Proko - Project - Get Your Tools and Start Playing

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Project - Get Your Tools and Start Playing

by Stan Prokopenko in Drawing Basics

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Drawing BasicsFull course (177 lessons)

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About instructor

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.

assignments 232 submissions

My pear may be a bit wonky as I have a tendency to freehand everything, but thought I'd go for it and give the pear a try. :). It's definitely not as easy as one would think. sheesh. Spent about 1 1/2 hours and thought I'd quit before I over did it. Maybe I didn't go far enough. P.S. Not sure why it's saying "Asked for Help" Obviously I'm hitting the wrong button...sorry. :(

LESSON NOTES

Alright guys, so before we can do anything, you’ll need to get some tools. Like I said before, the minimum requirement here is paper and a pencil, with an eraser on it. A sketchbook is great but if you’re on a budget, get a giant stack of printer paper. It’s very cheap.

An option that you youngins might be drawn to is digital. If you want to do the whole thing digitally, I’m fine with that. Whether it’s Procreate on an iPad, or Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. If that’s what you want to do, go get your stuff and get it setup.

If you want to go deeper in tool exploration of traditional mediums, below is an extensive shopping list. All of these are optional. You can get whatever looks fun to you, or all of it if you’re feeling spicy! If you want the full lessons where I'll go into much more detail about these tools, get the premium Drawing Basics Course.

SHOPPING LIST

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project-get-your-tools-and-start-playing.mp4

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project-get-your-tools-and-start-playing-transcript-english.txt

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project-get-your-tools-and-start-playing-transcript-spanish.txt

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project-get-your-tools-and-start-playing-captions-english.srt

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project-get-your-tools-and-start-playing-captions-spanish.srt

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ASSIGNMENTS

Your assignment is to get your tools. Once you have your stuff, start doodling. Make random marks on the page. If that gets boring, find something nearby and draw that. Or doodle things from your imagination. Just start drawing. Obviously, you have very little information right now to make these drawings look good, but we’ll get there. Right now a big wall that we need to start climbing over is the awkward feeling of not having control of the pencil. The way to get over that is mileage. Draw a lot!

Use the tip to draw thin lines. Can you control how light and dark the line is? Does the pencil feel different when it's freshly sharpened vs after you’ve used it for a few minutes? Use the side to draw thick lines and shade large areas. Can you make a gradation from dark to light? Is the texture of the paper showing too much? Or do you kinda like that? Try your eraser. Shade an area and erase it. Make a darker area and try erasing that. What’s the limit of your eraser? Start to play and get a feel for your tools.

If you make anything you'd like to share with your classmates, post it below. Or if you have questions about your tools, ask the community here. There are too many of you for me to help individually, so please help each other when you can :)

@elizaqp

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Hola a todos! Estoy emocionada por el curso, aquí comparto algunos dibujos que realicé con lápices grafito.

@vbismarck

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I’ve mostly been painting in oil and gouache last half a year, but realised I want to improve my drawing for better painting. Here below is a value study for one painting i want to do. started with a pencil sketch, then blocked values with black and grey markers. Added some warm/cool tones in the last stage

Lilah Rak

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11d

Back to basics! I graduated art school back in 2023, but due to personal circumstances I was unable to absorb the education that I was provided. I look forward to completing this course while I work on the preliminary work on my first comic. (Basic Ticonderoga Pencil and smudgy as heck eraser. Will be using my better supplies once I can find them lol)

Lilah Rak

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10d

Whoops didn't mean to ask for help. Unsure how to change the flair. Oh well.

Robin

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12d

I did the drawingabox lessons a few years ago, but never completed it. I have both a physical sketch pad with various pencil grades, and a Wacom drawing tablet (screenless) that I use with Krita. The drawing tablet causes me frustration due to the disconnect between my hand and eyes. While Stan did say in the video that digital art can be used, can someone whose been through the course tell me if I should try using the tablet or just use physical drawing to learn concepts and fundamentals, and work on hand-eye-tablet coordination separately? The generic advise of "do whatever you want" isn't helpful since all I want is the most effective learning method, I can make either work.

