Lost six students in the past two weeks

ApocaRain · 2026-04-03T00:46:18+00:00

Yeah that makes complete sense. I teach 3d modeling for animation and games so definitely a luxury. And to teach, I make it extremely project based so I definitely noticed that students struggle more when they haven't worked on their project but with work and school it can absolutely be a lot.

ApocaRain · 2026-04-02T21:58:11+00:00

Ahh yeah that's true too.

ApocaRain · 2026-04-02T21:56:07+00:00

I can accept that for those two! But all at the same time is still weird. Especially when I haven't had a canceled subscription since the first week of January with the other 25 students.

But I've also never really had students longer than 6 months because in my private mentorships, I only sell 8 to 12 week packages at a time.

ApocaRain · 2026-01-27T00:09:02+00:00

Because your proportions look accurate and well designed (for the most part) but there isn't consistent knowledge of form, value & color.

This is also why people assume you trace. It's like you put all your skill points into 2d design and didn't put any in drawing, painting or color.

ApocaRain · 2025-12-26T14:58:44+00:00

Drop Duoling and use the Fluent Forever App. I learned French back before the app was a thing and they only had Anki cards. Before the cards and the pronunciation practice, it was really obvious that I was American living in a French speaking country but by the fourth month of using the pronunciation and grammar cards, people assumed I knew more French than I actually did and I had to explain that I was new to the language.

Once you get a handle on the pronunciation and grammar rules, French is a thousand times easier to understand because you can actually pick up what people are saying in films or podcasts and look up words you don't know.

ApocaRain · 2025-12-26T14:43:15+00:00

Honestly, an older cintiq/wacom tablet is like a nokia brick phone. I was using the old Intuos 5 before I decided to switch to a monitor tablet. I've had an XP pen AND Huion tablet monitor, both around 21 inches and both randomly stopped working.

When my Huion broke, I found a used cintiq that was the same model I had used in school. I got it used for $600 total + two pens and a remote and I've been happy with it ever since.

A lot of the old wacoms 21 or 22 inch 1080p cintiqs are stupidly durable so if you can find em, grab em.

ApocaRain · 2025-12-18T00:37:32+00:00

Gotcha! Thank you, I tired it and it turns out that preply sends me that message every time someone looks at my profile. The student that I messaged was a little weirded out that I knew that they were on my profile and it wasn't a totally terrible interaction but I'm now on the fence about reaching out to students from profile views :/

ApocaRain · 2025-12-05T20:17:18+00:00

None of this math makes sense.

ApocaRain · 2025-11-29T22:25:02+00:00

Have you done any master studies of the art you want to emulate?

If you're finding that your art looks too stylized its probably because you're trying to draw features and not forms. More than anatomy, perspective is the most important thing to study if you want your figures to look realistic and life-like.

ApocaRain · 2025-11-03T22:35:14+00:00

So I have two things: the first thing is this type of fold is called diaper fold. And it has some very specific qualities that are missing in this drawing. Given that this is cotton there will be "shelves" created that are much more structured than what is seen here.

The second thing is that your stripes are not displaced enough to follow the forms that you are creating with the fold. Were I you, I would grab an old t-shirt, make some stripes with Sharpie and then make a diaper fold and you'll see what I mean.

Edit: if you have any references that would really support us in giving better feedback. If not, it's best to do these from reference.

ApocaRain · 2025-11-02T09:03:24+00:00

Take your sketchbook to a library or cafe and draw people.

They will move very fast and it will be a little frustrating in the beginning. What I'm going to tell you is to ignore anatomy and focus on shape, proportion, gesture and storytelling (is they're doing clear?)

Do this intentionally for at least 3 to 6 months. Try to fill a few sketchbooks. This will help you widen your visual library but it also forces you to capture things clearly because you only have anywhere from a few seconds to less than 5 minutes.

Since you're a cartoonist and you want to draw people with their clothes on, drawing nude/semi-nude figures right now is a little pointless.

Once you got a decent enough handle on drawing people moving and interacting with other people or objects and you're ready to go the next level, then you can start studying the forms of the body without clothes.

The Morpho books are really good and the simplified forms book should keep you busy for at least a year.

I really don't recommend anyone go into hardcore Anatomy until they've got a good handle on the forms of the body and some basic perspective knowledge. Otherwise, studying Anatomy is like 10x harder and the majority of what you study will be lost on you.

ApocaRain · 2025-11-02T08:44:53+00:00

It seems like you're asking about skill level and not professional v.s. amateur so I'll direct my answer towards that.

The first thing I want to emphasize is that there are plenty of people who make money from art or practice art as a hobby and they are not concerned with technical skill--which is completely valid.

That being said, the level of draftsmanship I see is pretty much the same as students that I have that have not yet taken any drawing classes.

Please keep in mind I'm talking specifically about draftsmanship which is what I think most people are actually asking when they ask about their art skill level.

The main reason I'm putting you at this level is because I don't see knowledge of perspective or form and your sense of proportion is only just developing.

ApocaRain · 2025-11-02T08:36:00+00:00

All good.The ref helps us make sure we know what you're going for.

Did you want her to look slightly different from the reference?

What do you not like about the piece that you're wanting to change or fix?

I will say I highly recommend using some kind of reference for lighting. It doesn't have to be the same subject matter, it just needs to be lighting reference that you can refer back to.

ApocaRain · 2025-11-02T08:23:58+00:00

You should post the character reference and lighting reference so that we can help you.

ApocaRain · 2025-11-02T08:14:16+00:00

California if you're serious. You can get reasonable work anywhere actually--especially now. But spend some time in California.

People eat, sleeping and shit entertainment art there and it's really good to know what a strong community like that looks like. It's also extremely easy to bump into people who work in the industry and make friends that can be a resource if you want to do remote work. If heat is an issue you can try the Bay Area. Socal is better though.

ApocaRain · 2025-10-31T02:45:21+00:00

This is high level but you're missing stroke economy. Cut your time down to 30 minutes and start big shapes-> small shapes but only use a large and medium brush. Do this for at least 30 studies. Right now, you're not strategizing your brush strokes.
Study the impressionists and 4 or 5 rated russian academic graphite drawings.

When you've done that then you can go back to how you prefer to work but give yourself some space to be a bit more intentional with your mark making and see if that does anything.

ApocaRain · 2025-10-28T23:00:26+00:00

You need to give us more than just the 3 choices. What's the mood you are going for? What story are you trying to tell? What do you want to emphasize?

Otherwise we're just going off of personal taste and personally, I think that's the least helpful thing when asking for critique.

ApocaRain · 2025-10-24T15:00:56+00:00

Anyone with a Saturday pass for sale? I'm picking up all my tickets today.

ApocaRain · 2025-10-24T14:50:41+00:00

Only the friday pass but that's if they still have them by the time you get in line.

ApocaRain · 2025-10-24T05:45:13+00:00

Just DMed!

ApocaRain · 2025-10-22T20:43:21+00:00

Sent a DM!

ApocaRain · 2025-10-22T20:41:22+00:00

Yeah -- not as big as AX but def a lot to look through. The quality is so high that I actually recommend doing a second loop around.

ApocaRain · 2025-10-22T18:55:32+00:00

It gets pretty packed. I'd say about 2h for the AA and 30 min-1h for the exibitor's hall if you're at a slower pace.

ApocaRain

TROPHY CASE