Cartoons are the most dangerous form of art. You can express a whole lot of things in a single cartoon piece and every other person will take that in a different way. someone thinks that's funny, someone will look with a deep meaning and someone will see what you meant to see them. And cartoons for me also means lively. You can draw a few lines on the page and they'll pop up to life. I guess You cannot do that with another art style.

I have a commitment issue. I have been late in every assignment. Just trying to be more committed. I draw a character based on this reference. I love country life so I wanted to draw a simple farm boy, and his simple living. Hope i did good this time.

I think a lot of people's problem with drawing from imagination is that, in order to get good looking results, you really have to understand your subject well. You need to understand the 3D structure (form) as well as how it moves and distorts. When drawing from observation, you could get away with "copying" the photo without fully understanding why it looks that way. This way you get good results even if you didn't fully understand what you were drawing. But when drawing from imagination, there's nothing to copy, so your drawings will expose all of your shortcomings and the gaps in your knowledge. This is frustrating for a lot of people (including myself), but I think as Stan said, it's an important hurdle to get past. Because you can only improve if you know what your shortcomings are and face them head on. Drawing from observation all the time (especially from photos) allows you to hide those problems away, and I think it really hinders your growth.

I'm new to this but wanted to take the challenge. This is a robot I thought of. he draws "traditional" art all day every day the "traditional" way. His name is TRA-D

I am going to be honest that I did do quick sketches just to get rid off the assignment. And I know it's not the healthy way to learn but i didn't got that much time

In India it's still 16feb so I am not that late so here is my assignment for this week. It was interesting.

Hi again, @Struggler! I recently remembered something that I believe you might like to know about. I wonder if you’ve ever heard about the concept of “iteration”? It’s an idea from the computing sciences, but it’s also commonly used in design as a problem-solving method. Here’s the Oxford Dictionary definition for it: “repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem.” Essentially, here’s how it works in design/drawing: first, we draw a sketch; then, on a new layer (if it’s digital) or on a sheet of tracing paper, with the sketch underneath, we draw a new sketch, not tracing the first one, but using it just as a base and changing whatever we think could be improved in terms of shape, gesture and overall design; then, on top of just the second sketch, on a new layer/sheet, we draw a third one from scratch again, repeating the same process and with the same idea of making adjustments and improvements; and then a fourth one; and a fifth one; and keep doing it, always taking just the latest sketch as the base and improving upon it, and we do it for as many passes as we need until, hopefully, we feel we’ve reached a satisfactory result. As a practical example, I’m attaching here an attempt I made recently as a study. The first sketch was already simplified and had some things I liked about it, but I decided to take it further and try an iteration exercise. I thought to myself: “What is this character, his facial features and his shapes really about?” I figured it was about the elongated face and neck, the bun, the teeth and the pointy nose - so I did two other passes trying to exaggerate these qualities and dim down other features (hair, eyes, beard texture), while also experimenting ways to improve the shapes, the simplification and the style more and more. As another example, philipino artist Nathan Pangilinan (whose work with shape design I admire a lot) recently showed his process for designing an animal illustration in this post on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFpOu9GAJ7G/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= I find it amazing how much change there was just from step 1 to step 3, which is when I think he really started to achieve some interesting shapes. @Court Jones also shows his approach to iteration techniques in his Caricature course, in this lesson called Caricature of a Caricature. On each stage, he exaggerates even more the unique features of the face, and tunes down everything else - and that’s what leads him to such interesting and boldly exaggerated designs. You might notice Court takes each sketch all the way to a pretty developed stage, which might not be necessary though when we’re just on the early stages of a drawing (as you may have noticed in Nathan’s sketches and in mine). Since shape design was something you mentioned you wanted to improve in your work, I thought perhaps you might like to try iteration exercises as a way to develop this skill (in case you've never tried it before). The best results for this exercise happen if we adopt a mindset of being curious about “how far can I take it?” and if we’re willing to take risks and not be caught up on the fear of “making mistakes”. Hope this helps!

Ended up simplifying the laces to a single C or S with a C eyelet. Like the rhythm that can come from those lines. Kept the snail shell hard with straight I lines and let the snail take the organic S and C.

