Proko Challenge October 2020

CHALLENGE: Zombify the Proko team, 2d or 3d, Traditional or digital. Reference can be found here

Prizes provided by @e.m.gist, and @stanprokopenko

To participate in monthly Proko Challenges follow @prokotv on Instagram

Pro artist and instructor at Watts, Erik Gist, critiques your horrific renderings of the crew. Erik based his winning choices on head structure, anatomy, likeness, and creativity.

The Judge

@e.m.gist is an illustrator, figurative artist, and instructor based in Southern California. He began his art journey in 1996 when he started training at the Watts Atelier with Jeff Watts. In 1998 he got his first professional job as an artist in video games. While working in games, Erik was moving towards his dream of becoming a genre illustrator. In 2005 he had the opportunity to begin his illustration career with work on a game called Hetacomb created by Wizards of the Coast. Since then, Erik has gone on to illustrate for Blizzard Entertainment, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse, and Disney just to name a few.

While expanding his illustration career, he has also been teaching at the Watts Atelier in Encinitas. Erik has become one of the primary teachers at the Atelier, and a master figurative artist in his own right. While teaching at the Atelier, Erik was one of Stan’s primary drawing instructors. Erik has become a well known instructor, and illustrator in the art world and we are excited to have him!

1st Place

Erik Says: “This is definitely my gold, it’s a great image, it’s really strong, lots of really cool stuff going on. Lots of depth lots of layering of figures, good perspective. Just over all really good scale to the figures. Again maybe the atmosphere, and the depth could’ve been pushed a little bit more. Like these middle ground figures could have been pushed back a little bit more. But it’s there, it’s working. Just maybe you’re pulling in your horns a little bit. You can get away with a lot of shadow and mood in a piece like this. Really nicely done, great job.”

Aditya Panchbhai – @artditya_an_illustrator

1st place – 1 hour mentorship with Erik Gist, a custom zombie portrait drawn by Erik, the Proko Figure, Portrait, and Anatomy courses, three Proko model packs and their art featured on the Proko YouTube Channel.

2nd Place

Erik Says: “This is a really cool piece, complex composition, getting all the figures in there, having it all feel unified and not cut out. The softening of the edges around each of the heads to integrate them so things don’t feel too layered and cut out. Stan’s son is looking great there. Great Depth, maybe that hand could’ve been popped forward more. That might’ve been a place where you’d want to push some hard edges along the edge of that hand, pop it right in the foreground. It’s nice to have those soft edges around the silhouette to keep them set into the scene together but that means you can pick one or two areas to really pop into the foreground. But overall really nice image, great texture. It even has the feel of layered paint which is really nice.”

Andrew Gibson – @andrewgibbonsart

2nd place – 1 hour mentorship with Erik Gist, 2 Proko courses of winner’s choice, two Proko model packs, and their art featured on the Proko YouTube Channel.

3rd Place

Erik Says: “This is really nice, really good. Strong use of technique, strong use of texture. The anatomy works really well, the likeness is pretty strong on it even underneath the zombification. I like the asymmetry, I’m always a big fan of asymmetry in zombfication, as is one side has decayed more than the other. Really Strong edge and value control, getting down to the basic fundamentals of drawing it’s really strong in the face and the overall use in values and edges. Really strong piece. Love the colors, the color harmonies are working really well. It’s sort of a subdued complimentary color scheme that works really well with zombies. I use similar color schemes quite a bit. As far as improving it, maybe do a little bit more studying of the structure of the face around the mouth and chin area. And it works as far as a zombie goes, but learning about the specific anatomical structure of the face is going to really help you a lot in sculpting out especially the nose mouth and chin area.”

Alex Ngo – @alexvnart

3rd place – 1 hour mentorship with Erik Gist, 1 Proko course of their choice, 1 Proko model pack, and their art featured on the Proko YouTube Channel