Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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lesson video
Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8567 submissions
Vance Viggiano
When you can't decide on Level 1 or Level 2. I thought it might be fun to try it on gray paper. Everyone's work is inspiring! Happy to be learning with you all!
LESSON NOTES

Alright guys, let's jump into the deep end and see how you do! I feel like we've been talking a lot and not drawing enough. So, before we move on to learning about Lines, I want to give you an opportunity to spend some time doing a simplified drawing. You’re going to draw a pear or portrait if you’re doing the level 2 project. I know… A fruit isn’t the most exciting thing to draw, but it’s going to allow you to focus on the process I’m going to show you, instead of being distracted by a difficult subject matter.

This will let us see where you're at with your skills. It’s totally fine if you're at zero. Kind of expected actually. But, you'll identify right away what you struggle with. And you’ll be introduced to a lot of the skills that you’ll be working on improving in this course.

You can draw from the photos I provided in the downloads tab, or find your own fruit and draw from life. Pick a fruit that has an interesting shape you like. Put the fruit on your desk and shine a light on it. Move the light around until you like the balance of light and dark shapes. 

If you don’t want to draw the photo I provided, or you want to do more than one, feel free to find your own photo. Just make sure you choose a photo with a strong single light source that creates a clear separation of lights and shadows. Many moons ago I wrote a blog post about good photo reference.

Make sure you take a photo of it from your point of view, so you can include it when posting your drawing in the community. If you want to be critiqued by me or others in the community, we'll need to see what you were drawing. 

Join us in the premium course to get access to this lesson, full lesson notes, assignments, demonstrations and critiques!

DOWNLOADS
jpeg
level-1-pear-1.jpg
2 MB
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level-1-pear-2.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
level-1-pear-3.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
level-2-portrait.jpg
1 MB
mp4
project-simplify-from-observation.mp4
183 MB
txt
project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-english.txt
5 kB
txt
project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-spanish.txt
6 kB
file
project-simplify-from-observation-captions-english.srt
9 kB
file
project-simplify-from-observation-captions-spanish.srt
8 kB
ASSIGNMENTS

Use the reference photos in the downloads tab or go find your own reference and start drawing! Remember, this project is all about simplifying to clarify.

Make sure to keep these 3 things in mind:

Shapes - Draw your shapes with straight lines
Values - Use only 5 values. 2 in the shadow and 3 in the lights
Edges - Make every single edge sharp!

I'll publish my drawing demos of both levels next Tuesday so you can watch me go through the problem solving process. For a chance to be included in the critique videos, you must submit your drawing to the community by January 26th, 2023, so I can begin filming and producing the critique video.

@sublimey
19m
My first attempt... i tried to have sharp edges.... how bad is it?
Bruno Villarrreal
My first attempt (sorry for the paper, it won’t happen again), I have issues during improving the edges because I used dark likes to mark the limits, but there is more to learn 😅
@floridaestresso
I redid this exercise in Krita and while i noticed i was able to get 5 clear values as opposed to the 3-4 i was getting from pencils, it occurs to me that it is not easier in digital software that i had not touched in 3 months with brushes i had never used before. So there's a definitive gap in my knowledge there.
@ethanmm
11h
Attempt #2 at The Pear has been made (left) after watching the Demo. I can honestly say that I am pleased with the improvements in the balancing of shading from the first to the second attempt, though obviously there is more work to be done. Any feedback or suggestions for how I can make sure I keep improving, especially on shading, would be massively appreciated.
genevieve pluhowski
Level 1 exercise
Melanie Scearce
Very nice pear, you nailed it!
H K
1d
First try at the pear exercise - any feedback is welcome. I did this in photoshop and struggled with deciding what brushes to use. It is not as intuitive as traditional drawing so I am lacking the lines. I will take any brush recommendations as well. Thanks!
Amileaminute
Attempt 1 for Level 2; Attempt 3 for Level 1 - Thank you for your feedback!
Christopher Hubbard
@cchaney
7h
Woah! That's awesome, you have so much talent keep up the work!
Patrick Bosworth
Nice work! I love the hatching around the circumference of the pear, it really gives it volume. Keep it up!
Priya Herian
My portrait before watching your video.
Priya Herian
Post video pear - stuck to planes and sharp transitions as best as I could
Priya Herian
Hi, new to proko and started this course. Here is my pear before watching your video on how to do it. I’ll upload a version after watching this. Any feedback will be great - I used a hard charcoal pencil using the overhand method and used a white just for a couple of highlights.
@ethanmm
2d
Any feedback on what I did here would be massively appreciated. I tried to keep five obvious values, but I think I was just too inconsistent in the way I held the pencil and the way I shaded. Also, surprisingly, I used two different brands of pencil (Prismacolor and Derwent) and one was definitely superior to the other in terms of quality of application to the paper.
@cosmicdaisy
Arca Ludo
Level 2
Kayla Lamb
Dummy Inc.
Trying my hand at this course again. I think i could have captured some of the proportions and shadows better.
@jelmen
3d
Two simplified portraits. Really struggled to get 5 tones in and 5 tones only with only HB, 2B and 6B at hand. With the second portrait (left) I kept my pencils sharp and really tried to us the tip, which worked way better I think. Would love some feedback on how to improve!
yuwin sapumana
Complete beginner to drawing or any form of art. Doing this digitally in procreate. Used ink pen and HB pencil. Use the smudge tool to blend the shadow
@amarriestrouble
Well here it is, hopefully the first of many. Couldn’t get the shading down maybe I’ll redo it after watching the demo but not to bad this time around.
Martha Muniz
Hi there! I think you've got a good placement for the value shapes overall, but you started a bit too dark so they all look similar to each other. Leave your lightest value blank on the page, so it's basically pure white as the lightest level, and your 2nd lightest value will be a very lightly shaded grey, try the softest/lightest pressure you can manage. That will help distinguish your values from each other, giving more clarity to what you already have :)
Bigbrovc
4d
Two attempts. One on paper, one digitally. I found sketching and coloring on digital more difficult than on paper
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