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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![]()
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Organizing values into strong, connected shapes does three huge things for your drawings.
- Improves readability: Allows the viewer to understand your drawing at a glance.
- Adds depth: Well-organized values build a convincing hierarchy of planes.
- Commands attention: With control over where the eye goes, every accent, texture, and highlight feels deliberate.
Oceans, Lakes, and Rivers
Think of value groups as oceans, lakes, and rivers:
- Oceans are large areas of light or shadow.
- Lakes are medium-sized shapes from the opposite value family within an ocean.
- Rivers are halftone or reflected light connections between lakes and oceans, guiding the flow and gesture in your composition.
Rivers help to tame down distracting lakes and guide the flow in your composition. This approach helps unify your values, grouping them into larger connected shapes.
Balancing 2D Composition and 3D Form
Don't just copy the shapes you see, think like a designer.
- 2D Composition: Values, their shape, size, and location play a big role in the overall composition and how the eye flows through the drawing.
- 3D Form: Values reveal planes, a change in value suggests a change in plane.
Every shape you design should enhance both the two-dimensional arrangement and carve out the three-dimensional forms. Sometimes, major plane changes help unify smaller shapes, improving the 2D composition.
For example, think of big planes on the forehead or jaw, or simplify the hair and beard into cylinders. Small forms can feel cluttered, but if you let the cylinder's major plane changes influence the values of the small shapes, they work together cohesively.
Dealing with Floaters
Be aware of how much each shape stands out, based on its value contrast with surrounding shapes. A common rule of thumb is to avoid floaters, isolated shapes, unless they are intended to draw attention.
When you encounter a floating shape that feels distracting:
- Merge it with the ocean: Modify the shape to make it part of the larger value area.
- Add connecting rivers: Use halftones to connect a floating lake to an ocean or nearby lakes.
- Adjust the value: Change the lake's value to make it closer to the surrounding values.
- Modify the shape's gesture: Alter the shape to flow with the gesture of your composition.
- Emphasize it intentionally: If you want that shape to stand out, let it be an eye-catching element.
Halftones aren't dark enough to be part of the shadow family, but they are dark enough to create a visual bridge between shapes. Consider the planes of the major 3D form and bring smaller lakes closer to the values of those planes.
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DOWNLOADS
project-designing-value-groups.mp4
325 MB
project-designing-value-groups-transcript-english.txt
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project-designing-value-groups-transcript-spanish.txt
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project-designing-value-groups-captions-english.srt
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project-designing-value-groups-captions-spanish.srt
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Caden Y]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![@hampop]()
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![Tim]()
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![Sofy]()
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![João Rudge]()
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![João Rudge]()
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![Nancy Larson]()
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![@g_meza]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![Otis]()
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![Chuck Ludwig Reina]()
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![David D]()
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![Wenhan Lee]()
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![Daniel Cabot]()
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![Sean G]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![@aakerhus]()
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![Melanie Scearce]()
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![@androida]()
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![Tori Blade]()
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![@androida]()
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![@justjen]()
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![Crystal M Cain]()
Remember when you simplified a pear and a portrait into five values? We're revisiting that concept, but now with more knowledge and experience! You know about shape design, gesture, structure, value organization, and the basic elements of light and shadow.
The main objective is to practice thinking of values as interconnected shapes and be intentional about how these shapes work together. A single thoughtful accent is louder than a bunch of accidental ones.
Level 1
Your assignment is to pick one of the provided photos of a sculpted portrait and create a careful study using 5 values (2 in the shadows, 3 in the lights).
- Use the Value Tool: Try the value tool to get an initial read of the rough value distributions.
- Create Thumbnails: Figure out your composition before starting the larger drawing.
- Work Full-Page: Avoid making it too small to control your lakes and rivers effectively.
- Start with a Linear Lay-In: Use what you've learned about measuring and eyeballing proportions.
- Separate Shadow from Light: Clearly distinguish between the shadow and light families.
- Build Up Values: Gradually add all the other values you see.
- Avoid Floaters: Allow only important shapes to grab attention.
- Squint Often: It's the simplest way to see connections and identify distracting floaters.
- Check Your Work: Flip your drawing upside down or look at it in a mirror to spot issues.
Regarding edges, try not to get too caught up in intricate soft edges and transitions. Feel free to attempt some edge work, but if you find yourself struggling, focus on sharp-edged tiles and concentrate on the value shapes.
Level 2
For those looking for an extra challenge, you can use between 7 and unlimited values. These extra values allow for more subtlety and sophisticated transitions between your shapes. Extra values let you:
- Model intricate plane changes. You might need more than 2 halftone values plus a highlight.
- Define shadow all the elements. Sometimes core shadows, reflected light, and occlusion shadows all have distinct values.
- Create realistic illusions of form with more nuanced rendering. For example a core shadow that changes value as it travels down a form.
Feel free to be more interpretive in how you group values and make bold design decisions. Trust your gut and add your own taste to the drawing.
