Demetrio Cran
Demetrio Cran
I was born in 1980, and I have always drawn in my free time. In 2015, I decided to dive deep into the fundamentals. I would like making graphic novels
Demetrio Cran
Hi! I know people with problems with that too. You might find this useful: Book: Conquering carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries: a self-care program (1996) by Sharon Butler (You might find page 36 interesting) and Brandon Dayton YouTube Channel: Managing Hand Pain for Artists.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Daniela Grippo
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hola Daniela! Creo que entre Argentinos podemos hablar en Argentino :-) Lo que dice Steve es muy acertado, creo yo. Es posible que te entusiasme mucho la anatomia y estés usando esa energía para sentarte a dibujar, pero veo que no te vendria mal reforzar algunos fundamentos. Por ejemplo, Steve menciona el gesto. Yo sumo la forma en que usas el "sombreado" para describir el volumen. Creo que podés usar de referencia a Steve, que con gran economía (solamente dos tonos) muestra mucho volumen y con gran claridad. Por supuesto que Steve es muy avanzado, pero lo que se puede sacar de la experiencia es que tal vez sea buena idea probar con un sombreado más simple. Bueno, es un gusto encontrame con dibujantes de argentina.
Reply
@renegaderumi
Tried a snail again after watching the critique. Still finding myself rushing a lot. Will keep trying, and focus on slowing down. Any tips on how to have a slower work flow to take more care with lines are super welcome. I went in wanting to spend 20 minutes on it and raced through in 5!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi! try ghosting your lines, which means to make the move of your arm almost touching the paper with the tip of the pencil. Do 2 to 4 ghosting of each line as a rule (I do not like the word rule... maybe think of it as a tool :-). That will slow you down. It is better if you take the time to observe in each ghosting, but sometimes is enough to put attention on the biomechanics of drawing.
Reply
scott ford
Hey Geert-Jan me too except I am a lot older , been drawing informally since I was a kid. Several years ago took several basic drawings classes locally , started drawing a lot. Then I ran into Proko YouTube’s and decided I needed to take a class. I was a computer professional and retired and decided to do more art. So like yourself I am doing a reboot. I found huge gaps in the art classes I took and the ones I am taking with Proko.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi Scott, I have a bit more than two decades ahead before retirement. I am pursuing art in my free time, amazed by all the free resources at my fingertips. I found studying art very meaningful, and I totally imagine myself doing a lot of that after leaving the workforce. See you around!
Reply
Danet
This is a great question. I think what you want to learn Is how to draw primitives from any angle. Most perspective books and courses focus on the technical part of drawing 1,2 and 3 point which is great for drawing buildings, and cars, but useless for figure drawing. Here’s a video that might help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOIu5EKYsNA&list=PLJzu3mFdwCxDP3_ekqj8qK8kcQqKfvzTx&index=60 I would Also recommend just drawing several sheets of cubes turning in space and getting feedback. I’ll be happy to take a look at them. Good luck!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi Danet! I am from Argentina, so we could do this in Castellano! But then other people would not understand us....so here goes my bad English! I agree with the goal "how to draw primitives from any angle". But, I know from experience that you could use intense technical perspective practice to learn intuitive perspective. I would not discuss what is the faster way because I think that it will vary with the subject.
