Figure Drawing Fundamentals
Gesture
The Bean
Structure
Landmarks
Robo Bean
Mannequinization
Balance
Exaggeration
Proportions
Measuring
Shading
Figure Drawing Demo
Closing Thoughts
The Background and Final Touches of a full Figure Drawing Demo
Newest
Low Horvath
3mo
Wrong materials were use ( boy did I learn my lesson” ) mistakes were made. But I never intended to make it perfect, I definitely tried , but what I wanted was to learn . And I absolutely learned so much. I’ll have to practice and try it on my own, I believe taking the portrait and anatomy courses will help so I’m onto that next. If anyone has advice on what I can do to improve let me know. ( and next time I’ll use the right materials and paper it’s so important to use the right paper brushes and pencils)
edit: images are a little blurry idk why
Low Horvath
3mo
What I learn
the step by step approach of measuring-gesture- forms- darken background - 2 step value- core and cast shadows - midtones - high lights - rendering
better understanding of core shadows
cast shadows tend to have sharp edges while core shadows have softer edges ( I’m sure it’s not always true in every case though)
the process of shadow mapping by looking at terminator lines and assigning them as core shadows or casts
and finally take your time , double even triple check your measuring and use the right materials.
@elkad
5mo
Draw along in digital! That was pretty exhausting to be honest but patience pays off.
Samuel Sanjaya
6mo
drawing big like this really skew my proportions. I don't have any idea about anatomy, so i just shade the way the "form" of the muscles look like. any critiques are welcome.
Eveline Rupenko
6mo
hi! Was drawing along with Stan during this lesson! This was really helpful! Want try to do this myself using another reference on a second approach for this assigment!
@opaqueapple
1yr
Hi all,
i ended up doing a study of Stan's own approach to figure drawing. I'll do 1 or 2 more figure drawings just to apply what I've learnt before i wrap this course up!
Coen
1yr
Hi All, I just finished the figure drawing course and tried to do the final assignment. I used pencil in stead of charcoal so the whole shading process took me a bit longer than the demo. I’m open to any suggestions for improvement!
Nio
1yr
Hi everybody =) ...4 days ago I posted my 'final' finished piece for this course. (The last picture attached). I was not very happy with it. That drawing I made was probably the 6th or 7th drawing I have ever shaded so it came out pretty rough.
I studied light and shading for a few days and created this new piece to give the course it's proper conclusion. It just didn't feel right to finish this course with a drawing I wasn't excited about. But with this, I am satisfied to move on to anatomy =)
André Machado
1yr
Looks quite solid. May I suggest you take a look at the portrait course and see the features. The nose and eyes look somewhat distorted. Also try to organize your values when shading so you can render the forms better so they look more 3 dimensional. I see alot of outlines on the abs but not 3D form. The shading on the right arm looks sweet but on the torso is weaker. Your proportions and structure for the body are quite nice though.
It's very important you get good consistency on shading before you move on to anatomy because after you indicate your muscles with outlines, it's the shading that will render the form of muscles. Your observation skills are pretty good though, keep it up.
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Nio
1yr
Here is my finished piece. I lost a lot of the form after I added the tone using a graphite stick and napkin to create the background. I didn't foresee it smudging most of my lines, including some outlines and shadow maps. Whoops. I decided not to go back and re-establish the lines.
I would consider this a successful failure though. I learned 5+ lessons of what I should do and not do thanks to this one drawing. Thank you Proko for the course.
Sandra Süsser
2yr
Ok that’s it. Did some small final adjustments to this. Now I call this long drawing finished. Had a great time with the course. Thank you, @Stan Prokopenko . Onwards to anatomy! :)
squeen
2yr
wonderful job!
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@flugmodus1
2yr
Wow really nice rendering
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mikuni_uu
2yr
I really like how you catch the gesture, and the finished picture is great! Maybe the left leg could be more dynamic like the first one you did, and a little bit thinner? compare with the photo. But, sometimes it's just so hard to balance the whole picture:> choose between right anatomy and a good design.
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Elijah Thomas
2yr
My follow along drawing with the demo
@namdao
2yr
Can i get some advices ? Thank you !!!
@tomasb
2yr
Another drawing. This time with conte pencils. Any critiques and comments always appreciated. I think this will my last post for this course.
Romain Decotte
2yr
Hi!
I have just finished my Yoni drawing. This was my second attempt. The first time around I was simply unable to apply Stan's measuring technique(s) and I gave up simply thinking I was not yet ready or lacking drawing practice (gesture, anatomy etc).
I then started the anatomy course and more particularly the Torso section, which I have not finished yet. After completing the drawing and shading of the torso I thought I'd go back to the Figure Drawing course and have another shot at completing the final drawing so here you go!
Any critique will be very welcome. @Stan Prokopenko @Jesper Axelsson.
Cheers,
Romain
2yr
Really nice! I think you did a really good job shadow mapping and rendering this. One thing that makes it stronger than your previous one is that the difference between light and shadow is much more clear. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that "the lightest dark is darker than the darkest light" (Mind-Blowing Realistic Shading Tricks at 8:10)
Keep up the good work!
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Robin
2yr
Great work!
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AJP
2yr
Hi all. Here's my follow along with the demo. I enjoyed the course overall and found the long form demo at the end really helped tie things together. It also really helped demystify the rendering process. I do a lot of sketching in my free time but rarely spend the time to do detailed rendering.
I'm open to critique/comments if you have them. It's encouraging to see other people learning so I figured I'd share to keep up the course momentum a bit. If you're here and haven't done a follow along yet. Let me encourage you to do so. It's a lot of fun.
AJP
2yr
Decided to follow up by trying to do another study off of a different reference photo. This is one from a Grafit reference photo pack.
@drusk
2yr
First attempt at figure drawing. I used newsprint and I didn't have charcoal powder so there are some obvious differences there. Any critique is welcome as long as you understand that I have an extremely delicate ego that can be crushed with the slightest bit of negativity. (Joking!)
John Harper
2yr
It's a good first attempt. Your proportions are well thought out and executed. I noticed that you really struggled with coloring the background. I would either be meticulous about creating the background or omit it. For now, I would take a soft microfiber cloth and rub the background. Unfortunately, you will find that those scratchy marks will not go away. Look at what Emanuele Dascanio does to get his black backgrounds (Emanuele Dascanio - YouTube).
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Christopher Beaven
2yr
Honestly it's really good. The only thing that I notice right away is a lack of subtlety in the shading, but this comes with experience. Considering you did this on a sheet of newsprint, and depending on the tooth of the paper, the shading will be rough. Did you use smooth newsprint or rough?
There is some areas around the rib cage on the left side that look confusing. Lots of bumps here that don't read well as the bottom of a rib cage.
In my opinion the best next step you can take is get some smooth newsprint and practice subtle shading from dark to light. Trying to get the transitions really smooth. This will help tremendously with controlling the values in your future drawings.
Other than that, keep going!
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jean marc
2yr
hi guys... i still dont understand the knee, any advice or critique would welcom
Lucijan Prpić
2yr
Hello everyone, this is my first post. I finished my long drawing and any critique would be appreciated !
Martin Dubček
2yr
Happy new year friends. Critique and comments welcome also in this year.
@persona937
2yr
this is my attempt. any critique would be appreciated
Kelly Dembowski
2yr
I really enjoyed this exercise. I didn't have charcoal available and it isn't to scale. Nonetheless what fun!
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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
