I never thought simplifying was my problem, but I caught myself fighting the temptation to DO MORE the entire time on these. Fun exercise.

The most fun part was coming up with variations. I think I'm finally starting to get the warming up aspect of these exercises; I've been keeping my hand so tense and if I consciously ease up it makes all the difference on the page. Now if I could only remember to do that every time...

Welcome to my fruit stall, where I just sell pears. Only pears. I struggle with approaching projects, so I made a conscious effort to keep track of whatever steps I used to make these fine pears. I started with the overall shape and tried to capture the angles of its silhouette. Then I added planar lines to try and define the form which gave me the confidence to go in and divy up the light and dark values. From there it was loose decisions working my way from the halftone out to the darkest shadow and the lightest highlight. After all that was done I actually read the instructions and went back to do a fourth pear that was drawn in only straight lines with five values and sharp edges. I find maintaining sharpness difficult when blending since when I blend it just flattens and unsharpens everything. I'll keep practicing that.

Woho! Have been waiting for this course since beginning of pre-sale. Waiting for supplies but had a small sketchbook from before. Using a charcoal pencil the pages smudges a lot. Any advice on how to handle that? 🥳

Hello! I figured I would start having fun with my supplies by doing a skull study and some gesture drawings where I added some anatomy; still rough with anatomy, but the journey is fun! The tools I use are incredibly cheap save for the inking markers. My mechanical pencil is the regular BIC 0.5 HB, my wood pencil is a Ticonderoga #2, my eraser is the usual pink rectangle (dunno the name), I don't know sketchbook brand, and my inking pens are the SB and 0.3 size Faber-Castell. My sketches are not perfect, but I had a lot of fun! If you have any critiques, let me know! I'm still experimenting a lot.

Just doodling and playing is a great way to break the ice in this class. I mostly use graphite pencils and the ever-reliable Strathmore 400 series Sketchbooks. 2B was my go-to for the longest time, but lately 2B has felt "mushier" and I've been trying to find finer, harder pencils (I'll still use 2B when I want something softer). This was done mostly with 2H, and some Tombow markers and Prismacolor pencils-- which I rarely ever use, but I had them and the course said to play so I tried them out again and fun was had by all. I have a bunch of Pigma Micron pens that I like for lines and inks, various tortillions that I use frequently but don't know any technique with, and that about rounds out my toolbox.

I hope everyone has joined the class discord server created by Mark Karcz. I'll post instructions here again for anyone who missed his post: If anyone is interested in a study group, I can start a discord server were we can follow along with the course as the lessons come out. Comment below and I can shoot you an invite. *Edit* Sorry, not as discord savvy as I thought I was. I'll need you to friend request me, and then I can send you the invite link (has to be friends only). My code: Other Barry#8117

It's awesome that everyone's already on it trying out the projects. Inspired me to give 'em a try early too. Critique away!

Alright, bought the course and am psyched! This will be the first Proko course I can participate in in real-time. My biggest art weakness is a lack of community, so I'm hoping that in addition to better understanding of the fundamentals I can connect with other people at the same stage. If there are any other Michigan artists or people around the Great Lakes/Midwest region that want to band together to hone our craft, expand our skills, and maybe take over the world, send me a message!