Liandro
Ceará, Brazil
I draw cartoons and teach about art, design and creativity.
Juice
added comment in3D Model: Pectoralis Major
16d
I would love to see a posable model of the pecs. Where you can move the arms and see how the pecs change with different poses. Is there anything like that out there? If not can you make one proko?
16d
Hey, @Juice! I don't think such a model exists yet - at least, not to my knowledge. Proko's Skelly app (https://www.proko.com/skellyapp) is a great poseable resource, although it only shows bones in its current version.
If Proko would be able to release a poseable model that also showed muscles, I think that would be awesome. But I'm not sure if this is in the company's near future plans - perhaps @Kimberly Lewis might like to add up any info?
16d
The hardest thing is to be consistent and give time to drawing every day. IT IS REALLY HARD. Many factors are obstacles. Having full time job does not help too. I find myself constantly blaming myself for being lazy and not drawing. But in fact, I am just dead tired every day. So hard to keep balance and dedicate time to drawing. The only trick I found working for me is to make a slot of time just after the breakfast when I get up early. But even that trick does not always work. But sometimes I just do not want to draw in the morning, especially when I had a blast with drawing at evening before. There is some kind of battery of motivation to make art in me and it is very small battery, unfortunately.
16d
Interesting insights, @Yury! The 2-week challenge isn't called a 'challenge' by coincidence - it can indeed be really hard to keep a long-term consistency with our drawing practice. You said it all: life simply gets in the way. Work, children, health, love life, family members, social life, housekeeping, errands and even other interests, activities and hobbies. Life is complex - and, oddly, a lot of times, these "non-artistic experiencies" are the fuel we can use for our artistic creation when the time comes. The 2-week challenge is an experiment, a laboratory - and not all experiments work flawlessly every time. Good to know that we just need to reset the counting, start again and keep on going. Overall, I think It's fine to remember that we're human beings before being relentless artists, and, if we're able to cultivate art over long periods of our lives, even with the ups and downs, that's consistency, too. Pressuring ourselves to "not miss a day" and berating ourselves when we do is just another form of perfectionism.
Stunning drawing, by the way!
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18d
Oh, wow, @Anubhav Saini! I’m sorry that your friend’s attitude didn’t match what you wanted… it really sucks.
Oddly enough, I’ve been suffering my whole life with something similar: my birthday is on December 31st, and, many times, I’ve had to put up with friends and even some family members not showing up because they’d have other appointments for New Year’s Eve. When I was younger, it was pretty common for me to celebrate on a different date, often several days before or after my actual birthday.
On the bright side, I think it’s awesome that you chose to transform your inevitably bad feelings into fuel to make art!
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@Dennis Yeary, I think it can be very helpful to engage with other people who also do art, whether it's an online community or a small art group that gets together in person periodically.
20d
You might be trying to master too many skills at the same time, which is what is making you feel like you're making progress in none. The reality is, you ARE making progress. I once heard someone say that when you're learning a new skill and it appears that you've plateaued or regressed, that's just your brain burning the new neural pathways that you've built.
If I can suggest taking a new tactic for a little while - maybe work on something small that is really interesting to you (that won't necessarily make you money). Recently, I got some air-dry clay and sculpted a character that was related to my paintings, but also, so far removed from my other artwork, and it was SO MUCH FUN! That joy and excitement in the NEW drove me towards the work I'm making now, and I have at least 6 new painting ideas for my previous collection that was starting to feel stagnant.
The long and short of it is - make stuff! Make a LOT of stuff! Once you have a HOARD of stuff, that's when you start curating your collection for others :)
20d
@Marion Opperman, I think your words make plenty of sense! They reminded me of these graphics (some of which I'm attaching here) that people use to try to explain why artistic growth never feels like a straight upward line, but rather like a stairway (with repeating moments of plateau) or even like an emotional roller coaster, when it feels like we're going down. But the truth is really that we're simply constantly changing as individuals (thus, as artists, too), and how we feel about our art doesn't always correspond to reality... for better and for worse. :)
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Great talk, and really cool to watch the demo! Thanks, @Court Jones and @Stephen Clark! And the Black Friday ad in the end of the livestream was a lot of fun, haha!
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22d
Hey, @Antti Kallinen! I don’t know if you wanted or expected any kind of reply to your post, but I was moved by it and, if you allow me, I’d love to share some thoughts.
I can see how you’re frustrated, and I’m sorry that you feel that way.
I took a look at your Instagram profile and I think your work is actually pretty good! You’ve had your share of learning anatomy, you do plen-air painting, you’re also creating some original illustrations. You might be more on track than you think.