Reply
Kristian Nee
Hey Finlo, that's a common complaint that a lot of people have about drawing advice. I think you're correct to be frustrated and I don't think that advice is actually help when worded that way. The thing that teachers don't clarify when telling you this is both are actually the same advice. What I mean by this is they're essentially trying to achieve the same thing. When a teacher tells you this, they've both failed a ton, and have done it intentionally. When "doing it right", you're doing it intentionally and focusing on every step of the process to make sure you make any bad mistakes. Where people get caught up is the focus on over analyzing everything and as a result make no progress. Obviously that's bad because you're stuck potentially making the same mistakes or hyper focusing on parts of the process that might require a looser form of drawing. When people say "do it a lot", they mean to draw with intentionality but not getting caught up on the parts of drawing that are holding you back. That can be negative because you might move past things that you should pay more attention to. The goal of both is to get you to a place where you're not paralyzed or afraid of drawing and the problem is falling too much into one or the other. The real way to get over this stuff is to stop over analyzing both ways of studying and start trusting yourself more. You're a good artist, and you're on the right track. The question you should ask yourself is do you personally believe that about yourself? Do whatever actually makes you want to draw more. Don't "try" to draw more intuitively, just draw more intuitively. And when you're thinking about whether or not you should draw more, the answer is always yes. Good luck
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi! I am here a year later, sorry for reply to such a old answer, but I am kind of sceptical of the "keep drawing" advice. I mean, is drawing itself is the purpuse, because is good for your metal health, go ahead. But, another view is having a purpose to draw and be connected with that purpuse in order to know how to practice. If you want to be insanely precise in your drawings, well you should practice that. On the contrary, if you want to be an abstract expressionist, you should get loose. (i am just saying to illustrate my point). Finally, I am in touch of the current discussion of AI, and I wonder how much this concern is related with artist that do not have a voice of his own, because that is something that a AI can not do till become sentient (and that may not happen ever). I am not talking of style, i am referring to ideas. Thanks for reading and sorry for my odd grammar, it happens that English is my second language. Saludos!
Reply
Demetrio Cran
Hi. This is a hard question because it will depend on how you like to study. I have an analytical mind. For instance, I do programming. So, I liked to understand how perspective works. If you want to follow that path, I recommend David Chelsea's books and Scott Robertson's learning materials.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Grundini
I had another go at a figure drawing and also tried out some shading. Unfortunately I messed up the figure's size and placement on the paper and therefore decided to stop above the knees. Also the torso is squashed a bit. Apart from these things I'm quite satisfied with the outcome, especially since this is my first real attempt at this. As always feedback and critique is appreciated.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi! It is hard to critique this detailed rendering! But I will try. Overall, I think that your are right to be satisfied, it is a great piece! Congrats! Maybe, next time, you might try to design big shadow shapes. I mean, to try to separate the shadow shapes from the light shapes right at the begining and, keep them separated till the end. For instance, I believe that the pectoralis is to light for being in the shadow family. What do you think?
Reply
Demetrio Cran
Hi! it is great! regarding perspective, it is a pretty organic subject matter, but it is my impression that you should revise the ellipse of the jar's mouth. The rendering is vigorous and interesting!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Marco Sordi
2022/10/11. Good morning everybody. Here’s my today’s 30 mins warming up exercise. According to Stan latest videos about gesture I tried to make gesture, structure and anatomy merge each other into a single sketch. Thanks for any comment or advice.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Great work! A quick feedback! It is handy to have a template for the legs in mind. Burne Hogarth (and many others, I guess) adviced to think of a B shape for the leg frontal view, and a S for the side view. It may sound formulaic, but not if you keep flexible ;-)
Reply
Simon L
I took Demetrio Cran's advice and added "rubber bands" to the process of 2 minute poses. Wow, so much harder! Struggling a bit with the perspective of the ellipses. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated :) Thanks!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi Simon, thanks for giving it a try! @Steve Lenze gave you great feedback, so I just will add some concepts to help you in your journey. I think that your sense of flow and shape design is strong. You may found difficult to add the rubber bands because it seems that you should improve your spatial intuition. If you want to work on that, there are many tools. One is to learn perspective analytically like a madman, which is what I did (it is a long and boring path). But drawing from life is also a good practice (Dynamic Sketching by Peter Han is based on that premise). In addition, consider picking up photographs that make you grow in that regard, such as https://ar.pinterest.com/pin/300896818860274981/ and https://ar.pinterest.com/pin/70650287896561762/ (sincerely, if you are passionate about the figure, you should try the last path). Happy journey!!
