Proko - Project - Simplify from Observation

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Project - Simplify from Observation

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.

assignments 3726 submissions

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

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level-1-pear-1.jpg

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level-1-pear-2.jpg

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level-1-pear-3.jpg

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level-2-portrait.jpg

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mp4

project-simplify-from-observation.mp4

183 MB

txt

project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-english.txt

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project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-spanish.txt

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project-simplify-from-observation-captions-english.srt

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project-simplify-from-observation-captions-spanish.srt

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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.

@virgilo

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First assignment, i used blending stumps for testing (pic. 2). I would love to have feedbacks :). I haven't watched Stan's demo yet, but will draw another pear after I do.

Jason Wall

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Did a pear a month ago once and finally back to practicing. Here's an attempt. Any and all criticism welcome!

Norah

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10h

Hello the pear is my first attempt for the assignment while the orange is my second , note : after the pear I did watch the demo but I didn’t understand , but second attempt is long after months of the pear so it did help a little but not much because i didn’t understand and don’t remember , my question how to see the half tones ( values other that light and shadow) ? and I notice the the lines of shading has direction , how to do that? And is there anything else need working please let me know!:)

@oliveoil

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Attempting level 2 before watching the demo :) do I have hope?

Melanie Scearce

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There's always hope :) You got a great range of values here. My piece of advice would be that instead of drawing symbols of an eye or a mouth, draw the shapes that create the illusion of an eye or mouth. You're simplifying similar values while still expressing the idea that there is an eye or mouth there. This will help you simplify not just the eyes and mouth, but all parts of this portrait. See how much you can condense into one shape while still leaving the essential information. If you lose the information you need, reel it back a bit. Experiment and have fun!

Zubin

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really fun first assignment ! Now going to watch how the master did it. Cheers

@walkingsimulator

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1. without demo, 2. and 3. after. In the 3rd i tried to not do outlines again but i guess i still got some. Defenetly struggled to keep my values consistent throughout the whole areas and to keep the edges sharp after doing the shading without outlining afterwards.

Melanie Scearce

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Nice pears! You did a good job keeping those values distinct.

Skye

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I haven't been keeping up with art and felt stuck on where to start so i'm back to basics I guess~ Lovely seeing everyone else's art and how differently everyone handles the same challenge.

Audrey

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Wow first assignment done! I put it off long enough. Left is before watching Stan and right is after. Definitely an improvement in following the assignment, but I’ve still got a long ways to go. I tried a banana I have but the shape was proving too difficult for me so I used the provided images.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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There’s a huge difference already! Maybe revisit the banana again. Don’t over complicate things. You got it.

@kyokolwk

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First assignment! Before (right) and after (left) watching Stan’s demo. I didn’t realize how much I’d been oversimplifying the shadows :')

Jacob Hogarth

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first assignment done any guidance or advice I’m very novice as you can see.

Martha Muniz

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I think it's a good start! You have all the correct placements overall with value groupings. I think continuing to practice control with your pencil would help bring it to the next level. Starting out your shading a tad lighter overall, with a lighter hand over the paper, can help you build values with more control. Try also to fill in the page completely when you shade, so avoid leaving any white gaps between the strokes. Lastly, it's good to use an outline to mark where to place your values, but try doing so with a lighter line -- aim for something light enough that it can seamlessly blend into the values once you shade them in, so the outlines don't stand out too much. Overall, I think you're already on the right track, so these tips can just be helpful to keep in mind as you keep going :)

Bislan Arakelian

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it was hard

Martha Muniz

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It looks pretty good overall! The only thing I would watch out for is that your 2nd and 3rd lightest values don't get too similar, since it's a bit difficult to tell them apart. The 2nd lightest value could be slightly lighter in that case. But it's just something to keep in mind going forward; I think you're on the right track-- so keep going! :)

Suryanshu Rai

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@viv343

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My pear

Martha Muniz

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Good start, especially with the control of tone with your pencil -- the values look consistent and solid! I would recommend thinking about the way you place the values as two different groups -- there's the light side (where the light hits the pear directly) and the shadow side (the area of the pear on the left, plus the shadow on the ground). Keeping these two main groups in mind helps guide how you will place the 5 values on your scale -- the lightest 3 values will be on the light side, and the darkest 2 values will be on the shadow side. Keeping these groupings on their respective side will make the placement of the values more approachable and help organize your drawing so it reads more clearly. Let me know if you have any questions! :)

Sharana Bek-Dhonre

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first assignment done! Was really scared to start drawing at first. I've wanted to learn for years now and I finally started.

Melanie Scearce

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Welcome! This is a great start ✨ Is there anything that surprised you or that you found interesting during the process?

Caden Y

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I tried a couple more after the pear, I think the bowl/egg one ended looking off but I can't figure out why. I do like how the second attempt on the tomato turned out though, I think it looks a lot clearer than the first one!

Martha Muniz

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Really beautiful work handling the values -- it's really solid work! I think with the bowl/egg -- it might look a bit off because the egg in the drawing has stronger contrast, so it appears more graphic/cartoon-like. It's on the right track with the core shadow dividing the egg, but the darkest area on the egg does not necessarily need to be the darkest value on the scale. If you compare the darkest area on the bowl to the darkest area on the egg, you will notice the egg never gets as dark as the bowl, so bringing the egg's shadow values up a level in brightness can help bring it to its proper place and make it feel more realistic. You might also want to consider toning the background, since that contrast helps define the bright whiteness on the egg, in place of giving it a more graphic line to mark the edges. Overall, I think you're doing great work, but hopefully these tips help push it a bit further :)

Caden Y

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@looming

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definitely more of a beginner traditionally and intermediate digitally, so i figure id do both assignments as such

Janfit

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That was a fabulous job on the portrait! I think you captured his face well and ever so slightly changed it to match how you see him through your eyes. Very creative. I'm going to try that.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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Both of these have very nice, clean, clear shapes of value. Great work!

Logan Semien

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This is my first time going through the course and my first upload. I figured completing both exercises would do me some good. I'd love to get feedback on what is working and what isn't. I look forward to hearing back! I completed my projects before reading the things to keep in mind! my bad guys! I'll read more for my next upload.

Chuck Ludwig Reina

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Nice work! You've got really nice line quality. One thing I would say play around with is the core shadows, especially on the pear. That core shadow will really help you get the image to pop. Keep it up!

Roi Rodriguez

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So this are my 3 tries so far, one for each model given. I feel like i still didn't get it. When drawing 1 and 2 i felt like i really grasped the shapes but then edges came not hard at all (#1) or too hard on the darkest value inside the fruit. 3 was a complete disaster, my second lighter value does not separate from the highlights (even more on the photo than on my notebook) and it has no volume at all. Will try some more fruits and see how it goes.

@mokhiya

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Attempt 3

Chuck Ludwig Reina

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Really nice! Cherries and other "dark" fruit like apples can be super tricky since their local color is so dark to begin with. I think you did a great job of finding the different shapes of the areas of tone. Don't be afraid to get in there and go even darker for your darkest darks though! It's these changes in tone that will really help make your art pop off the page. Good work!