I would love to see a posable model of the pecs. Where you can move the arms and see how the pecs change with different poses. Is there anything like that out there? If not can you make one proko?

The hardest thing is to be consistent and give time to drawing every day. IT IS REALLY HARD. Many factors are obstacles. Having full time job does not help too. I find myself constantly blaming myself for being lazy and not drawing. But in fact, I am just dead tired every day. So hard to keep balance and dedicate time to drawing. The only trick I found working for me is to make a slot of time just after the breakfast when I get up early. But even that trick does not always work. But sometimes I just do not want to draw in the morning, especially when I had a blast with drawing at evening before. There is some kind of battery of motivation to make art in me and it is very small battery, unfortunately.

Oh, wow, @Anubhav Saini! I’m sorry that your friend’s attitude didn’t match what you wanted… it really sucks. Oddly enough, I’ve been suffering my whole life with something similar: my birthday is on December 31st, and, many times, I’ve had to put up with friends and even some family members not showing up because they’d have other appointments for New Year’s Eve. When I was younger, it was pretty common for me to celebrate on a different date, often several days before or after my actual birthday. On the bright side, I think it’s awesome that you chose to transform your inevitably bad feelings into fuel to make art!

I meant "DM" me. I need no preventative maintenance.

@Dennis Yeary, I think it can be very helpful to engage with other people who also do art, whether it's an online community or a small art group that gets together in person periodically.

You might be trying to master too many skills at the same time, which is what is making you feel like you're making progress in none. The reality is, you ARE making progress. I once heard someone say that when you're learning a new skill and it appears that you've plateaued or regressed, that's just your brain burning the new neural pathways that you've built. If I can suggest taking a new tactic for a little while - maybe work on something small that is really interesting to you (that won't necessarily make you money). Recently, I got some air-dry clay and sculpted a character that was related to my paintings, but also, so far removed from my other artwork, and it was SO MUCH FUN! That joy and excitement in the NEW drove me towards the work I'm making now, and I have at least 6 new painting ideas for my previous collection that was starting to feel stagnant. The long and short of it is - make stuff! Make a LOT of stuff! Once you have a HOARD of stuff, that's when you start curating your collection for others :)

Great talk, and really cool to watch the demo! Thanks, @Court Jones and @Stephen Clark! And the Black Friday ad in the end of the livestream was a lot of fun, haha!

Hey, @Antti Kallinen! I don’t know if you wanted or expected any kind of reply to your post, but I was moved by it and, if you allow me, I’d love to share some thoughts. I can see how you’re frustrated, and I’m sorry that you feel that way. I took a look at your Instagram profile and I think your work is actually pretty good! You’ve had your share of learning anatomy, you do plen-air painting, you’re also creating some original illustrations. You might be more on track than you think. What I get from your words, however, is that you probably want several different goals for your artwork, and these goals may be getting tangled up and clouding your perspective over your own journey. Here are some insights over things you’ve written: . “When will I learn to paint?” - From what I saw on your social media, you already know how to paint. Of course, learning is an endless path, so, if you want to keep learning and improving, or if you want to reach a specific proficiency level with your painting, there’s always room for it - but that doesn’t mean you currently don’t know how to paint. Framing this differently (for example, something like: “I’ve learned some painting and I want to learn more / keep improving”) could help empower you and boost your confidence. . “I can’t do the things I want” - What is it exactly that you want to do? What’s keeping you from actually doing it? What can you do right now to move you at least a bit closer to doing that? These are questions that can help you clarify this sentence into perhaps a more attainable and actionable objective. . “I really don’t know what to paint” - Right after you wrote this, you also wrote “I’d love to do fantasy”, so I actually think you know what to paint. But the practical problem of having to show/sell it online may be getting in the way. . “I’ll never be good enough to do, for example, book covers” - As far as I know, there’s not a minimum amount of “good” required for creating book covers. Illustration is a very diverse field, and it just takes a quick browse at the nearest book store for us to notice that the unaccountable number of artists who create book covers and book illustrations have all sorts of different artistic levels. Here’s one of your pieces which I, personally, can totally picture as a fantasy novel book cover: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs6m6tEthgw/?hl=fi - at least, as far as my concept of “artistic quality” is concerned (although it’s important to highlight that the book illustration industry has other layers of complexity such as editorial demands, marketing, politics etc. Unfortunately, artistic quality is not always decisive for itself). . “I watched [*link*] and felt like all I’ve done before has been a toddler trying to emulate somethings he has no idea of” - Oh, man, comparing yourself with Frank Frazetta can be a trap. In fact, comparing ourselves with anyone other than our own selves can be an ingredient for artistic doom. I intimately know the feeling of: “Wow, look at this person’s work. Mine sucks!” - I know it well enough to be as aware as I possibly can to notice it without letting myself be swept away by it when it shows up. So this is what I’d recommend: remember that each artist has their own journey, and comparing yourself with anyone else (even with Frazetta) is unfair to your own life and accomplishments. If possible, let masters such as Frazetta amaze you and inspire you to do your own best, but try to not hold expectations or put pressure on your shoulders such as “my work SHOULD be like that, otherwise I’m not good”, or “if I can’t draw/paint just like THAT guy, it’s not worth it” etc. etc. As much as possible, value your own individuality. . “I’d love to create art that gives other people enjoyment/peace/emotions that I’ve had” - I get it, and this is actually a good specific goal you can aim for with your artwork: offering an emotional experience to your audience through which you can create connection with them. . “Create something I’m proud of” - Now, this sounds like a different (and slightly more nebulous) objective than the other one above. In order to do something you’re proud of, first, maybe try to understand what would actually make you proud. Is it being featured as the staff of a big name company? Is it getting individually famous? Is it earning money? Is it achieving a specific technical/artistic level? Is it having a social impact? Is it overcoming your own personal obstacles? “Being proud” is just the result of doing something that you consider to be meaningful in your life, so the real point is: what feels meaningful to you? . “Create something […] people will like” - And this is yet another different objective, a pretty tricky one in fact. We know it’s nearly impossible to please literally everyone, so who is “people”? What kind of group or niche exactly do you expect to engage with your work? And what kind of feedback do you expect from these people that could confirm that they actually like what you do: is it verbal compliments? A stronger reach on social media? More job requests? Featuring in art shows? Whatever it is, again, reframing a concern into a specific actionable objective could help. Just be careful not to place your own sense of artistic self-worth exclusively in the approval of others. Keep in mind that all these questions can be hard to think about, so you don't need to have every answer ready now. If you need to, allow yourself enough time to slowly figure things out as you keep working on your art. To sum up, I honestly don’t think this is the end of the road for you. As long as you don’t want it to be. I hope you know that things like age, financial situation and geographic location have nothing to do with being able to create good art. Maybe you are a bit burned out and really just need some rest, some venting, some time and space to let things be. Hope this makes sense to you. Feel free to let me know any thoughts or questions you might have. Stay well!

