A Smart Course of Action
Giving away high quality art lessons for free turns out to be a great business model.
Article Transcript
It all started with a personal blog on his website. A few years ago, San Diego fine artist Stan Prokopenko posted some written tutorials and found that they were getting a lot of attention. So he began filming and publishing short instructional videos on YouTube.
ActionNow, Stan’s website Proko.com has grown into a force to be reckoned with in the world of online art instruction. With more than half a million YouTube subscribers and more than 150 instructional videos on head drawing, figure drawing and anatomy, Stan has transitioned from a full-time fine artist into a full-time instructor, entrepreneur and YouTube personality. He employs two in-house video production assistants and a marketing manager as well as another dozen outside contractors to help with things like 3D animation, editing and other tasks.
Unlike most other individual tutorial videos you’ll find on YouTube, Stan’s videos are part of a carefully outlined course structure. The lessons are individually scripted, and his drawing demos are properly lit and filmed with ultra-high definition 4K cameras. The lessons teach actual principles and techniques for drawing, using a consistent methodology. They’re not simply impressive demos set to music. And, as mentioned, they are professionally produced with graphics, 3D animations and, of course, a bit of humor. The Ukrainian-born Stan is a serious instructor cleverly hidden, like a nesting doll, inside a goofball exterior. Stan tries to make each video entertaining as well as informative to help encourage students to watch them again and again. In art training, repetition of the information is a key factor to growth.
I first met Stan when he began taking courses at the Watts Atelier of the Arts when he was 16 years old. The Watts Atelier teaches traditional methods of realistic drawing and painting here in San Diego, California. At age 22, Stan became an instructor there, teaching courses in portrait and figure drawing, oil painting, anatomy, gesture quicksketch drawing and other subjects. In high school, he also studied 3D animation and video production, which laid the foundation skills that have ended up serving him well in his current work. Stan is a proponent of pursuing other fun interests and hobbies, whatever they may be, alongside your primary art form. Aside from helping you be more well-rounded, you never know when a random skill like music, woodworking, 3D rendering or video production may end up helping you in your art career.
YouTube is generally the portal for entry for most students into his Proko.com website. Forbes.com recently wrote about Stan and featured him as one of the top artist YouTubers. Like other YouTube stars, Stan has built a brand and public persona with his videos that allow viewers to feel more connected and invested in him as a colleague and teacher. Artists can watch most of the lessons for free on his “Proko” YouTube channel, and if they want to expand their knowledge, they can buy a full course on www.Proko.com and get access to that entire course’s content. The premium course content includes longer versions of the free videos, along with many additional demonstration videos that go along with each lesson. And most of those have instructive narration as well. The one-time fee for a premium course also includes several high-resolution photo sets of art models to practice from and supplemental e-books with course material.
The interaction continues in his Proko groups on Facebook, where students can share work, get critiques and connect with other people going through the same struggles. Stan also selects a few works submitted by viewers of each lesson to do in-depth video critiques on a regular basis. The critiques are great for everybody, not just the artists in question, because the advice given in a particular analysis of a student’s work is probably going to apply to most students following along with the lessons at home. Those who follow along with the weekly videos and assignments are taking advantage of a tremendous resource. The full courses are very modestly priced (each less than $90), which is amazing, considering how much content is included as well as how much work and man-hours go into producing each lesson.
Stan’s videos are helping to fill a great need in the world. Most artists, unfortunately, aren’t near a good school to help take their art to a higher level. After high school or college, many reach a point of stagnation and fall into a comfortable niche where they stay for the rest of their lives. Or worse, they get frustrated at their lack of progress, can’t seem to make a living and just give up art altogether because they don’t know what they need to do to get better. Stan believes that, no matter what your specialty is in art, a good foundation in traditional drawing and human anatomy will help everyone. The core skills you learn when drawing the human figure are the same skills you need to draw just about anything else. And the same goes for caricaturing. With these classic skills and knowledge, caricaturists can broaden their abilities and improve the quality of their caricatures.
Currently, Stan is in the middle of producing his human anatomy course. But the lessons won’t end with the human face and figure. The offerings will continue to grow. Recently, Stan joined up with ISCA member Steve Silver to film sketching sessions at a coffee shop.That video was recently released on his YouTube channel. Also, Stan is collaborating with other instructors to create more video courses on other specialty subjects. And because of the success he’s had so far, he’ll soon be moving the operation out of his home studio and into a large commercial space to film and produce the videos. Stan Prokopenko provides not only a great example of how to grow as an artist, but as a businessman and entrepreneur.
