Mike O'Sullivan
Mike O'Sullivan
Nebraska
40 year old multi medium painter trying to tighten up my skills.
Mike O'Sullivan
Check out redditgetsdrawn. I have gotten a lot from there.
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Mike O'Sullivan
I'm Michael, I'm from Omaha, Nebraska. I've done art for over 20 years, but never made a full career out of it. I'm a chef by day and a dad to two boys, and I do some gallery work and art fairs. I have had my biggest commercial success with live caricature. I'm currently at a place where I have time carved out for my art and enough money to get more education, so I'm throwing myself back in. I've worked in digital, watercolor, ink, marker, colored pencil, acrylics, spray paint and oils, and I try to keep a good balance of mediums in order to learn from each. I've done very little in the way of 3d, but I want to reacquainted myself.
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Mike O'Sullivan
I got the curriculum from Reddit user Radiorunner, posted on here, actually, then used Notion to start adapting it to my needs. Having a place for feedback is important, which is one reason I'm so excited about this site! I've been doing art for a while, so I'm using it to work on my weaknesses, but also take my strengths to higher levels. All the while experimenting to push my artistic development. I think its important to document your own reflections about the work you do too. I'm glad I found a good framework, because I tend to veer into something for way too long, and only do what I like to do. Also, having something laid out makes it so I don't have to stress about the next step each time I finish something. It is amazing how many resources are available. I use Schoolism, Proko, books, Gumroad classes, anything that pushes me further. Hope this helps.
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Mike O'Sullivan
I'm 40 with two boys, 5 and 10, and I share custody of the older one. I've managed to carve out enough space and time to still have a side job doing gallery work and live caricature, and now I'm doing outdoor art fairs. It'd totally possible, though it's hard in those early baby days. Don't lose heart, find inspiration wherever you can, and hopefully you have a supportive coparent. Don't compare yourself to other artists,its your journey!
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Kyle T Webster
Congratulations to Stan and everybody at Proko for creating this wonderful community. I'm Kyle, and I work at Adobe on several projects: helping to build Adobe Fresco, creating educational content for illustrators and artists at Adobe Live, and making custom brushes for the official Adobe brush library. Nice to meet you all.
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Mike O'Sullivan
I'm such a huge fan! Thank you for all you do.
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Mike O'Sullivan
A couple of quick animals breakdowns. This is an area that needs improvement, not so much seeing in 3d, but breaking down animal anatomy.
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Mike O'Sullivan
Here are two sessions I did with the bean. The pictures go newest to oldest. I feel like they get stronger as I go. This exercise really helped with some artwork I'm doing for myself right now. As you can see, I did try and indicate the rest of the gesture in some of these. Let me know where I can improve.
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Mike O'Sullivan
Here's my second round, I think I'm getting closer to the mark. It really it a challenge for me to simplify.
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@willyjohn
I have watched the videos on The Bean a couple of times and have practiced the methods discussed over the past few days. Please let me know of anything that I could do in order to improve. If I were to give some self feedback, it feels like that I am repeating the same thing over and over again. However, I feel like that I just have to look for a more diverse range of poses. I have included dates and numbers of the beans so that they can be commented on individually.
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Mike O'Sullivan
The first piece of advice I would give is to draw through on your ovals lightly, then darken the bean outline. Drawing through will help your draftsmanship. Keep up the good work!
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Mike O'Sullivan
Okay, I'm revisiting Gesture drawing to improve my skill! Would love any feedback. A note on these, they go in reverse order. The latest ones were after I rewatched Stan's videos, and I focused on efficiency. The ref was Croquis Cafe.
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Mike O'Sullivan
My biggest critique is that your lines seem stiff, and that's carrying into your poses. Try and loosen up, remember the pose doesn't have to be perfect, just capture that action! Your figures are reading as solid though, which is a big plus. I just rewatched the Proko gesture videos, and they're a huge help!
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David Gutmann
Hi I wanted to ask if anyone can recommend a course for starting out with watercolor. I also wanted to ask what materials I need. Not so much a specific product but more like wich tipes of brushes I need and wich qualitys the paper has to have.
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Mike O'Sullivan
I would highly recommend James Gurney's courses, especially Watercolor in The Wild or Gouache in The Wild. Both will give you a great start and he shows you which materials you'll need.
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Mike O'Sullivan
This is killer! I am currently trying to create a self teaching curriculum, and needed some sculpting resources both digital and traditional. I haven't done either in a long time, so this will be incredibly helpful.
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Mike O'Sullivan
I've been eagerly awaiting this, and its living up to all expectations. It's filling a void that's existed for a long time, ever since a certain site went to the dogs. Thank you Stan for bringing a community structure and a great resource for artists!
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