Heya, my name's Zenith, nice to meet ya! I love the way this site looks already and I'm excited for what the future holds for it. Let's drop some of our art down in the replies and a little message introducing yourself if you want. Here are some of mine:

Seeking feedback is necessary for artistic growth, but it is also possibly the hardest thing to find reliably. Good teachers and excellent peers can lead you on the path to having a thorough understanding of your craft. Being a helpful teacher yourself is another acquired skill-set. How do you know when you have helpful advice, or just a personal preference? It’s worthwhile to make the effort to be a helpful peer to your fellow artists. You’ll make good connections, broaden your appreciation for different art and ideas, and strengthen your understanding of art concepts by verbalizing them to others. === HOW DO I GIVE A GOOD CRITIQUE? === A good critique tries to consider the artist and their goals. Give context for your opinions, and try to be objective about what is technical vs. your own personal tastes and biases. Ask artists what they want to improve on, and be curious about their interests. Try to frame things positively, and push people to have hope and want to work hard. “I like this pose, but the shoulder is looking dislocated. You might need to move it forward to make it feel more natural, like in this reference.” “There’s a ton of detail going on here, but it can be better to have a few places of lower detail to balance out the composition, here’s an example.” “What sort of art do you admire? I feel like you are aiming for this style, but knowing more about your goals might help us give advice.” === WHAT ARE EXAMPLES OF BAD CRITIQUES? === Bad advice does not consider the person receiving it. Critiques shouldn’t be designed to crush someone's spirit or make them feel hopeless. If something just isn’t your thing, it may be better to let people comment who are more experienced and interested in that area of art. Even if someone is picking up concepts slowly or getting frustrated, it’s not an open invitation to treat them poorly. “There is nothing I can say to you other than read lots of Loomis books.” “Stop drawing anime.” “Fan art is unoriginal.” “This style is a fad that will go away, you should just do something else.” “You just need to try harder.” “You’re too much of an amateur for me to even start critiquing” === HOW DO I GET USEFUL FEEDBACK ON MY WORK? === Help us cater to your artistic needs and goals. When posting work, consider including this information for context: - Tell us what your objectives where with the piece you want critiques. - Share anything you were struggling with while you were working on it. - Tell us what your goals are as an artist. Are you a hobbyist learning landscapes for fun? Putting together a portfolio to get into art school? A professional refining your skills in a certain area? - How long have you been practicing this form of art? - Who are some artists you admire who's style you strive to have in your own work? === HOW SHOULD I RESPOND TO CRITICISM? === There are a lot of ways you can respond. Generally, it is polite to show that you appreciate that someone took the time to give you feedback on your work. It’s important to keep in mind that critiques on your work aren’t personal attacks. Feedback is meant to help you see things from a different point of view. An artist might be trying to guide you away from mistakes they feel they made in the past. Arguing with the person critiquing you won’t be productive. It is their opinion based on their knowledge (or lack thereof). Think of them as simply opinions intended to help you out. You don’t have to accept every critique that comes your way, especially if the critique is subjective rather than objective. With time and experience you’ll have a better understanding of where you want to go with your work. Try to keep an open mind, but also have confidence to shed advice that doesn’t serve you. If someone is being hostile and rude or is actively trying to discourage you, report it. === KEEPING YOUR EGO IN BALANCE? === Egos come with being an artist. It is just a fact. If you didn't feel good about your work and didn't enjoy creating it, why would you do it? The sense of accomplishment is a great feeling, and you SHOULD feel good about the hard work you do. In communities, it’s easy for egos to get a little out of control. When a bunch of artists in a room, each with their own opinion of what is good art and what isn't is always bound to lead to a bit of head butting. This is a community that is meant to be friendly and helpful. Be proud of yourself, be proud of the work you do, but keep it in check. Be respectful to your fellow artists who are different from you. As much as possible, be open to criticism from people of various skill levels. Whether you choose to use them or not is up to you, but be open to the fact that they're going to happen. If you accept them with courtesy and grace, and maybe try to learn a bit from them and open your mind, you will help make this a strong community. If you choose to disregard everyone who gives you advice because you consider yourself better than everyone here, then this is not the community for you. Finally, people who post rude, off point or otherwise useless comments posed as criticism will be penalized by the mods. If you see posts such as this, use the "Report" feature to get the attention of the moderators. === WAIT, WHAT IF I THINK I SUCK? === Everyone has to start somewhere! Art takes hard work, and it doesn’t help to get down on yourself. Being humble is fine, but remember that having a little confidence is sometimes needed for motivation. Believe that you are worthy of kindness and that your art has value, even if it's just to you. Find enjoyment in learning and studying, it’ll guide you through the times when you are getting down on yourself. Just remember, begging (or demanding) praise, attention, or sympathy won’t generally go over well with your peers. Wanting to work hard is what gets you support. Embrace your work ethic and show effort whenever you can.

Proktober starts now! Throughout October if you draw and post your work in the Proko community you'll have a chance to be featured in our IG story and Twitter.  Update: Thank you to everyone who participated!

Hey everyone! As part of Lightbox 2021 this year I was able to get some pro artists together to do some portfolio reviews for you free of charge :) This list may grow during Lightbox, but so far we have @Tj Geisen, @Anthony Francisco, @Scott Flanders , @Tayler Olivas , @Antonio Stappaerts, @Christina Cornett, @Tyler James, and @Marco Bucci that will review the work that you submit. Feel free to post your portfolios between September 6th and September 12th for a chance to have your work reviewed. If you want to be a career artist this is an excellent chance to get feedback from others that are already succeeding in the field! Please remember to write a few sentences about your goals so our artists know what feedback to give and attach up to 10 images when you post. Thanks! Special Note: Posting does not guarantee a review by a certain artist or artists. This is also an open thread and artists will be popping in and out to leave reviews during Lightbox.

Jeremy Cranford works at Blizzard as Hearthstone Art Manager (former art director WOW TCG and Magic: The Gathering). He will be doing an AMA and portfolio review here in this thread on Friday, June 4 at 12pm PDT. If you want to work as an artist in the entertainment industry this a your chance to get feedback from the person that hires artists! You can start posting now. Write a few sentences about your goals and attach up to 10 images. Or just ask him . . . anything . . .

I'm guessing that several people in this community are going to be participating in Inktober, so I figured we could share our art here. I'm going to comment the prompts and you can put your drawing under the prompt you drew for that day. If you want to see the rules or don't know what Inktober is, here's this link https://inktober.com/rules Good luck to everyone participating!

Irshad - or Uncomfortable, if you know him from Drawabox - is a concept designer, illustrator, game developer, programmer, and for lack of a better word, a self-taught instructor who has been teaching the fundamentals of drawing for just short of six years. He doesn't know how he got here, but here he is, so you may as well ask him some questions. Want to know what it's really like working for a small no-name studio? What about the ups-and-downs of drawing a web comic? What about his opinions on the idea of talent, or the notion of a "dream job"? Everything's fair game, so ask away, starting NOW! The answers will start flowing at 1PM PDT.

There are a lot of different career paths when it comes to the arts. What is your dream art job?

Power art couple Erik and Meadow Gist will be answering questions about illustration, fine art, and . . . anything . . . Start asking your questions now! Erik and Meadow will answer at 3pm PDT on June 15th. @Erik Gist is a horror illustrator and teacher at the Watts Atelier. Erik’s clients include Dark Horse Comics, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney Entertainment, TOR Publishing, Wizards of the Coast, Upper Deck, Boom! Studios, Palladium Books, Blizzard Entertainment, Viking Children's Books, Monkey Brain Books, Quart Publishing, and Chiat-Day. @Meadow Gist is a fine art painter currently focused on Native American themes and instructor at Watts Atelier. She is represented by Sanders Galleries in Arizona and Bear Tooth Gallery in Montana.

