Project - Simple Animal Portraits
Project - Simple Animal Portraits
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lesson video
Project - Simple Animal Portraits
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 1852 submissions
Dave
Being limited to 10 shapes or less was tough. You had to think intently about what to include or exclude.
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hippo.jpg
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buffalo.jpg
2 MB
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rooster.jpg
4 MB
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project-simple-animal-portraits.mp4
183 MB
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project-simple-animal-portraits-transcript-english.txt
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project-simple-animal-portraits-transcript-spanish.txt
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project-simple-animal-portraits-captions-english.srt
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project-simple-animal-portraits-captions-spanish.srt
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ASSIGNMENTS

Deadline: Submit your assignments by 06/15/2023 for a chance to be featured in the next critique video!

Level 1:
Create animal portraits using basic shapes. Try to simplify the animal using 10 shapes or less. Keep your shapes organic and simple. Simple shapes could be stretched, bloated, indented, or curved to capture personality. Don't worry about perfect proportions. Instead, focus on creating cool, simple designs. No details or shading! Use the three reference photos I provided and find 5 to 10 more.

Level 2:
Take Level 1 assignment and push them further. Play with your basic shapes and size relationships to give the animals different personalities. Don't hesitate to experiment and look for additional references to understand your subject better. Now, go have fun!

Jari Lambrechts
Same goes for this one. Dont know if im doing the right thing haha
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Looks good to me! You might be able to break this down into even more indicative shapes though. I feel like that nose / muzzle is pointed at me like a triangle. Finding the right shape language will really help "sell" the drawing. Nice work!
Jari Lambrechts
Really struggling with this one. Made this giraffe, feedback would be really appreciated :)
Melanie Scearce
Really nice line quality in this, great work. You have the right idea. I would recommend simplifying just a bit more in your analysis phase. You want your shapes to hold up on their own, so think of it like you're layering cut pieces of construction paper to create the final image. Find a place to start that makes the most sense. In this case I would either start with the neck, which can be represented by a rectangely shape, or the cranium, which could be represented by a circley shape. Those two shapes will "host" the rest of the shapes. Simplify as much as possible without losing too much information. For example, that lump on the side of the giraffe's neck could stay or go and not really change much, so we could leave it out for now and add it back in later on in the drawing if we were to take it to finish. Once you have those basic shapes in place, you can add complexity to those shapes. I hope that helps!
Vincent GIL
Hi everybody ! Here my attempt to Simple Animal Portraits. Not easy to keep proportions right. I continue to work my lines quality and think about it during the process. Thank you for advices and critiques. Have fun !!!
Petar Ristic
I explored with the hippo quite a bit first - trying different shapes which fit the form. Once I did the final hippo and got comfortable, I moved onto more animals - continuing to keep to simples shapes which suggested form. Then I had a crack at level 2 with my lion sketches. I tried to explore different expressions with round and angled shapes.
Tim Norris
Ok. I see what I did wrong with the hippo now. And I think I got the dachshund. Did I get the cockatoo?
@ralk
10d
My desire to think about structure meant more than a few robo-animals. It's hard to draw from imagination for sure!
Tim Norris
11d
Struggled for quite some time with this because I was using strict geometric shapes. Did about a dozen and couldn't figure out why they sucked so hard! First eight minutes of the Livestream set me right. I look forward to watching the demo. Feedback welcome.
Sean
13d
Had ago was fun to try to push different kinda shapes and silhouettes
Kelly
14d
I had a lot of fun with this one. In addition to the hippo, buffalo, and rooster, I did two cats, a flamingo, some fish, a deer, and a heron. Just some notes on the following: - I really liked the fish. Maybe their more simple shape was just eaiser? - I wanted to capture how dopey/sleepy the buffalo looked, so I used circles for him. Additionally, I noticed that the hippo is very square, and the rooster is a triangle character. I assume that's why they were chosen? - Foxes and cats are hard; largely because they're both cutesy (round/circle), and also predators (triangles) - I really like heron necks. I've drawn them before, but they've got the neat little notch in their neck shape, which I'm just a fan of. I think I'll do some more of these later. Fun project.
Tanner Rice
Went in with confidence for these not really caring for the outcome and had some fun
@al_ic_ja
17d
Simone Couture
Elizabeth Steele
Back from my break! This was a challenging but fun exercise!
Cristopher Briceño
my attempt at the 3 photos in the video and some angler fish, i think i could have done better but is serviceable
@jt0610
26d
Couldn't attach all the pictures due to upload restrictions. I struggled with the zebra but tried to imitate Aaron Blaise's method after watching his video.
@alexnim
26d
@Rachel Dawn Owens This was fun I did notice my line quality not being the best caught myself using my wrist instead of my shoulder and worrying about proportions which made my lines a little wonky. But here is my work. Please critique me🙇
Rachel Dawn Owens
I love all of your animal drawings so much it was difficult to pick a favorite. I think it’s the goat… These are all so great and fun. Try pushing some of the round shapes towards a lemon slice sort or shape. I drew over the flamingo to show you what I mean- This lemon shape could come in handy later on.
@blydoit
27d
I haven't posted for a while. Trying to practice, but losing confidence to share. So here are todays attempts at cockrel. i've numbered them 1-4. the first couple i was trying to learn the shapes, and then by the 4th, i felt more minimalist, if that makes sense.
Sabyasachi Goswami
Really interesting assignment . Had fun doing it. I would say it's neither too easy nor too hard if thought through. Though my shapes could have been better, Also, tried to keep it sketchy. Suggestions please
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Very nice! One suggestion I would have, is don't be afraid to lightly draw through the whole shape. For example on the rooster's head. One of the benefits of using shapes to help build out drawings is that we break free of thinking about outline, and start thinking about the mass of the form. Using this technique will let you take even the most complex subject and take it to any level of finish you like! Keep up the good work.
Clément Douziech
This is really hard haha. Not really succeed to get good ones but it's getting better. Picture from newest to oldest.
Atomosophere
My first wave, more to come when I use a better camera
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