Heya, my name's Zenith, nice to meet ya! I love the way this site looks already and I'm excited for what the future holds for it. Let's drop some of our art down in the replies and a little message introducing yourself if you want. Here are some of mine:

Seeking feedback is necessary for artistic growth, but it is also possibly the hardest thing to find reliably. Good teachers and excellent peers can lead you on the path to having a thorough understanding of your craft. Being a helpful teacher yourself is another acquired skill-set. How do you know when you have helpful advice, or just a personal preference? It’s worthwhile to make the effort to be a helpful peer to your fellow artists. You’ll make good connections, broaden your appreciation for different art and ideas, and strengthen your understanding of art concepts by verbalizing them to others. === HOW DO I GIVE A GOOD CRITIQUE? === A good critique tries to consider the artist and their goals. Give context for your opinions, and try to be objective about what is technical vs. your own personal tastes and biases. Ask artists what they want to improve on, and be curious about their interests. Try to frame things positively, and push people to have hope and want to work hard. “I like this pose, but the shoulder is looking dislocated. You might need to move it forward to make it feel more natural, like in this reference.” “There’s a ton of detail going on here, but it can be better to have a few places of lower detail to balance out the composition, here’s an example.” “What sort of art do you admire? I feel like you are aiming for this style, but knowing more about your goals might help us give advice.” === WHAT ARE EXAMPLES OF BAD CRITIQUES? === Bad advice does not consider the person receiving it. Critiques shouldn’t be designed to crush someone's spirit or make them feel hopeless. If something just isn’t your thing, it may be better to let people comment who are more experienced and interested in that area of art. Even if someone is picking up concepts slowly or getting frustrated, it’s not an open invitation to treat them poorly. “There is nothing I can say to you other than read lots of Loomis books.” “Stop drawing anime.” “Fan art is unoriginal.” “This style is a fad that will go away, you should just do something else.” “You just need to try harder.” “You’re too much of an amateur for me to even start critiquing” === HOW DO I GET USEFUL FEEDBACK ON MY WORK? === Help us cater to your artistic needs and goals. When posting work, consider including this information for context: - Tell us what your objectives where with the piece you want critiques. - Share anything you were struggling with while you were working on it. - Tell us what your goals are as an artist. Are you a hobbyist learning landscapes for fun? Putting together a portfolio to get into art school? A professional refining your skills in a certain area? - How long have you been practicing this form of art? - Who are some artists you admire who's style you strive to have in your own work? === HOW SHOULD I RESPOND TO CRITICISM? === There are a lot of ways you can respond. Generally, it is polite to show that you appreciate that someone took the time to give you feedback on your work. It’s important to keep in mind that critiques on your work aren’t personal attacks. Feedback is meant to help you see things from a different point of view. An artist might be trying to guide you away from mistakes they feel they made in the past. Arguing with the person critiquing you won’t be productive. It is their opinion based on their knowledge (or lack thereof). Think of them as simply opinions intended to help you out. You don’t have to accept every critique that comes your way, especially if the critique is subjective rather than objective. With time and experience you’ll have a better understanding of where you want to go with your work. Try to keep an open mind, but also have confidence to shed advice that doesn’t serve you. If someone is being hostile and rude or is actively trying to discourage you, report it. === KEEPING YOUR EGO IN BALANCE? === Egos come with being an artist. It is just a fact. If you didn't feel good about your work and didn't enjoy creating it, why would you do it? The sense of accomplishment is a great feeling, and you SHOULD feel good about the hard work you do. In communities, it’s easy for egos to get a little out of control. When a bunch of artists in a room, each with their own opinion of what is good art and what isn't is always bound to lead to a bit of head butting. This is a community that is meant to be friendly and helpful. Be proud of yourself, be proud of the work you do, but keep it in check. Be respectful to your fellow artists who are different from you. As much as possible, be open to criticism from people of various skill levels. Whether you choose to use them or not is up to you, but be open to the fact that they're going to happen. If you accept them with courtesy and grace, and maybe try to learn a bit from them and open your mind, you will help make this a strong community. If you choose to disregard everyone who gives you advice because you consider yourself better than everyone here, then this is not the community for you. Finally, people who post rude, off point or otherwise useless comments posed as criticism will be penalized by the mods. If you see posts such as this, use the "Report" feature to get the attention of the moderators. === WAIT, WHAT IF I THINK I SUCK? === Everyone has to start somewhere! Art takes hard work, and it doesn’t help to get down on yourself. Being humble is fine, but remember that having a little confidence is sometimes needed for motivation. Believe that you are worthy of kindness and that your art has value, even if it's just to you. Find enjoyment in learning and studying, it’ll guide you through the times when you are getting down on yourself. Just remember, begging (or demanding) praise, attention, or sympathy won’t generally go over well with your peers. Wanting to work hard is what gets you support. Embrace your work ethic and show effort whenever you can.