Day 1. A photo from Pinterest

Here's my take on mushroom.. this is so difficult.

I started with level 1, but decided to go ahead and try the level 2 reference as well. I found it especially challenging to lay down tone evenly.

Finally had time to attempt the first pear. Think I need to do more shading squares exercises as I don't feel my shading is very consistent for each tone. But that is just a part of learning after all.

Here's my assignment for simplified portrait. I struggle with structure more than I guess with values. I try to simplify it as much as I could. It's frustrating, confusing and if it comes close to a bit of what I was expecting then I guess some what enjoyable too. Well, it's a process nonetheless and I'll keep going. And all the best to everyone 😊

Hello everyone, I feel like I am an intruder here because I didn't purchase this class, because I am not able to afford it right now. In India this class cost me 11,436 rupees which I don't have. But I do want to build my fundamentals muscles too. So I am following the discussion and you tube videos to get the assignment. And maybe I will not get critiques and hope that I don't get kick out from here😅. So fingers crossed and here is my assignment.🤞

Hi sir, I am sorry for posting on the wrong thread because I had little idea about how the thread discussion works. Actually yes I like to simplify it more and i do want to have great shape design. I love simple yet interesting shape designing but the problem is when I try to make it simple I think that it's not working and I am loosing all the information here, then it started to looking boring and dull and that just doesn't work at all. And whenever I try to keep it simple I just can't stop myself from making it more complicated and I just keep drawing keep drawing it until I ruined it. Maybe I overworked my work because I don't think that looked good enough when I have simplified the drawing, i keep adding the details to make it work.

Hey, @knightdroid! @Jon Neimeister is making a course on Digital Painting Fundamentals here at Proko, I’d suggest checking it out. If you’re not ready to take the paid course yet, you can find some of Jon’s lessons on Proko’s YouTube channel for free: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtG4P3lq8RHHBiU_VqcY_L9T2iFDeCUJH Alternatively, I also really like the “Digital Painting 101” free mini series at http://www.CtrlPaint.com About where to stop the drawing before starting to shade… it depends, there’s no general rule. Some people have a more painterly approach and draw very few lines before starting to add tone (in a way, you could say that they sketch with tones). But other people, such as myself, for example, are more comfortable with lines. Since you have some mileage with drawing, but are a beginner on shading/painting, I’d recommend developing the sketch as much as you can before shading - at least in the beginning. Try not to skip stages of the line drawing, develop it until you feel that’s as far as you’ll go with the lines. You don’t need to ink necessarily, just make sure to have a drawing that’s fully developed in terms of construction and design. For instance, in your “Spider-Man X Venom” drawing here, I’d say the first one (image 4) would definitely be too early to start shading, but the second (image 5) is pretty close - I think I’d just design the forms of Venom’s tongue a little more (which is looking a bit flat), and perhaps add some elements of an environment to complement the composition - and then I’d say it could be ready to shade. Aside from that, @Steve Lenze’s considerations on posing, gesture, perspective and construction certainly apply too! Over time, as you gain more experience with shading and painting, you might start to feel more confident with painting an undeveloped sketch or with the process of sketching with tones rather than with lines - if that happens, you can simply adjust your process to your more advanced preferences. Hope this helps!

Wow I love your artwork! I would start with social media, such as instagram or TikTok (if you can produce videos of your art making process), and say you're open for commission.

Wow.. these are looking good.

Hey! I think there are online places that let you offer your skills for freelance work, such as Fiverr, and Upwork. Those places will charge you a percentage of your earnings though, for the maintenance of the site and as a fee for facilitating your interaction with clients. Have a search and there might be more online in your area. Otherwise, if we're taking it off the web, it never hurts to get to network with artists near you. Look for local art groups to join and ask around there. Let your intentions for employement be known. Selling your art at conventions and local art events is also a way to get your name out and earn some money, maybe even team up with another artist and run a stall together? I think if you build a strong network around your local area, that can really help. They can also notify you when jobs or opportunities come up. Hope that helps :)