Reply
Demetrio Cran
Thank you Michael for this lecture. I am already familiar with your teaching because you are very generous in releasing content on your YouTube channel. Thanks for that also! I like the part where you put your teaching in context, explaining that, although some teachers use trademarks, they do not own these ideas. This is a very important message that should be heard.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
@elkad
Phew! It took me a long time to get the hang of especially establishing and maintaining the gesture throughout the drawing, but I think I improved a lot. I did drew with all the demo reference photos, a few from online and a few from imagination. Any feedback is welcome, thanks in advance!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Super! I would recommend adding tone so to convey the sense of a floor plane, or maybe adding a perspective grid. An example https://demetriocran.wordpress.com/gallery/#jp-carousel-735
Reply
Marco Sordi
2022/10/2. Good evening everybody. As always I apologize for posting my illustration here but I don't have many choices since there's no specific category for illustrations like this. This is my latest one. I'd like to know if you think I should decrease the color saturation. It looks a little cartoony but it could be because my pc screen. Should I also lose some edges more (like I did for the back of the ship or the tail and wings of the dragon)? Thanks for your help and good night.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi, I think that you should add atmospheric perspective to the dragon so it does not look like it will hit the ship with his wing.
Reply
Simon L
I've moved on to two minutes, which I find a looot harder than 30 seconds. I can't seem to decide what to focus on – if I focus on getting more detailed I feel that I lose spontaneity and get stiff quickly. If I focus on looser "motion" I end up with a lot of time left and something that looks a bit worse than the 30 sec ones. Anyone got any tips? If any of you see any bad habits going on, please point it out so I can correct it moving on :) Thanks!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
I think that you should try to draw as you did in the examples that you uploaded, but with less pressure. Then, start to add contour lines (rubber bands) around the limbs and torso to orient them in space (very light touch). Finally, add key anatomical details to help describe the pose, such as some landmarks (knee, clavicle, elbow, etc) This is a 2-min pose of mine as an example https://img-resizer.proko.com/resize/image/file/960x720x1/eyJwYXRoIjoiaW1hZ2VzL2RlbWV0cmlvL2RlbWV0cmlvLWRheV8yNV9wb3NlX25vXzQuanBnIiwibmFtZSI6ImRheV8yNV9wb3NlX25vXzQiLCJtaW1lIjoiaW1hZ2UvanBlZyIsIndpZHRoIjoyNzE1LCJoZWlnaHQiOjMzOTR9--3b27b876851f179f8e36ae5f92b7598bf0364dbc
Reply
Ari
I've started doing some 30 seconds poses. I feel like I still fixate too much on the contourn so I'll practice on that. 'm using lineofaction for the references but if anyone knows other site I would love to hear about it. Any critique is really appreciated ❤️
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi Ari. Are you starting with the head? If that is the case, you should try starting with the torso, then the legs, and even adding some tone to suggest the contact of the foot with the floor to favor thinking of balance.
Reply
Alex Ramos
I did my figure drawing session, 1 minute for each pose. I gonna keep practicing. 
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hi Alex! great control of the line. IMO, you should apply some deliberate practice methods aiming at how the head connects with the torse (the flow that abstractly represents the neck) (https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/deliberate-practice-the-secret-to-getting-good-fast/discussions)
Reply
@brevittyy
Hello everybody😀 I have been doing some robo bean. Pls let me know if im doing something wrong, it would be very helpful.😀
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Very well done, I believe. The second one starting from the top might have the center line of the tórax box a little bit off.
Reply
Demetrio Cran
Hello. Just a comment, I believe that you are making the exercise harder by choosing this kind of reference where the landmarks can not be seen clearly. This is Just my opinion, of course. Have a nice day!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Demetrio Cran
Hello! nice study. Here is my feedback, hope it helps: - Proportions: Since Stan teaches us to start with the torso, I would say that the legs are short and the head small, but only a little. The drawing looks pretty natural, but I can see the difference in comparison to the reference. - Shading: The shadow edges, known as the terminators and the cast shadow limits, according to theory, should be depicted with a soft edge for the former, and a firm edge for the latter. If you study the work of Lane Brown, he does that notoriously.  Did you try to treat the shadow side more graphically? I mean, there is something often called "Value compression" that is about making choices to what side we prioritize. Generally, for this kind of drawing, the light side is prioritized. - Light condition: it is a nice reference, side light is a good lighting setup, I believe. By the way, very good gesture!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
Your name
Email
Message