Those are tricky questions, @Dennis Yeary! My take: the best way to make our art stand out from AI art is really to let our own uniqueness and individuality come through in our work. AI is like a big “mashup collective brain”, but it’s not YOUR brain. In that sense, creating based on your subjective ideas, unexpected insights, personal ways of expression, individual points of view, life history and unique personality is something AI will (probably) never be able to do. Regarding art being a job position or a hobby, I think no one is sure enough yet about the full impact of AI on jobs to answer that question with total clarity. And that doesn’t concern just art, but also any other job position which AI is able to perform: programming, graphic design, copywriting, digital content creation etc. This post shares some insights which I, personally, found to make sense: https://www.selfemployedartist.com/blog/how-to-compete-against-ai-future-proofing-your-art-career-part-2# And I’m also attaching what ChatGPT replied to me when I posed your questions to it. 🙃 Hope you find this helpful somehow. If you happen to have extra thoughts, questions or if you find any other useful information out there, I’d love to know about. Stay well!

I taught eyes are difficult.. until I've tried nose.. any suggestions on where to focus in order to improve?

Hi Liandro! I love the picture and the moment it captures. "I don't care where you drive that tank of yours, but it wont be across this flower, I won't permit it!" :D It's so sweet, and so relevant. The theme touches me. So it's the greens and reds that are challenging for you? If so, very corageous to make this piece with just those colours. And well done. I'm definitely no professional, but with my eyes... I might emphasize the root of the flower with a darker value, or, alternatively, give some highlight to it, just to have the focus of a viewer on what's going on in this scene, why is she stopping a tank? Same with the sky / clouds, some variation with values or some shading could give the picture a more striking atmosphere. I like it that you've chosen to use green on the soldier and red for the girl, since red reads more powerful or, in this picture, authorative, so it's an awesome contrast: a common girl with a stop sign has more power than a soldier sitting in a tank :D. Overall, I think you have here a great colour scheme, wouldn't change a thing if not emphasize with darker values or highlight what you most want to show.

I like your drawing a lot, although I would add some more white highlight areas maybe on the tank. The sky should be lighter than the ground I think too.

I like this idea, it's very cute. As far as color, the only thing I would do is warm up the skin on the soldier. Doing this will make my eye travel from the little girl, which is very warm compared to the background, to the soldier who is also surrounded by the cool green background. Other than that, nice one :)

I feel that my drawing is flat. I guess some of it is due to not using charcoal and thus my darkest dark is not as black. I would love to receive some critical/guiding feedback. Thanks!

