I’m working on shapes but still have trouble with line quality and proportions. I’d love to have suggestions on how to take photos of drawings on iPhone - lighting? Where to prop them up? Anything else? Thanks, Melodie

After watching Stans demo of the inker Roberto DeLa Torre, I saw how he used pencil to simulate inking. I tried doing the same with graphite of two images: a series of inked profile heads from Framed Ink volume 1 and also a Rembrandt pen sketch. I could really see how both artists used line quality. Loved this exercise, thanks Stan! I also “inked” part of a graphite block-in from the Rembrandt pen sketch. My confidence with these materials went way up. Melodie

I was away so only had time to do 2 “masters”, which I copied in graphite. One was an oil sketch/painting by Richard Schmidt and the other was a chalk drawing by Peter Paul Rubens. I learned so much just doing the two! I may try a Watts image as I bought the book “Watts on Bridgman”. May also try the Watts skull after I watch Stan’s Demo.

Thank you for this demo, Stan. I definitely missed some of the concepts you showed here like contrast and showing shadows in shadows with thick and light soft lines. I only used the thickness of the lines. @Proko Support Is it possible to add LESSON NOTES to this demo? They are quite usefully for a quick recap.

After doing the first attemt way too detailed and probably missing the point of the exercise I set the timer to 10 minutes to finish the second attemt in order to shift the focus away from details to more confident lines.

Day 10

Really enjoying your course...thank you so much.

I found the task very difficult. But after the 10th try I could see clear progress. I will keep working on it.

I watched critique video and I decided to paint a different pair of boots this time - one that has a lot of lines, and the difference is I did whole work using shoulder and elbow to draw, almost no wrist - to force me to pick lines. I must say - it is so hard to draw against ones instincts to zoom in and draw using wrist xD

One of my own hiking boots. Perspective of the toe seems a bit wonky, but to be fair, I have pretty small feet.

Who's in for another round of boots after watching this? 🖐️

Camel, simplified. Helps to know a bit of animal anatomy. Legs a bit short. Hard to tell which hind leg is in front but the shadows on the sand helped. Sharpie S-gel over 2H mechanical pencil.

Oh, I could have included the shadow in my Skelly.

Skelly - SCI Simplification; ultra-fine point Sharpie over 2H pencil using Image on iPad.

This one may be pale - used a 2H pencil and “sight-size method” rather than construction lines. Also indicated light and shade.

From “life” - used many many construction lines in erasable pencil crayon, then tried to clean up the image. Forced me to see, analyze, see and correct errors.

Boots - what a challenge!

Snail #1 and #2 = used many construction lines; hard to avoid smudges.

Quick question for Stan: I think you have the Jarlink 4-battery, long pencil sharpener (2 lengths). It is $25.99 plus tax CAD at Amazon.ca (Canada). BUT, the absolute “Cadillac” looks to be the AFMAT lithium long plus extra long (3 lengths) for 81.60 plus tax (CAD). Would the Jarlink or similar be your recommendation? Thanks, Melodie

I found this black and white photo that I thought would be a good exercise. I really tried to keep it simplified and with only 5 values. It was a lot more challenging than expected.