What’s the Hardest Thing about Being a Pro? - Asking Pros

Start a 30-day trial with Audible and get your first audiobook for free by going to audible.com/proko or texting "proko" to 500 500! Thank you to Audible for teaming up with me!
I ask artists at Comic Con what the hardest part of being a professional is. We’ve got 6 more episodes of asking pros coming soon so be sure to subscribe and hit that bell notification to stay in the loop!
Asking Pros Season 1:
What Holds Back Beginner Artists - Asking Pros: • What Holds Back Beginn...
Drawing Advice for Students - Asking Pros: • Drawing Advice for Stu...
Best Drawing Exercises - Asking Pros: • Best Drawing Exercises...
Daily Routine of Successful Artists - Asking Pros: • Daily Routine of Succe...
6 Pro Artists Sketch From Imagination: • 6 Pro Artists Sketch F...
Asking Pros Season 2
Struggling with Motivation as an Artist - Asking Pros: • Struggling with Motiva...
Thumbnail Art by Peter Han
Thank you to all the artists that participated:
Pascal Campion: / pascalcampionart
Bobby Chiu: / digitalbobert
Sean Galloway: / seangallowayart
T.J. Geisen: / geist.rock.art
Erik Gist: www.erikgist.com/
Sanford Greene: / sanfordgreene
Brian Haberlin: experienceanomaly.com/
Peter Han: / peterhanstyle
Cutter Hays: www.cutterhays.com/
Eliza Ivanova: / eleeza
Karl Kopinski: / karlkopinski
Colin Lawler: www.colinlawler.com/
Vanessa Lemen: vanessalemenart.com/
Sean Andrew Murray: seanandrewmurray.com/
Lucio Parrillo: / lucio_parrillo_art
Stephen Silver: www.silvertoons.com/
William Stout: www.williamstout.com/
Philip Tan: / philiptanart
Marshall Vandruff: www.marshallart.com/
Chrissie Zullo: / chrissiezullo
#artcareer #comiccon #comicart
Subscribe to Proko: bit.ly/SubProko
Don't miss new tutorials - Hit the BELL!
Premium Videos - www.proko.com/store
Course Package Deals - www.proko.com/package-deals
Pose photo sets - www.proko.com/poses
FOLLOW PROKO:
Email Newsletter- www.proko.com/subscribe
Instagram - / stanprokopenko
Twitter - / stanprokopenko
Facebook - / prokotv
Tumblr - / stanprokopenko
Pinterest - / pins
WATCH MORE PROKO:
Latest Uploads: • Letter From a Frustrat...
Figure Drawing: • How to Draw Gesture
Art of Caricature: • The Art of Caricature ...
Popular Videos: • How to Draw the Head f...
ABOUT PROKO:
Instructional How to Draw videos for artists. My drawing lessons are approachable enough for beginners and detailed enough for advanced artists. My philosophy is to teach timeless concepts in an entertaining way. I believe that when you are having fun, you learn better. I take pride in producing high quality videos that you will enjoy watching and re-watching.
CREDITS:
Interviewer | Producer - Stan Prokopenko (www.stanprokopenko.com)
Production Assistance - Sean Ramsey (www.peoplewhodrawstuff.com), Kaitlin Jensma ( / gimmenoise )
Editing - Sean Ramsey
Artists Interviewed:
Philip Tan ( / philiptanart , Sean Galloway ( / seangallowayart , T.J. Geisen ( / geist.rock.art , Sanford Greene ( / sanfordgreene , Cutter Hays (www.cutterhays.com/), Marshall Vandruff (www.marshallart.com/), Erik Gist (www.erikgist.com/), Brian Haberlin (experienceanomaly.com/), Peter Han ( / peterhanstyle , Stephen Silver (www.silvertoons.com/), Bobby Chiu ( / digitalbobert , Karl Kopinski ( / karlkopinski , William Stout (www.williamstout.com/), Lucio Parrillo ( / lucio_parrillo_art , Eliza Ivanova ( / eleeza , Vanessa Lemen (vanessalemenart.com/), Sean Andrew Murray (seanandrewmurray.com/), Pascal Campion ( / pascalcampionart , Colin Lawler (www.colinlawler.com/), Chrissie Zullo ( / chrissiezullo )
Music Used with Permission
Intro - The Freak Fandango Orchestra
Dope beats by Otis McDonald
Additional music by Epidemic Sound
"Ain't No Friend of Mine" by Bryan Teoh
sleepfacingwest.com/

[@ProkoTV]

What’s your dream art job?

