Beautiful work! I love the colors and rough texture. I almost feel that changing the angle of the head just slightly downwards, such that the shadow shape under the eye on the lighted side of the face formed a triangle down to the nose a bit, that it would help the flow of the viewer's gaze. With the distinct rhythms of the horns and jaw/ears, even cheek bones and cast shadow of the head, my eye wants to be drawn down but feels interrupted by the light shapes. A slight down tilt would also make for a little extra dynamic in the expression as well! Of course, that would be a major change now, but hopefully the advice can be applied to future paintings as well.

I also feel a little worried about this! I was recently really excited about a new course, only to realize that the entire course was locked behind premium besides the first video which was basically an ad for the course followed by a random lesson from it. I understand Proko and all of the artists collaborating here to make this happen have to make their income, but I feel like there will still be plenty of that even with a greater percentage of free content. Personally, what is so incredibly exciting about Proko to me is that I can access high-quality, in-depth art education even though I can't afford to pay for it right now. I know that this content will take me to a point where I will be able to make a steady income myself, and I speak genuinely when I say that at that point, I will ABSOLUTELY be returning to all my favorite courses to complete them with premium content. I think that will be true of many here, and having more free content will draw more users overall which would also benefit the social side of Proko. I think people would be able to sense quickly if the site was "herding" (as killgannon called) users towards purchases and be discouraged from participating and investing in the first place.

I feel like my idea is similar enough add on here - I'd like the ability to move images between albums after uploading!

30 second and 2 minute poses! Any critique welcome but especially appreciate advice for the boy buns - I feel like I always make the pelvis too small and/or end up with extraneous/disruptive lines near the glutes on male figures. (See the hanging pose near top left, the pose with two blocks, ladder pose, and bottom right.)

I tried to focus more on the flow of the figure as a whole more, but the rhythm isn't quite there yet. I guess there is much work to be done! Any feedback is always welcomed

Very difficult to think of twist. But I understood I need more and more robo bean practice before mannequinization practice for the whole proportion.

Why is it so hard to be an intermediate artist? And how can you make sure you keep your morale up before you reach that industry standard quality?

If I’m not listening to music I almost always have a podcast on or something on YouTube haha, but occasionally there are times I’m in the zone without it. I love video game soundtracks! Undertale’s is awesome. I particularly jam with splatoon music haha it’s sick 💯. But my favorite band to listen to while drawing is by far Vulfpeck, they’re a funk/rhythm type music, some with bangin’ lyrics 💥but mostly instrumentals, they are almost lyrical in how they sound though. Super high energy, but low volume in the background, I think it can really get you in the flow. They’re super skilled and I totally dig the vibes. Anyway there’s my pitch can you tell I’m a fan ahah. If your interested in a transformative mind-bending musical experience, check out miracle musical- ミラクルミュージカル - Hawaii part II. My recommendation is to listen to it from beginning to end! So freakin cool!! A truly immersive musical experience unlike any other!

Some movie OSTs are okay. I like 90s/00s pop and some older soul stuff. The most frequently I've been listening to podcasts while drawing, tops are 99% invisible, Radio Lab and several other art shows including Draftsman. BUT recently like two month or so I've stopped completely. I categorized audio (lyrical and non-lyrical) and visual (text and graphical) are "destroyers of automatic thoughts". I control my time of doing these things. I have my earphones on noise reduction but silent. So I can think better how to arrange my compositions, think deeper into those automatic ideas of mine and jot them down quickly. It makes me feel good when listening to beautiful OSTs and other great musicals, and just like their purpose is to deliver an "sensational image", you get carried away in that cinematic mood and often don't do stuff as efficiently.

Hi Casey! I’m surprised to know that you like Undertale too! I played in Steam and I love the story and the music so much. I often listen to Nier Replicant’s OST. It has orchestra version, and every boss theme sounds really emotional. I didn’t know CloZee, so I will find her music☺️

I'm pretty much listening to music constantly. The only time I find it particularly difficult to focus with music is when I'm writing, but most other times if I need to concentrate on drawing, my brain just tunes out the noise, which is a little ironic. I LOVE the Undertale soundtrack, and I'm also really fond of the stuff Hans Zimmer does, especially his Spider Man soundtrack work. For people who are more drawn to relaxing music to get into the creating zone, I've got links to playlists I've made to maximize focus! One for general relaxation akin to being in the womb: https://vocal.media/beat/life-from-inside-the-womb And one of songs from languages other than English for when you really need to focus, but are too distracted by lyrics: https://vocal.media/beat/songs-in-other-languages-that-melt-me-to-my-seat

Great topic :) OSTs are super awesome to listen to while drawing! Two steps from hell is also a super awesome music group. I also listen to live talk sessions where people tell about their life. I think it's very interesting to listen to the experiences of other people.

If I play a playlist of music, I won't notice when it ends, so for that reason I like radio 24/7 streams. The main one I listen to is Lo-fi Girl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qap5aO4i9A It's just rhythmic enough to be energetic, but no distracting vocals. Lo-fi is a nice genre if you want to concentrate. It fades into the background and becomes a mood. It's like the new generation's jazz café I think.

Stunning contrast, love the energy of those paintings especially the second. I recently was introduced to some of the work of Antoine-Louis Barye at the Dallas Museum of Arts, he has some really stunning sculpts that I think would look beautiful in this style and from my understanding he is greatly praised on his anatomical understanding, so you could even focus on that if you wanted!

1 hour of 2 minute poses! (References from line-of-action.com) I really liked the first two to four but then I started getting mentally caught up and couldn't find my flow again until around #14. I think I started worrying about whether I was practicing correctly and then was stuck overthinking for a while. (Hopefully farther into the course this won't be so much a concern.) How do y'all stay in your flow and/or shake off a bad pose? Am I focusing too much on contour perhaps? Any other critique/advice is welcome as well, for reference I have skimmed through the figure and anatomy courses in previous years and am just starting to work through them seriously (thanks proko 2.0 for the motivation!).

Stunning work! Very interested in gouache myself, hoping to start in a few months.

Draw a Box definitely helped my line quality but I never got far through the course because it simply didn't hold my interest. Past that, I already knew most of what it taught, I just haven't put the actual work into building the skills (which of course I need to do haha, but perhaps not through Draw a Box). I definitely think it is a valuable course, just maybe not best for my learning style and capacity to focus.

I don't know if this would work for you, but for me, the way I made myself draw and paint more was by doing sketches of small simple things I love to draw and later when I feel like it one or two things that are relatively complex but I love to draw. Sometimes I love taking random ideas from people to change things up and make things fun! This also builds better visual libraries and a bigger skillset. Soon you will build this weird almost desire to draw a lot, but only if you don't force the process. Build your drive for it and good luck! ✨

Hi. I'm Lillen Art. I paint portraits of women and female characters. Currently, I'm working on my portfolio and transitioning my art away from realism towards stylized illustration. Also, I'm learning Blender and 3D. I look forward to getting to know some of you and sharing feedback. Samples of my art attached below.