Andrew Doroshkov

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2mo

Despite choosing the path of drawing on the iPad, I still followed the advice of this lesson and did a bit of sketching, enjoying the process.

kitsune546

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2mo

So after about a week of putting it off I finally got to start the classes and so far I got to say its been helpful even so short a time in. I think I finally understand the importance of thumbnails just by doing a little doodling. I look forward to the rest it will be nice having structure to follow so I can learn easier.

@azormx

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3mo

Does anyone know which pencil case he's using? I'm trying to find a similar case that doesn't include the art supplies because I already have my pens and pencils

Melanie Scearce

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3mo

The one in the thumbnail is Speedball brand. The leather one in the video is a set from Amazon that includes the pencils, refils, etc. The brand is Nicpro.

The Wonkee

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4mo

First day of Day of D.I.Y Art School! :) It was nice to take a step back and play around with the kind of marks that these tools can make. Cant wait for tomorrows lesson!

Melanie Scearce

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4mo

Excited to see your upcoming projects! :)

@masonicpleb

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4mo

Hey, been putting this course off for longer than I'd like to admit, but I'm finally getting around to it. Been sketching from the imagination lately so I'm hoping the course can help me better flesh things out.

Jhamb

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5mo

Hey all, getting back into drawing. Here to build a solid foundation. Cheers.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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5mo

Good luck! Have fun!

@zephyroski

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5mo

I've been drawing pretty much my whole life, and I have a bit of experience, but I was never really taught any real knowledge, so I'm excited for this. I'm also mainly a digital artist, so I'm also going to try to do every project both digitally and traditionally (twice the practice!)

Noemie

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5mo

I didn't draw for years. Excited to start again with a strong foundation!

Melanie Scearce

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5mo

Welcome, good luck with the course!

Chirantan Talukdar

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5mo

What do you think, guys?

@dariascott

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6mo

Hi! I’m so excited to be a part of this community now and I’m really looking forward to this course! I like to draw in my free time, so I’m not exactly a beginner, but I’d like to sharpen my skills and get more confident when drawing 🙂

Chirantan Talukdar

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5mo

Hey, can I see your drawings?

@chel5ea

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7mo

The link for your recommended electric sharpener does not work. Can you please fix/update this?

Kzip

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7mo

Oh my gosh, already overwhelmed. That probably doesn't bode well. Not sure I have the right mind or mindset for this, but going to gather some materials and try.

@mrMeinFS

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6mo

#2 pencil, pencil sharpener, copy paper, eraser <—— this is all you need to get started. A drawing sketchbook will be nice to have.

He Li

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7mo

Jsut starting out my journey to be an artist. My goal is to be able to draw or paint realistic animals with traditional media, like colored pencils or watercolor and to sculpt them in 3d software. I'm 28, never have drawn anything in my life before, sometimes I feel I'm too old to do art comparing to those young artists who have already done great pieces, but anyway, I'm doing it, got all my gears set up and taking this awesome course from Proko. I tested my pencils in printer paper pad and tried to draw an apple on my working desk in my drawing pad, my first drawing ever in my life.

Melanie Scearce

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7mo

Happy you're here! Good luck with the course :)

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8mo

Started learning here in the middle of last year but I allowed myself to get complacent. Finally attempting to get out of my comfort zone and take my skills higher.

Grant

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8mo

First time post. Been drawing for about two years and I figured it was about time I take advantage of Proko. Did some warmups with materials on hand. The triangle at the bottom is referenced from an “Jump All but One” game from Cracker Barrel. Excited to see where the course takes me!

Melanie Scearce

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8mo

Good luck with the course :)

Axel Gyllenstierna

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8mo

Welcome!

Nate Ferguson

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8mo

I've been dabbling through several different Proko courses and sketching when I can, but not really posting anything or engaging with others. I've decided to work this course from the beginning and post my work from each assignment and the speak more with the Proko community as a whole. I'm very excited about taking this course from the top and I'm all set up with the tools of the trade, so let the fun and games begin!

Melanie Scearce

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8mo

Excited to see your work!

Stan Prokopenko

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