Comments for dekraus Art and Illustration

Comment on Stealing Hours by dekraus

dekraus — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:34:31 +0000

I wish you luck with it! I’m getting used to feeling a little sleepy all day, but boy are those first three hours unique and wonderful for getting things done. Let me know how it goes for you!

Comment on Stealing Hours by Brandon Blackmoor

Brandon Blackmoor — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:14:33 +0000

This is a great idea. I am going to start tomorrow, and dedicate these new hours to a project I had hoped to have finished at the end of December 2011.

Comment on One Springtime, ASAP by dekraus

dekraus — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:17:19 +0000

I wish it were so simple! For anyone wanting to learn to draw, I always suggest these two books: To start: Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain And once you get through that, Juliette Aristides' Classical Drawing Atelier If either (or both) of those look too intimidating, Andrew Loomis' old books are fantastic and available as PDF's online. Start with Fun with a Pencil! But the big deal is really learning to draw what you see, which you'll get from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. IMO that book is vital to any artist trying to draw realistically. Then it's lots and lots of practice!

Comment on One Springtime, ASAP by Pslim

Pslim — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:01:36 +0000

Diane, could you teach me how to draw like you? I really like your style.

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!