I've been using an app called "Drawing References" that makes this feedback step a LOT easier than the Photoshop/Procreate process described in the past couple videos. Just take a picture of your drawing and it gives you an adjustable transparent overlay you can compare with the reference. It also has built-in grayscale and blurring filters to help figure out shading. Totally worth the $5. I'm on Android, but I see it's available on the Apple App Store too.

Super interesting! It started out quite ok, but then I lost it somewhere on the way... Definitely should have simplified more. (I fought with the nose and eyes a lot, for example.) But it's nice how this works in principle. Makes me want to try again with another portrait. :-)

So i was looking through Lone Wolf and Cub to pick a panel and had a panic attack. Goseki Kojima is so brilliant in every panel— how dare I even try? So i picked the simplest panel I could find and in so doing noticed for the eleventy-thousandth time how great his landscapes are. I love his trees and his rain, so I gave it a little try.

For now, it won't get better than this. :-/

Not a very active thread, but if fellow level 1 beginners want to reach out, please do so! As someone pretty early in the journey, it's not only inspiring but also intimidating to see much of the art shared here, while uploading my own sketches that look like the work of a 14 year old. Or to put it in the attached picture of a cow: It feels like trying to eat a whole meadow, while mainly producing crap. ;-) It's also exciting to know that the cow would've looked a lot crappier pre-proko - and since I'm only 1/4 through the basics course, this is really only the beginning of improvement. But... yeah, it does feel a bit lonely among so many aspiring artists. Because, to be honest, I don't see myself as an artist - and I don't know whether I'm ever going to (or even want) to be one. I'm a software engineer and I love that job. I just also like to use drawing for coping emotionally, and it sucks to not being able to put stuff on paper in a way that looks good. So, if anyone else is still trying to figure out a purpose, a style, and just how to make sketches not look like crap, feel free to share these first steps in the journey. :-)

Shout out to Christina Leone(the artist) I did this 2 times and in both times I ended up with a Fat Jaw. The first one is an attempt to copy, shading and all. While my second attempt was Line art only. What I tried to do is emphasize the shadow and places of interest. To rep. the shadow, I used thick lines but lighter, While the areas of Focus I tried to make those lines darkest, also I tried to use surrounding areas and line thickness to direct back into the face. I think I achieved the opposite of what I was trying to do.

My lines still suck and I don't know nearly enough to be able to draw this stuff, but studying line weight is an eye opener! * Carter Goodrich: Note how Gru's eyes and eye brows are much thicker and darker than the rest of the face, and how this underlines his expression. * Dave Malan: In this portrait, line weight adds focus in a really stunning way. * Ryan Woodward: Note especially how the heavy contours are different from the shadow sides. I think he puts weight exactly on those contours that support the dynamics of the pose. I tried to draw this in a few different ways and there is none that works nearly as good. Wow. I need to practice...

Tried to play with both thickness and value, but this was surprisingly challenging. And unfortunately I had to print the lines relatively clear, otherwise it wouldn't print anything... In the importance one, I decided to also highlight some of the wrinkles, to emphasize the feeling of heaviness and sadness I see in the picture.

See my second attempt on a second picture. Now I see what was wrong with my first attempt before the demo. I liked this task. Thank you.

Still need to do longer, larger outlines of the general shapes and directions (instead of focusing on smaller details)... Have to practice more simplification!

Here’s my first attempt at this assignment, it’s a Trabant. Because the lighting is not great in the photo of my physical pencil drawing, I decided to retrace it in Procreate as well. Hopefully it makes my intended lines a bit clearer. (Still working on my manual line quality :-/ )

I'm Level 1, but the camel is much more fun... :) I have a tendency to do long, single strokes, so this is a great exercise (and I should do more of it).

Pear 1. Well, I guess this is my starting point. Not very clean, and I generally struggle to get proportions and line directions right - I did two earlier tries with just the contours. (Very nice first exercise, though!)