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Kristian Nee
Kristian Nee
San Diego, CA
I draw, live in a van and talk to people
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Johannes Schiehsl
Just starting with the course of @Michael Hampton and I am super hyped. But I started to notice that some videos seem to be out of order (Exercises/Assignments) and Part5-Landmarks plays Part 4 again? Maybe sb from the Proko-Team can assist?
Kristian Nee
The download is working for part 5 for the correct lesson They're updating the link for streaming right now.
Kristian Nee
Hey! I made a little lesson on gesture drawing! If you want a free critique post your drawing here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLMijGT51Nw
@ale_
1yr
Hello, it's probably too late to this but I saw your video and the latest video on Proko's channel today, I usually do gestures from photo references to practice all the time but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or how I could improve them (I'll attach some of the last practices I did) I also saw in your video that we usually practice these concepts without applying them to an illustration and I'm afraid I'm missing out on that, how could I apply these concepts to an illustration? Or what other things should I practice to be able to generate finished illustrations? Thanks for the time :)
@vital_ash
2yr
I hope this isn’t too late! I’ve been doing gestures to improve my ability to capture ideas and design forms lately. From your lesson, I took away the idea that I can utilize gesture in a graphic way to design the 2d shapes my forms fall into :) I’ve got a lot to learn, I was wondering what you may think I could tackle to improve my ability to invent figures from imagination. In the attached picture, all figures were done from imagination except the ones with reference photos attached — I’ve done way more figures from reference than from imagination in the past so I’ve had a bit of an imagination-spree lately, heh. Thanks :)
Kristian Nee
Hey Bill! Great job on these, these are coming along. You're getting a hang of the concepts that Ahmed is teaching. What I'd say is a few things. Your edges, values, overall shapes, and drawing could use some work. To start with #5 30 minutes, the silhouettes of the shapes don't quite feel like "fruit". It feels more like a 2d shape right now, that resembles fruit. What you can do is make the drawing a bit more accurate, as well as being more intentional with your overlaps. The second thing I'd say is that your colors could be more saturated / varied and your values could go a bit wider. I'd recommend looking at David Cheifetz's paintings linked below. In yours, the shapes and colors are almost there but there's a lack of variety and subtle in yours that makes it way less convincing. Looking at David's he has a lot of texture, and a a wide variety of colors while also having clear definite shapes. To fix this in yours, I'd say is watch @Morgan Weistling's video How to Draw Like a Painter. In it he talks about the importance of focusing on your drawing before anything else. Once you have a solid drawing, the "painting" side of it takes care of itself.
Bill Burroughs
Thanks for the response Kristian. After taking a break for a couple of days, looking back on them they don’t have that 1 2 3 read that Ahmed is talking about. They also feel very flat and washed out, like they lost form from the wireframe. I’m going to work on repainting some of them to see how to improve the form and vibrancy. Thank you.
Kristian Nee
Hey Alfio! The first thing I'd say is don't be so hard on yourself! This is a good painting, and it definitely is a thing to be proud of. There are some really great things going on in this The thing I'd say is to organize your values more simply. Right now your values are all over the place. The darkest parts of the face on the referencer art the eyes, eyebrows, nose, and lips. Right now the lips are the darkest part and the nose / eye lids / eye brows are all the same mid value. Something you might want to do is choose a reference with a wider value range. The one you chose is good for poppy dramatic lighting, but the dark values make some of the shapes hard to interpret. I posterized the reference in photoshop in three different stages. The 1 value, 2 value mid tones, and multiple value for different tones. As you can see, the shadow under the nose, eyes and lips are always pretty dark. I think without those dark values it's hard to make the face read.
Alfio Parisi
Now that you pointed it out it is pretty clear. Got to make sure the parts relate properly to one another in their values. Thank you.
Kristian Nee
Hey Matt! This is awesome! A couple things I might say is it feels as if all of the shapes don't match up / relate to the things they're connected to, and the silhouette could be a little stronger. Using the left leg as an example, it feels like the knee cap should be facing further away from us. In terms of silhouette, when you black it out it his left arm is sort of lost. I'd recommend doing something with it to solidify in fact that it is an arm. In the draw over below I raised it up. Excuse the crudeness lol, did it with a mouse
Allan Alexandre Winkler
Kristian Nee
Great job on these!
Bryce Kho
Bryce Khoadded a new lesson
2yr
Kristian Nee
Hey Matt! Good job on these, you're right to stay away from detailing at this stage. A couple things, though the gesture is getting there you're losing a lot of the energy of the poses. What I suspect is happening is that you're not drawing as much with your arm as you should be. With these sorts of drawings, feel free to draw past where you think the shapes should end. These ones that you've done have very abrupt ends which do stop the figures displaying their action. See the example below for what I'm talking about:
matt barton
Hey Kristian Thanks for the feedback i shall keep this in mind on the next go around
Kristian Nee
Hey! Just thought I'd throw my two-cents in. I struggled a lot deciding what type of job as an artist I wanted to do. I tried out environment art, modeling, fine art, concept art, ect... Even beyond art jobs I tried out programming, real estate, various business jobs. I tried a bunch of different things. The answer that I have settled on is that there isn't an art job out there that is going to be the thing that makes your life finished. At the end of the day it's still a job. What I would recommend to anyone wanting to get into the art industry is to try out a bunch of different things and see what you enjoy the most. No matter what you end up doing, you're going to have to be spending 95% of your time in front of a computer doing that thing. If you end up not liking it, I believe that 1. you won't want to do it for long, and 2. the lack of interest in the subject will make you less likely to be successful at it. In terms of how to enter, there are a bunch of different ways and it's different for everyone. Some people get jobs by showing their portfolios to art directors at conventions, some people get approached on Twitter because one of their posts blows up, some people apply directly to their dream job and get it right away, some people grind for years while working at a coffee shop to get the skills to be able to get the job. The list goes on and on. I think by just following the path of trying things out you're going to narrow down what you like, and as a result you will find entry points that you are willing to do. Hope this helps!
@bleng
2yr
Thanks you mr. Nee
Kristian Nee
Hey! Great job on these! You're getting the hang of it! The first thing I'd say is that though these drawings are accurate, and structurally sound, they don't flow together. The individual shapes don't feel like a cohesive whole and as a result, all of them feel disjointed. I did a draw over below illustrating what I'm talking about. What I'd recommend is review Stan's videos, How to Draw Gesture and Steve Huston's videos on how gesture relates to structure. You're on the right track and keep up the good work!
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