Comments for dekraus Art and Illustration

Comment on Contact by dekraus

dekraus — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:25:38 +0000

Are you kidding me? I love little details like that! Crazy, I know.

Shoot me an email if you’d like to work something out!

Comment on Contact by Lauren A. Haley

Lauren A. Haley — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:25:58 +0000

I’m considering commissioning a depiction of the eccentric bibliophile Iantoh WoW fire mage, and admit I’m torn between the color with just a bit of flavor or the full fledged painting with background and such.

I figure you’d either be really interesting in doing shelves of books and random artifacts or you’d be Oh I Couldn’t Possibly about it, so I thought I’d seek your opinion on the matter.

Thanks muchly,
Lauren (aka Cyrcae, Mycah, Grunde, Iantoh, etc etc etc and so forth.)

Comment on The Structure of Man by dekraus

dekraus — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:17:57 +0000

The greatest thing about this course is that you don’t watch the video and *then* draw. You draw right along with the video, and the videos range between, oh, 8 and 30 minutes. Most of them are around 15, but some of the longer full-figure drawings are about a half hour or so. So you draw right along with the instructor as he draws, picking out important things and labeling, etc. It’s very step-by-step, and really does train your mind, especially if you’re a kinesthetic learner (like I am!) I would tend to do one video after another until I’d gotten through a certain subject – like the plan of the skull – and then I’d practice with those principles in my free time, until I knew I got them down. Like the muscles of the forearm I found difficult to grasp, so after doing those lessons I spend a couple hours just drawing out arms and labeling all the muscles.

The course is so extraordinary though because you’re *participating* and not just watching. If you get stuck or need more time, you can hit pause (I did that alot, too!) Or rewind and go back over something. When you feel you’ve “got it” and can draw it from memory, you move on to the next. So really the pace is up to you and how well your memory works, how quickly you learn. The lessons, though, are all very well organized and sequential, so you never feel like you “skipped ahead”. There’s also some great ‘checkpoint’ lessons where you draw out a whole figure, concentrating on the parts you’ve learned so far.

A lot of learning methods haven’t worked for me, but this worked excellently. Your mile may vary, however! You’ll find out how fast you can go as you start working through the lessons. Some take more extra practice than others, but it all runs together very smoothly.

Good luck!

Comment on The Structure of Man by Topher

Topher — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:11:04 +0000

Thank you for writing this review. I’ve been debating about getting the structure of man course for awhile and after reading your review I was convinced and went and got it. My biggest question about the course is how long would you spend on a single lesson? It didn’t come with like a lesson plan or anything so I don’t when to move on to the next video. How did you know when to move on to the next video?

Comment on The Structure of Man by yoshigrrl

yoshigrrl — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:57:37 +0000

I found your blog through your testimonial on Riven Phoenix’s website. This comment struck a chord because I too am 34 and just starting out drawing after years and years of thinking “one day.” It’s very intimidating to be a beginner, knowing that there are people who’ve been drawing since they were 10. Your progress is inspirational and motivating. I do like your before images a lot though. Your before and afters are two particular styles, both good.

Comment on The Structure of Man by dekraus

dekraus — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:49:27 +0000

Riven’s courses will teach you a TON about what you need to know – at very least give you a great start in drawing awesome, dynamic figures. I’m sure there’s a lot more about frame composition and storyboarding that you’ll need for comics, but there are lots of other resources out there if you dig around. Conceptart.org is a fantastic place to start looking, if you haven’t explored there already.

NEVER worry about your age holding you back. I am 34 and I fight the “OMG you are too old to do this!” voice in my head every day. I just read a great little quote from a drawing book the other night. I can’t remember the exact wording, but it basically said it’s not the youngest or the best trained or those with the most resources on hand that make it, but rather those who *never give up.* We all have something we can draw better than anyone else, and the key is to never give up until we can express that freely.

So get to those courses! I just started the second one and am already amazed. I hope you have just as much luck with them!

Comment on The Structure of Man by Garrick

Garrick — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:45:32 +0000

Your drawings are amazing. Very beautiful. I’m aspiring to be a comic book artist but know almost nothing of the anatomy. I’ve been searching all over for a great guide that will teach me exactly what I need to know. I’m just curious as to how old you are? I’m 21, but been drawing all my life, and I’ve got a bit of a fear that my age and inexperience will hold me back. I’ll definetly be buying River’s courses, though. It looks like he’s an amazing teacher.

Comment on The Structure of Man by dekraus

dekraus — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:38:20 +0000

Thanks for your comment! It was a fantastic course and I just started downloading the next one.

Usually I spend 2-3 hours on “practice” – like this course – every weekday morning. I do some experimental sketching during the evening, too, and try to apply what I’ve learned, but not every night.

Comment on The Structure of Man by Carlos

Carlos — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:56:20 +0000

Diane – thanks for the great review of the course and for showing your exercises and your before/after efforts. This is a great way to show the benefits of the courses and makes one go and buy and try it for ourserlves.

You mention that you have been doing the lessons for three months. How many ours do you practice every day or every week?

Thanks again…

Comment on Along the Mountain Road by Elle

Elle — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 05:37:52 +0000

This is gorgeous! Really. I will eagerly be waiting to see how the end result turns out