What I get from your words, however, is that you probably want several different goals for your artwork, and these goals may be getting tangled up and clouding your perspective over your own journey. Here are some insights over things you’ve written:
. “When will I learn to paint?” - From what I saw on your social media, you already know how to paint. Of course, learning is an endless path, so, if you want to keep learning and improving, or if you want to reach a specific proficiency level with your painting, there’s always room for it - but that doesn’t mean you currently don’t know how to paint. Framing this differently (for example, something like: “I’ve learned some painting and I want to learn more / keep improving”) could help empower you and boost your confidence.
. “I can’t do the things I want” - What is it exactly that you want to do? What’s keeping you from actually doing it? What can you do right now to move you at least a bit closer to doing that? These are questions that can help you clarify this sentence into perhaps a more attainable and actionable objective.
. “I really don’t know what to paint” - Right after you wrote this, you also wrote “I’d love to do fantasy”, so I actually think you know what to paint. But the practical problem of having to show/sell it online may be getting in the way.
. “I’ll never be good enough to do, for example, book covers” - As far as I know, there’s not a minimum amount of “good” required for creating book covers. Illustration is a very diverse field, and it just takes a quick browse at the nearest book store for us to notice that the unaccountable number of artists who create book covers and book illustrations have all sorts of different artistic levels. Here’s one of your pieces which I, personally, can totally picture as a fantasy novel book cover: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs6m6tEthgw/?hl=fi - at least, as far as my concept of “artistic quality” is concerned (although it’s important to highlight that the book illustration industry has other layers of complexity such as editorial demands, marketing, politics etc. Unfortunately, artistic quality is not always decisive for itself).
. “I watched [*link*] and felt like all I’ve done before has been a toddler trying to emulate somethings he has no idea of” - Oh, man, comparing yourself with Frank Frazetta can be a trap. In fact, comparing ourselves with anyone other than our own selves can be an ingredient for artistic doom. I intimately know the feeling of: “Wow, look at this person’s work. Mine sucks!” - I know it well enough to be as aware as I possibly can to notice it without letting myself be swept away by it when it shows up. So this is what I’d recommend: remember that each artist has their own journey, and comparing yourself with anyone else (even with Frazetta) is unfair to your own life and accomplishments. If possible, let masters such as Frazetta amaze you and inspire you to do your own best, but try to not hold expectations or put pressure on your shoulders such as “my work SHOULD be like that, otherwise I’m not good”, or “if I can’t draw/paint just like THAT guy, it’s not worth it” etc. etc. As much as possible, value your own individuality.
. “I’d love to create art that gives other people enjoyment/peace/emotions that I’ve had” - I get it, and this is actually a good specific goal you can aim for with your artwork: offering an emotional experience to your audience through which you can create connection with them.
. “Create something I’m proud of” - Now, this sounds like a different (and slightly more nebulous) objective than the other one above. In order to do something you’re proud of, first, maybe try to understand what would actually make you proud. Is it being featured as the staff of a big name company? Is it getting individually famous? Is it earning money? Is it achieving a specific technical/artistic level? Is it having a social impact? Is it overcoming your own personal obstacles? “Being proud” is just the result of doing something that you consider to be meaningful in your life, so the real point is: what feels meaningful to you?
. “Create something […] people will like” - And this is yet another different objective, a pretty tricky one in fact. We know it’s nearly impossible to please literally everyone, so who is “people”? What kind of group or niche exactly do you expect to engage with your work? And what kind of feedback do you expect from these people that could confirm that they actually like what you do: is it verbal compliments? A stronger reach on social media? More job requests? Featuring in art shows? Whatever it is, again, reframing a concern into a specific actionable objective could help. Just be careful not to place your own sense of artistic self-worth exclusively in the approval of others.
Keep in mind that all these questions can be hard to think about, so you don't need to have every answer ready now. If you need to, allow yourself enough time to slowly figure things out as you keep working on your art.
To sum up, I honestly don’t think this is the end of the road for you. As long as you don’t want it to be. I hope you know that things like age, financial situation and geographic location have nothing to do with being able to create good art. Maybe you are a bit burned out and really just need some rest, some venting, some time and space to let things be.
Hope this makes sense to you.
Feel free to let me know any thoughts or questions you might have.
Stay well!
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Those are tricky questions, @Dennis Yeary!
My take: the best way to make our art stand out from AI art is really to let our own uniqueness and individuality come through in our work. AI is like a big “mashup collective brain”, but it’s not YOUR brain. In that sense, creating based on your subjective ideas, unexpected insights, personal ways of expression, individual points of view, life history and unique personality is something AI will (probably) never be able to do.
