Looking forward to starting! I began my art journey when I retired. I've found the Proko courses and YT freebies to be so helpful. My intent is toward fine art and illustration although I have a long journey ahead of me. I see others, too, are influenced by Jean Girard (Moebius), M.C. Escher, Thomas Schaller. I'm adding: 1 Frank Frazetta; 2 Jeremy Mann; 3 L.S. Lowry; 4 Maxfield Parrish; and 5 Roger Dean.

Late but here is my Musketeer.

Seal #o4 I'm behind! The seals/sea lions are sooo much fun! Here's my first. I now see where I went over with a darker pencil which resulted in poor line quality. Off to do more.

Seal #o4 I'm behind! The seals/sea lions are sooo much fun! Here's my first. I now see where I went over with a darker pencil which resulted in poor line quality. Off to do more.

I had to watch Simplifying Shape Design Livestream in order understand, so thank you for the demo Stan. I'm still too contour focused, but I strived for shapes. Just seeing the shapes and getting them down took precedent over line quality, but I'll keep practicing.

I went with darker, heavier lines to emphasize the iconic horns and ears. Struggling with confident lines, but I'm not giving up!

Is there anyone else here doing this course that have a chronic illness? I struggle alot atm. My illness has been worse the last 7 weeks. With fever everyday and im just lying in bed. I live for doing art but havent been able to draw or sculp anything the last weeks. It makes me so sad. Anyone else in similar situation?

Sadly, this is actually the best version I did. I chose the sketch because I think Raphael illustrates the idea of line weight to indicate importance: his face and hat are done with dark lines while his hair almost disappears. Faces are hard! I have so much trouble with noses in particular. Also mouths. And don't get me started on eyes. Thank god his ears are covered...In spite of the shame this causes me, I felt like I needed to post it so that at the end of the course I can look back and laugh/cringe. Or not. Whatever. Is it too early for a drink?

Here’s my process of Master Study after Jean-Louis Sauvat. I chose this one because the colours and the drawing style captivated me on the instant I first saw it. I love the way hierarchy of importance is displayed: the irrelevant rider almost completely faded into the background, and the horse closest to the viewer drawn with great detail with sharp and thin lines, while the other horse has these really thick and soft lines. Even the postures of both horses suggest that one is starring the main role, and the other one is more like a sidekick. I think it’s just brilliant. I saw so many different types of lines used in it, that I thought studying this would really bring together everything I’ve been learning about lines on this course. And it did. There was a sense of purpose for every line (which was a great expecience), and it was the first time I used overhand grip to explore line thickness and softness. I discovered a couple of neat things I can do with a pencil, what comes to technique. For example for the horizontal lines across the front horse’s neck I used a kind of stabbing motion, noticed that wow, that worked well and looks cool – and in my excitement ended up overusing it and kind of ruining it for myself… but didn’t fix it because it’s a study, so it can well look like a learning session. Overall I’m very happy with how this study turned out. There are some things I’m proud of, too, such as the hoof-shapes and my lines on the legs. Looking at these four pictures, I like the third one most (my first actual line study), it's better than the final drawing :D. Line value is one thing I’m going to be training next. I’m definitely going to draw this a couple of times more, redo, repeat and try some different things. What a great assignment and learning experience! This was my first master study ever, and I have a feeling I’m going to do many more in the future.

Van Goh's sketch of a chair. (I had a previous double post, but accidentally deleted both.) I noticed that Van Goh was using his dark lines for form and less so for shadow and importance.