[@kuronoroux8864]

Work as a comic book artist and put food on my table and my family's

[@mihajloostracanin1615]

2d and 3d Chatacter designer.

[@maddson2088]

An illustrator of a popular comic mixing eastern and western styles of manga.

[@tylernoll8228]

My dream is to become a great comic book writer/artist. From my comics I want to also make movies

[@andrewgarfield9898]

Lu Rohr same but that seems like a fantasy :( I feel like I’ll never really be able to do anything with my art ever :(

[@ekisukmars3427]

My mom and dad passed away, I'm 22 yo, have no money, no job, no tools, but I'm still drawing while applying job, and working as freelancer by my friends tools (a laptop/pc) Wish me luck guys!

[@destructivecookie4293]

Good luck! I wish you well in your journey

[@poweroffriendship2.0]

I hope your dream as a draftsman will going to be a great journey. I'm in the middle of the journey... as a cartoonist.

[@thequietkid5800]

Good Luck!

[@kakashifuijin]

good luck !

[@andrewgarfield9898]

In the same boat here :(

[@OldeVikingOriginal]

What really opened my eyes was Sean Andrew Murray saying that you never really get comfortable, that artists don't really know what they are doing at all times. That you've gotta experiment and keep growing and get comfortable with that feeling of not knowing what or how to do next.

[@psychiccrocodile3679]

Lol I love Marshall, he just makes me happy

[@SauronWar]

A super power as an artist?! Photographic memory for sure!!!

[@iwanfishz9]

Jojo Kishibe Rohan Heaven door is the most useful. Want photographic memory? Just write it down on you and boom you can visualize photographic images 100% Want References material or ideas? You can read people memories to draw inspiration for your work. Want the technical skills for drawing? Again , wrote yourself being able to do so and you would be able to gain the ability of what a master artist spend half his life to gained.

[@vivek5420]

Yaaaas!!!!

[@Sercil00]

I'd like to know from any pros here: Do you still consider art a hobby? By that, I mean, do you do art purely for yourself in your spare time, out of boredom, for fun, for relaxation, without any hope or intent to improve your skills or portfolio. I never made it to pro, but this quickly became an issue to me. I had a lot less spare time, so if I had nothing to work on, I desperately needed another hobby that had nothing to do with art, for distraction. I felt a constant pressure to improve myself and create some good pieces for the portfolio, when before, most things I created were never shown to anybody. Art was no longer a hobby. I always thought "I got to improve or find a new cool technique to use later" when I did it "for fun". So I always wondered if as a pro, I'd reach a level of skill and a portfolio, and a tolerance for so much art work, so that I could do art purely as a hobby again.

[@user-ff2mu4fh4v]

Made it to pro (though it's only been 2 years), but I still struggle with the balance between fun and learning. I put myself under a lot of pressure and the people around me notice it. I guess I'm still not good enough to be able to create without having to think too much about it.

[@MrProfessorElias]

Marshall always puts me in such a good mood! Love you Marshall!!!

[@sirirond1990]

that girl behind peter han is me whenever he talks

[@thePavuk]

Answer: Paying taxes.

[@MegumiHayashida]

This is genuinely the first time that I see Pascal Campion (I'm a huge fan of his work) Thank you Proko!

[@husnushepherd]

lmao the IDubbbz soundtrack got me

[@Shiruvan]

content cop 🚨

[@everydaybodybuilding2282]

Holden Caulfield Stan has no idea lol

[@yaboytl]

This is Gold!!! So happy to get other artist's take on what is hard for them...definitely humanizes the transition! Wish other industries and pros in their field did this..thank you!

[@just_cody3569]

My favorite thing about this, besides the awesome insights from the pros, is the humanization of the many people I follow through various social media’s. Karl for instance seems like someone I would enjoy having a beer with, and not be idolizing.

[@FrostyPhoenyx]

These episodes are so interesting, I really look forward to seeing them! Thank you!!

[@DrawninjaKC]

So many different views on being a pro. Really awesome. Great job.

[@Sicarius40k]

the transition to the Audible add was so smoooooth xD

[@lacroixcamille6075]

I love this shorts interviews, these artists are awesome, very inspiring!

[@ang.giselle2024]

Yes. Has there been any artist that started when they were over 40 and had success as an illustrator/ artist? Success meaning making more than enough $$ to provide for family etc.🌸

[@digitaldave6300]

Im just starting out learning to draw, this gave me some insight that will really help me

[@rubidotrinh549]

Man, that is a smooth transition to Audiobook. Thank you for doing these interview! invaluable information.