Regarding art being a job position or a hobby, I think no one is sure enough yet about the full impact of AI on jobs to answer that question with total clarity. And that doesn’t concern just art, but also any other job position which AI is able to perform: programming, graphic design, copywriting, digital content creation etc.
This post shares some insights which I, personally, found to make sense: https://www.selfemployedartist.com/blog/how-to-compete-against-ai-future-proofing-your-art-career-part-2#
And I’m also attaching what ChatGPT replied to me when I posed your questions to it. 🙃
Hope you find this helpful somehow. If you happen to have extra thoughts, questions or if you find any other useful information out there, I’d love to know about.
Stay well!
27d
Asked for help
I taught eyes are difficult.. until I've tried nose.. any suggestions on where to focus in order to improve?
27d
I think you did a nice job, @ern1s!
The complexity of the nose has a lot to do with perspective, so the best way to approach it is with a "constructional mindset": start by thinking of the "major planes" (a simple boxy object) so you can solve the overall perspective first; then, develop the big, simpler forms into smaller, more complex forms ("minor planes"), but still keeping the same logic of perspective, depth and overlaps; and, lastly, "polish" those minor planes into a rendered drawing, adding more details, softening the edges and making even smaller adjustments, but still keeping the same overall structure as before. I'm attaching some visual notes along with a paint-over - notice that the shading should follow the perspective since the earlier stages and remain consistent throughout the whole process: the top planes, which face the light source more directly, are lighter, while the bottom planes are significantly darker. When doing this with traditional pencil on paper, try to keep the outlines as light as possible during the sketch / construction phase so that they don't get in the way of rendering the tones later on.
If you have any trouble visualizing the major or minor planes on a real nose or on a photo reference, maybe get a careful review on Stan's main lesson, take some notes for yourself and, perhaps, do some sketches without shading in order to get a stronger grip on those basic forms.
Other than that, it seems that these are your first steps drawing the nose, so take it easy and just keep going! As you practice and study more, things should become progressively clearer and more manageable.
Hope this helps.
If you have any questions or extra commens, feel free to let me know!
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1mo
Hi Liandro! I love the picture and the moment it captures. "I don't care where you drive that tank of yours, but it wont be across this flower, I won't permit it!" :D It's so sweet, and so relevant. The theme touches me.
So it's the greens and reds that are challenging for you? If so, very corageous to make this piece with just those colours. And well done. I'm definitely no professional, but with my eyes... I might emphasize the root of the flower with a darker value, or, alternatively, give some highlight to it, just to have the focus of a viewer on what's going on in this scene, why is she stopping a tank? Same with the sky / clouds, some variation with values or some shading could give the picture a more striking atmosphere. I like it that you've chosen to use green on the soldier and red for the girl, since red reads more powerful or, in this picture, authorative, so it's an awesome contrast: a common girl with a stop sign has more power than a soldier sitting in a tank :D. Overall, I think you have here a great colour scheme, wouldn't change a thing if not emphasize with darker values or highlight what you most want to show.
28d
I'm glad you like it, @Tuija Kuismin, and thanks! Yeah, mainly reds and greens - but one weird thing about colorblindness is that it can shift my perception of any other colors with touches of red or green (pinks, purples, browns, oranges, cyan...). So, in a way, it kind of messes my perception of almost all colors... To me, the biggest challenge is to identify/name the colors I see, and it becomes even more challenging with grayed-down colors. Over time, I've learned to "see" colors by thinking of their visual properties based on I'm able to perceive (warm X cool, high or low saturation, etc.) instead of just thinking of colors by their names. Still, of course, what I see is inevitably different from people with normal color vision, so I can never tell exactly how my color choices will be seen by non-colorblinds.
Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions! :)
1mo
I like your drawing a lot, although I would add some more white highlight areas maybe on the tank. The sky should be lighter than the ground I think too.
1mo
I like this idea, it's very cute.
As far as color, the only thing I would do is warm up the skin on the soldier. Doing this will make my eye travel from the little girl, which is very warm compared to the background, to the soldier who is also surrounded by the cool green background.
Other than that, nice one :)
1mo
Asked for help
I feel that my drawing is flat. I guess some of it is due to not using charcoal and thus my darkest dark is not as black.
I would love to receive some critical/guiding feedback. Thanks!
28d
Hey, @Martin M! I think you did a pretty good job capturing the overall proportions and features of the face in this drawing.