Hi everyone, for a while now I have been working on gestures and doing my best to understand the subject to the best of my current abilities. My gestures have primarily been 2 and 1-minute ones, with some occasional 30 secs. If anyone could give me any feedback on these and what I could do to improve them going forward it would be much appreciated. Also, I would like to mention that I mainly have tried to use Michael Hampton's and Proko's gesture methods when doing them.

These are my characters refined, I wanted to go back and make him better because I thought it was a really cute idea to have a finch magician, and a worm assistant. Note, in the scene Cans (the bird) was presenting their act not making fun of Dirt (the worm.) I think that was one of the weaker points in the drawing. To me without the context it looks like Cans is pointing. I think I will continue to use these characters in stories and make them better. The character designs really pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it was a blast!

Hey, @wetumbrella6, welcome to the Proko community! I agree with @Steve Lenze, nice job working on this drawing! I can tell you’ve put some time and care into it. Hope you’ve found the process enjoyable and enriching! I stand by Steve’s recommendations. And since his feedback already covers the most relevant stuff regarding the construction and the composition, I’ll just add a complement specifically regarding the line work. In the drawings you posted, it's noticeable that all the lines have basically the same thickness and value. My suggestion would be that you try to look for ways to create more overall line variety. Some of the possible solutions could be: -- Making the lines on the foreground thicker and “heavier” than the lines on the background (which is something Steve had already suggested and that should help shift not only the sense of depth, as he properly noted, but also the composition and visual appeal of the drawing); -- Creating some thick-to-thin transitions (kind of emulating the feel of an inking brush); -- Making the lines on the background not only thinner, but also lighter (maybe make them gray instead of black). This could exaggerate even more the sense of depth and also create an even clearer read for the separation between foreground and background; -- Using a line weight criteria, such as "light and shadow" or "hierarchy of importance", to decide how to design your lines when inking. Stan talks about this topic in his lesson on How to Draw with Line Weight, which is part of the Drawing Basics course. As a visual feedback for the comments above, I’m attaching a quick "before-and-after" draw-over I made based on a portion of your original drawing. Please keep in mind that my draw-over is not necessarily "the right way", but merely an illustration of a few of the possibilities you could choose to stick with. Of course, any creative/artistic decision you might make should depend on your personal preferences. One more thing! I think it’s pretty cool that you were able to draw this scene without any reference, and if being able to draw without reference is part of a current goal or challenge you may have set for yourself, then it’s great that you’ve dared to attempt it and succeeded. With that said, I’d also highly encourage you to definitely use reference whenever you notice the need! In the case of this artwork, if you allow me the suggestion, I personally believe that some reference could be especially helpful for you to give a little extra touch of development to the environment, textures and props (bricks, wood, lamp, clock…), as well as to the characters' facial expressions - it could help you capture nuances and subtleties on the lips, brows and eyes that are often harder for us to envision just from memory. Hope you find this helpful. Other than that, just keep up the good work!

Hey, @Anubhav Saini! I totally agree with @Steve Lenze, you should certainly celebrate the progress your determination is leading you towards. I'm happy for you! Hope your current results become an incentive for you to keep growing. I also think Steve nicely summed up the same recommendations I'd have regarding feedback. As an additional suggestion, I believe one thing you could try is to apply Steve's feedback in practice for yourself: do some draw-overs on top of your own drawings using simple forms to focus on the underlying structures, as Steve illustrated (but see if you can do it on your own, try not to peek at Steve's drawings, unless you feel really stuck). At this structure stage, as per recommended, try to solve the perspective and the proportions as much as possible. Then, only afterwards, do another pass to tweak the drawings even further including your knowledge of anatomy. One extra design tip that helps visually add structure into our drawings is to combine curves with straight lines. A balanced mix between curves and straights can often make this type of drawing look more visually appealing. I see your drawings have many curves, so it might be a nice thing to inject just a few more straight lines here and there, whether on bony areas like the ribcage and pelvis or on more tensed / defined muscles such as the Trapezius, the Deltoids, the Abs or the Triceps. Of course, it doesn't need to be the exact same quantity of lines for both curves and straights, it just needs to be intuitively enough so that the drawing feels pleasing and solid as a whole. And, of course, this is not a *rule*, it's just something that often seems to work well and that we can use as a *tool* if we want. Hope this helps! :)

2023/10/29. Good afternoon everybody. Here is the revised version of my previous expression study sheet. Thanks to Liandro's very important feedback I was able to expand some versions of the previous faces and push the design to the extremes. Thank you very much @Liandro, your professionalism and generosity are a great stimulus and encouragement for me to always do better!