@Marco Bucci is here to answer questions about art stuff and non art stuff! Ask him anything you want. He’s taking your questions now and will start posting answers at 12pm PDT on June 18th. Make sure to check out Marco's course - The Color Survival Guide! Marco is a professional artist with 15 years of experience in the film, TV, game, and print industries - primarily as a concept artist and illustrator. Marco’s previous clients include: Walt Disney Publishing Worldwide, LEGO, LucasArts, Mattel Toys, Fisher-Price, Hasbro, Nelvana, GURU Studio, C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, Yowza! Animation Inc., Pipeline Studios, and more. He has been on YouTube since 2008 with videos about painting fundamentals, applied painting demos, and insights into how to grow (and work) as a creative person.

Artists have clearly expressed that they don't want their copyrighted images being used to train AI image generators. So, until this ethical issue is figured out, all pages on proko.com now have the NoAI tag on by default. Proko people don't have to do anything to turn it on. AI is a technology that has impressively positive benefits that we already enjoy, but they need to figure out a responsible way to collect data. We've never sold or given artwork to data scrapers. We're doing this as a preventative measure for the future. Will the AI scraping robots honor these tags? I'm not sure, but I'm hopeful. Stable Diffusion recently announced they will let artists opt out of the data set. Still more to be done here, but at least they're thinking about the issue.

I have been lucky enough to work with many artists that I admire. If you could apprentice for one artist, living or dead, who would it be?

Dark Mode is now available for Proko users! Check it out by logging in and clicking the Moon icon on the top of the page.

Hey everyone! I've been seeing a few people ask about general art book lists to look at when learning how to draw. I thought I'd make this thread to share my top 10, and so others can share theirs. Hope this helps! 1. Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Invention-Michael-Hampton/dp/0615272819 Michael Hampton's book has had a huge effect on me. It's not as clean as I'd like to draw, but the gesture, and anatomical break downs are extremely good. Everytime I look at his book, I find something new I didn't learn on my first time through. I've had the book for about 6 years now, and it's travelled with me all over the world. 2. Figure Drawing for All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-All-Its-Worth/dp/0857680986 This is the classic book everyone recommends. It is dated, but the concepts are timeless. The way he explains things, and his examples are worth way more than the price of the book. Just owning it to see him apply these extremely simple concepts to complex images is worth it. 3. Constructive Anatomy by George Bridgman https://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Artists/dp/0486211045 I don't recommend this book for beginners, but everything he's done is a master class on shape design. Some of his students include some of the most famous Illustrators of the past 100 years, including Norman Rockwell. Jim Lee describes Bridgman as one of the most important drawing books in his life. I'll admit he is an acquired taste, but once you do start appreciating his drawings you'll always be impressed by him. 4. The Art Spirit by Robert Henri https://www.amazon.com/Art-Spirit-Robert-Henri/dp/0465002633 I can go on an list hundreds of books on learning how to draw, but all of them art pointless if you don't have a why. I'm not sure how I feel about Henri's art (it's good, just not my taste), but his why to art could inspire anyone. It's a book that's not meant to be read in one sitting. It's something you look at while you're feeling discouraged, or burnt out on drawing. 5. J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist https://www.amazon.com/J-C-Leyendecker-American-Laurence-Cutler/dp/0810995212 To preface, I have no interest in painting like J.C. Leyendecker. I love his images, but they're too precise for me. The reason I'm putting him in this list is because of his dedication to his craft. He has hundreds of illustrations that are all master works in commercial work. Leyendecker's love for his craft doesn't have to be said, it's demonstrated in his body of work. Even if you don't want to paint like him, just his work alone will inspire you to work harder and do better. 6. Eleeza: The Art of Eliza Ivanova https://www.amazon.com/Eleeza-Art-Eliza-Ivanova/dp/1912843080 Eliza's work is incredibly inspiring to me. She worked at Pixar as an animator for years, and still found time outside of work to dedicate to doing these drawings. They're so different from her work at Pixar, and the reason that's amazing to me is that she was able to have two distinct artistic voices. Another reason to take a look at her work is it's an example of how you don't have to do hyper precise drawing to make pretty drawings. To me her artwork is an expression of her, not an expression of how she wants other to see her. That confidence is something that I want to aspire to in my own drawings. 7. Eclipse: The Well and the Black Sea by Justin Sweet and Vance Kovacs https://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Well-Black-Justin-Sweet/dp/069252469X Justin and Vance's book for me is an example of what art is supposed to be all about. Just playing around with ideas and telling stories. @Scott Flanders turned me onto their work, and since then I've been obsessed with their drawings. It's so loose, and free but still does a really great job telling the stories they want to tell. Another example of doing art for the message, rather than to just impress other people with how "good" a drawing is. 8. The Big Kopinski by Karl Kopinski https://www.amazon.com/The-Big-Kopinski/dp/B07KZG7D51 @Karl Kopinski's work speaks for itself. To me he's like a 12 year old who's REALLY good at drawing. It seems like he just plays all day, drawing orcs, robots, sexy ladies, and pirate battles. He's another example of a love for the craft and how much fun art can be when you love it. 9. Figure Drawing for Artists by Steve Huston https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-Artists-Making-Every/dp/1631590650 Steve Huston's book came to me later in my art education, so it didn't have that much of an effect on my development. That being said, his explanations for using simple concepts to create complex drawings are extremely useful. Also his philosophy on art is something that I admire greatly. 10. SPARROW: Phil Hale https://www.amazon.com/Sparrow-Phil-Hale-Number-Book/dp/1600100406 Phil Hale is my favorite living painter. His wacky, disturbing, ideas combined with insane painting skills make me smile. I'm not sure I'd want to paint the things he's painting, but that freedom he has to paint car crashes and robots inspires me.

Ever since 31 May 2021, I’ve been keeping an Art Diary to keep track of my progress. I’ve uploaded my entries + sketches/exercises every day onto my Twitter and Instagram (though it’s hard to look for them on my Twitter since I like to retweet fanart, hahaha). Anyway, I’ve decided to share my progress and diary here too. I hope it’s okay! ^_^ I’ll start off with Entry 43! If you’re interested in the previous Art Diary entries, I’ve uploaded them into my Albums here, as well as my Instagram and Twitter. Current Goal: To be able to consistently draw a clean lineart in under 10 minutes! Ultimate Goal (for far, far in the future): Reach WLOP and RossDraws level and be able to consistently produce a gorgeous artwork every day within 1 hour.

This is the start of a new art community, so it's important to have fun and introduce ourselves! People can use this post to say who they are, what they like drawing/painting, and maybe show off a piece of theirs or two (or three!). Thanks everyone! o/

I know this is sort of a dumb challenge, but I thought it would be a fun and silly undertaking. I'm going to use this thread to post my results! Also I'm making a youtube series about it. May the universe have mercy upon my soul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPjSm0hhQWc&t=15s

It’s Inktober, the month where many people create ink drawings and post them to social media daily. You can follow the prompt list, or create your own ideas. You can post your drawings here so we can share them with each other.

Last week during the @Loish Livestream, she mentioned two of her current favorite artists. Yun Ling (www.instagram.com/lingy000/) and Andrew Hem (www.instagram.com/andrewhem/). What living artists currently inspire you?

Hi everyone! I'm new to the Proko community but I've been drawing for most of my life, mostly portraits and characters, and I'm excited to have a place to post my work and see other artist's work. That social aspect is what I miss about in-person art classes. Any other newbies to the community out there?

Hey y'all! I was thinking we could share some messy sketchbook pages. If you navigate social media, I'm pretty sure you've seen plenty of great artists or artist in general sharing their "perfect", pretty, clean sketchbook drawings. This is one of the reasons I was so scared to draw on my sketchbook, specially having learned art in digital media. I used to start all my drawings with pencil and then erase most of them cause they were not good or clean enough. Now, I only use a pen and I don't care if the drawings are pretty or not. Most of my sketchbook drawings are warmups, comfort drawings or just random nonesense. Join me and share some of your messy stuff so we can help people that are struggling to just doodle around in their sketchbooks. Guys, it's okay to be messy!! PS: No pretty, clean drawings allowed!! ;P

Those of you that are learning on your own from books, videos, and whatever else you decide to use, what is your overall approach to art study? And how do you deal with problems like: -Knowing what to study, when, and for how long? -How do you keep the difficulty level appropriate--not so easy it's boring but not so hard you spend most of your time spinning your wheels and losing morale -Tracking your progress and actually being able to feel the sense of progression

@Scott Flanders is stepping out of his Monster Lab for a day to answer YOUR questions! Ask him anything you want, starting NOW! Scott will start posting answers at 12pm PDT on June 22nd. Make sure to check out Scott’s Proko course - Character Design Monster Lab! Scott is currently the Creative Director at Tar Pit Studios and is a concept artist and game developer. Scott has worked on popular games like League of Legends and Evolve. While he has a broad range of interests when it comes to art he’s especially passionate about sculpting and character design.

