Project - Simple Animal Portraits

10K
Course In Progress

Project - Simple Animal Portraits

10K
Course In Progress

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!

Newest
RB CG
1d
did a lot of roosters, still unsatisfied with the results
Martha Muniz
Great variation from sketch to sketch! I like how you explored rounder vs sharper edges. Try focusing on using shapes rather than focusing on line by line, which is more like the previous CSI project with the snail and boots. Instead, look at the major building block shapes, like circles and rectangles or triangles, that make up the image. For example, with tackling the rooster, you can start by simplifying the head into a circle and the neck into a blobby oval, and the rest of the shapes for the beak/eyes/comb can be layered on top.
@utopianprince
Some post-demo animal portraits. I am particularly proud of that very simple four-shape whale! This was such a fun and empowering exercise—I’ve been enjoying doing a few more at a time whenever I have a few minutes during the day. An ongoing challenge I’m experiencing is what to do with soft textures and shapes—you can see with the dog on the bottom right that I’m struggling to very simply represent the dog’s fluffiness without losing all of the underlying structure.
Rachel Dawn Owens
If you want to draw a fluffy critter, it’s ok to loose the structure a bit. The face or paws could be where you add some structure. For the fluffy bits, big squishy shapes work. Youre doing great with these. Nice work! 👍
Julia
6d
I feel like something is missing with my shapes? I tried to be thoughtful about them, but I'm not sure if I'm on the right track. Maybe some of the shapes I'm designing need to be more dynamic.
Melanie Scearce
I kind of think about it like paper cut outs. There's typically a base shape that you build off of -- oftentimes its actually the part that most if not all other parts connect to. I like to 'draw through' my shapes, meaning designing the shapes that go underneath other shapes. I find that it helps me to design more convincing shapes this way. In the case of the chicken, I think the shape that the head and neck form is the part that all other shapes stem from, so I would start there, layering each shape as if I was physically using paper cut outs. Overlapping and inserting shapes where I can so that they work together cohesively and have good flow between them. Shapes are well designed if they can stand on their own. A good shape is simple, abstract, and are easy to read. I think you've done a good job designing shapes with these characteristics, and maybe what is missing is the intention behind the relationship between the shapes. Hope that makes sense and is helpful to you!
L Kelly Jr.
It was definitely interesting trying to simplify them into an assortment of repeatable shapes but I think I like these ones
@toph
8d
I’m Starting to realize that I’m really quick to be harsh with myself if I don’t understand how to draw something on the 1st try. With this assignment I needed a second to just explore the shapes and how I wanted them to interact with one another. If anyone has critiques that would amazing!
Enzo reda
Some days i'm happy with my drawings and some days like today i just want to burn my sketchbook and never touch a pen ever again in my life... (not going to start a fire don't worry ✌️)
@chikki
8d
They're really pretty!
@linetime
10d
Still need to play around with the assignment reference photos but I tried out a capybara the same way. Some ideas really didn’t work but some did!
Maren
11d
I went too far with my shapes I think, not as simple as the homework assignment asked for, but I had so much fun with these!
Patrick Bosworth
Excellent!! I love the characterization of each, the shape language really informs the personality. The anxious one reminds me of Courage the Cowardly Dog! Awesome work!
Melanie Scearce
Great shape language! These are fun.
Isaiah
12d
Had Fun with this first attempt before demo and critiques. All the references are the provided ones. look forward to finding some more animals🙌 the detailed one top left was for another project, yet fit right in with where I'm at with the lessions.🫡
Jake Guillereault
Here are all the portraits I drew
Jake Guillereault
here are all the references i used minus the hippo because i couldn't fit it in this post
Jessica Ambron
Tried Level 1
@ryandt21
16d
This was a fun exercise! Struggled a bit with the bat and rhino but the others went fairly good.
Bohdan Fedorchenko
I overcomplicated things at the beginning and wasn't very happy with the first three. After the demo tried more and had a lot of fun. Even tried level 2, but the shape design is kinda lacking
Stephen Clark
I get what you mean. It does look like you warmed up and then were having more fun exploring proportions and shapes in the later ones. My favorite of all of these is the ostrich. That one's got so much personality that you really nailed in your drawing. I also really liked seeing all the different variations of the bird on the last page. That kind of thing is so important to how you learn to utilize reference and add character and you seem to have a good hold on that!
Juan Andres Gonzalez Trejo
I just did the rooster, more be cause all the funny faces (sorry for the last one), going to do other animals too :D
@landsloth
21d
Had fun doing a few of these the other day. Posted the ones I'm happiest with (forgot to save the ref pictures)
Moses
21d
Whew, this one was really hard again!!
@dukal
23d
I've done some simplifications from memory and reference. I've used the monkey from the live stream et moved on to my others simplifications I've previously done. My cat look a little bit like a dog but I like it. And I've drop a bean shape for bonus points 😂
@brimarie
22d
Hey Dukal You did a really great job - they all turned out great!
Jose Anton
29d
Level 1. I tried to find shapes and make different designs for them. But I couldn't do it. I probably should have simplified everything more.
Martha Muniz
I think these are cool portraits! Though I think you already got the spirit of finding the simple shapes with your original undersketches in the blue pencil, as really that's the purpose of this practice -- finding the main structure to later guide the detail on top. So keep at it, you've got this!
Michael de Graaf
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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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