Hi! Sometimes life throws you a serious curveball. How do you all stay in art while bad stuff happens? I find it really difficult to output when I'm sad, while some manage to use art as output when it's all overflowing. Tips and discussions on this topic appreciated.

Like the topic says, i just dont know if its worth continuing this. I just dont want to keep making a fool of myself and just dud after dud. my skills are just awful after 2,8 years of this and i just feel like my passion is just dead. I try to get help when i feel like i fe'd upp but most of the time i either get rude short comments or nothing for days. And before you say "well all you seem to draw is anime women with large chests, so ofc no one wants to help you" or "all you draw is women" I will defend myself and say just take one look at instagram / twitter / pintrest / art discords / youtube art and MANY more. If you have a problem with me drawing this stuff you should have a problem with all of them. And i like drawing stuff like this so i will not shy away from what i like to draw. I have SOO many more drawings that i have left unfinished because i feel like whats the point? no one likes anything i draw anyway. If it makes u uncomfortable then ignore this post. I just want someone to tell me that is worth it to keep going. cus atm it feels pointless. No one ever likes my drawings or posts. I am not doing this to be liked by others but it feels like i am wasting my time with something that people just dont like or just think is bad. Tbh i would prefer it if people said i suck over nothing. Being ignored all the time is even worse. Thx to anyone that can tell me what i am doing wrong or if i am just plain bad at this and i should just quit.

Hey there! I’m a 21‑year‑old artist with about a year of drawing experience. I’m looking to gather a small, focused group of artists who are eager to improve their fundamentals together. What I’m after Skill level: Participants should be around my level or higher (beginner‑only folks won’t get much out of this). Community size: A tight‑knit Discord server—just a handful of active members, not a sprawling crowd. Goal: Share work, give constructive critiques, and push each other toward stronger fundamentals. If this sounds like a fit, DM me with a few samples of your current work so I can see your level. Thanks to the Proko team for building such a great community! (English isn't my first language)

Hey all! Wanted to share my latest drawing. I'm open to feedback and welcome comments. A small local gallery just opened in my town and this is on display along with a couple other snow leopard drawings I did several years ago. I'm working on a series of drawings of local landmarks around town for the gallery, as well. I'm excited there's a new spot supporting local artists and helping guys like me attempt a start at moving art beyond "just a hobby".

Yet another topic about AI… 🫣 It’s been about a year since I started using Glaze and Nightshade on my artwork images before posting them online, and I was assuming that this would keep me somewhat safe from AI unethical appropriation and scraping. For you guys who aren’t familiar: Glaze and Nightshade are softwares currently developed by researchers at the University of Chicago in order to protect copyright and safeguard artists from invasive AI tools. Glaze, specifically, promises to impair style mimicry, and Nightshade promises to “deceive” AI models so that these models won’t be able to “read” the protected images. Then, I thought I’d run a few quick tests. TEST 1 - I applied Glaze (at its default level) to image number 1 attached here (sketch of a lady with cats), uploaded it to ChatGPT and asked it to generate an image of the Mona Lisa in the same style. Theoretically, it shouldn’t be able to do it, since Glaze is meant to prevent style mimicry. But take a look at image number 2 and tell me: do you think Glaze’s protection actually worked in this case? TEST 2 - I apele Nightshade (at its default level) to image number 3 (sketch of a guy in glasses with a backpack, running, with a thought bubble where’s writtn “Where’s the bus?”), the I uploaded it to ChatGPT as asked it to describe in words what was that image. It shouldn’t be able to do it as well, since Nightshade’s promise was to “poison” the image so that it would be “unreadable” to the AI tool. Yet, image 4 is what ChatGPT gave to me as an answer (since the text is in Portuguese, here’s a general translation: “The image is a cartoon-style drawing made with loose pen strokes. It shows a seemingly young person wearing large glasses running with a backpack on his back. The character appears to be in a hurry, perhaps trying to catch public transport. There is a speech bubble with the phrase in Portuguese: "Where's the bus?" This indicates that he is looking for or waiting for a bus that has not yet arrived. The style of the drawing is expressive and humorous, suggesting an everyday scene with a comic twist. There is also a small signature in the lower right corner, with the letter "B". Would you like me to apply any modifications or create something based on this image?” So I wondered if Nightshade worked only on my signature (which is “LI”, not “B”), since that’s the only part which the AI wasn’t accurate about… Would a higher level of Glaze/Nightshade protection perhaps work more efficiently? (I hope I'll be able to test these higher levels in the future, although I couldn't up to now because applying the standard level of Glaze and Nightshade to a single image costs me several hours, literally… I wonder if my PC is too slow.) I truly don't mean my words to be a criticism to the work of the brave team of researchers at the University of Chicago who, I believe, are doing the best they can with Glaze and Nightshade. I honestly and deeply appreciate their endeavour. It's just that, after all this, I have doubts and wonderings: - Is any artwork ever really “safe” online nowadays? - As artists, is it efficient or even worth the effort to try to “safeguard” ourselves against AI through such strategies? Assuming that the problem is not the tool, but how people use it, is it too naive to trust that it’s possible to raise ethical awareness for people not to use AI maliciously in the first place, or at least to trust that those who do will face effective legal consequences? - Even if it was possible to completely avoid AI, if AI is where the future of overall digital information is headed, wouldn’t the attempt to “protect” ourselves against it backfire? In other words, by trying to keep our artworks out of AI databases (if this is even possible by now), would we be excluding ourselves from the future of digital memory/history? Among all this, I even believe that art and copyright are just a fraction of the problem - deepfakes, data manipulation, social control, political surveillance, these are much more complex issues also implicated in the "bad side of AI". Still, it’s somehow all connected, isn’t it? I know this is a polemic and even difficult matter for many of us. And I know that answers or solutions are complicated. Anyway, I’d love to hear other thoughts about this. Stay well, y'all! 🤍