Just wanted to share some of my work from this year.  I did this is Procreate. I'm so excited for this new website!!! :D I want to see yours too.

Hey all, Marshall and I will be recording a podcast episode on the topic of studying masters. We thought it would be fun to include you since you feel like a really dedicated bunch. Post some questions, concerns, stories, anything related to studying masters and we might talk about it in the podcast. Also, feel free to respond to each others' questions here. This episode will probably air late July / early August. Thank you!

Hey, Beta testers! I've been hanging around the community for about a week and I'm willing to give some feedback for those of you who need help with the assignments. I see Stan already replied to a bunch of posts, and I've already replied to some, too, but some of the older ones may have been lost in my feed. Anyway, if there's anyone out there who asked for help and didn't get any response so far, if you'd like me to comment, please tag me in your question and I'll see what I can do for you! Happy studies :)

I'm not only expecting Stan and Marshal to answer, thinking about this has made me a bit depressed. I don't know if someone can relate? @Stan Prokopenko @Marshall Vandruff So, I sent this message to the Proko email a few weeks ago (my grammar sucks, I'm not a native English speaker, sorry for the mistakes) along with the images I attached, and I believe this is how I got to the beta tester program: Hi, my name is Ruth, I haven’t finished the anatomy course because I took a year to relearn my whole foundation and I’m finally back to studying anatomy once more. I really want to get some feedback, I made a lot of progress this year, but I choose a difficult pose. I’m taking a Michael Hampton’s course as well as Proko’s, and I’m going to take a CGMA course as well, so my technique comes from various masters including proko and my mentor, but in the end, I developed it in my own technique overall, so I’m not really following a step by step. I’ve also watche a series of educational videos about anatomy including dissections’, I don’t dare say I have medical knowledge, but I have researched a lot and was oriented thanks to my mentor. I’m still in college but started freelancing to pay some of the new courses on my own, and even mentor some people a bit. I really really really want Stan and Marshall to give me feedback, I admire them and worked so hard that it would mean the world to me.   So, first, Stan and Marshall, I am now relying my pleading message to you. As to why I'm frustrated: The proko Facebook page is of no help at all, all the past freaking year has been really hard, I've been working my ass all 2020 with at least 8 weekly hours of perspective plus other foundation (20 to 36 hours per week, plus school), I finally reached the point where I even started earning money for my drawings. If it weren’t thanks to a faithful encounter with my mentor I would still be stuck, I've been working really hard since 2019, but this past year has been my breakthrough. I've cried so much and put so much effort that I almost hurt my back and hands, now I need to do hand exercises every hour while I'm drawing. I'm also sick and tired of people that will constantly invalidate my progress and knowledge juat because I'm using digital tools, even if I'm not asking for such opinions. Really, who asked you, I don't care if you dont like my medium! They will adress me as if I'm some little girl and they are the grown ups. I can't even begin describing how upsetting this is. A teacher I admired disregarded all my effort and progress because of this as well. People at school will utterly ignore me in regards of my work, I feel like sometimes I cahe myself in this horrible toxic environment. Good things have also happened, plenty of then. But I am so tired and heartbroken by how progressing has led me to getting this response from people (I have also met amazing people, but fewer), sometimes really hurting me. I've worked really hard, and I'm saying all of this, first because it has been really hard and frustrating, second: Please, STAN and MARSHALL, I'm just bothering you this once, I know you can't give your attention to thousands of users, but just this once, I really want feedback from 2 artists I admire. I know it's not a big deal what I have to show, I'm still on foundation stage, I added a mosquito drawing because it's a good example of my rendering skill and if you could give me feedback on that as well, I would be delighted. So please, just indulge in my request this once. I'm not adding my previous drawings so that the feedback won't be biased towards my progress but only focused on my actual skills nowadays.

What is an overlooked or underrated art class you have taken that you would recommend to all art students?

Hi everyone! I'm Siqi. I rediscovered my love of art a few months ago. It has been a very meaningful experience learning as much as I can about art, not to mention a timely opportunity to keep myself busy indoors! I was one of those kids who drew all the time, but I thought the only kind of artist I could become was a starving artist. Now I have full-time non-art work that is quite cognitively demanding, so it is often challenging and exhausting to do more learning and practising after work. I'm not looking for magic words that will give me extra time or energy (if only it works that way!), but I am curious about who is in the same boat. Maybe a sense of community might help us all to get in a bit more practice even when our brains just want to snooze? :)

When I started taking learning how to draw seriously I started out on @Irshad Karim 's drawabox ( https://drawabox.com/ ). One of the first things he talks about is the 50% rule, where half of drawing time should be devoted to just drawing for the sake of drawing. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I've always had a hard time with that. I've always had the mindset of trying to get as good as fast as I can, and that meant banging out drill after drill, exercise after exercise, lesson after lesson, unyielding through exhaustion. And it's pretty much how I still operate. Both @Stan Prokopenko and @Marshall Vandruff ,however, have talked on the Draftsmen Podcast about the quote that "by definition, you have right now the skills to create your best work." But I recognize very confidently that the best work I could create right now is not anywhere close to what I'd like to be on the page, and I'm the type of person who takes most of the joy out of the success of a nice drawing. The scenes I see in my head all feature things that I have no confident grasp on at all yet (color, composition, and the figure mainly). And so I keep working on those skills trying to rocket up to the skill level where I can put those scenes on paper. But then there's the fundamentals to learn first before all that, and so I gotta go through those first. It's only a matter of time before the end goal is completely lost and I end up slaving away at things for which enjoyment is slowly seeping away. But the drawing for fun can't happen until I know all the skills I need, and so this cycle materializes that simultaneously contradicts itself and perpetuates itself. Thoughts?

Hello! Just wondering what other people like to use for digital art. Do you guys have a specific software you use or do you jump back and forth depending of the situation? I use Procreate for the iPad and I love it (although it does have its quirks)! But now that I'm more "experienced" (?) or confident with digital art, I feel like exploring other options. Anyway, happy Proko 2.0! Cheers!

Hi here I will be uploading daily value studies of a film, master and real life. Feel free to post yours if you want or give any kind of feedback.

I've spent the last 7 years as a full-time graphic/web designer because of the fear of the 'starving artist'. I've recently decided I want to actually pursue a career in art. I haven't found exactly what that looks like yet, but I have found what looks like a good foundational online "curriculum" and was wondering if anybody else has seen or tried it? https://i.redd.it/7ns7su264gp31.png I've done some research and this looks pretty well rounded and reaches from a lot of resources, both free and paid. My goal is to work a couple hours each day starting with the lessons laid out, but also working on personal projects that try to tie in the lessons. Anyways, what are your thoughts? Have you tried this or any other lesson plans for 'relearning' to draw? (Pictures of the curriculum and random painting of one of my first personal watercolors while taking an Aaron Blaise course)

It's that time of year when people generally take stock of where they are and set some goals for the new year. I figured it would be a good time to talk about what we all want to accomplish artistically in the next 12 months. Courses I'd like to complete (or at least be current on): 1. Drawing Basics 2. Portrait Drawing Fundamentals 3. Figure Drawing Fundamentals 4. The Color Survival Guide 5. One more (TBD) Other art goals: 1. Steve Rude master study in gouache 2. Submit portfolio for acceptance in the the Marine Corps Combat Art Program 3. Continue progress in watercolor 4. Continue progress in gouache 5. Complete rough cut of issues #7 and #8 of Space Corps comic and publish on Ka-Blam. Issue #7 is almost done, so this isn't crazy. 6. Publish comic book anthology with friends on Ka-Blam. This one, too, is almost done, but I nee to get it across the finish line. 7. Make progress in Anatomy of the Human Body course. That's plenty. Much of it is already underway, so it's not as much as it seems. We'll see how much gets checked off. Who's next?

