Long Term Plan for learning Art - Help needed!
4d

Luca Giovani
Hi guys!
I hope the category I chose is acceptable, despite the topic covering more than just drawing.
In short, I'm trying to build a long-term plan to learn (or at least to explore and then decide if I'd like to delve into it) solid basics of Visual Arts.
I trust a lot Proko and I know here there are good pros, so I'd like to ask you guys if you can suggest online courses (preferably on this platform) to follow to learn these things (or other like "go to a museum". What I cannot do, is have an IRL teacher). Here's a summary of what I'm trying to accomplish:
GOALS, necessary (digital or mixed)
I'm into solo game dev, developing 2D at the time of this post and predicting a switch to 3D. Hence, I need:
- Pixelart (I'm relatively good at it, but I struggle with color, and I'm not great)
- Concept Art, Characters/Props/Environments (I was OK, but I haven't drawn for years. Also, I never had a good visual library. I'll mainly need this for 3D, but even for pixel art 2D games visual brainstorming can be pretty useful)
- 3D Modeling (I already know technicalities quite well, I'm much more lacking on the artistic side of understanding forms in three dimensions)
ROADMAP, necessary
My bet is that these courses will allow me to become a decent artist capable of delivering game art/assets with decent composition, values, color, perspective, anatomy etc. Especially, will allow me to grow from there.
- Proko, Drawing Basics
- Marshall, The Perspective Course
- Proko, Figure Drawing Fundamentals
- Proko, Portrait Drawing Fundamentals
- Proko, Anatomy of the Human Body
GOALS, art for fun
To date, I'm fully into a 5 years plan that doesn't leave much space for challenging art courses. This will end mid 2028. In the meantime, I'd like to build some basic art confidence. Basically, I want to explore a bunch of stuff in my spare time and see if I enjoy it.
It'd be amazingly useful to know where to look to have the necessary guidance to be able to at least explore the medium. I'd like to try:
- Painting. I'd like to try oil, gouache (dry) and acrylic, possibly in an order that makes sense (I think it is recommended to start from oils or acrylics?). I'm especially attracted to palette knives.
- Pastels, both oil and soft.
- Ink, especially painting with it (I really enjoy calligraphy, and I'm OK at it).
- Charcoal, especially painting with charcoal powder. I've seen videos of people painting with charcoal powder and brushes/sponge-covered palette knives and it seems so cool to me. I love the opacity of the medium, its deep blacks, the expressiveness, the quickness... and I also think it would be great for concept art!
That's all guys. I hope this post made enough sense!
Please let me know if you spot silly errors or need any clarifications.
Thanks a bunch for your time and help!