Proko - Project - Simplify from Observation

49K views

lesson

video

Project - Simplify from Observation

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

course

Drawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)

$159

1 / 5

Bundle discount Each additional course part in your cart adds 3% off all courses, up to 15% off.

Full course

You’ll learn the most important foundational concepts for drawing anything and soon you’ll be drawing pictures out of your imagination or from reference.

$159

View course details

Give a gift

Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.

Or gift this course:

About instructor

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 8219 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

jpeg

level-1-pear-1.jpg

2 MB

jpeg

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.

Ronin Inkhaurt

•

Hello, everyone. This is my first try using Affinity Designer 2 on my iPad Pro. Full disclosure: I have some art knowledge or know-how before taking this course. I have a problem with putting value cleanly without resorting to chaos and destruction lol. Session time amounted to 3 hours and 17 minutes to complete this one. Looking forward to improving in that area and also reducing time spent. Any tips or critique are welcome 👋.

Rodney Richardson

•

13h

I tried to do it twice, just in case. Very beginner.

Larry

•

I have recently retired and decided to learn how to oil paint and draw. Just took a 6 week class for each at the community art center. This is so hard; I love it!!!! I’m new at both. I was excited when I ran across your you tube lessons. i purchased the Drawing Basics and the Portrait Drawing Fundamentals classes. I just started this one and going to start the other one this week. Here are my before and after for level 1 and level 2. Excited to move to the line section; there is a lot to learn!

Nicholas Allott

•

I'm happy with the result, but it took 10-11 hours over a few weeks. I'm near the end of the lines section in the course, but I did this at level 1 when I started so now I'm caught up with the level 2s!

@na_talie

•

13h

Very well done!

Shubi K

•

I think I was struggling with trying the get the 5 values and the chunky shadow right at the bottom of the pear is what I just couldn't wrap my head around. You'll see what i mean in the stand alone picture. I'm assuming that there's a value there that, at this point, we shouldn't be worrying with at all. Any views or suggestions are welcome.

Nicholas Allott

•

The 5 values you have are very distinct and clear, which is great. 👍 The shadow on the pear and shadow edge is pretty similar to the cast shadow in the photo so it could go darker. Its also good as it is if your aiming is to keep the 5 values as distinct as possible.

Melanie Scearce

•

I think the first image is more accurate to what we see in the reference image. The value of that chunky shadow shape is close enough to the rest of the values in shadow to be counted as the same when we are only working with 5 values. The squint test helps when you're determining that threshold. If you squint your eyes at the reference image, and then at your second drawing with the dark values shape, you can see how much that shadow shape sticks out against the other values, compared to the reference image.

@suzatonic

•

Here’s my first attempt. His hair on the bottom right got a little heavy. This was fun to do with the straight lines. I often do portraits with more of a continuous line and it was very helpful to really focus on the angles.

@jimbo5020

•

First attempt before watching the demo and critiques. Second attempt after watching the demo and critiques. Happy with my progress but would love to get some feedback.

wayge

•

First go with the pear. Would love to hear comments. :)

Kristian Jaeger

•

First Attempt at the Pears. Comments ?

@mtnseasky

•

First pass before watching demo. I felt good about the shape and the outline of the five values. But, when I went to add values things fell apart. I used a HB for the shape and 4B for the values. Everything came out way too dark with no contrast. I watched the demo and plan the try using HB, 2B, 4B and 6B to practice the 5 values and try the exercise again.

Hayden Cremer

•

First attempt at the pear!

Luna Reed

•

I really like how you simplified the shapes and I think the values are really nice! I would just make sure when you're planning where each value shift, make sure you are not doing it too dark, like near your highlights, you can see an outline of them which is darker than the second lightest value. Another very subtle thing is that the curve on the right side of the pear is actually at a higher point than the curve on the left, but I feel you still made the proportions look realistic. Great job! :)

Yelena Staff

•

Pear 2 from the reference. Fun stuff. I used iPad. Thank you for your comments!

Luna Reed

•

here is my progress for today alone, first is first attempt, then after watching the demo, then after watching the critique, I’m really happy!

@sloppyninjaa

•

On the level 2 I realized too late of the mistakes in proportions and face rotation but I guess that isnt the focus of the exercise anyway. Just wanted to leave my first attempts here for now and I will probably try it again at a later point during the course.

@robaldana

•

Ooof, I don't know what went wrong with mine but I had a really hard time capturing the dimples and the dimensionality of the pear. Maybe it would've helped if my lighting was more dramatic? Would love to know how to make this better because right now, it's looking like a camouflage pear.

Martha Muniz

•

I do already see a good start with dimensionality for the pear, especially with this trickier angle, so great job! I would recommend keeping the shadow area (both on the pear itself and the shadow on the ground) to only the two darkest values, so it feels more united and clearly distinguished as the shadow. Then the other three lightest values can build up the rest of the light area. It helps to squint at your image as well, to see the clear division between light and dark, which will guide how you place the values. Let me know if you have any questions!

@mis_74

•

first attempt! Any critique/ advice is appreciated!

Martha Muniz

•

Overall good shapes and divisions! It does seem like you're working with only a light, mid, and dark tone, instead of a range of 5 values. I think you can find those midtones by dividing up that large area of light grey on your pear, and by finding a lighter grey within the blank white areas on the portrait. You already have solid choices going on with three values, so dividing that into 5 values instead is just taking a step further to practice more control of the midrange.

Sunny Lohmann

•

1st project. I call it, "The Pear."

Martha Muniz

•

Nice! I like the shape simplification and value distribution. I would just recommend lightening the 2nd lightest value to create a more even gradation.

Isac Nilzon

•

Here's my attempt at the pear. Please rip it to shreds. Also I hope the lighting is okay.

Martha Muniz

•

Hi! Your values look well shaded and consistent, which is great! I would recommend to think about the values as belonging in one of two categories: light or shadow. We want to make sure that within each of those categories, the value groups feel more united and like they belong as part of that group. One way to think about it is if you squint at the image -- will you see a distinct grouping of light vs shadow, or will it appear more fractured and unorganized? Right now, the middle grey value placed between the darkest core shadow and the shadow on the ground looks like it jumps out from the rest of the shadow section. I would recommend either keeping the shadow section to either only the two darkest values, or if you want your shadow group to consist of three values instead of two, then you can darken that middle value a touch. And quick side note, if possible, try to use a fresh sheet of paper, since the lines from the back side can disrupt the consistent look of your shading--which otherwise looks very nicely rendered and controlled. I also like the shapes and simplification you translated from the pear image, so you're well on your way! Let me know if you have any questions!

Joy Rouse

•

This is the 2nd project choice 1. Critique and comments are so loved

Martha Muniz

•

Super lovely work! I would just caution that your 3rd lightest value and 4th lightest value (so 2nd darkest) look pretty close, so just darkening that 4th lightest value some more so it reads closer to the shadow group would help a lot. But beautiful work overall!

Lyn Umu

•

This was really fun, the mouth was really challenging! Timed quick form practice 35 min

Martha Muniz

•

Absolutely stellar work! It's a great practice for portraits and value. I would recommend to try out a version that focuses more on making simplification choices for your value groups, with less rendering and more use of clear and contained value shapes. It's a fun challenge that can help sharpen your value control, and later on also how you design your own paintings.