Pretty happy with how this came out. I included the reference image from New Masters Academy. Im going to work on a male counterpart to this drawing later today. I love digging into the anatomy and abstracting it into interesting shapes that flow all through the figure. I try to design, not copy from the reference. It’s way more fun that way. I may have gone a little overboard with the pink, but I guess I was just in the mood for a bunch of pink when i drew this. I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine’s Day this week ❤️

Hi everyone,  I occasionally do self-portraits to document my art progress, also I'm a very cheap model. I've attached some of my favorite portraits (most from the last 3 years, the one where I still have hair is from 30 years ago). Some of these were done using mirror, some from photo reference. Does anybody else like doing self-portraits? please share some of your own.

A few recent drawings. Pencil stuff mostly, generally on Bristol or just sketch paper. A few of these were for commissions, some just for fun and practice.

Very often (too often!) I see young artists obsessed with the canons demanded by social networks such as Instagram: having to produce a new original drawing EVERY DAY, calling anything that hasn't taken a month of work "a sketch " (as if there is time left for articulated projects having to, for example, meet the crazy parameters imposed by Instagram's algorithm!) and being subjected to prices that are insane to say the least. It was quite shocking a couple of months ago to see a very good painter being insulted because, in a private message asking her how much she wanted for a portrait, she replied $400.  This artist paints in oils in a realistic style reminiscent of the Flemish masters, yet recognisable and very original. A portrait of her would not be out of place in any museum, but for this "client" it was not worth more than 20 dollars, because these are the prices people have become accustomed to on social networks. If you ask for a fair price, you will be insulted, pilloried on social media, accused of being greedy and having no talent, shouting "Even the poor have a right to beautiful things!". Absolutely true, so much so that the net is full of free content that EVERYONE can enjoy but, or you can easily buy cheap prints. The point is that when you ask someone for a custom painting or drawing what you are asking for is a luxury. A tailor-made suit definitely costs more than the T-shirt bought on the market stall. People have convinced themselves that everyone is entitled to free or very cheap art (because young people are convinced that this is the case and sell out their work) without realising that often the artists they are insulting have a lower annual income than they do (and in many cases a crazy student loan to pay back). In the past few months a creative collective in my country (Italy) has finally done a survey on the annual income of comic book artists. 95% of them earn LESS than 5000 euros gross per year (on which you have to pay taxes even if in other cases under 5000 euros per year you don't fall into the taxable income bracket). That was my income in 2020, this year was much worse, I think at the end of the year I'll be lucky if I get to 1000 euros (our category is also excluded from state aid, not being recognized as a profession. Exactly, in the country of the great Renaissance masters, creative people are not recognised as workers. But they do pay taxes) In short, when people talk about poor people deserving to have our jobs for 20 dollars they ignore the fact that WE struggle to pay our bills and rent (I'm lucky that my husband, a journalist, has been very busy covering the news of the pandemic, otherwise I couldn't even afford to buy food) Everyone deserves nice things but we deserve to be able to support ourselves with our work, which takes years of study and practice. So please stop devaluing your work and calling sketches what are actually finished drawings that took you hours to complete! On social media they call them sketches just so they can be paid cheaply!

Can you gas what these are? "The Fart of War" from the Metropolitan Museum of Shart. Just kidding, these are He-gassen, old Japanese fart scrolls. How will we ever compete with the old M-ass-ters? Ok, im done. Don't want this to get too long-winded...

I needed to paint a sick Nightcrawler this week for another class that I am taking. Im still figuring out my process for watercolor paints. Here is where I am at with that. I spent a ton of time on the drawing to make the painting process as straight forward as possible. Ultimately, I ran a bit short on time and had to finish the colors digitally. I’m still super happy with how it came out in the end. I figured something out this week while painting it. Just wanted to share.

I'm feeling really proud right now and I just want to share. In 2013, after 5 years of not doing any art I realized that if I didn’t do something I would regret it forever. I couldn't let that happen! NO! So I vowed to do art every day for the rest of my life. Then I got practical. What about the worst days? Those will happen, what can I do then? 30 minutes of anything. Drawing, painting. Whatever! Make the commitment and put a plan in place for the inevitability of life. FOCUS ON PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION! Now I can look at that number and feel proud. 3,537 days! It has been a wonderful journey of self-discovery and growth, and I've loved every minute of it. See the log of all 3,537 days on my website.

What are your inspirations for image creation that you don't find people talk about much? For me it's mostly other artist and modern photography (a lot, though not sure how to use it in image creation), some film as inspiration. Some fantasy novels are also really great! Because I love planes, I get my inspiration from there as well. Other than that, I can't seem to think of anything unusual, but I want to know some other sources that you guys get inspiration from. Would like to hear you guys experience.

Hey Proko Community! I see a lot of artist struggle with the same things, motivation, deliberate practice, inspiration, etc. I want to know the best art advice you have ever received. I'll start with some of my favorite quotes: “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dalí “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent van Gogh

So, today is one of those days on the rollercoaster of artistic endeavour where I ponder the big questions... Where am I headed, what does it all mean, why am I at this point again? Here's the problem: I love drawing, I'm also starting to really enjoy digital drawing (no wasted paper, no paint fumes, no materials down the drain or in the bin). I understand the fundamentals and I'd say I'm between beginner and intermediate in 'skill.' But. I don't know where I want to end up and I struggle with thinking up 'bigger' ideas and goals. To make it worse I then see all the amazing ideas others create and get depressed. I love insects, creatures, comics, robots, sci-fi, fantasy, cyberpunk, birds, dinosaurs, anti-heroes, landscapes, nature, video game characters/worlds and more, but I have no idea which of those I want to dive fully into with my art, and because they cover such a diverse array of art discipline and style I have no idea where to focus other than wanting to be able to draw it all really well :/ I also don't 'compose' drawings because I'm always just drawing 'things' rather than ideas/concepts. Because of this, I sit here 'stuck,' not knowing what to learn next or how to structure my learning. I want to do projects (as Stan has mentioned a lot lately as an incredibly useful learning tool), but I don't know what of. I just sit there sketching insects and other things, but with nothing going over 30 minutes and rarely 'properly' finished. I thankfully just found Alex Huneycutt's (radiorunner on reddit) 'solo artist curriculum' mentioned in this thread (https://www.proko.com/community/topics/self-study-systems-for-art) which I think I will follow to continue to build skills and practice, but I don't know how i would tailor it as I don't have goals to tailor it towards. I would love some advice or shared experience with insights? Thanks!

I'm so stuck and I don't know what to do. I would really appreciate any advice. I haven't picked up a pencil or ipad to draw something in over a month. The last time I spent more than an hour on any drawing was probably a year ago. The last big project I put any effort into (a tattoo apprenticeship portfolio) basically got laughed at. Every time I try to make a start I just feel overwhelmed. I get stuck in the same cycle. I know I have to draw in order to improve so I can reach my goals. Then I think about all the things that I need to improve and get intimidated (I don't even have a solid grasp of basic fundamentals). When I can force myself to sit down and draw something I hate it so much I throw it straight into the bin. I try and psych myself up to draw but I know that most of the time I feel too overwhelmed to start or hate what I make and can't bring myself to do it. Then I'm back to square one and beating myself up because if I don't draw I won't ever improve. I know that Stan and Marshall say to plan out your art school and put the hours in and skills will come. I have ASD trying to plan a syllabus on 'how to draw everything' or even concentrate on something for more than twenty minutes is a nightmare. I've tried purchasing various online courses but find them so difficult to follow it makes me feel like an idiot. I know I started drawing because it used to make me feel relaxed and because I wanted to put beautiful things out into the world but now it just makes me want to cry. I haven't really seen any improvement in my drawing for a couple of years, if anything it's gotten worse because I haven't been drawing as regularly. Has anyone here ever been in the same position? How do I get out of this slump and back to drawing? I've tried forcing myself to draw but whenever I do the experience is so negative it makes me want to draw even less. I don't like giving up but I don't know what else to do.

