Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8762 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.

@oxymonacanthus
My best result after a couple of attempts! I need to work on making the hatching for the values more consistent, because it looks extremely inconsistent and jarring now.
Wentbankrupt
tried a different reference.
Michael California
As I was drawing this pear, I did have to break down some of the walls in my mind that wanted me to blend the shadows as opposed to creating the building blocks that make up the symbol representing the pear. Once I got past that, I could start to see how the shadows were connected due to the shape, and I can see how that will be very useful. I only have a 0.7 HB mechanical pencil on me at the moment, so I found the shading a bit tricky, but I think it still worked out. I would like to try this lesson again with a few more pencils in the coming days.
Michael California
Today I decided to practice the same technique on a little figure that happened to be sitting on the shelf nearby with some interesting lighting. I think I’ll move on to the next lesson tomorrow.
Douglas Cabral
So its been i while since o did my last assignment to be more espefic 3 months, yes i have not been drawing for the past 3 months live hit me hard but back at the drawing table and i decide to start from the start ALL over again só let the grind start, gonna be honest It was really challenging to do This 2 pear dealing with the shadows was my biggest challenge and making them sharp was a beast on its on
Melanie Scearce
These are amazing pears! The shapes you designed are super dynamic. I think you nailed it with the second pear. The dark background against the light plane of the pear makes it pop.
@silvervariable
I’m new to Proko. Just starting to draw. Looking forward to lots of practice and learning. I welcome critique. I tried the second pear also, but I like the first one a lot more. Thanks!
Arian Abdollahie
Pear 3. First I was pretty excited and surprised that I'm better than imagined but in the end I was frustrated cause I don't know how to shade with fine lines, cause the tip of the pencil gets flat pretty quick and it's more rough. Also I don't know how to make it look 3d. And the smearing on the page with my hand also gets annoying.
Michał Szurgot
I can’t get five distinct values in my shading.
Melanie Scearce
It might help if you did a little 5 value scale at the top of your page to reference! You can "color-pick" from it while you're working.
Ash
2d
What a lovely pear!
@ghostpuff
Hmm, much harder than I expected, I tried to draw out the pears by separating the shapes of the shadows drawing them individually and they kinda formed together into a pear. I don't know if its because I'm feel like I wasn't seeing the pair the way this lesson intended. I will come back to it again later. First pear is on left, 2nd on right. I know my cast shadow is all goofy I didn't want my other pear be absorbed by its shadow lol. I will give it another attempt after watching the walk through video.
@ghostpuff
Had a big "Oooooh" moment watching the demo. It makes so much more sense now. Hah. Will do a new attempt after I am finished with work today. Definitely an eye opener.
@henryjm
2d
I'm going to give it another try tomorrow now that I have watched the demo...
@ebonyreyes
This was much harder than it looked. The camera captures so many details and I didn't realize how dark I made my darkest shadow. I used Derwent Graphite Pencils.
sierra
3d
First image is before watching the demo and second is after- I liked this assignment a lot, it inspired me to practice simplifying with other fruits as well! I definitely need to work on not smudging my drawing on accident haha
bradyg
3d
First attempt 😬 I have a lot to work on but I enjoyed the process!
@oboe1123
My first attempt at drawing the pear, I really like this technique :)
darkXwolf17
I’m not very good with my line control. My strokes are very shaky and I’m constantly having to readjust my hand. Any good tips to help with this? Any other critiques would be greatly appreciated
@ebonyreyes
nicely done!
darkXwolf17
I did another pear and I think it looks much better than my first! I’m having trouble getting the right values though >:( Another thing, I couldn’t finish the shadow since it was right next to my first pear and the drawing is right on the edge of the paper T~T
@gills
5d
darkXwolf17
Your values are so good I wish mine were nice like that T-T
@gills
5d
Pretty happy with that as a first attempt!
@ndeboar
5d
Level 2
@ndeboar
5d
ha, made the ear a tad big. Should finish around his nose
Victoria Kogan
I am sorry, it’s awful 🙈
bradyg
3d
This is solid tho!
@gills
5d
It’s really not!
@dungeondadhd
Enjoyed this exercise a lot. Tougher than I thought but fun.
@rustle
6d
the 3 pears
@ndeboar
6d
Behold, pear
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