@Anne-Lise Loubière Glad you've figured it out on your own! I'm sorry I didn't get to your post sooner. You seem to be doing some really cool studies! As @Teresa Bolen said well, the external aspect of the eyebrows can vary greatly between individuals (just as most superficial traits, that's why people usually rely much more on bones when dealing with proportions). But your question was fair and legitimate, I can really see how this could have become confusing to you. Not sure if you've seen Proko's Portrait course already, but although it's a bit short compared to the others, it's quite dense and packed with helpful information too. By the way, @Teresa Bolen, I think that's an interesting topic for us, too, I guess this kind of information can be pretty useful for character designers. I heard once that, biologically, the eyebrows are meant to protect our eyes from sweat, rainwater and other stuff... but you brought up something more, it could be really interesting to learn a bit more about how eyebrow shapes and stylings are perceived and used in different cultures.

Ha, I've figured it out (after weeks...). I thought the "hairy" brow line should follow the "bone" brow line... Erf, I feel stupid now

This show was dope! I'm a great fan of the CastleVania games and you did an amazing job on the atmosphere. Thanks for sharing your tips with us!

Hello, I'm no expert, but composition wise, it's not really easy to read. The eye jumps a bit from a spot to another without much directions. The shapes of the huge statue and her scarf merge in a disturbing way (they're catching the eye of the viewer instead of the girl. The two pikes behind her are also a bit distracting, I think there are too many strong diagonals that don't converge somewhere (the pikes, her rifle, the stones, broken fence). I think the lighting is also a bit off : the main light source seems to come from above and that giant wing would cast a huge shadow upon her and the ground. Maybe you should try to rearrange some of the background elements and define a clear light source. I'd recommend working in black and white thumbnails to see if your silhouettes or the action read well on a very small scale (like the size of the image preview in your post). Working small avoid getting caught up in details. Usually, the focal point of your picture should be were you have the highest level of details and contrast. So here are my two cents on this ^^ Take this with a grain of salt though, I'm also learning :D

Yeah I've noticed that too

Hello, I think I might have found another bug in the torso anatomy lessons : It seems that the video "Common Mistakes of Drawing Breasts" is the same as the "Anatomy Critiques – The Pecs" Thank you

First, congratulations Stan! Second, that was a very interesting episode! It's not an easy question to answer. It plays with a philosophical level at that point, and I think that ultimately, it's up to you and your personal ethical values. I've always been fascinated by this whole "Good vs Evil" concept and how incredibly complex it really is when you think about it. The "Yin & Yang" philosophy completely blew my mind away when I first heard about it. I personally agree on the whole "are other people involved in this" point. Regarding Art and techniques, I just take what I find interesting/useful and leave the rest. There's no harm done to anyone when learning how to paint flowers. I don't know, maybe it's because I've always been interested in painting and drawing, I can dissociate the craft from the author. In other fields though, the fine line between the two may be harder to determine... or maybe it's just because I'm lacking knowledge in said other fields. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ On a side note, I found Joker (2019) a really astounding movie. It definitely left a lasting mark on me and I was deeply moved by it. From what I've heard, the movie has been very poorly advertised in the US. I mean, I understand why people were wary about it, but frankly, they got it really wrong. It's not about a psychopath clown and mass killings, it's about a world without love nor empathy. It's a dark and kinda poetic tragedy, but I highly recommend watching it.

Thank you both so much for featuring my question! @Stan Prokopenko Don't worry about my last name :D You did a great job (it's a French name, we have weird accents) I'm so glad you made this podcast. They are so enlightening. As a self-taught artist I often feel like I'm lost in a wild jungle with vague indications on how to find the right path. Hearing you and Marshall talk about your opinions and experiences is a very comforting thing. You kinda are my jungle guide experts! ^^ It's good to hear your advice, it helps me not getting lost in my art journey! :)