This is something I am struggeling for quite soem time now and some time now. When I draw on my tablet and then compare the finished drawing on my PC monitor, mobile phone and other's phones the colors obviously come out so different. Of course I know that screens have different color ranges and that this as to be expected and is nothing I can change. My question is: Is there any way to find out how most screens (depending on target group) would show colors and adjust my drawing accordingly? Right now I am mostly posting for Instagram, so it would be interesting if there is an average mobile screen I could aim for so that most of the viewers get the colors I intended. Did you come across this? How do you decide for which screen you tailor your colors? Sorry, I think I explained not so well ^^.

A couple days ago, I got an e-mail from an artist whose work I've admired for long and from whom I hadn’t heard in a while. He used to call himself an "art hacker" and seemed to be what many of us would call "succesful" - he had good jobs in the entertainment industry, got well paid for them and was able to create amazing illustrations with innovative concepts, solid construction and beautiful rendering. Then, around 2020, at what he said was the peak of his career, he quit. No, he didn't die - in fact, he said he was "alive and well". But he did quit his art jobs, "killed" his artistic persona, completely left the art industry and openly donated 90GB of his stunning digital artwork to public domain. He said it was a deliberate decision of "creative destruction" in face of realizing that, basically, mass-production entertainment was a flawed institution in our society. By quitting his career as an industry-standard concept artist, he said he could free his creative energy from restraints and direct it to fulfill other objectives. As generative AI came around and started becoming more popular in the latest years, he wrote again. He said “AI is killing art” and seemed very concerned not only about the future of art jobs, but also about the future of humanity and modern society overall. And below is the most recent message I got from him: — “By the end of 2025, most traditional artist jobs will be gone, replaced by a handful of AI-augmented art directors. Right now, around 5 out of 6 concept art jobs are being eliminated, and it's even more brutal for illustrators. This isn't speculation: it's happening right now, in real-time, across studios worldwide. At this point, dogmatic thinking is our worst enemy. If we want to survive the AI tsunami of 2025, we need to prepare for a brutal cyberpunk reality that isn’t waiting for permission to arrive. This isn't sci-fi or catastrophism. This is a clear-eyed recognition of the exponential impact AI will have on society, hitting a hockey stick inflection point around April-May this year. By July, February will already feel like a decade ago. This also means that we have a narrow window to adapt, to evolve, and to build something new. Let me make five predictions for the end of 2025 to nail this out: 1 Every major film company will have its first 100% AI-generated blockbuster in production or on screen. 2 Next-gen smartphones will run GPT-4o-level reasoning AI locally. 3 The first full AI game engine will generate infinite, custom-made worlds tailored to individual profiles and desires. 4 Unique art objects will reach industrial scale: entire production chains will mass-produce one-of-a-kind pieces. Uniqueness will be the new mass market. 5 Synthetic AI-generated data will exceed the sum total of all epistemic data (true knowledge) created by humanity throughout recorded history. We will be drowning in a sea of artificial ‘truths’. For us artists, this means a stark choice: adapt to real-world craftsmanship or high-level creative thinking roles, because mid-level art skills will be replaced by cheaper, AI-augmented computing power. But this is not the end. This is just another challenge to tackle. Many will say we need legal solutions. They're not wrong, but they're missing the bigger picture: Do you think China, Pakistan, or North Korea will suddenly play nice with Western copyright laws? Will a "legal" dataset somehow magically protect our jobs? And most crucially, what happens when AI becomes just another tool of control? Here's the thing - boycotting AI feels right, I get it. But it sounds like punks refusing to learn power chords because guitars are electrified by corporations. The systemic shift at stake doesn't care if we stay "pure", it will only change if we hack it. Now, the empowerment part: artists have always been hackers of narratives. This is what we do best: we break into the symbolic fabric of the world, weaving meaning from signs, emotions, and ideas. We've always taken tools never meant for art and turned them into instruments of creativity. We've always found ways to carve out meaning in systems designed to erase it. This isn't just about survival. This is about hacking the future itself. We, artists, are the pirates of the collective imaginary. It’s time to set sail and raise the black flag. I don't come with a ready-made solution. I don't come with a FOR or AGAINST. That would be like being against the wood axe because it can crush skulls. I come with a battle cry: let’s flood the internet with debate, creative thinking, and unconventional wisdom. Let’s dream impossible futures. Let’s build stories of resilience - where humanity remains free from the technological guardianship of AI or synthetic superintelligence. Let’s hack the very fabric of what is deemed ‘possible’. And let’s do it together. It is time to fight back. Let us be the HumaNet. Let’s show tech enthusiasts, engineers, and investors that we are not just assets, but the neurons of the most powerful superintelligence ever created: the artist community.” — Now I’m a fan of creative debates, so I figure bringing this discussion here could help put our minds to think together. So what do you guys think? Do these predictions make sense to you? Do you think “AI is killing art”? Do you feel empowered enough as part of an art community to “hack the future” or so? And how do you feel about this whole scenario we’re currently living and witnessing? Stay well! <3 And let’s share ideas!

Greetings! I am Shackman, a failed novelist who became a failed game developer and now I want to become a… really good artist! I used to be a poker player and publicly writing about your journey was really common because it encourages honest self reflection, motivation and tips from others, and the occasional friendly kick in the butt. It was also really cool to have those blogs all in one place and in a forum so there is high visibility and very little friction for discussions. I keep hearing about this thing for art journeys back in the days at conceptart.org, but that site is gone and I couldn’t find an alternative. Instead of whining I decided to take a shot at getting the ball rolling myself. I chose this site because there are a lot of artists here who are beginners/intermediates but dedicated enough to have a promising future ahead of them. I also trust in Stan and his team to keep this site alive and bustling. I asked in the suggestions forum if I can do that here and got the go ahead, I also asked for a category but there is of course no demand yet. I’ll do my best with this blog so it will motivate other to start their own thread, and maybe one day we get a category. Week 1: I have been drawing on and off for a few years now, but lack solid fundamentals. About 2 months ago I decided to go all in with art. I have made a challenge to draw from life every day. Currently at day 50 something. I use watercolor and paint mostly plein air for maximum frustration. So this week I want to do a few watercolor tutorials, Marco Bucci just uploaded one and there is a recent Gouache tutorial on the Proko channel. Besides that I’m doing the 250 Box Challenge for drawabox.com and some Blender tutorials. I use an app to track my progress, and split my time into equal parts of drawing tutorials, drawing for fun (podcasts listening allowed), Blender tutorials and Blender freestyling for fun (no podcasts though as that would just irritate me when trying to do things in Blender).

Here's a bunch of drawings and paintings I do to boost my mood or I do just for fun. I really recommend doing them, they are really relaxing. Just take out your pencil, pen, stylus, etc., and do what YOU want.

Hey I'm looking for more art memes. If you've got some post them here and if we use them we'll promote you on our social!

I certainly do. I find it difficult though to find insect artists and that a lot of them do 'natural history' style directly from above flat drawings. I love charcoal and expressive linework, but much as I enjoy drawing wasps and little insects, I struggle for ideas to expand on other than just drawing from reference :( If anyone has any resources for insect drawing or for how to do creature design etc from insects I'd love to know about them :) Here's some digital charcoal sketches I did tonight of some wasps I've photographed.

I'm really impressed by the artists I see on social media, but it can be daunting to see how much work they put out. Sometimes two, three beautiful, finished-looking pieces per week! Is the secret to build up a queue? Are they just superhumanly fast? I've been curious about this forever. How do you keep up with Twitter/Instagram, or do you?

