keep improving – I feel like some are working better than others, but in general I could improve the line quality, proportions, and flow of the rhythms
That was a difficult task. But since it was the first time in a long time for me to draw people, it was to be expected. I've tried to focus on getting the proportions somewhat accurate and to keep the lines clean. There is still a looooong way to go and I am looking forward to it. I would appreciate it, if I could get some feedback on these drawings.
The ones I did today. Any suggestions are appreciated. I enjoyed this as I dont come from art background and this assignment definately makes me feel like an artist haha
I did all of the poses, but here is a sample. It was quite challenging, but I think there was some improvement. Did some with overhand and charcoal as well. That was fun.
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4mo
A little mantra that might help some students on this one.:
’Design. Don’t copy.’
I’ve been working on rhythms the past few days, and I have a couple of questions.
I’ve never done rhythms before, and I’ve also never taken tutorials or a course focused on anatomy. I can’t sketch quickly yet. For the first ones I did, I tried to limit myself to 5–7 minutes, but on my more recent ones I’ve been spending a little more time.
How much time is too much? Should I try to time myself every time and aim to reduce the time in the future? Or should I stop stressing about the time and let speed come naturally with experience before worrying about timing?
Also, I have a lot of trouble with legs and getting proportions right, especially since most poses are at weird angles. Would this improve if I learn anatomy later on?
I’m planning to finish Proko’s Drawing Basics, and from there I want to niche down into courses focused on anatomy and people, since my goal is to make a comic.
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4mo
You did so great with this assignment! Gesture drawing is something that you should continually come back to, learn some anatomy as you go. It will help although anatomy is only 50% of it.
Keep making more of these. You did great. The only thing with the legs might be to use fewer lines. Here’s something to help you out:
I love your designs. I made the second drawing for fun as a reminder for all of us.
I really like gesture drawing. I feel it’s my strongest suit at the moment. I’ve been doing it for about 2-3 years on and off and feel like I’ve developed my own rhythms and movements through the body where I can capture the pose efficiently.
These are all 5 minutes, 2 sessions of 1 hour. There's something about gesture drawing for me that really uses a lot a brain power, even though I don't feel I'm thinking all that much, and I end up wiped after a session
Also, for me I think knowledge of anatomy and structure(forms) of the body is extremely useful for gesture drawing, particularly insertion points of the major muscles
One more tip, I found a great gesture drawing app called gesture drawing, sketch boost by jippo on cube rush which really helps streamline the process
Really fun project, and i know i need to keep practicing because my proportions are off, and i still need help finding my rhythm in these poses.
This has got to be the most frustrating assignment for me so far. I've watched the demos so many times, I've done something like thirty or forty poses. Every time I make something it looks awful. The more confident my lines, the worse my proportions. I get stuck in the middle of the pose, not sure what to draw next. I swear I can see the lines as I look at the picture but putting them on the page is a mess. This is the best one I've got so far but it feels terrible. The proportions aren't right, the lines are messy, it's unreal how bad this particular assignment feels to do. I'm gonna keep trying, but wow, it's so discouraging to feel like this is the best I can do. I understand it's a relatively low number of poses overall and it takes a lot to get somewhere, but IDK, I just feel so lost doing these it's hard to explain. Hopefully I'm not the only one who found this to be a really, really hard lesson.
I've been doing gestures every day so I added numbers from my normal practice on that to these.
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4mo
These are great gestures!
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4mo
These look great! I love good gesture drawings.
PART 3 — Level 2 exercise: timing, overhand grip, charcoal pencils
Back with Level 2 exercises. I worked mostly with an overhand grip and later switched to charcoal pencils on proper sketching paper, when they finally arrived. That is a new and challenging medium to me, but one I absolutely loved. The charcoal drawings are messier so far, but I really enjoy the textured, expressive quality of the lines and the feeling of working in something completely new.
I added a timer and pushed myself with 5–7 minute drawings. That led to less planning and, expectedly, more mistakes, but it clearly increased my output, speed, and the feedback loop. This has been especially effective in fighting my perfectionism. My attitude toward drawing feels much lighter now—I don’t cling to individual sketches, I don't feel like I want to add shadows, polish details or to sign them (a good sign, I guess!). I now focus on quantity and mileage, trusting that quality will emerge from that rather than from trying to make each drawing perfect. The mindset of abundance :)
I really loved this entire gesture section and feel ready to move on to the next one. I’m also posting a few imaginary drawings in the casual drawings lesson: https://www.proko.com/s/mp4N
Thank you, Stan and the team for your work and support!
Wow, in my opinion, you've captured the flow of the characters very accurately—well done!
@Melanie Scearce kind of following up on your awesome feedback for my other gestural rhythms lines on my seals, I took a little longer finding these on my figure model. I think they’re a little stronger!
Is it common to ghost in lines, hit some light first lines, lay down that strong attempt, and then go back and clean up lines by drawing in feathering? I feel like I’m tidying up my lines a lot and wonder if that’s a bad habit.
Also I shaded the guy and gave him a spear because I know that was the REAL assignment.
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4mo
I like the spear! That guy looks pretty cool. You've captured a nice feeling here, which is exactly the goal. That workflow is functional for a 'finished' drawing, but for gesture I feel that cleaning up your lines as you've done above removes the energy that I appreciate about gesture drawing.
Don't get too caught up in making your lines pretty here. You're not just laying down lines at random; think tapered strokes, using your whole arm, finding the energy the connects the different parts of the drawing in the form of rhythms.
An overhand grip works wonderfully here, but you can hold your pencil in tripod as long as you're drawing from your shoulder. I think the mushroom warmup is really great for drilling this kind of movement with your arm: https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/warmup-mushrooms.
It can be really easy to lose your place while you're placing lines like this if you're not being careful with your thought process; work at a brisk but not uncomfortable pace. Only go as fast as the speed of your thoughts.
Below is one of my gesture drawings from a figure drawing session. These are 1 minute poses, so I'm working quickly here, but I'm thinking about first, the overall movement of energy through the pose, and second, how I can design rhythms to support the overall movement. Because of the time constraint, some rhythms are just one line, but that line is designed in a way to transfer energy the way I want it to go.
Hopefully this helps!
Here's my first attempt. I think I didn't do very well because I defaulted to capturing gesture as I haven't draw figures in a while and also I should had copy Stan's examples.
And I think I got caught up with the anatomy. If you have any advice, I'll love to heard it. Thank you.
Like the exaggeration and simplification of lines, great decisions to learn from
Level 1, I took all the photos. I didn't do it with a set time; I was experimenting at my own pace and trying to understand how the rhythm works. I think I got it right in some of them.
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5mo
These look great Jose!
Drew 6 poses, started using a overhand grip with my pencil and these were all done using that so changing the way I use my pencil was exciting
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5mo
Some points I'm considering when I'm working on gestures.