A suggestion in order to help with the sensation of the drawing looking more three-dimensional (thus, less flat) would be to use a wider tonal range to render, correlating the values with the perspective and with how the face is being lit. As a rule of thumb, the planes of the head that are facing more towards the light source should be rendered with lighter values, and the areas that correspond to shadow, with darker values. Since you’re using a photo reference, you can handle a lot of your value choices based on your observation - in this case, by looking at the photo, we notice that the main light is coming from the upper right of the image, so the planes of the head facing downward (under the brows, bottom plane of the nose, bottom plane of the chin…) and the planes facing toward the the left side of the image (his right cheek, bridge of the nose, mouth area…) are darker. Since this photo is still frame from a series, there is probably some cautiously placed secondary light sources going to the front plane of his head (cinematographic lighting schemes are hardly ever so simple with just one light source), so we could deliberately choose to make those front planes a bit less dark than the ones facing downward; still, in order to make the face look more three-dimensional, those front planes should still be rendered as “shadow”, thus, should be noticeably darker than the side planes, which are clearly the ones that are facing the main light source the most directly. One important thing to have in mind is that there is no need to go all the way to black in order for your rendering to convey the idea of volume - as long as there is enough overall contrast from your lightest light to your darkest dark and all the logic of the light is handled properly, any range of value you choose should work decently. As a visual note, I’m attaching a quick paint-over I made on top of your drawing using a value range that only reaches up until a dark gray, which is somewhat close to what we could achieve with a 4B graphite pencil (see attached IMAGE 1).
Regarding the side plane of the head, there seems to be, indeed, a little issue with its perspective in your drawing. In the Loomis model, the side plane is an ellipse, and ellipses can be a slippery slope in perspective - so don’t beat yourself up, this is a tough one indeed.
As feedback, I’m attaching an extra couple of images, and here are some comments about each one:
IMAGE 2 - In this particular pose of the photo you chose to draw from, the head is tilted, viewed from the bottom up and slightly foreshortened. I drew a diagram of the Loomis head over the photo, and then I overlaid the same diagram over your drawing for the sake of comparison - and, in fact, the position and the angle of the ellipse (side plane of the Loomis head) is what appears as slightly off. We can tell everything else in the drawing seems to fall pretty much in place compared to the photo.
IMAGE 3 - One thing to remember about ellipses is that they have two axes: a minor axis and a major axis, and regardless of the perspective, the tilting or the degree of the ellipse (how wide or narrow it is), these two axes will always be perpendicular to each other - notice the first set of drawings in this image. A good example to see this in practice is a cylinder in perspective - see the set of drawings marked with number 2. In the Loomis method, since there are two elliptical sides on the cranium, one helpful thing we can do is to imagine as if these two sides were the top and bottom of a cylinder - check out the third set of drawings. That way, once we understand the perspective of the head, it’s a bit easier to figure out the angle of the ellipse / side plane.
Please let me know in case you have any questions!
Hope this helps.
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30d
Asked for help
Hi everyone, for a while now I have been working on gestures and doing my best to understand the subject to the best of my current abilities. My gestures have primarily been 2 and 1-minute ones, with some occasional 30 secs. If anyone could give me any feedback on these and what I could do to improve them going forward it would be much appreciated.
Also, I would like to mention that I mainly have tried to use Michael Hampton's and Proko's gesture methods when doing them.
29d
Hey, @JAMES G, these look really good! Nice flow, clear read, enough simplification. You’re definitely on track with gesture, great job!
I have a suggestion, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily “something you should do to improve” - I think it’s more like just a subjective point of view that I’d like to share and that maybe you could find useful in some way.
Personally, when I want to focus on gesture, I usually don’t think too much about form or construction, I try to think mostly of an abstract idea of movement and flow. Sometimes, I'll use cross-controus moderately if they help clarify the pose, but, mainly, I tend to let go of the idea that the body parts are solid and, instead, I envision as if they were made of “pure energy” - I find this helps me push the idea of gesture, motion and force to its maximum. I’m attaching a couple of gesture sketches I’ve done in the past to help illustrate what I mean.
In your gesture drawings, I can see you’re using plenty of cross-contours and even occasional boxes and cylinders, which leads me to believe that you’re considering form, too, as you work on the gestures. And I think that’s not a problem at all - in fact, many artists tend to blend gesture and construction together when sketching. Your sketches still look concise and fluid, so, as long as thinking of form doesn’t hurt thinking of the gesture, it’s fine. But, just in case, perhaps you might find it useful to know that it’s also okay to “ignore” a bit more of the construction aspect of the drawing when you want to focus mainly on gesture. As I mentioned before, I think this is not something you “should do to improve”, it’s just a possibility I notice.
Hope this helps!