Who is your favourite artist from any time period? (Please post pictures with your comments) I’ll start James Jean

I had the chance to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA this week. Not only have I been dying to visit this Museum to see the main Rockwell exhibition, but they currently have a special exhibition celebrating the art and humor of MAD Magazine illustrators which included four entire galleries packed with originals from “The Usual Gang of Idiots” such as Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Norman Mingo, Don Martin, Duck Edwing, Sam Viviano, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and others. There was an incredible collection of Rockwell’s work on display, in addition to the main galleries we had the opportunity to tour Rockwell’s fastidiously kept studio where he painted for the last 21 years of his career. The MAD exhibit exceeded expectations. I was unaware that Rockwell was commissioned to paint a “definitive” portrait of Alfred E. Newman but politely declined in his own humorous way. More on that in the link. Seeing these pieces in person was an incredible experience. I didn’t take as many photos as I now wish I had, but here are a few highlights from both exhibits as well as a link to the gallery documentary about the MAD Magazine exhibit and it's connection to Rockwell. https://youtu.be/IUbYa5eTHOY?si=qjwwVZk0E_HefTax

Hey everybody! I've seen a few questions regarding the purpose of doing master studies recently and would really like to hear everyone's approach when it comes to studying other artists' work. What mindset do you go in with, what are you trying to get out of it? Any tips or tricks you have or general observations about the process. Thanks!

Okay, so since I became committed and confident enough to finally join an art forum, I thought I'd just create a blog-type thing to post and track my progress until I get bored and maybe meet some new people along the way too! I'm still learning how this site works, but it's Proko right?! It has to be good!!! I'll probably either post some things related to Japan and Japanese culture since that's something that I'm very into! I've been posting art and artist struggles on Japanese forums before, so why not?! I mean, you can always delete your account and pretend like nothing had ever happened... 😂👀

Like the topic says i just dont know what to do anymore. 7 month in and i'm just not learning anything. Watched the proko video about proporsions / divide the face in to three and make sure the circle is the same lenght and with. But i still get it wrong and i am at the end of my rope here. I see people do amazing stuff with in 3 to 4 months and i still cant even do a face that looks okay. I know you shouldnt compare yourself to others but you can thank social media for making that very hard not to wanna do just that. I hate my drawings all of them and i cant get past this stage no matter how much i draw. Is this it? is this all i will ever be able to do? It scares me. I want to draw. And i want to draw well. But i am just not getting any better. I dont want to give up. but this is making me question my abilitys. I just want to be able to draw cool characters and i am just not seeing it happening atm. I am platooing completely and i dont know what to do. This is a cry for help. Sry for taking upp your time.

Last night, I attended a live figure drawing session at a local art gallery. The model was a new guy and seemed to have no clue what he was doing. I was just grateful to be there so I accepted the challenge and worked to make him look as good as I could in my drawings. I got this lovely angle. Which was an unexpected surprise I guess. I took a deep breath and here’s what I managed to get in a 5 minute pose. Im actually happy with how it came out and I think I figured something out in the process. Sometimes lessons click in your head at the oddest moments… Anyways, here’s some of my notes about drawing foreshortened poses quickly and effectively.

I was really inspired by Jennifer Wang's episode on Draftsmen and it made me realize and think about the important topics that she discussed (but somehow got hate for it in the comments?) I searched for a WoC community on reddits but couldn't find any so I thought perhaps there may be some on here!

so recently ive been struggling with my eye sight. & its really been hard trying to draw for that reason and today i just found this nice plump bump on my wrist 😬 and it hurts . and this really isn't my biggest concern in life right now but what is . is im suppose to be getting a job around the beginning of August and i was kinda planning on being able to use my good right hand for work so yeah.😅 and im probably gonna try to not use my hand as much as possible intel i can get the problem fixed. and i would be using my shoulder right now to draw with instead of my wrist but i have to finish my drafting table first. i might be doing some digital art but i might have a hard time doing that i just dont want all of my art skills going down the toilet 😂 wall im trying to recover. i have so many projects to finish & not a lot of time to do so. im not lying when i say that i cant help but feel like a total disappointment. this is because i tend to finish EVERYTHING OCD lol . i have" to". so seeing all of these things just sitting there half done is just killing me. inside. idk how i should feel about all of these things. and in no way am i saying that im just gonna give up. and no i will not give up. im just stuck in between a rock and a hard place right now in life. and it just seems weird? i just never expected to be here you know. but anyway with all of that said here is the two latest things that i have done. one of them is from 100% my imagination and the other is for my brother its suppose to be Todd Howard. and here is a picture of my poor wrist 😅

During my drawing session when I get just a bit tired or it gets a bit challenging, I find myself unconsciously opening Instagram and Facebook feeds, and checking my messages :/ Which can make me lose the flow and is not at all constructive. Anyone has been there? Any idea on how to discipline myself out of these bad habits/reflexes? PS: I work digitally on computer :/ Here's the drawing I'm currently working on, it's taking me ages due to the distractions..

There's a lot I like and hate about Drawabox. I hate following the curriculum to the letter because I have been forced to do so much traditional art in my life, I am eternally sick of it. It's gotten where if I can't work digitally then I don't want to be an artist haha :) Anyway some stuff on Drawabox has SUPER helped me. Like working through lesson 1 I got where I can draw way more confident lines, and I learned the ghosting method, and how to freehand good ellipses, etc. all fundamentals my art teachers NEVER taught me!! I was b/sing as an artist for 30+ years without those most basic of skills. Now I can draw pretty sexy lines when I concentrate (with no stabilizer!) and I'm working on incorporating it into when I'm actually sketching stuff. Currently I'm studying to learn how to better draw cylinders and it's helping lots! I need to be comfortable manipulating these suckers in 3D space if I am to ever learn mannequinization in the Proko figure course. In the figure course I started fizzling out in the structure chapter because it went so far over my head it was like a speck in the sky! So I'm really working to get strong here. Stupid boxes and cylinders and all that. I wanna bend them to my will! I want them to face whatever direction I want and look legit :D

Every cell in my body wants to quit drawing. I can't remember why I started drawing in the first place. I'm a college student and I've been drawing for three hours max a day for at least two years and I've improved a lot ,but as I keep going it's getting harder and harder. I don't think I have it in me anymore

Hello Proko community! What are the best resources/ classes I should be looking at or taking to one day make it in the entertainment industry. Specifically animation (prop, storyboard, character) My question was recently featured in the most recent episode of Draftmen (section titled too many resources.) Anyone who saw this episode knows I was given a homework assignment to ask my question here, thanks @Stan Prokopenko & @Marshall Vandruff once again. Thank you to the community for your time

Hello! I'm Wibly, and I'm looking for some like minded people to work on improving as artist with. I haven't met anyone around me who has any interest in art so I kinda feel like I'm alone in pursuing this ridiculous carrier that no one else seems to think is a "real job". Anyway... to those interested, introduce yourself below and lets start a thread doing a weekly drawing prompt and offering helpful critiques! Don't worry about style or skill level, we all have something to offer and learn!

I feel like this isn't going to be a rather pleasant subject for me to bring up. I've been a hobbyist at best with art, but recently I've been let go from what my family considered to be a good job (benefits, retirement, PTO). These past few months I've considered jumping into the art field but I really don't know what to do or start with. I don't have a degree for the subject and have never considered a portfolio on top of taking the craft seriously for approximately two weeks with the start of Proko 2.0. I'm feel completely foolish asking this, but does anyone know where someone with nothing should start in a field like this?

Do you like creating while listening to music or prefer silence? If you do like listening, what sort of genres do you listen to and are they different than the ones you listen to when not creating? Feel free to share artists and playlists! I like listening to OSTs from movies and video games, especially orchestral boss fights! Kingdom Hearts and Undertale have some of my favorite OSTs for drawing and painting. I also like finding niche artists like CloZee (I don't know how to describe her work other than it's electronic) that have a high-energy, immersive feel.

Practicing Disney character expressions is a great daily sketchbook practice. I’ve been doing one a day everyday for months now and always keep learning.

For the past 9 plus years I've been doing art every single day. Today is day 3541. I'm approaching 10 years straight and I'm looking back at how my art has improved. The biggest improvement I've seen is with my figures because I've focused on that most. But it reached a whole new level in 2018 when I put a purpose behind my work. It's the purpose that has given me more passion and drive to go beyond the traditional and come up with my own voice. You can see my journey here: https://chrisbeaven.com/daily-art/ I've logged all 3451 days so others can benefit. Enjoy! :) Especially the hundreds of really bad drawings and paintings, haha!

I've noticed a lot of artists I follow on Instagram use red pencil when they make sketches. Can anyone fill me in on the reason for this? I think it looks great - just wondering where this idea came from and why it's a thing. Have tried looking around on google for answers but there seem to be a lot of conflicting opinions. Here are some examples from artist Rik Lee: Thanks!