Deadline - submit by June 13, 2025 for a chance to be in the critique video!
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22h
This came out really great! I think your two value design is really successful, great mix of straights and curves in your shape design. I think you could increase the value of your darkest darks, in the mouth, nose, and eye lids to get a bit more contrast in the features, but I think you've done a really nice job with this one! Keep it up!
This was quite fun, but it took quite a while to finish.
I decided to draw the cast image 7, because it looked the most interesting to me, even thought it was intended for level 2.
I decided to split the values just in 2 and work on connecting individual islands together with rivers. Most of the improvisation went towards the right side of his face which is well lit and has many bright shadowy pockets.
Well - this was a journey. I started with some thumbnails of cast #1 and just couldn’t figure out something I liked, so I tried #7 and just went with that because I thought it was a more interesting angle. I probably should have done more than one thumbnail of it though (mistake #1).
I think my lay in was pretty decent, at least for me. It was good to go back and practice that measuring proportions exercise.
Then I did the oceans, which is where I think things really started going astray. I knew I wanted to draw focus to the facial expression and was a bit cavalier about how I handled the beard, which has so much detail in it. In retrospect, what I ended up rendering was some connected shapes that didn’t really bear enough meaningful relationship to the reality (mistake #2).
Onto adding in the values - in my mind I had a clear idea of what my five values were, but I don’t think they were very clearly expressed during execution, leading to something more akin to 15 shades of gray, which is not enough to get anyone excited, yet too many to tell a clear story (mistake #3).
In wrapping up, I tried to salvage some things. The shadow under his right cheek was too much so I knocked it back. I also changed the positioning and values of some of the shapes in the beard in an attempt to better represent the actual situation, but I think all the edges are too hard leading to a Temu-picasso on LSD cuthulhu fever dream scenario (mistake #4). The shadow over his right eyebrow is too dark, making it look like he’s undergoing leach therapy for a migraine (mistake #5).
I shaded in the background in a desperate attempt to draw attention away from the hot mess that is the beard - I don’t think it worked - some errors are so big they just can’t be hidden.
I thought the nose came out okay.
Any thoughts on areas I can improve on next time greatly appreciated.
Haha after reading your caption I was expecting some kind if monstrosity but this is a great study. For me, the only distracting part is the left eyebrow and shadow inside the eyesocket, but, other than that, I think the shapes work well. I also think it would be better to shade all around the cast, then the areas that are a bit too dark might "calm down" a little.
But great work! I think doing another one with the notes you've made would be pretty intersting. It's a tough excersise but if you get comfortable at this you'll have so much use for it later on!
Another drawing. This time I try to leave the reference a little and try to made some style choices in the values and shapes...
I try some studies first, and end up trying to use some lost edges too... but to be honest I dont think I have the sight to use more than five values... lot to improve and probably gonna try this again with a different pose.
Level one submission attached; a good project for practicing a number of concepts I have learned about thus far.
I did two. I felt with my first attempt (Left) I was falling back on old habits and not consciously designing the value shapes. With my second attempt I think I went to far in the opposite direction and started ignoring the source too much. While I think the first picture is better overall, there are portions of the second I like.
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1mo
There's a lot to be proud of with both of these, I really like both, great work! Your first attempt is softer, with more curves in the design, I see fewer straights, and fewer explicitly delineated value shapes, your edges are all blended out. Your second one has far more straights and edges to your shape design, but less fluidity. I'd suggest trying a third version and work on combining the areas you like from each. I think the first is really successful as far as proportion and likeness, but I love the stylization of the shapes in the second. See if you can create a hybrid synthesis of each, really focus on your lay-in stage and measuring your proportions before adding in your designed value groups. You might also try the next one a little larger which will give you a bit more flexibility with your initial lay in for corrections. Keep it up!
I really struggled with this one. I focused on the waterfalls instead of the ocean, lakes and rivers. My mind wasn't at peace when I was drawing and I was scattered. I'll have to redo it and take it slower. I get lost in the value ranges and towards the beard I fell in despair and didn't really bother. Any advice on how to attack this better? Cheers
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1mo
Hi Otis. We've all been there with a drawing. Sometimes it is a struggle and some times it is a breeze. For me, having a plan of attack is always the best way to go. Often I will start with the larges areas of value and bring those up to full tone.
Where do you feel like you were struggling the most with this one? I'm looking at it and think this looks great. I think you could perhaps go a bit darker on all your values, but overall I think it is very strong. Your second attempt, I think your issues are the eyes being a little off. This is something I struggle with a lot. For situations like this, I try to get the lay in very lightly and make sure the features all are reading correctly.
Again, don't let it get you down. Your drawings are strong. Sometimes just taking a walk around the block, or just doing some doodling can help clear your head and get your mind tuned in to drawing.
Cheers!
Level 1: this assignment felt like a complete “project” for me. I included some of my study notes and thumbnails.
I still feel like my composition either falls flat, is too rudimentary, or just… boring? I don’t know - let me if you guys have some good resources to study to get a better understanding of what makes a good composition.
