Project - Simplify from Observation

Lesson by

36K

Course In Progress

Assignments 6.3KLesson NotesDownloads 9

Project - Simplify from Observation

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

36K

Course In Progress

Assignments 6.3KLesson NotesDownloads 9

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.

Robert Stewart

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Here's my pear. Have one from before I watched the demo and another after watching your demo.

Winston Tang

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Here's my portrait, before watching the demo. It was hard to keep it simplified, the longer I looked at the reference image, the more levels of values I'd see and try to represent. Still also struggling with the outlines of the areas of value, for instance the outline around the highlight on the nose stands out too much. Any critiques welcome, thanks.

Melanie Scearce

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This is a really beautiful portrait. I love the expression. When you're choosing where to put your values, be careful of unintended effects such as the light value around the right eye, which makes the eye look like it's lifting off his face. You could simplify that area to the max by just removing that shape all together and making it a flat dark value, or you could bring that shape down in value to match more closely with the surrounding shadow values. Since we only get 5 values for this project to work with, I'm not sure how feasible the second option is but it could be interesting to try to solve that problem!

Alice Charlington

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12h

@laudabo

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15h

Here's my first project!

@chikki

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14h

Other than the 2nd pic being inproportionate, I love the shading! You're really good!

RB CG

•

22h

used my last braincells

Melanie Scearce

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15h

Braincells well used 👍

Aniciaga

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attempt to simplify the pear didn’t work so well pre demo: drawing 1. Drawing 2 happened after watching the demo. Not so happy with the sharp dark values, and realized how much effect different paper has on the sketch. Critiques/comments welcome!

Winston Tang

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Here's my pear. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks. I struggled with separating the planes with the values, also when doing hard edges, the lines of the edges stand out too much.

@baily

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any advice or improvement would be of great help

Melanie Scearce

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This is perfect for this project! Great simplification. Just a couple of small additions that could get you closer to the expression of the model might be to angle the eyebrows a bit more and darken that shape on the bridge of his nose that marks the furrowed brow. Super tiny adjustments.

Fahad Pitafi

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robby guida

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Hello! Starting to draw and this is my first attempt (I haven't seen demo yet). Would like to know what's good and what can be improved. Thank you!

RB CG

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can't understand how dark i need to make the shadow, it's too dark everytime...

@psk2s

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Proportiona need some work, especially the nose and mouth. Other than that, I am quite pleased! Thoughts?

@alexmolaver

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This definitely got confusing with the value simplification and consistency across the whole portrait. Probably overcomplicated it too. Looking forward to seeing the demo now

Daniëlle

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First attempt at a value study! Really liked the pointers for simplification, as I tend to focus on the details too much. Made a little mistake in the pear: my value 1 and 2 should have been the same value. Now I got into trouble when I reached the darker sections. Level 2 went better already! The amount of details was challenging but fun.

@benwilhelm

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My first assignment! Any feedback appreciated 🙏

@benwilhelm

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My second attempt, this time sticking closer to the instructions of keeping the 5 values clearly separated.

Christian D

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Hey, i have a before and after Demo Drawing, would like some feedback.

Vicki Young

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The shadow area of the second one is full of wonders!

Martha Muniz

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Looks great! Keep going!

@fysfys

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Here goes first post. Thank you for any feedback.

Martha Muniz

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Great start! Already tons of dimensionality to the image, as well as nice simplification of shapes. Try starting your lightest greys even lighter, so the values are more evenly spaced rather than gravitating towards the dark end of the spectrum. Focusing on this also helps develop your control of the pencil as you focus on lighter pressure when rendering.

@rrrubennn

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Luke Reed

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Before and after demo video. Would love some feedback :) Thanks

Vicki Young

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I think you did exactly what the assignment requested by keeping sharp edges. I'm not sure that triangle in the shadow of the 2nd drawing would be that light?

@nivikes

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About instructor

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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.