I tried attempting this girls portrait but she ended up looking the wrong way and the face got distorted along the way

Hello everyone there is thing which troubles me in art is that while making comics , illustration or any art do we always have to make the expression of the face super exaggerated in every story scenario does it always have to be super exaggerated all the time it is so headaching to draw every facial expression of the face super exaggerated all the time *Also in the body also does it always all the time have to be like super exaggerated gesture everytime in every scenario and is it really necessary to show characters always in the exaggerated pose Can't we make the expression of the face and the gesture of the body simple sometimes not exaggerated and show it simply Because of this reason art feels so stressful to me and I want this bullshit to go away so please help me please!!!

Hello everyone today I want to share something that is really bothering me is that all these years I have mostly focussed on drawing from imagination and I had banged my head a lot on it and it really caused me a lot of mental strain and a lot of stresss on my head and it sucks and my art suffers because of this a lot I don't want to draw from imagination it so headaching it sucks *Do we have memorise everything in our surrounding to be able to draw from imagination *Do we need get the exact image that we have on our head on to the paper These things really adds a lot of stress on my head and I wanna be free from it life also gets stressed because of it because I feel like I have to memorise everything in our surrounding every road every tree every house I gotta memorise them all and it gets so overwhelming on my mind it sucks and the worse part i gotta get the exact image on my head to paper which I never able to get and it goes my morale down and I feel really bad and it suckssss!!!!!!

Hello everyone today's my birthday

i feel like my line weight need improvement and I feel like learning to ink will fixed these drawings. How do go about doing that?

I have recently started learning how to write stories as I want to get better at writting so please read it and tell me how was it good or shit please. As I was walking through the squeaking floor felt like someone placed a rough sawdust on the floor and as walking the attic the it was full of cardboard boxes waiting to unleash the devil inside it with ray of sunlight dashing through it with light illuminating the dust  and the room gets darker and darker as I walked through it with squeaking of the floor like rats walking by lhoochuk khuchuuck and the darkness lurking around and then suddenly a calm breeze entered and my leg slightly moved back and amplified the creeking sound and the ropes their got entangled in the legs and then boom i had fallen down and then from corner of the walls a veil of shadow got moving swiftly like strong breeze and then phack phack phack phack it came running towards me and I saw it my eyes were swollen with veins all over the sclera and tears flowing by like rain I got terrified af and then the creature came running and running and somehow I managed to get up and I took steps back and ran ran till my lungs blow out and the creature came running running whilst the darkness hugged all over the room and he was chasing me and I was running from him and then the whole room was like a scary marathon and after while I fall again by the pothole and then the behemoth came towards me and caught me the behemoth was very gooiy like a slime the skin like a elephant with a mixture of sawdust with a liquid spilled all over it and the eyes like bamm bamm big like a big stadium lights splashed open with a red red light coming through it the arms and full body covered with blood ready to engulf me inside him and then suddenly he picked me up and tossed me up in airrr and I screammm aaahhhhhh ahhhhhhh somebody save me save me hail marryyyyyyy god save meeee and then got inside his mouth and limbs in one corner of rooom and other limb in other corner of the room and my blood spilled like a splash and then my chapter was over.

my art skills is improving but I was wondering how to combat ai and protect my art so I don't lose it to Disney or some other company.

Hello everyone there is some thing which is troubling me about art is when expressing ones emotion is it mandatory that we only express it through art can't we talk to our friends and family about it do we only have to release our emotion through art only i always hold my emotions in my mind and think to only release via art and not talk with our friends and family and release emotions I had always had this stress on my mind and these things gives me a lot of headache and it sucks I hate it and I can't take it art feels a lot stressful because of it and there is a lot of stress of emotions because this shit it sucks

one of my goal is create animation and be able to do each step of the process. so what courses do I need and what order to do them.

I think I am getting their but could use some guidance on what I should go over