I did try and balance 2 and 3D concepts to draw the viewer’s eyes to meet the portrait’s before cascading down the beard like a ski slope. Let me know if that worked or if I only think it did because that’s what I wanted to see haha
Level 1. I didn’t really care about the 2D composition as much as the 3D form. Feel free to give constructive criticism.
Btw there's absolutely no way I'm doing Level 2 exercises because I was already struggling with Level 1 haha
Level 2 practice u tried to be disciplined about using 7 values but found it hard to keep track of the subtle value differences I was working with, good practice, the outline is a lazy black background
Level 1. I was originally going to work on a full 9x12 page but kept it smaller. I added tentacle like shapes in the background to help keep me engaged and feel a piece of myself through the statue. Apologies for the terrible photo resolution and lighting. It’s all in graphite and the paper warped so it was a bit frustrating. Will look into getting a scanner.
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2mo
These are really fantastic thumbnail explorations! I love the final thumb, and how you translated that into the final piece. Your value groups, and shapes are beautifully designed, and evenly shaded, really nice job! I think you could try to find a few more straights to balance out the curves you've designed into the face, and background, but overall this has a great feel to it! Keep up the good work!
Level 1 submission - my first go on the cast.
Boy, this assignment was a lot to take in. It was a great challenge. I think this took me approximately 8-10 hours divided by three days. Such a long time for such a.. medioocre.
Attached in order of appearance is the lay-in, followed me the oceans (although I see I added a lake too early), then the lakes and the finished result.
I feel like I had a hard time when it came to the designing of the shapes, this goes especially for the beard. I think I got a little overwhelmed by the detail and tried to stay really close to the reference. But sticking to close to the reference with only 5 values to choose from is essentially to give myself an impossible task. So I eventually managed to wrap my head around to simplify and design some shapes to what I considered to be shapes which were easy on the eyes with five values in mind.
I found it hard to implement the "connection with rivers"-mindset, but I was onboard for oceans and lakes. I also found it really helpful to avoid floaters.
I found really helpful to think about the floaters as parts you generally don't want, unless you want to drag attention to certain areas. I did that especially for the part on the cheek, and the little form right under the ear. I did add some floaters in the hair though, I tried various designs with only my halftones in the hair, but it looked like shit, and I guess the dark floaters there makes it a tiny bit less shitty-looking. (The hair is the part I am the least happy about).
Looking forward to try this one with one of the other references, I'll probably try and go into design-mode a lot earlier in the process.
Feedback is greatly appreciated, I still feel like I don't quite understand the "river"-analogy along with designing shapes. Also, as you probably can tell I didn't think much about edges when I did this assignment. This probably added some to the difficulty as well? Might do that when I revisit this assignment after more work on my edges in the edges-section.
Cheers
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2mo
You're right about the floaters; sometimes they flow with the form and don't require much adjustment. For example, those light shapes for his ear in the dark value group. On the other hand, there's a lot of little floaters in the light value group that feel scattered and unorganized without some connection between them. That's where the rivers come in. Design shapes that create flow between the floaters, and connect the channels in your larger shapes.
You've done well finding the two value groups, light and dark. I think spending more time on the 3rd value, the river step, which feels like it's missing between your lake step and finished result, will help you. I hope my example below helps to clarify!
Test runs and final drawing (level 1). Tried to figure out which way the light would fall from, and the shadow under the nose seemed to indicate from up and right. In truth, how do I know there aren't more than one source, though?
I wasn't sure if I should add the dark background or not, but it did help in visually, I think. The practice/test images are on 9x12 inch paper - which makes them larger than thumbnails. Final drawing on 11x14 inch paper. After the fact - the shadow on the shadow side could probably be stronger - the initial analysis on the values tool did show medium values on the beard though. Will be interesting to see the demos and critiques for sure! o.O
I feel pretty good about this one! I did notice something just now though… I shortened the entire beard as I drew 😅
I need to focus on what the reference looks like, rather than changing it. I tend to misinterpret references and fill in the gaps with things I have seen before. Does anyone else have this issue? Any tips?
Honestly I think it's fairly easy to draw the beard shorter than what it is from this particular angle because it vanishes into the shadow. What might help is to draw a frame according to the proportions of the ref so you'll know if something's off in total length or any other major dimensions.
Shading looks quite smooth!
These took me forever. I got overwhelmed with all the little details and had trouble seeing beyond them to the focus on the big oceans and lakes. I also struggled with proportions and ultimately ended up marking my reference and sketch to help guide me when drawing. The images here show the three thumbnails I did prior to the large drawing. And the two images of the final drawing show before and after I used a blending stump.
Initial attempts at certain exercises can be fairly challenging and often uncomfortable. Try to remind yourself that struggle is growth and be kind to yourself as learning to "see" takes time. I recommend approaching an excersise like this from general to specific. Blurring your vision to simplify shapes can assist with this. I hope this is helpful! :)