[@yubia5216]

This videos are absolute gold, they really inspire me to keep drawing

[@tinandonovski998]

I needed this information, thank you!

[@FakkeLL]

love you, man. your videos is so much inspiration.

[@CloudHeadCustoms]

Was so hype to see Sean Galloway, he’s my absolute favorite and my style is pretty heavily inspired by his work, and also a little Glen Murakami mixed in with Bruce Timm

[@piggytsai2226]

These are really quality videos providing lots of useful insights^^

[@AndrewJosephKeith]

I love audible. I'm always listening to a good book while I sculpt or draw. Great resource for artists.

[@hieutrungtran6895]

This is awesome Proko! Thank you so much for doing these videos. One question I would be interested in knowing, 'what did they do to become a pro', or perhaps, 'what was the moment like, when you decided to go pro? (Mindset, skill proficiency, etc)

[@Dimegg]

Love the series!

[@VeryBlueBot]

omg I was about to ask if you could name some of the artists, then opened the full description and saw you already did.. what a gold mine!! going to follow all of the on instagram

[@marymcandrew7667]

If I could have a super power it would be to stop time when I want, so I could work as long as I like on things, take time to do other stuff too! haha

[@societyman9219]

Mary McAndrew wouldn’t you age during said time? Time related powers have a lot of questions that come along with it

[@MrSaint3]

Hermione Granger lol

[@anyaconda3155]

And then the camera zoomed in on the 🦄 lol 😂

[@mixlocks4195]

I really enjoyed this video It was very informative & I'll do my best to soak in all the knowledge these Master Artists shared. But what I enjoyed the most was Chrissie Zullo's smile :-)

[@ishheredia9626]

Really loved Peter Han's input on this one

[@CrimePaint]

5:44 i relate to this so hard. I was pencil and paper all the way up to college and then they basically told me, "hey, put those ancient relics down. It's to learn some computer!"

[@watchvids7802]

Good plug, nice segue :D

[@renemarrero6523]

Great video 👍

[@SneakingMOUSE]

The zoom-in on the giant butthole made me laugh way too hard.

[@CreativeSteve69]

my dream job ever since i was little n still is to this day is to get good at drawing both 2d n 3d to be either a enviorment or character artist for nintendo my all time favorite gameing company. i plan on not stopping my dream until it becomes a reality. :) Also proco I have to say your pannel i went to this year was by far the best experience of learning art i ever came across great job.

[@hampTC]

Same here!! I've been learning Japanese for the same reason. I visited in June and met a bunch of Nintendo employees at a convention called Bitsummit in Kyoto, it was amazing!! It definitely gave me confirmation that that I where I want to work.

[@CreativeSteve69]

@@hampTC that's really neat to hear thanks for sharing your experience. :)

[@hell2freelance533]

Taxes. Yeh, I was waiting for that one, seriously!

[@nabilmohamed5912]

(pro)ko

[@esmailiyou]

I get motivated by watching videos on Proko's channel :)

[@stevesloan5935]

Inspiring!!

[@arturm7]

Gracias super video :D

[@MarcosJ-mq4lk]

Nice segue at the end! lol

[@m.raggui5367]

The answer of Peter Han... simply astounding

[@aneteadiene9918]

I've a question for some pros: When do you know you need to raise your prices, and how do you tell your other art friends they are underselling themselves ( and make them believe it ) ?

[@Nivenization]

Thank you.

[@vmaietta72]

great video

[@RubyOnyxx]

Those Charles R. Knight paintings are amazing

[@kullenberg]

Just a heads up, the painting which you credit to Stanley Meltzoff (guy with hammer and stormy seas) is attributed to Frank McCarthy on heritage.

[@animutung]

That sponsor transition was smooth

[@Brontosaurus69]

Marshall was the cherry on top

[@RamaSamaVEVO]

I think a good question to make is, how to start to make money with our art?

[@jcpouzols]

It's a tie between invoicing and deadlines for me!

[@PuppetMaster8707]

17:40 look at that amazing teacher

[@supreemcourt9181]

The hardest thing about being an amateur, u ask? Uhh, respecting the process, and understanding that the desire to be better is a calculated action.

