I have now been drawing for a year. I've learned from 5 different instructors in different mediums but there are still some basics I feel like I need to tackle. I think as artists we all want to be Kim Jung Gi one day. I have had pictures floating around my head since I was a child and have never been able to put them on paper. Year 1 was nothing but grinding every day and emulating and copying work. Year 2 I need to loosen up. Add some color and start learning to put down my imagination on paper. For the first time ever I started a drawing with no goal in mind. Just throw shape and value at a canvas and see where we end up. I ended up somewhere in space lol. This was the first time I felt like that I might be able to start trying exactly this. It is intimidating and a lot of the time I don't even know where to start. Everything I have done since Jan 1 has been character and world building.

I needed to hear this.

Had to reupload. I tried to draw original characters from my imagination, and the result was very flat to say the least. I used Procreate. They give me Gorillaz vibes for some reason lol. It's a very hard process, drawing from your imagination, and this video reassured me that failure is part of the game.

The last assignment was definitely pretty difficult. I had to think about what kind of character I wanted to draw, their personality, gender, what aspects if their appearance shows their personality, and had to look at references for that. I'm also taking a course on how to draw robots, and there's an exercise on drawing surfaces. I find that when I have trouble thinking of what to add, it's because I'm out of "elements" (mechanical elements) to draw, and that's tied to my "visual library" (I guess mechanical things I remember and know how to draw). So it really helps to look at things to get ideas. The course also taught the idea of drawing from a silhouette. When I was trying to learn drawing mechas on my own, I'd literally try to draw it from the ground up (all the inside pieces first, etc). But having an idea of what the outside looks like, shaping that and then breaking it down further, and then working in the details seems to help a lot. Just some things I've been learning since starting Proko!

I'm struggling on the imagination from but here is my second attempt. @Melanie Scearce

I struggle not only with drawing from imagination but I also struggle with understanding if it is possible. I have aphantasia and it can be very difficult to come up with things from my imagination because I do not have visual imagination. So, hopefully with time I will be able to figure out how I can do that and overcome that obstacle.

I am definitely a level 1 student. PURE BEGINNER hoping to get better and better for Marvel Comic Book Drawing courses. I got so much imagination that I have had for like 17-years that I would LOVE to bring to life on paper with color. That is my main goal. Start at the beginning with this course and build myself up to the top!

At first I tried drawing this character in imagination but ended up cheating because it ended up scratching my brain and felt weird

My attempt:

Oh well.

Struggled, but here it is.

drawing was not so bad painting it was a pain, and shadows i dont know if there are right

Oooh buddy. It's not like a cramp when learning to do distance running. Its liken never having seen a regatta (rowing race) before, being pointed toward a boathouse and being told you have to get the boat in the water, oars in the locks, and go slowly row the race course (while all the pro rowers are sculling on by).

It's funny because I had the opposite path. I never went to an art school, but I had a tremendous love for Manga and wanted to create one since I was little (I am 33y.o. now) so I started making my own characters without knowing anything, and they were all horrible lol It was incredibly frustrating wanting to create something that was on my mind and never feeling like I was able to make it, everything felt bland and weird. It happens all the time, even today, and it makes it very hard to even start drawing. A blank page is one of my biggest fears in a way. However, I have recently thought that if something makes me feeling this frustrated, it's because I care about it, otherwise it would be irrelevant for me. And I do, I care about it so much. So I just want to leave a message to everyone who might be feeling the same: Don't look at that frustration as something negative, that's your love for what's on your mind. Our unsatisfaction is what will make us improve in the long term, and our love is what will keep us on that path.

Once I committed to at least trying to draw this picture from different perspectives I found the mental block went away.

I wouldn't call my self level 2 at all, but this was the most fun assignment yet. The ref was a komodo dragon, It's not a good likeness :D

Creo que la calidad de la linea aun no es muy buena, pero sigo intentando

As someone in my late 30s learning to draw properly for the first time (printmaker), I am SO grateful to have done this lesson now. It helped me break outside of the "box" I was in trying to imprint reality onto the page. I made a psychotic looking crow with a head way too big for its body. It was fantastic, and honestly loosened me up a bit.

I am cracking up thinking about baby proko watching this video and being like… but he always tells me my drawings are great!! But fr fr all this is great advice and food for thought (for everything in life). Adding it to my proko wisdom, next to “don’t be precious with me!”