Hello everyone, I've been drawing and learning the basics for two years in my spare time and I've been following a lot of tutorials on the internet because I couldn't find a good evening class near my home. I mostly followed the anatomy courses of Proko (the best on the web for my taste). I try to be regular in my learning, practicing a bit every day (~30-60 min of sketch per day). However, it's not always easy for me to maintain motivation, especially after work hours and family obligations. Recently, I have the impression that I'm regaining a renewed willingness to learn and that I'm going beyond the purely classical learning framework. I orientate my drawing time towards more personal projects, simpler, not very time-consuming and especially on a theme that I like (fantasy). Here are the last two ... I think that lack of time are frequent problems for passionates. Especially if it is not possible to direct your life towards your passion. In this case, I would say that only the patient can help us knowing that life changes, but it is not always easy. I wanted to share this with the community. By the way, thanks to Stan and the whole team for the interesting content (interviews, trainings and podcasts) and this great new platform. Raphaël

With the rise of AI's like Dall-e and Midjourney, is it even worth pursuing to learn art by myself? it would take many years for me to train to get results similar to what Dall-e can create. Even if I can get to that level, an AI can create an image within seconds, where a human needs hours to create a piece like that. How do you guys feel? Do you feel threatened?

So today in work I have found out that when its boring and customers aren't making any problems again you can make pictures in Microsoft word :D You have the freeform shape tool which allows you to draw basically, but aside from stretching you can't edit a shape once its down. You also can set a transparency on shapes which is nice. Fun times:D

Hi proko community, I need some advice's from you. I’m stuck with my thoughts. A little background and a small outlook in the future: I have an art degree in College of Further Education (Germany). Today I’m an engineer and working full time. My goal is, to become a freelance artist. So, now I working, save money and learn for my own „art education“. My goal is, to quite my job in 2 years and save some money, so I can life as a „full time artist“ for the next 3 years without any income. In all there are 5 years from now on. Since the corona pandemic a drew a lot and before there I get slowly back into drawing. I have 7 to 15hours per week. To draw Now here is the point where I’m stuck. I want to build a great foundation of all the fundamentals. But I’m get easy overwhelmed from a these topics. I’m builded a list with the part I have to learn. These are draw/ composition/ design/ tones/ light and shadow/ perspective/ colors/ textures and materials/ anatomy/ Photoshop I’m „good“ at drawing, Photoshop and perspective. In tones, light and shadow I’m „okey“. All the other topics I have many deficits. These all are huge topics. One day I think, this topic is important and another day it could be the next one. I love to draw portraits and I want to tell stories through my artworks. So my goal as an artist is to evoke emotion and tell a story. Could it be useful, to get really good in portraiture in the next 2 years to find easy client work or should I go through all the huge topics to have more opportunities? Thanks for your time. Thomas

Just discovered Fechin's sketches - couldn't resist having a go...

After almost two years of hard work and all i get is this. while others master art in two i cant even do a gesture that looks good after 2. This has never been about skill! This is a talent game and i am done pretending its otherwise. The only ones that say art is a skill are people with talent. But never mind i will just go and play a good game. Atleast i can be good at that. This has all been a huge wast of time and money for nothing ((examples of talent)) https://www.youtube.com/@niroxious https://www.youtube.com/@ddmarkk https://www.youtube.com/@YotsumiShiro/shorts All ever wanted was to be able to draw like this! But u can see now that it was just a dream, nothing more. ((pls dont tell me the old stupid clishay "comparison is the thief of joy")) We all know that talent is real and that its all that matters. some dreams are just never ment to be. All the perspective practise, the cubes, the cyliders, the gestures,the line practice, Faces that i have drawn. All amounted to Nothing like the people i just shared with you. That mastered all of it in two years flat. and i cant even do a gesture well after soon two years.

I created this for a friend, but I am not to familiar with Warhammer 40000. If anybody out there is let me know if I got the look right, thanks.

Had some fun making this today. Hope this is helpful for someone out there.

Sometimes there is a moment in the middle of a painting that I think I should just stop- just leave it and preserve those thoughts. So much so I’ve though, while visiting other artist’s studios- I’d like to collect their unfinished work.

Check it out, I started teaching my own drawing class in Ashland Virginia. I recorded this video as a rehearsal earlier this week. It turned out pretty good, so I put it on YouTube. You guys might like it: https://youtu.be/E4anTYln7jE?si=4SPTb_cawTx3Liru

Hey Testers, I picked up a copy of Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles" after Stan and Marshall discussed the book on the podcast. It's only 2 and a half hours, so it's quite readable, and it seems to be a motivational, self-help, easy to listen to while sketching sorta thing, so I was thinking about testing a monthly book club here. If anyone else wants to read and join, we can find time at the end of May to Zoom chat about the book and corresponding podcast episode. Alas I am unable to source the book for ya, my copy is tied to my Audible account, but let me know if you're interested and we can put a discussion together.

Hey, guys, I just added a new cover image / cartoon self-portrait to my website! It's at http://www.liandro.art/en :D

Just sharing my baby steps.

Awhile back, Stan & Marshall did an episode on finding your art parents to take inspiration from and discover your own art style. In the episode, they said to go back and find older artists, that way you're not using what's currently out there for inspiration - that way your stuff won't look like what everyone else is currently making. My question about this, is what if you're not particularly inspired by older artists, and are primarily interested in drawing comics/manga? They're relatively newer mediums, and most the artists I like are ones who are still living. So I feel like it'd be easy to end up with a style that's not very unique or interesting. Maybe I'm just overthinking it though?

Hey Proko People, Community Manager Katey here! To celebrate reaching 1k on Twitter we're giving away some courses!! Rules to enter: 1️⃣ Follow @prokotv 2️⃣ Like + RT this https://twitter.com/prokotv/status/1452743519030976512 3️⃣ Comment on the tweet with one course you would love to win! 3 winners will randomly be selected in 48h. Good luck!

Hey Everyone! @Kevin Kruse just came out with a new video on sketching vehicles! He goes over fun new ways to practice perspective. If you missed his video you can watch it here: https://www.proko.com/lesson/try-this-in-your-sketchbook-drawing-and-inking-vehicles/discussions Try this in your sketchbook and post your vehicle sketches below!

for the last 2 years, i have been practising form and watercolour at home with online resources like draw a box and some yt courses my parents and school art teacher says that i should learn realism and portraits instead. what do you guys think?(i am 14 btw)

I hope at some point the Draftsmen will take this on in an episode of the show, but in the meantime, do any of you have any suggestions on how to avoid, prevent, minimize, or treat repetitive motion injuries related to your craft (such as Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais that are popular among musicians)? Thank you in advance for sharing your wisdom!

