How to Draw Everything Exercises

Basil Godevenos · 23 Nov 2019, 02:56

I'm new to SVS and I've just started with the "How to Draw Everything" class by Jake Parker in an attempt to finally learn drawing/painting/illustration in a deliberate, more formal manner.

The first exercise is upside down drawing, which I've done before.

Here's the first time I tried it a couple of years ago...

Original:

My version:

A couple of years (and not really much drawing in the meantime later), and here's my upside down version of Skullchaser (I don't think I have to tell you mine is on the left):

I'm happier than I expected to be with it. I don't have the line confidence yet, but I did much better with my proportions than the first time I attempted this exercise.

Pamela Fraley · 23 Nov 2019, 03:16

@Basil-Godevenos these are great. Makes we want to go redo some of the classes.

Basil Godevenos · 23 Nov 2019, 03:27

@Pamela-Fraley Thanks! Jake says "don't worry if it takes you half an hour". I looked at the clock after I finished. 55 minutes. I laughed.

TessaW · 23 Nov 2019, 21:35

@Basil-Godevenos Lol. Don't feel bad about it taking 55 minutes. Great job.

Basil Godevenos · 24 Nov 2019, 00:58

@TessaW oh I don't feel bad. It's more a realization that speed comes with experience. I look at pros posting their "warm-ups" on Instagram and I'm blown away by what can be accomplished in a few minutes when you really know what you're doing.

Basil Godevenos · 24 Nov 2019, 02:42

Exercise 2: Contour Lines.

This one leaves a lot to be desired. I got all the detail in but my proportions are way off.

This was done a bit quicker. 45 minutes or so.

TessaW · 24 Nov 2019, 04:05

@Basil-Godevenos Good outlook.

Basil Godevenos · 25 Nov 2019, 01:53

And here's today's exercise: negative space drawing. This was by far the quickest. I think it only took me about 10 minutes. The fact that the chair's parts are made of many continuous straight and parallel lines helped a lot.

Basil Godevenos · 6 Dec 2019, 01:17

I made it to the end of the course - didn't want to bore everyone here with random shapes... but here's part 1 of the "final assignment". A building:

I realized after the fact that it's missing a few shadows - I did this while sick in bed and hadn't eaten in 24 hours, so I'm excusing myself

Basil Godevenos · 6 Dec 2019, 02:43

Attempting to draw a car as part 2 of the final assignment.

Here's what I got done tonight. I'll post more tomorrow!

Basil Godevenos · 9 Dec 2019, 03:02

Here's the finished car. Almost forgot to include the drop shadow!

Also, behold the new watermark I'm testing out:

Eywin · 22 Dec 2019, 17:13

@Basil-Godevenos Hi, I am also new to SVS and have started with the 7 days trial. I've also started with this course and just have finished the first 3 excerciese. I wanted to say that yours are so amazing. I am going to take a photo of mine and share as well.

Basil Godevenos · 23 Dec 2019, 03:34

@Eywin Awesome!! I really enjoyed this course. I think just nailing down the process of building a drawing layer by layer has really helped me a lot!

mamadraw · 17 Jan 2020, 06:34

@Basil-Godevenos Thanks for sharing your work! I’ve just completed the course too. I tried to “draw along” with Jake as I was watching the demos so my final drawings are a bit wobbly. I’m going to spend a week or so drawing my own buildings, trees and cars before I move onto to perspective drawing. I think I might leave off character drawing for now as it is so much more complex (it was so hard to draw along with that demo and I am not pleased with the outcome!) as I think I will do the character design course after perspective. How about you? Which courses will you go for next?

Basil Godevenos · 17 Jan 2020, 17:57

@mamadraw your drawings look fantastic! Great work.

I am following along the new foundations track, which begins with How to Draw Everything and then moves to perspective. Don't be timid about the perspective class - it's very good. I finished it recently and now I'm on to Will Terry's course, although I haven't been able to get through it as quickly because I've been sick recently.

Good luck!

mamadraw · 17 Jan 2020, 19:09

@Basil-Godevenos Great! Yes, I'm planning on the same path, though I do keep getting side tracked by enticing things like fur and fabrics! I hadn't realised your original post was so old when I responded - good to hear that you got a lot out of the perspective class! I'm on it tomorrow! Good luck!