Posted in: Comics | Tagged: artist, illustrations

Aspiring Artists Now Can Learn Andrew Loomis Principles for Dummies

Published Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:00:37 -0600

Andrew Loomis wrote a series of books from 1939 to 1961 which helped shape several generations of artists. There have been many comic book artists over the years which have referred to the Andrew Loomis books of illustration as influencing their work. Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Marvels), Dave Stevens (The Rocketeer) and Steve "The Dude" Rude (Nexus) have all been mentioned as those who used the books during their careers.

Stan Prokopenko, a Ukraine-born artist who currently teaches several art courses at Watts Atelier of the Arts in California, has decided to update Loomis' principles for today's audience, creating his own series of video tutorials.

"I think the Loomis books are some of the best books for illustrators and comic book artists to learn how to draw the portrait and figure, but most artists find it really challenging to study," Prokopenko explained. "I created a series of tutorials to simplify his methods and dramatically speed up the learning process of constructing the head in 3D."

Last month Prokopenko released a DVD with the Loomis method, which also covers the anatomy and construction of each facial feature and 2 full demonstrations on taking a portrait from start to finish.

The DVD is available as a digital download or hardcopy with shipping to any country. Bleedingcool readers can get a 20% discount for a limited time.

"Currently, I'm starting another series on figure drawing," Prokopenko said. "I'll be covering the essential concepts of gesture, structure, anatomy and tone."

Prokopenko explained the process can be broken up into 4 stages:

1- establish the gesture of the pose
2 – construct the 3d forms through mannequinization
3 – add the anatomical information while still maintaining the fluid gesture and simple structure
4 – apply tone to reveal the forms and design a good light and dark pattern.

Aspiring artists interested in following Prokopenko's upcoming figure lessons can signup for the newsletter on proko.com

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