I think that this technique is really helping me get the right proportions depending on what I'm drawing. This technique is helping me capture my subjects more accurately. I think it is always good to have this trick in your sleeve because it can really help make your drawing much better. For me, it is easier to measure proportion on objects that are tall and thin because my wrist feels weird being sideways and it is a bit awkward trying to measure things from side to side with you pencil. Measuring slanted angles on the other hand is much more difficult for me, and I hope to improve.

I was not able to go outside but I have this orchard in bloom.  Negative space was really helpful.

Unable to go outside mainly because weather conditions, I looked up to old pictures and did the task sugested. Proportions with this technique is quite accurate, and even if is not by the milimeter, gives realism to the drawing. I tried with different objects and for me all objects are good for it, although choosing where one takes the measure can help a lot. My flower is a "starish" shape but not in a frontal view and before all I took the proportions of the petals, stem and leaves. All the drawing went from there.   

I redid my marsh wren using proportion techniques and also did the snail shell drawing.  then I drew a towhee based on a photo a friend took.  I worked on proportion and had to draw it several times.  Then i decided to add the rust color of the towhee and it looks a little strange when i scanned it.  Anyway using my pencil or fingers for measuring proportion is great.  I tried it when i walked in the park just to get an idea of size,  and I'll try it an outside drawing next.  

The negative space and proportional measurement practices are more difficult.  I've used the arms length measurements before but wasn't sure what I was looking for when I did it.  I used that process on drawing the barn owl from a photo I took last month at a Sportsman's Show we went to in the area.  One of the locals is a birds of prey rehabilitator and she comes to many events near where I live and I was able to get some good shots of a barn owl as she walked with it near me. He was absolutely beautiful.  The negative space practice was pretty easy for me, I enjoyed this lesson a lot, it was lots of fun.

Is very useful because help you to have another perspective of things. Yes. Yes because all is perspective.

I had forgotten that proportion trick. I know I used it a long time ago. Thanks for refreshing my memory.

I found using the measuring proportion technique very effective and gives me a great tool to make sure my illustration are more accurate and proportionally correct.  

I call this, “Ok, you can look now”  learning the proportions trick helped me a lot to get close to the shape I was drawing  

I used the proportion technique to draw two marsupials that were outside my tent at a recent campsite in Northern Tasmania.  I used the length of the head as my initial measurement.  It made me realize that the Tasmanian Pademelon is a very round animal!  It also has a proportionally larger head to body size, which might be because this was a very young animal, but the Bennett's Wallaby was an adult.  The negative shapes helped to draw the legs more accurately than I ever have before!  I live in Tasmania, so have tried to draw these species a few times before but have greatly improved with these techniques.

Houseplant, old x-mas tree. free-style sketches.

The tools of negative space and proportion (measuring), I believe are going to make my drawings much better.

The proportion trick made a difference to my sketches by eye. It helps rough the image in a bit more accurately so that it looked more like the subject. I loved that simply using a pencil and marking along the way is the only tool you need. Proportion is easier to measure when there are distinct parts of the subject.

Before this study I thought I was seeing correctly but the measuring technique proved I wasn't!  This was a great exercise that really helped me. 

Using a hand to close around your better eye [or have a small, packable telescope] instead of simply squinting for a your first, immediate view of your field object; or use one piece of paper you stash in the back of your journal with its center cut for you previously with a square or small round you can squint through.

Measuring proportion and using negative space were very helpful in making the drawing more accurate. Because it is still very wet and cold here, I drew from a photograph of a flower I had seen in a Maine forest. Measuring proportion seems to be very useful for drawing parts of plants and animals and for getting their positions more accurate in their settings. I’m still pretty inexperienced in sketching and drawing, so I’m not really sure yet where these techniques would be more or less helpful, but I’m excited to keep practicing and learning.

Using the negative space and measuring is very helpful.  I know this is a good way to help gather information for identifying birds etc. so it was great to see how to apply this to sketching.  Appreciating the surrounding area really helped keep my sketch in proportion.  Thank goodness for erasers!

This proportion thing is irritating - BECAUSE IT WORKS - and I'm usually too lazy to do it. But when I do it makes my drawings render more accurately. I did a freeze frame of those Red Foxes from the last lesson's video and tried the "number of heads" method and stuff looked better. It helped me realize the slender length of the parent fox versus the shorter, tighter form of the  youth fox. I'm buying into measuring proportion!  I also used some negative space to capture some of the interaction between the two animals. I like the way the instructor asks me to "be gentle" with myself and also to just go for it. Helpful. I've destroyed a few pages of my book but also have some that I'm proud of! I got this course as a birthday gift and it's one of the best I've ever received!

Measuring proportion is a real help.  I always try to visually use the head of a bird as the guide, but the additional use of the pencil as the ruler really helps.  Thinking about negative space was very helpful with drawing the feathers.

The lessons on negative space and proportion helped me a lot in these last two.  I did not find any difference between taking a measurement of the proportions of the mushrooms or the mountains.  In both situations, it helped get more faithful representations of reality.

Pretty amazing how easy it is to use this method. Helped me get the proportions right on this planter.

It took me a good hour and lots of erasing and re-drawing to get the proportions right on this, which I made from my own photo. Even though the photo was a square format, I ended up making the tiger too large and therefore losing my negative space. I did find the measuring useful, though trickier to use with a photo. And I still managed to get the right eye (our left) in too close initially and having to correct it. Same thing with the chin, which was initially too small and needed correcting. So a modicum of perfectionism (not my strongest point) is a good idea here! Interesting observation: I always think of tigers as being orange and black, even though I spent almost 2 weeks photographing them in the wild last year. Now, when I started adding color, I realized how much white they have.

This is more challenging than I thought it would be. Using my eraser a lot!

The use of proportions really helped in that I tend to get so interested in one aspect of the subject and make that aspect too big!. This forced me to keep that tendency under control. I focused first on relative proportions and then started using negative space, too. It was rewarding that they worked together. I was able to use the proportion techniques on a still plant, but it takes me a long time. It will take a lot of practice before I can do this with a moving subject.