The 6-Week Drawing Bootcamp ✏️

The 6-Week Drawing Bootcamp

Marc Brunet presents a progressive drawing program that builds skills in a deliberate order: hand control, perspective and form, figure drawing, construction, values, and character design.

Each week includes four exercises and one finished project. Brunet recommends practicing for roughly 20–40 minutes a day, spreading exercises across the week, and using the optional harder versions only if you have more experience. References are an important part of learning.

Week 1: Control and Basic Forms

• Fill a page with confident, shoulder-driven straight lines, curves, and ellipses. Avoid scratchy strokes.
• Draw 20 boxes and 20 cylinders in varied orientations. Do a little each day rather than all at once.
• Draw 10 simple idle poses, spending 2–3 minutes on each. Focus on observation rather than polished results.
• Fill a page with forms that you stack, cut, bevel, and extrude to practice imagining solid objects.
• Project: Before the week begins, spend about an hour copying a character of your choice without tracing. Save this drawing as a benchmark to compare with your work in Week 6.

Week 2: Form and Perspective

• Review perspective fundamentals using the linked class.
• Draw a pose from reference for 10 minutes, then put the reference away and redraw it from memory.
• Draw 10 boxes of different sizes in one-point perspective.
• Block out a simple room with a floor, two walls, and one piece of furniture.
• Project: Draw a simple prop, such as a chest, in two-point perspective.

Week 3: Figure Drawing and Observation

• Review the quick-pose lesson from Week 2.
• Draw 30 quick poses at 2 minutes each, spread across the week.
• Draw five character poses at 5 minutes each, showing only the torso and above.
• Spend 20 minutes studying one pose, then overlay your drawing on the reference to find and correct inaccuracies.
• Project: Draw two characters interacting and touching, using reference. Spend about 30–60 minutes; prioritize the bodies and leave details until last.

Week 4: Figure Construction

• Review the fundamentals of construction, especially building a figure with a classic mannequin.
• Draw five simple mannequins from photo or drawn references.
• Copy a character’s body in a neutral pose, without face, hair, or clothing. First construct the figure, then make a clean sketch over it.
• Redraw one of your mannequins from memory, bringing back the reference at the end to check and correct it.
• Project: Construct a full standing figure from boxes and cylinders in a dynamic pose, using reference.

Week 5: Values and Shading

• Review the linked shading lesson.
• Shade five of your Week 4 figure drawings using references. A posing tool such as Magic Poser can help with setting up figures and lighting.
• Make a grayscale master study of a partial character, separating midtones, highlights, and shadows onto three layers. Keeping the value groups separate encourages deliberate decisions rather than aimless smudging.
• Shade another artist’s line art. You may use Brunet’s work, but do not claim it as your own.
• Project: Create a grayscale portrait from a mirror or a reference photo. Keep highlights, midtones, and shadows in mind as you work.

Week 6: Character Design and Combining Skills

• Review the character-design basics lesson.
• Draw a standing character from construction without reference or clothing.
• Create a character by combining parts from three different references—for example, a torso, legs, and arm from separate sources.
• Redraw the Week 1 benchmark character using the same reference, then compare the two drawings.
• Project: Design and draw an original character using the skills covered throughout the bootcamp.

Brunet recommends repeating the bootcamp after a few months with a new benchmark. The exercises are intended to remain challenging as your results improve. The program can be done digitally or with pen and paper.

Creator featured: Marc Brunet.