Yet another topic about AI… 🫣 It’s been about a year since I started using Glaze and Nightshade on my artwork images before posting them online, and I was assuming that this would keep me somewhat safe from AI unethical appropriation and scraping. For you guys who aren’t familiar: Glaze and Nightshade are softwares currently developed by researchers at the University of Chicago in order to protect copyright and safeguard artists from invasive AI tools. Glaze, specifically, promises to impair style mimicry, and Nightshade promises to “deceive” AI models so that these models won’t be able to “read” the protected images. Then, I thought I’d run a few quick tests. TEST 1 - I applied Glaze (at its default level) to image number 1 attached here (sketch of a lady with cats), uploaded it to ChatGPT and asked it to generate an image of the Mona Lisa in the same style. Theoretically, it shouldn’t be able to do it, since Glaze is meant to prevent style mimicry. But take a look at image number 2 and tell me: do you think Glaze’s protection actually worked in this case? TEST 2 - I apele Nightshade (at its default level) to image number 3 (sketch of a guy in glasses with a backpack, running, with a thought bubble where’s writtn “Where’s the bus?”), the I uploaded it to ChatGPT as asked it to describe in words what was that image. It shouldn’t be able to do it as well, since Nightshade’s promise was to “poison” the image so that it would be “unreadable” to the AI tool. Yet, image 4 is what ChatGPT gave to me as an answer (since the text is in Portuguese, here’s a general translation: “The image is a cartoon-style drawing made with loose pen strokes. It shows a seemingly young person wearing large glasses running with a backpack on his back. The character appears to be in a hurry, perhaps trying to catch public transport. There is a speech bubble with the phrase in Portuguese: "Where's the bus?" This indicates that he is looking for or waiting for a bus that has not yet arrived. The style of the drawing is expressive and humorous, suggesting an everyday scene with a comic twist. There is also a small signature in the lower right corner, with the letter "B". Would you like me to apply any modifications or create something based on this image?” So I wondered if Nightshade worked only on my signature (which is “LI”, not “B”), since that’s the only part which the AI wasn’t accurate about… Would a higher level of Glaze/Nightshade protection perhaps work more efficiently? (I hope I'll be able to test these higher levels in the future, although I couldn't up to now because applying the standard level of Glaze and Nightshade to a single image costs me several hours, literally… I wonder if my PC is too slow.) I truly don't mean my words to be a criticism to the work of the brave team of researchers at the University of Chicago who, I believe, are doing the best they can with Glaze and Nightshade. I honestly and deeply appreciate their endeavour. It's just that, after all this, I have doubts and wonderings: - Is any artwork ever really “safe” online nowadays? - As artists, is it efficient or even worth the effort to try to “safeguard” ourselves against AI through such strategies? Assuming that the problem is not the tool, but how people use it, is it too naive to trust that it’s possible to raise ethical awareness for people not to use AI maliciously in the first place, or at least to trust that those who do will face effective legal consequences? - Even if it was possible to completely avoid AI, if AI is where the future of overall digital information is headed, wouldn’t the attempt to “protect” ourselves against it backfire? In other words, by trying to keep our artworks out of AI databases (if this is even possible by now), would we be excluding ourselves from the future of digital memory/history? Among all this, I even believe that art and copyright are just a fraction of the problem - deepfakes, data manipulation, social control, political surveillance, these are much more complex issues also implicated in the "bad side of AI". Still, it’s somehow all connected, isn’t it? I know this is a polemic and even difficult matter for many of us. And I know that answers or solutions are complicated. Anyway, I’d love to hear other thoughts about this. Stay well, y'all! 🤍

Watching Stan and Sinix on mic talk about "CalArts sketchbook perfection" and how we may have one book for testing or one for studies had me pondering how others consider this topic too... hmm... Is that Yensid's Ghost knockin? CalArts? Call it a ball park. HOMERUN! Call me gym rat. Mickey, jockin! ahaha _______________________________________ I've worked in digital raw animation (no ounce of traditional art) and also in Booksales at both Barnes and Noble College and the normal brick and mortar stores. I was fighting against the digital erasure of paper when I got bored of talking wine with millionaires and so I started walking down the annals of story; such resplendent glories I was allowed to stack and sell. BUT WHO CARES! ahaha Title is nothing. "Master"? Call me L'Amateur (Lover). A care bear~ lol In Shipping & Receiving we throw books around like nothin. Bricks of words and pictures. My belief is that the more I learn of printing processes, canvas stretching, gesso primers (Tempura eggies lol) etc... the more I am a scientist of all media. Once I finished learning programming I'll have come full circle. Don't be scared to see how data-structures affect your art philosophies ya'll. A Producer does not belong in a "title" but makes anything. Production does not stop. Do not limit your freedom with perfectionism in a sketchbook. Frank Herbert advises heavily against it if you wanna start riding Sand Worms ahahah Call that a Paradigm! ( Or was it pair of dimes? Anyway I've said my two cents.) (Btw are you ready for the Euclideon UE5 wave? Better get a surf board! Call me a GameShark. We're about to start putting places the size of planets inside of planets. How could I ever be afraid of an imperfect line touching my book? What a hindering panic! ahahah) __________________________________________ I recommend Side-Saddle and Coptic Stitch for text-blocks. Those two methods once learned will give you the skill to pop out a moleskine (depending on the paper quality) within the blink of an eye. (5-40 minutes) Here are some fun ones I made to be experiences to see, hold, and draw in. Mizu Blue Book Necro-Manga-con Milk Dud Cappuccino Hand-Dipped ...and some hard cover book I slapped together with 28lb paper (the BEST cost value copy paper you can possibly find in my experience here in the U.S. Watson-Guptill enjoys a similar grain in their series that used to appear in B&N.) Hilarious how Ernest Watson reached out to me and I never even heard of his school til 24. Butterfly Effect. ahahah But I definitely don't mind drawing whatever the heck I want in these things. They are not special just because I have turned them into decorated UI experiences. If I wanted to publish anything I'd just compile it and re-print. That's called SECOND EDITION! ahahaha The more light hearted I am with anything, the easier it is to move weight! I pump mountains on the daily! You can too! BE-LIEVE in yourself~ <3 Wabi-sabi; Kintsugi flow~ Cheers! <3

Hi guys! I am 29, nearly 30, and I started drawing a couple of years ago, and I have been really intent on levelling up my skills. I am self employed in a non-art-related career, and spend my spare time doing what I can to try and get to a point where I can produce art that I'm proud of, and hopefully sell online (in a part time capacity) in the future. I'm pregnant, and due in less than 2 weeks! I would love to hear from those of you who are parents yourselves, looking to break into the professional world of art. How have you balanced caring for a child, maintaining a good relationship with your partner, an unrelated job, and progressing as an artist all together? Is it possible? Give me hope! haha

Hello everyone I just got hired recently and I would like to thank proko family and to every who helped me along the way and a very special thanks to Steve lenze and liandro and proko without y'all this could not have been possible again thank you very much

What are the links between art and math, and not just perspective. Fractacls, Chaos theory, Information theory, algorithms, tessellation etc. I would love to talk to anyone who has thoughts on this subject.

i used three my drawings and use ai to enhance it

Hi everyone, my name is Alberto and my goal is to be an illustrator. Recently i've come to realize that my artworks have some problems but i need someone that can give me an outside perspective on this. At the moment i'm studing art by myself and i didn't studied color theory yet, so please keep this in consideration. So i would like to ask you what, in you opinion, are the 3 main areas of improvement and what i could do/study to get better. Thank you very much for your time. P.s. i'm not a native english speaker so if you can't understand something please feel free to ask

hi here are a bunch of images let me know what I could do to improve them,

It's time to talk about serious business guys and gals. No fun here, the stake of the community is in jeopardy. We will not tolerate authoritarian Spam bots deleting content willy nilly. This Will Not Stand!

Hey guys! It's Yiming here and I like doing line art stuff. I kinda wanted to know what pens do you guys use typically? I use rOtring Isographs and up till now those are my most robust pens. Other fountain pens all have clogging issues. I use flexi nibs sometimes (the zibra G ones), and those are great but It's kinda inconvenient to take out for a sketch... So anyone have any suggestions on this? Thanks!

Hi there! I enjoy doing several art styles, juggling between illustration and concept art. So I really am average at everything I do. I enjoyed drawing a stylized cartoon car and then a realistic knight, a magic the gathering inspired painting, funny cartoon pigs and I just don't know who I am. Maybe this is it and it's my destiny to jump all over but the thing is I can't manage to do a normal portfolio. I can't target specific companies. I work at a slot game company for 4 years and it's really cool and unusual because each game is completely different and we have all sorts of styles. And the thing is, one day I'll need to spread my wings and leave but I really don't know what to do because going for a stylized cartoon company will take me farther away from realistic work. Doing characters will take me farther from doing creature design. Or maybe I just overthink? Maybe it doesn't really matter as long I improve my fundamentals? And life is a journey so it's ok to jump all over because each step is a chapter of its own? Thanks

Hi, I am currently taking the Proko Anatomy course (and I am very happy with it :) ) Im guessing like many other students here, my goal is to become a concept artist. There are many character design courses online but I find that most of them start from the assumption that one knows not only anatomy but also how to draw clothing. There are only a couple of courses on clothing that I have found online, like the CGMA Anatomy of Clothing course. I was wondering if there are any plans to introduce a course like that by Stan or other Proko instructors? sort of like a continuation of the Anatomy course. Thank you!