Asked for help
These are my characters refined, I wanted to go back and make him better because I thought it was a really cute idea to have a finch magician, and a worm assistant. Note, in the scene Cans (the bird) was presenting their act not making fun of Dirt (the worm.) I think that was one of the weaker points in the drawing. To me without the context it looks like Cans is pointing. I think I will continue to use these characters in stories and make them better. The character designs really pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it was a blast!
added a new topic
Feedback on colors1mo
Hey, everyone! :) I'm red-green colorblind and I've been messing around with colors in this drawing, attempting to follow some of @Marco Bucci's lessons from his course The Color Survival Guide plus a bit of color theory and painting stuff I'd learned in the past.
I'd love to hear some feedbacks and suggestions from you all about this piece, specifically regarding colors.
Thanks in advance!
Hey, @wetumbrella6, welcome to the Proko community!
I agree with @Steve Lenze, nice job working on this drawing! I can tell you’ve put some time and care into it. Hope you’ve found the process enjoyable and enriching!
I stand by Steve’s recommendations. And since his feedback already covers the most relevant stuff regarding the construction and the composition, I’ll just add a complement specifically regarding the line work.
In the drawings you posted, it's noticeable that all the lines have basically the same thickness and value. My suggestion would be that you try to look for ways to create more overall line variety. Some of the possible solutions could be:
-- Making the lines on the foreground thicker and “heavier” than the lines on the background (which is something Steve had already suggested and that should help shift not only the sense of depth, as he properly noted, but also the composition and visual appeal of the drawing);
-- Creating some thick-to-thin transitions (kind of emulating the feel of an inking brush);
-- Making the lines on the background not only thinner, but also lighter (maybe make them gray instead of black). This could exaggerate even more the sense of depth and also create an even clearer read for the separation between foreground and background;
-- Using a line weight criteria, such as "light and shadow" or "hierarchy of importance", to decide how to design your lines when inking. Stan talks about this topic in his lesson on How to Draw with Line Weight, which is part of the Drawing Basics course.
As a visual feedback for the comments above, I’m attaching a quick "before-and-after" draw-over I made based on a portion of your original drawing. Please keep in mind that my draw-over is not necessarily "the right way", but merely an illustration of a few of the possibilities you could choose to stick with. Of course, any creative/artistic decision you might make should depend on your personal preferences.
One more thing! I think it’s pretty cool that you were able to draw this scene without any reference, and if being able to draw without reference is part of a current goal or challenge you may have set for yourself, then it’s great that you’ve dared to attempt it and succeeded. With that said, I’d also highly encourage you to definitely use reference whenever you notice the need! In the case of this artwork, if you allow me the suggestion, I personally believe that some reference could be especially helpful for you to give a little extra touch of development to the environment, textures and props (bricks, wood, lamp, clock…), as well as to the characters' facial expressions - it could help you capture nuances and subtleties on the lips, brows and eyes that are often harder for us to envision just from memory.
Hope you find this helpful.
Other than that, just keep up the good work!
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1mo
Hey, @Anubhav Saini! I totally agree with @Steve Lenze, you should certainly celebrate the progress your determination is leading you towards. I'm happy for you! Hope your current results become an incentive for you to keep growing.
I also think Steve nicely summed up the same recommendations I'd have regarding feedback. As an additional suggestion, I believe one thing you could try is to apply Steve's feedback in practice for yourself: do some draw-overs on top of your own drawings using simple forms to focus on the underlying structures, as Steve illustrated (but see if you can do it on your own, try not to peek at Steve's drawings, unless you feel really stuck). At this structure stage, as per recommended, try to solve the perspective and the proportions as much as possible. Then, only afterwards, do another pass to tweak the drawings even further including your knowledge of anatomy.
One extra design tip that helps visually add structure into our drawings is to combine curves with straight lines. A balanced mix between curves and straights can often make this type of drawing look more visually appealing. I see your drawings have many curves, so it might be a nice thing to inject just a few more straight lines here and there, whether on bony areas like the ribcage and pelvis or on more tensed / defined muscles such as the Trapezius, the Deltoids, the Abs or the Triceps. Of course, it doesn't need to be the exact same quantity of lines for both curves and straights, it just needs to be intuitively enough so that the drawing feels pleasing and solid as a whole. And, of course, this is not a *rule*, it's just something that often seems to work well and that we can use as a *tool* if we want.
Hope this helps! :)
1mo
Asked for help
2023/10/29. Good afternoon everybody. Here is the revised version of my previous expression study sheet. Thanks to Liandro's very important feedback I was able to expand some versions of the previous faces and push the design to the extremes. Thank you very much @Liandro, your professionalism and generosity are a great stimulus and encouragement for me to always do better!