Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 9181 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
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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.

Luke Rankin
Hello everyone, I'm a screenwriter who just realized last year how much I loved comics. I'm taking the Drawing Basics and the Marvel course to hopefully one day be able to write and draw my own comics as well as storyboard for films that I write! All attempts were in Procreate with the HB pencil brush, and the Technical Pen for outlining on the first two. I'd love to hear what y'all think, I've got a long way to go but I'd love to get some wisdom and make friends on my journey!
Marcel Altmann
This is my first try at the assignment. I am completely new to drawing, so any kind of feedback would be greatly appreciated. :)
Jackson Kelley
Hello, I joined the course earlier in the year but this project was quite a wall for me. There was also a lot going on in life, but now that I'm starting to feel a little more settled I decided to hop back in and stick to it. Glad I was able to overcome the wall this time. Very excited to continue as well!
@escalonc
•
22h
Hi this is my attempt for the first project level 1
@amorartista
My first attempt at the pear! :) it was hard to keep lines straight but even harder to see the values accurately. Open to any feedback :) thank you!
Simon Bley
First attempt using a range of pencils and the default picture.
@artsyantics
@Stan Prokopenko My first attempt at the pear before watching the demo. This is my first time using proko and my goal for my career is to become a great animator. I can already tell that you're a great teacher and you really care about not only helping people learn what they need to know but to also enjoy the process instead of worrying so much about the future. I appreciate you! Also, I'm not sure if it's okay to @ you everytime I finish a project for feedback or if I'm just supposed to post it in the community so please let me know. :D
Camille Varner Kolafa
Welcome!! Glad you're here, you will learn and improve a lot from this course :) I suggest you try drawing out a box scale of your values somewhere on your page if you haven't already. It will help you establish your 5 values and figure out the pressure and technique needed to achieve their lightness/darkness. Right now, I only see about 4 values (including the lightest/white of the paper). I think you can get a lighter value in to be your 2nd lightest and adjust the 3rd and 4th accordingly. Your main 2 values on the pear look really close together, the only thing making them distinguishable I think is the way in which you shaded them. So work on adjusting those values on your 2nd attempt! Good job thinking in shapes and using straight lines :)
Cameron Cook
my attempt at the first project vs the default pear
James
•
3d
My second attempt at simplifying a pear in digital art. I'd appreciate any feedback!
Melanie Scearce
Nice work! I don't have notes for you about your values or shapes, I think you nailed it. Just be careful of outlining your shapes with a dark line!
Gino Belliveau
First time drawing something in 3D with shadows. I was surprised with how much time you can put into drawing such a simple object. Did this all with a single mechanical pencil, and I might need a set to help with different values.
Camille Varner Kolafa
You did great getting different values with a mechanical pencil! I do recommend getting a simple set of drawing pencils though, it will make things easier when it comes to values :)
@byunny
•
4d
I feel like I struggled a lot with getting an even tone, I'm not very experienced with this.
Melanie Scearce
That's okay! It will get easier with practice. Something you could try to get more comfortable with shading and pencil control is a value scale: draw up any number of boxes, leave one pure white and then make the box on the other end as dark as you can get with your pencil. Then, fill in rest of the boxes with the middle values at an even increment. You can do this to warm up for a drawing, or just as regular practice.
@rnezarati
My attempts at pears 1 and 2
Melanie Scearce
Very nice 👏 your values read super clearly.
Melissa Hargrave
Hi, I am brand new to learning to draw. This was my first drawing, and I had a tiny bit of help, and it took me longer than expected. I am fairly surprised how much I like it, and I have a better idea on how to keep practicing it!
Camille Varner Kolafa
Nice job, and welcome! I like your soft shading :) On your next attempt, remember to break your values down into shapes with straight lines only, including the shape of the pear (I see you have some curves going on in the outer contour right now). I also can only make out 4 values right now, so try to meet the goal of 5. It helps to draw a value box scale somewhere on your page to figure out your 5 values and kinda be able to refer to it as a key. Keep up the good work!
@ursohn
•
5d
I do the assignments digitally because it's the medium I want to practice in.
yotam houtmeyers
first attempt at a pear
Camille Varner Kolafa
Great job!
@marzzz
•
5d
I don't hate this but I definitely struggled with the values here, specifically with the lighter mid-tone, I also could not get a consistent and even tone with just pencil alone and I had to use my eraser to lighten up everything. I also lost my sharp edges when adding the tones, any tips to improve upon that?
Camille Varner Kolafa
I see what you mean, your dark values are all close together and I can only see 4 different values, so you're missing one more. It helps to establish your values by drawing out a value box scale somewhere on your page, if you haven't already. I find that doing that helps my hand get a feel for what pressure and amount of coverage is best for each value. You definitely have a great start though!
James
•
6d
My first attempt at simplifying a pair in digital art. I’d appreciate any feedback!
@xavierriverin
Hey, this is great! I especially love the shading/values. I also use Digital, and I have a question: which pens (software) do you use? I'm trying to get a consistent value and having a hard time doing so. I tried with the HB, 2B and 6B pen my software offers but it was inconsistent. Any help would be appreciated
Martha Muniz
Nice shape simplification! It's also great that you are able to render consistent values, especially in digital. Just keep in mind that we want to aim for the pear's side in the light to read distinct from the shadow side. To do this, you want to make sure the three lightest values are on the light side on the right, with only the two darkest values on the shadow side (so only the dark division area and anything to the left of that). I would also recommend that you use a lighter grey for your lightest grey value, so the progression from light to dark is more evenly divided at each step. Let me know if you have any questions! :)
Jerami Ballard
I called it after a lot of trying to fix the values since I know that I went too dark on some of the shadows. Though I will say that I'm a lot more impressed with myself than I thought!
Camille Varner Kolafa
I think it might be the lighting causing the graphite to shine, but I think you could actually get darker on your darkest values! Right now your 3 middle values look really close together. Try drawing out a value box scale somewhere on your page to establish your 5 values. I mainly suggest lightening up the light halftone (2nd lightest value) first and then darkening the dark shadow (5th value) and adjusting the dark halftone (3) and light shadow (4) from there. Keep up the good work!
Jamie
•
7d
I typically work digital but I wanted some traditional practice. I prefer to sketch in a 6B but with this assignment it was difficult to create 5 values with a darker pencil. I felt like my end result was more like 3 in the shadow and 2 in the light. Would've been much easier to control the values in digital, but it's all good!
Camille Varner Kolafa
Definitely harder to control the softer pencils! I think if you increase your pressure to darken the darkest value, it might help balance things out :)
Benko
•
7d
Here's my pear. I'm happy with the overall shape, not so much about my values (sp. the middle tones). But it was fun!
Melanie Scearce
I think your values read very clearly! What was your struggle with the middle tones?
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