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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.
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
LESSON NOTES
This exercise will help you avoid chicken scratch. Instead of uncertain pecking at the paper. We're going to draw each line with a focused and intentional path. Remember to draw from your shoulder, elbow and wrist. Avoid the fingers. When I tell you guys to simplify your lines, I'm usually referring to three types of lines, two curves and one straight.
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DOWNLOADS
project-simplify-to-csi.mp4
147 MB
project-simplify-to-csi-transcript-english.txt
4 kB
project-simplify-to-csi-transcript-spanish.txt
5 kB
project-simplify-to-csi-captions-english.srt
7 kB
project-simplify-to-csi-captions-spanish.srt
7 kB
ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Vanessa White]()
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![Vanessa White]()
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![Sam]()
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![Grant Buhr]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![Grant Buhr]()
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![Douglas Cabral]()
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![Ayrton Oddone]()
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![Krisztina Eperjesi]()
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![Ayrton Oddone]()
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![Ron Milich]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![Trevor Peek]()
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![Luna Reed]()
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![@gills]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![@an345]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![Ene]()
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![@ghostpuff]()
Download the photo reference images and try to simplify them using CSI lines. Draw each line with a focused and intentional path.
Your pace should be quick, but not rushed.
For this exercise, we will just consider the individual segments of the contour of a shape.
Same instructions for level one and two. Just a difference in difficulty of reference. The level two photos have more fun little tidbits to tempt you to get into the details, but fight the urge and simplify.
Also, no shading in these please. This is not meant to be a portfolio piece.
CSI
C = C Curves
S = S Curves
I = Straights
If you'd like to have a chance to be included in the upcoming critique videos, you must submit your drawings below by February 16th.
I tried sketching the outlines with straight lines first (like the pear practice), then sketching with curves again. I think getting the right proportion was bit of a struggle to me.
Will give the boots a try before proceeding to the next video! :)
Oof! These boots are definitely CHALLENGING! Took me 1.5hours. I did the straight line sketching first, then redraw with CSI. But my first straight line sketching was bit messy especially the shoelaces part, so when I was drawing the outline I almost confused myself lol. Same thing, I think getting the proportion right is still tad bit challenging to me.
Lines are way too messy and too many "searching lines" that are searching and searching and getting lost....anyone have any ideas how to out down less lines if i cannot seem to find the right place to put them when without searching with the pencil already ON the page?
(stilll) Being conscience of the confidence (or lack of) behind each mark is breaking my brain a bit.
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1d
It is a lot to think about. It will get easier as you go :)
Being conscience of the confidence (or lack of) behind each mark is breaking my brain a bit.
The snail was a challenging one i struggle a Lot with curves and This bad boy is Full of them, any tips for dealing with curves LINES to make them more natural ?
Hi guys, I hope ya'll are good, thank you. I had fun doing this, but it definitely proved challenging at times. I might want to revisit this project more than a few times after the demo. I could have invested more time on the shell of the snail, and on the laces of the boots. I welcome any critiques or advice, thank you for taking the time to see my artwork!
Thank you for sharing your artwork. Fairly energetic llama sketch. The lines on the skelly are confident. Maybe try to make skelly's neck a little more 3D-ish if possible? Like a construction line at the bottom of the neck to imply form? I am not doing level 2 but I think you wanted to add the bottom of the llama's stomach?
The snail was easy for me. When drawing the boot, I lost in the detail a little bit.
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1d
Nice confident lines in the antennae! Some of the other lines on the top of the neck, and shell are a little harry, so try to go a little lighter with these initial searching lines before you commit to the line you want. You have Mario Mushroom warmups in your album which I like to see, keep up that exercise! When doing the Mario Mushroom warmup try to ghost the initial lines as lightly as possible, almost without making a mark before committing to a final line, it's ok to slow down a bit to find the right speed, they don't all need to be executed fast and repeatedly, just work on training your eye, hand, and brain to work together. at a comfortable speed. You have some really nice confident simplified lines in both of these, especially the long S curve where the instep of the sole meets the boot on the left. Really good work, keep it up!
I think a made the neck and head of the snail narrower. The boots I took a while to do. About 11 hours. After watching how Proko did it I realized I put in more work than what was required. But y'know... I don't regret it. It was good practice.
This was really hard but we got there lol, I wanna know if you all think I should continue in the course or try again?
First attempts pre demo. Not too unhappy although like everyone found the laces tough, especially with Stan’s remit of CSI. Not sure how much I followed that when tackling the fiddliest bits. Most pleased with the camel as corrected a lot to get proportions etc in line but finally got there. Happy to get feedback and connect with fellow artists
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4d
I really like the shapes you made, especially in the camel's legs. Overall, great use of CSI. Just keep an eye on your lines moving forward. There's some places where they get a bit hairy. Challenge yourself to make those curves with one stroke. You can "search" for the right line by laying in multiple light lines, but they should be made in one fluid motion each time.
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4d
Yeah those laces are tricky! But well done on both of these. One note: you are a curvy artists. Some artists are more curvy, others more straight lines. I too am a curvy artists. One trick, and one of the great things we learn in these CSI exercises, is to start adding some straight lines to your curves. This will help give the form a bit more solidity. I found it really helped my sketching.
Nice work! Keep on drawin'!
The remaining assignments for the CSI. This was way more interesting than the boots. Anybody else agree?
First attempt at the snail, I've been busy with work so A little slow on lessons at the moment. Hoping to be able to have some more time now to keep going on with the project. I have a hard time with straight lines, the bit of wood was a challenge I didn't want to just grab a straight edge or ruler to cheat on that bit. I think it came out okay for my first try.
