Straight from the master's mouth to you. I didn't invent these exercises. During the 4 workshop days, Nathan emphasized two things A LOT: 1. Emotion 2. tonal abstract sketching I know most of us are working on figure and head craft, but for those who are making pictures or those who want to unlock their creativity (@Subham Sharma give these a try) this simple exercise is very useful and fun imo :) It's a perfect warm-up to your art and practice session if you're feeling a little 'flat'. Personally, this came at the perfect time. I've been in a comfort zone (form and academic rendering mode) for years and didn't even realize it. As a student, whenever a master artist I admire advises to do something, I go all-in and obsess over it until I fully absorb the knowledge and the core philosophy the master is trying to pass on to me. Nathan has been my hero and a HUGE influence for over a decade so I am trying my best to fully absorb what he taught us/me. This video is raw, no audio. I will make a proper version with commentary. If you have questions about the process, please comment here.

There was one artist Nathan Fowkes brought up several times over 4 days: Richard Schmid. If you're not familiar, he is a giant of American realism. If a master painter and composer like Nathan Fowkes recommends an artist I'm definitely going to listen! Nathan likes to use black prisma on paper to do his tonal studies so I tried to model his process here. No audio here, I will make a proper version with commentary for my YT soon.

I am going to cancel my Adobe sub. I am in the process of cutting ALL of my unnecessary business expensive and I honestly don't really use Photoshop that much. Not $20/mo worth. Besides Photoshop, what photo/digital paint app do you use or recommend? I heard Affinity is free now. I like that price!😎 I purchased Procreate a while ago, but it does have photo editing limitations. What do you think?

Hi everyone. Just wanted to share this with the community. Typically, I use PureRef for all my reference gathering for VFX projects. However, as an Apple user, it isn't available on iPad or iOS. I've started using Freeform for reference gathering, primarily for what we are doing here in Chris' atelier. This way I can grab reference on my iPad and draw anywhere with my drawing board. Attached is an image showcasing my starting collection. You can do more than add images, write text, brainstorm, post it notes, etc. Cheers.

Let's answer graphite questions once and for all. Help me make this the BEST graphite resource on the internet. Please post any and all: 1. Graphite pencil recommendations and reviews 2. Graphite pencil experiments, tests and comparisons 3. Shopping links: websites, online stores, in person stores and locations 4. Graphite pencil questions 👉 Related Threads (help me keep our art supplies posts organized) ✔️ BEST Sharpeners: https://www.skool.com/drawing-academy/the-best-pencil-sharpeners?p=9be6dd68 ✔️ BEST Papers: https://www.skool.com/drawing-academy/the-ultimate-best-papers-post-on-the-internt-master-thread?p=65e2512a