Drawing Dynamic Shapes

This course is part of Drawing for Beginners: Shape Design Specialization

Instructor: Stan Prokopenko

Included with Learn more

5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Beginner level

Recommended experience

5 hours to complete

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Beginner level

Recommended experience

5 hours to complete

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Learn what makes a shape feel dynamic: asymmetry, tension, contrast, and complexity in the right places.
Break the instinct to balance and center everything, which is what makes shapes boring.
Push shapes for energy without pushing so far that they stop reading as the thing you're drawing.

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

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Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Drawing for Beginners: Shape Design Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 5 modules in this course

In this course you'll learn why some shapes feel alive and others feel dead, and what to actually do about it. You'll work through the ingredients one at a time, so breaking symmetry, shifting the peaks of a curve, building tension against a relaxed curve, mixing straights in with your curves, and stacking complexity on one side to create a focal point. You'll learn to angle a shape off vertical so it feels like it's falling or flowing, and to arrange the smaller shapes so they support the gesture instead of fighting it. You'll also learn where to stop, because a shape pushed too far stops reading as the thing it's supposed to be.

In this lesson you'll see how to make shapes interesting and dynamic using concepts like gesture, variety, contrast, complexity, symmetry, tension, and balance. I'll start with a boring shape and introduce a new concept one at a time to make it more alive with movement and energy.

What's included

6 videos1 peer review

In this demo, I show my process for finding the gesture of a subject and then designing dynamic and interesting shapes that support that gesture.

What's included

5 videos

It’s time to bring it up a notch and draw some seals from MEMORY and IMAGINATION! In this demo, I'll get ques from my memory of my level 1 sketches, while inventing new poses and pushing the shapes to make them more interesting.

What's included

3 videos

Let’s take a look at previous “Dynamic Shapes” project submissions. I’ll go over some of the more common mistakes and give some demos covering ways to get your shapes looking more dynamic, interesting, and gestural.

What's included

8 videos

8 videosTotal 70 minutes

Why Gesture Practice Never Ends6 minutes
Oversimplifying Past the Gesture11 minutes
Tension, Stretch, and the Bean8 minutes
Bloated Bellies and Grounding Straights11 minutes
Gesture Inside the Form Not Just the Silhouette9 minutes
Flow Over Outline Construction9 minutes
Loose Lines Keep Gesture Alive7 minutes
Pushing Shapes Without Breaking Anatomy9 minutes

Learn how shapes communicate emotion, energy, and story in character design, composition, and visual development. Through film and figure drawing examples, you’ll practice using geometric and organic shapes, asymmetry, diagonals, and straight-to-curve relationships to create stronger compositions and more forceful, dynamic artwork.

What's included

3 videos

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Instructor

Stan Prokopenko

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4 Courses51 learners

Offered by

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