[@MachuSayTruck]

Lol.. through our ear holes.... Great choice of words.. lol

[@anguiba]

As soon as i clicked the video, at tge beginning i thought it was gonna be a content cop iddubz video lol

[@poweroffriendship2.0]

*_As an artist, I am struggling so hard to reach the professiona status. But I'm just a beginner._*

[@mrhotsa1]

8:04 LOL

[@MrYulienskate]

This is like an art parallel to the renaissance. Renaissance artists mostly did religious artwork because that's what brought food to their tables, not necessarily because they were quite religious themselves, today art serves companies and brands, some of the best artists work for companies like disney, but at least these companies are quite intetested in what people at large might be into, unlike religion in the renaissance. If things change like this, I just wonder what art will be in favor of in the future.

[@ciccobullet6725]

*relatable*

[@desulee2220]

“Ear holes “ god proko you got me

[@Poweranimal84]

ですリーDesuLee thought the same thing... what’s a segue 😂

[@scatterbrainart]

Sanford's shirt makes me want to listen to EPMD again.

[@muthannamandanna2696]

Great video as usual! Your channel motivated me to to start my own channel :)*

[@rubytheater6330]

Prokon👨 🌿beautiful comic con🌿story🌍 Nice👷job! appreciated

[@ianandresescobaramzequita1440]

Hello, how are you? I am a subscriber of your KZbin channel and I follow your tutorials. I have a question how do you do it so that your grids do not get unbalanced because everything is going well until I do the dark background and what was dark of the face or image it clarifies too much and then I have to retouch everything ??? greetings from Guatemala

[@yohenson]

omg stanley metzoff, amazing! why cant I find any books of him online?? all out of stock. does anyone know?

[@davidvega7773]

ask them about the pens and pencils they use for drawing.

[@tedparker858]

I'm trying to learn how to sketch. I just want to carry a mechanical pencil a sketchbook with me without having to take a bunch of supplies. Is this ok to do to learn? I have a toolbox of supplies and a portfolio that I use when taking classes but going out and about don't want to carry all of that with me.

[@shpruska]

I have 2 question. When i see a draw i always ask to the painter "how much time it took to draw this?" because i everytime i think a pro make a good paint in no time but i found out i was terribly wrong. So i want to know how much time they used to draw one of their masterpiece. The other question is how much they think have talent is important compared to learning and put effort in learning. I mean people say that drawing is a learning skill, everyone can learn it, but to be a pro how much is learning and how much is talent?

[@ROGUESPECTRE101]

Question for the artists. How do you get around the feeling of not being good enough to draw what you want to draw?

[@Tabnito]

ROGUESPECTRE101 first, can you draw what you want to draw. Then can you draw better than what you want eventually you have to improve on and make what you want to draw better. You’ll never get around not being good enough if you don’t fail enough and try to get around it. I was never really worried about it, I was always excited and full of happiness when I imagined how good I’d be in a. Few years or in college. Currently I’d blow myself away back then. If you’re just starting out, focus on getting your mechanics of moving a pencil and making good lines. The. Making forms and getting your intelligence on art up. These two things should scale together. First good lines then good thoughts. I think drawing from life is a very easy relaxing and brain dead way of exercising. It typically just horse the hell out of me now, but if your starting out it can be difficult. You should primarily focus on being better than you were yesterday. Ignore other artists and social media. My Instagram is @an.genius so you don’t think I’m some random dude. If you scroll like medium length yo can see some studies I’ve done and even some water color. You can also see great improvement, at least I do.

[@everydaybodybuilding2282]

ROGUESPECTRE101 getting good lol

[@Tabnito]

@@everydaybodybuilding2282 tl;dr I am 'good', but I still feel this way. I'm sure I'm considered good to average people. I'm published and I can do many things and draw from life well. But the question was about the feeling of not being good enough. Even if I'm called talented or amazing or a genius I still feel like "an genius" not good enough and still slightly off. Once the practice is under your belt and you get into art and start making pieces your proud of that proud and exciting feeling will fade as you see the mistakes. Every artist feels this way. As one objectively gets better they can feel assured that they aren't terrible but they never really feel good enough. Once I'm done with college I'll advertise and get out there, but until then I don;t want to have any attention, because I'm still somewhat embarrassed at my art. Once again it's @an.genius.

[@everydaybodybuilding2282]

AnGenius There’s no magic sauce lol. If you feel like you aren’t good enough you can’t also argue with me that you are good enough. Pick a lane. If you truly feel you aren’t good enough, get better. If you feel you are good enough, then don’t say otherwise.

