Hi @Matthew Kuester. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. You will now see the videos for download in those lessons.

Hello Marco, I really enjoy your content here and wherever I can access it. I've been a traditional artist and teaching myself PS in the past year. In Lesson 5a you comment how Multiply mode is like working in watercolor. This was a huge epiphany for me in how to relate to when to consider switching to that mode. Modes are still clunky for me to know which to use, when to go up/down in value/color to make it work best, etc. Do you have any other suggestions of layer modes or digital tricks/settings in PS that you feel correlate to traditional techniques/mediums? Relating my traditional mindset to digital could always use pointers. Thank you! Excellent material as always.

Is the color wheel he is using available in Photoshop or is a plug-in or just a photo of a color wheel he is sampling from? I can't seem to find it, but I am a PS novice. The wheel that is available in my version of PS is a triangle inside of a the color circle, not a full wheel.

My first oil teacher taught me to put my palette on wax paper. Between sessions you cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. It thaws in like five or less minutes and ready to keep using. I've done this for months at a time.

Hello and Congrats on making this happen! I'm excited by the possibilities of what Proko 2.0 will bring. I'm a long-time traditional artist (oil, watercolor, pencil/charcoal, etc.) and started teaching myself digital last year. A huge part of the transition to digital is knowing how to use, create, and control brushes. Another is learning how to use the layer options besides "normal." Understanding these two areas seem to me to be critical to taking full advantage of what digital can offer an artist. Have you considered courses that will give some intermediate suggestions on tips and tricks to use these digital areas effectively? Thank you. (And in the small chance this is read, the "u" in my last name is silent... :) )

Hello! I'm Mattias, 45 years old, from Sweden. I went obsessed with art as a kid, went to artschool in the early 90's. Got a job as a portrait painter in the late 90's - but it was not creative and took piece and piece away from my passion. When I quit that job I moved and got into a studio in Stockholm with my wife, but we lost the second hand contract on the place. Slowly I painted less and less. I also have an education and experience as a webdeveloper, and it was an easier way to make money. I still did small, occasional jobs with painting/drawing/illustration and such in my local area, but not very often. In 2017/18 I suddenly got a strong urge to draw and paint again, I'm not sure why (you may call it a midlife crisis ;) ) So I started drawing again, and just recently we got a studio with room for the whole family, and I'm getting back to painting. I've also found the local art school (one block away from where I live) have life drawing sessions. Life is good. Some images of inkwork attached.

Hello there :) my name is Zach and I'm from Australia. So cool to see so many skilled artists in here, really looking forward to getting to know everyone and their work. I think it's invaluable to be able to connect to other artists, to learn from and inspire each other. I love to draw all sorts of subject matter, usually of a more macabre nature. I mostly work traditionally and enjoy working in graphite or ink. I always find myself getting lost in doing little details and gritty textures. In the last few months I've started colouring my work digitally. So I'd love to learn all that I can from some digital artists :) Even though I've been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil, sharing my work has been a recent development (especially to an online audience). It really has been an eye opener for me, how kind and supportive other artists are. I guess we are all in the same boat Here are a few of my pieces :)

Hello! My name is Chris. I’m excited for this too! Looking forward to connecting with other artists!

Hi everyone, I'm Dan, from Australia. Pretty excited about this platform, hopefully able to get into the community and learn a lot here (and get me out of the 'I'll just practice the fundamentals more' rut). I have an obscure subject interest in wasps and other insects, which makes it difficult to learn but also enjoyable. I really like traditional art (probably because I suck at digital art :p), particularly charcoal/pastel, though unfortunately I only recently discovered this wonderful media!

I think this is a great subject to bring up early in the developing community. Here are a couple of points that while touch on many of the other excellent comments here, I wanted to suggest as well: I always use the terms "critique" or "feedback" because I think the use of "criticism" is inherently negative. You can often have a sense of the individual's skill level by the piece they are sharing. I try to gear my feedback to the level of the person's ability to understand and apply to their work. Unless they are clearly an experienced artist I don't go beyond two or three suggestions/issues at a time or it can be overwhelming. If they post more than one piece at a time, grouping clear habits or issues together can be very helpful (e.g. tend to use to big a value range, need to look at contrast control, perspective is off, etc...). Keep it professional, helpful, and succulent. Think about it as if you were giving feedback to your boss, not an internet rando. If you are aware of a resource that could help the person, such as a book, artist, YouTube/Skillshare channel, point them to it. And something that I think can easily be forgotten is to give positive feedback. It's not just to make the person feel good, but knowing what you was done well is of equal value. We can forget to include this and I like to start and end a critique with positive feedback.

This is a good idea, and decided to throw myself into the ring. Hello all! I'm very new to digital art, competent in Photoshop and teaching myself how to use it for art. Especially learning and getting control over brushes and how to use them effectively, and using layer modes well. Below are a couple samples of my digital work. The armor is a study (from a photo that is not mine) that I used to practice the textures of different material correct. The other is a typical D&D/high-fantasy style setting where I challenged myself on many fronts, such as a challenging lighting scheme and tried with very dark values. I feel good about it, but there's definite room for improvement. Suggestions and comments are welcome. I like semi-real to realistic in my personal style, and lots of subject matter like figure, environment, and animals. Looking to help people and get some feedback myself.

Hello Gabriel,   Your pieces caught my attention and I can see that you’re pushing yourself and I like what you’re going for here.   Dinosaur – It blends perfectly to the mountain background and you lose the focus. A lower perspective or smaller mountains would really help. Seeing the silhouette of the T-Rex against the sky would really pop and hold full attention. The dark rock in the lower left fights everything else for attention since it’s the darkest thing on the image. Very well rendered.   Moon Shrine – Great idea here. The moon would have more reflection in the water than you’re showing here, and I think it would be creating more rim lighting. This would also let you make some areas pop more by letting you highlight them.   Horse – another cool idea but I think the composition could use some adjusting. The huge block of dark keeps pulling the attention to the corner, and the viewer has to fight to notice the horse and other details. I would suggest losing the dark rock entirely and move the horse and lake closer to the center. Darken the kneeling figure and some of the details against the bright water to direct the viewer where they need to be.   Kneeling with Lantern – Another cool idea. But I don’t think there’s enough cast light from the lantern affecting the area around it. Some cool patterns on the ground and some up-lighting on the figure’s face could add some even more interesting mood to this piece. I can’t tell if the sword point is kind of in line with a creature or something in the background of the tree root. If it is it needs more detailing to make it pop, otherwise it needs to be more subdued because the shape draws attention, but the viewer can’t quite tell what it is.   Stag – I really like this idea, and I don’t think the positioning is too bad. But with the head down and the values close matching the lights of the grass and the darks of the background, the stag eats lost a little. The horns also kind of match to a tree and it takes a bit to sort out what’s going on here. If the stag’s head was raised it would pop much better off the dark trees.   Serpents – I can see what you’re going for here and think it in general good shape with perspective and composition. The sky is really great. I think the place where it’s falling down is in the scales. The human mind is a stickler for analyzing patterns and it’s not something you can make mistakes on perspective and shape. The back left really looks good. The middle one needs some adjustment in the lower half of the red scales, and it and the right one need some cleanup in the green patterns. But there’s a really good idea here and it flows very well.   Overall I would suggest that you think about contrast control in your values. Use high contrast to make things pop off each other, and be a little more sparing with the dark. The eye goes to high contrast and high value locations in a piece. This works hand-in-hand with composition as well, which just takes practice.   But you have some good rendering skills and some creative ideas. Keep refining and pushing. These are really good starting points that could become something great.