@Stan Prokopenko @Marshall Vandruff Like you guys I don't agree with that author's assessment that everybody who feels they are a victim needs to just suck it up and then they'll magically be fine but I think I can see the wisdom he was getting at. Being a victim doesn't mean you have to think like one. The difference between a victim and a victor is largely in how we see ourselves. If we think like a winner, we're more apt to behave like one, and if we behave like one we could very well become one. I've faced terrible persecution in the last year and I've seen the difference it makes to go from viewing myself as a helpless rowboat tossed in the sea to becoming a fighter in my own battle for freedom. It doesn't mean I'm aggressive--far from it--but I don't back down anymore when my persecuters try to tear me down. I've totally shifted my perspective. All the sticks and stones they throw at me... I see them as challenges. As a training ground for becoming strong and not letting anybody else tell me how I can live my life. There was a Ted Talk I watched last year that really had an impact on me. It completely changed the way I look at myself. It's called "How the worst moments in our lives make us who we are." The speaker is a man named Andrew Solomon who for much of his life was terrorized for being gay. He was severely depressed for a long time. But then he started meeting people who had been through far worse than him yet were sill happy and holding their heads high. He was intrigued and started asking them about that. He realized from their stories that, while we can't control what happens to us, we get to choose how we react to it. It's up to us if it breaks us or makes us into something way better than we ever thought we could be. Instead of being ashamed, we can incorporate this stuff into our identities and build meaning out of it. We can find light in the darkest places. One thing Mr. Solomon said was, "We don't seek the painful experiences that que our identities but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences." And he also said, "Forging meaning and building identity does not make what was wrong right. It only makes what was wrong... precious." So I did exactly that. I decided to use the horrible treatment I was receiving as free confidence lessons. Every time they tried to scare me, I forced myself to act brave and be my normal friendly self even if I wasn't feeling it. And you know what happened? Turns out I was way stronger than I thought I was. My brain saw me holding my ground as these people tried to take away everything good in my life and... the world didn't end!! Confidence boost! Sometimes they retreated... sometimes they didn't... but regardless I started actually FEELING like a winner. Because if they can't get to me and hurt me, I win. The more time that passes, the harder I am to hurt. And I'm getting used to basically all of their scare tactics.  And I kept going with writing my fanfic even though they tried so hard to get me to stop. Even though it's just a story and it isn't real, a lot of my identity is wrapped up in it and I get a lot of meaning out of it. It's a place to act out the world I wish I lived in. Another thing Mr. Solomon said was, "There is always someone that wants to confiscate our humanity. And there are always stories that restore it." This is true. My story is based around a character who was fighting to free his people from ruthless oppression. We have a lot in common. In that story we work together fighting against the demons in our own lives and we ultimately prevail. Anyway, probably my favorite quote in the whole Ted Talk was "Oppression breeds the power to oppose it." When somebody pushes into you, you can either let yourself be pushed down or you can push back. I chose the latter and thus that quote has become my mantra. This is the TedTalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiM5a-vaNkg

This link has expired. Could you please share it again?

I second everything you said. Joining an art community is actually a big challenge for me. I have little to no connections to other artists and I don't know exactly how to proceed. Concept.org used to be a huge place to discuss and share advice with other artists but it's gone now...

Aside from what have been said by @Milan Čolović , it may also be a trend. When working traditionally, artists often use red pencils called "sanguine" since the XII-XIVth century. It's similar to charcoal or graphite.

I’ve re-watched Marshall’s 1994 Perspective Series classes 1 and 2 again, this time actually taking notes, and thinking about what and how I want to practice. I have some ideas, that I’ll post here soon. Tonight I’m trying to find information on how to create a true cube in at least two point perspective. So far I’ve seen a number of videos claiming cubes, but that are just boxes, not true cubes. I did see one video that initially looked promising, but I didn’t completely follow the explanation the first time through 🤔. Time to give it another go! Bit of a fever today, so may take a while before something clicks... What are you working on to improve your ability to effectively use perspective?

Hi Stan and Marshall! Thank you very much for asking us, I really love listening to your podcasts. They are a real gold mine for thoughtful and practical advice when it comes to Art, every artist should listen to this. I think a interesting topic could be "What's the difference between a STUDY and a COPY". That's a pitfall I ran right into when I studied masters some years ago. The goal of the exercice was to study values and composition. However, I was so ate away by my own insecurities that I ended up spending 40+ hours recreating each painting... (I definitely improved my observing and rendering skills but that was not the point of the exercise). I facepalmed when I realized, not so long ago, that it's not an efficient way to study masters. The goal here (I think!) is not to make pretty pictures. It's to study a particular topic : how does the artist uses colors? Light and shadows? Shapes? (or in my case, values and composition) etc. Studying a piece may not even require any drawing, but careful observation of the piece, while keeping in mind what you want to study in particular. I wish I had known that sooner. With the same amount of time, I could have studied plenty of paintings instead of only 20. In my opinion That's what can make the difference between "studying hard" and "studying smart". (I'll add some of my "studies" for the sake of the argument)

Hi Teresa :) I can't speak for Proko or his team nor I have any idea how user's pictures are protected on this site. About the podcast however, I think I can give you some advice. From what I've heard from other artists, the idea is to always sign your picture so people can find you easily once the picture is released online. Thing is, signatures can be easily cropped out by ill-intentioned people. Easiest way to deal with that is to add a watermark, but it often makes your art much less appealing... The ideal solution is to find a smart way to blend your signature into your work (so it cannot be removed without some tedious photomanips) so people can still identify the artist AND to keep it discreet at the same time. I don't have any picture to illustrate unfortunately

> 2) Forums : They look very clean and easy to use but regarding lessons, everything is stacked into the same category. Maybe it would be easier to navigate into separated sub-categories : gestures, figure drawing, anatomy, podcasts an so on You can discuss the lesson in the "Discussions" section, right below the lesson video. The forum posts just link to there. Frankly I think they should simply remove the lesson forum (or significant overhaul the UI) and only keep the Discussions section. For now all it does is to confuse people: there are more than 800 posts so it's not really navigable, and there isn't any visual hint implying the forum post and the Discussions section are the same thing. Also the forum seems too plain. There isn't rich text editor. I don't know how to quote someone's post or add hyperlinks.