Hello Dear Reader!

Since this is my first post here, I wanted to start by introducing myself and my art. I’m Jess, and I’m currently an illustration major who also happens to enjoy writing (as you probably guessed).

As someone who loves learning and improving my skills, I always try to observe and learn from other artists. Often the ones with professional experience. And with the benefit of being in a time of social media and endless content, It’s easy to get advice from them. I want to share some of the great tips I have learned from some of these artists and share here. If you are trying to learn new ways to improve your (already excellent) art, then I hope you will enjoy the series of Art Advice From Pros that I will be posting! Many will be artists who already post their art and knowledge on social media; their links will be at the end of each blog post if you are interested in checking out their content.

Since this article serves as an introductory blog post for the series of advice from the Pros that I will be writing about throughout this summer break, I would like to start by giving out a quick tip before diving into lessons from another great artist. This small technique was helpful for me when I was first starting out in art.

Looser Sketches

My line work was one of the few things I struggled with early when practicing my art skills. I had tense and heavy brush strokes. If that is your preferred line quality, that is great for you, and by no means do I say it is bad. However, I personally found it restricting me from improving and upgrading my overall sketching.

I noticed one thing common in many of the sketches that I liked from others consisted of lighter and looser lines. Very dynamic, with intentionally weighted lines applied to serve a visual purpose. It is also helpful to slowly build up the line until you mark the preferred line- which is what I found helpful, rather than starting with a heavy pencil mark, then struggling to later on erase cleanly when necessary. This would definitely not be a problem for digital artists. However, having a looser line still benefits those working digitally as well. There is more noticeable confidence often than when rigid lines are in use. This is better explained by some videos I have watched on Proko’s YouTube channel.

I wanted to start by mentioning Stan Prokopenko as the first artist to share since his YouTube channel. Propenko, or Proko for short, has videos of great advice from artists already working in the industry. They are some of the lessons that I binge-watched during quarantine.

Thank you for reading; I will see you again in the next post!

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