[@everydaybodybuilding2282]

AnGenius If you’re still in college you probably SHOULD feel like you aren’t good enough. There’s probably not even an issue here. If you’re a working professional with a deep career and lots of professional peers who respect your work, then maybe you’re just being too hard on yourself. What are you going to school for?

[@karldarwin1253]

be sure doing this at lightbox expo

[@beto3k]

lmao that segway

[@cloudsofsunset7323]

May be you want to improve the audio for these type of videos. We can hear wind, people at the background, echo, etc. Good luck! I love this of asking people who is somehow integrated in this industry.

[@VitinRitsu]

I understand the critic but its literally impossible to record at a conventiom and completelly eliminate background noise.

[@infamousshinkicker6924]

He literally can't do that. Pretty sure it's impossible.

[@allluckyseven]

Awww! Look at Eliza with her kid in a .. baby strap? Is that what that's called? Anyway, SO ADORABLE!! And what the hey, Stan, focusing your camera on that Uni...hole. Or something. Man, could you bring (or go to) Ron Lemen or Vanessa or Eliza or Kopinski or... any of those artists, really, for a small series of videos?? That sure would be the parth for world domination from proko enterprises!! But seriously, please..?

[@seanramsey]

We've got some Kopinski videos in the works after the Comic Con ones finish up, but Ron and Vanessa are right in our backyard! We'll definitely have to do something with them sometime.

[@catalinalexandruharabagiu1655]

0:07 damn that song reminds me of the good old days

[@jojomaron6099]

That's quite the Segway proko lol

[@ChrstphreCampbell]

How many pros have an agent to handle everything that is Not Art ?

[@agreenjinjo]

The zoom at 8:02

[@vivek5420]

Don't know.🤔

[@yohenson]

regarding dinosaurs paintings- I think zdenk burian is ways better. and that's why he worked on major hollywood consulting him on realistic figures of a dinosaur.

[@Apwbdtosct]

Is that @procreate's Georgie in the background at 1:53?

[@Her01panda]

8:02

[@user-yj5qf8yl4h]

와우~

[@tionanima]

Is this a re upload

[@rm9308]

13:17 More artist babies.

[@ange100arteaga]

My power would be take anyone's abilities like skill I could take anyone skill 2 draw better or any skill I wanted to have

[@andrewgarfield9898]

I feel like whenever I compare my art to someone else’s it looks like crap

[@Thollis1987]

Don't torture yourself and just do better. Find someone you admire their artwork and go from there .

[@Radicalshikami]

man i love marshall #nohomo

[@GenesisSoon]

why Chrissie Zulo looks like Sasha Grey

[@nomadenview]

True

[@therealodin3866]

Who is the artist in the thumbnail

[@MatthieuArmengau]

5:25

[@elsevillaart]

I would say backpain.

[@adriaanvanpijkeren9770]

anybody got any tips for making my painting sessions longer. I lose my concentration after about half an hour.

[@Velkss]

Start with something that makes you want to draw longer for an hour. Grinding studies and painting sometimes is necessary, however if starts to affect your work flow that badly it's definitely time for something else.

[@adriaanvanpijkeren9770]

@@Velkss thanks, i indeed figured out that painting something small just for fun is easier to do then work on things that cost a lot more time

[@Velkss]

@@adriaanvanpijkeren9770 I've found that things tend to stick better in the mind when it's enjoyable. Say for example, you want to practice drawing animals, but you're only used to drawing landscapes. You could do a whole study on dogs and their anatomy right from the start, but it might become a drag and you won't be able to put the energy into it. It's better to go for an alright, let's do a landscape with an animal then. Jumping into the deep for the sake of practicing might not always be better then hugging a little close to the comfort zone still. (also your name sounds Dutch, sorry if I'm wrong but if it is, veel succes! 😁)

[@adriaanvanpijkeren9770]

@@Velkss haha, ik ben inderdaad nederlands. i am indeed grinding out digital pieces of silly things like bert and ernie and stuff

[@Velkss]

@@adriaanvanpijkeren9770 sounds like fun! Even in those type of things you'll improve. Just never let art become just another boring job you have to do 👍

[@joelgo13]

Karl Kopinski vid when?

[@danceloco]

well It's been a year since a graduated from University. Can't find a job and i'm loosing my talent.

[@EnzoDraws]

Content cop: Lightbox Expo

[@mattywolf8287]

What event is This?

[@seanramsey]

San Diego Comic Con

[@therudemechanicals2173]

I think you missed the amazing opportunity to title this video “pros and cons”