08-17-2016, 03:25 AM
Recently I've talked a lot with a buddy of mine about our general approach to art, our study habits and so on. We're both into "academic/classical art" (he's now an instructor at an atelier in Germany) and what we talked about really resonated with each other so I wanted to bring part of that discussion here. The world of online art can sometimes feel like a bubble and I think it could be healthy to inject some ideas I haven't really seen floating around here as of late.
The main idea we were talking about was what the more efficient way for us to learn was. The thing we both found was that we really only learned anything when we were enjoying ourselves. Those days we spent staying late at the studio to do additional studies when we were already tired didn't actually do much for us. Rather, they made it so that we felt burned out the next day and couldn't focus as well. Then in our projects, nothing valuable ever came from the days were we were just grinding away on autopilot. The time when we learned the most were the days when we would go to the studio early in the morning on the weekends, it's all quiet and empty and we would just work on our projects for hours on end. This was the time when we would get all kinds of ideas and solve many of out own problems we were struggling with, and it all came from time when we were enjoying the work we were doing. For me, it felt like every weekend I learned something major that totally changed the way I worked or how I thought of something, and then I'd be exited to get to continue on my figure drawing on monday.
Now if I remember correctly there is a bit of psychology/sciency-stuff backing this. You're gonna have to check me on this but if I remember correctly, when something is being done the brain shoots signals back and forth and the more knowledge and experience someone has in the subject they're working with the more efficient the brain becomes at transmitting these signals. Then when this knowledge and experience is being access, put into use and feedback is given, the brain releases hormones that make us feel good. This would be why watching something like soccer is very boring for someone who has never watched it before but becomes very intense for those with knowledge and experience of the game. The same for art. Again, you'll have to check me on this. This is what I remember form a psychology course I took like 2 years ago.
So how I'd assume this works for art is that when you are actively using the knowledge in your head to work with a drawing and getting visual feedback from this, this releases these hormones that make you feel good. Then if you're tired, upset or distracted, your brain may have trouble sending these signals back and forth and this good feeling doesn't arise. Also, if you're doing something that doesn't access this information in your head, it's gonna be fairly boring to work this way.
I think there's another thing that a lot of artists, especially self taught artists are most at risk for and that is a lack of clarity when understanding the principals of drawing and painting. We often hear people talk about 'fundamentals' but what about them? Just because we know that a subject like values has to do with a greyscale from white to black, it doesn't give us any tangible information or principals to work with, and without that, we can't access the information in our head and apply it to get that good and intense feeling as well as gaining additional information. Without clear principals to work from, I think learning becomes very difficult.
I'd liken it to climbing a mountain and clear principals are like a clear path. You know that if you follow the path you'll get higher on the mountain and if you don't, you know that you haven't followed the path properly and you can more easily self correct by emphasising the following of that path. A lack of principals is as if a mist came in and you can't see the path. You have a general sense of where to go but you don't necessarily know the most efficient way to get there.
So to summarise: I think that a gage on how efficiently we are spending our time is how enjoyable the thing being done is. If it feels like a long grind, I don't think you're learning a lot form it, even if you get a bunch of decent looking drawings by doing so. Now this is important, I do not mean to say that you should avoid struggle, difficulty and challenges. Challenging yourself is very important and really going up against something very difficult is important, but your goal is to over come it and feel extremely good when you have done so. I remember that I struggled a lot with one of my cast drawings. For about a week I was struggling a lot and I kept trying different things to get it to work, eventually I figured out what the problem was, fixed it and learned a lesson I will never forget. The thing to remember is that when struggling, keep trying things to overcome your challenges rather than just poking around and suffering, or worse, accepting a bad drawing/painting and not truly taking on the challenge. It's kinda like Dark Souls. You struggle but you're enjoying the struggle, even if things at times get difficult.
Anyway, let me know what you think of this. I know there's a weird culture online that I think stems back to the old CA days where the more you suffered, the more bragging rights you got. I know that I kinda got sucked into that way of thinking for a while and it wasn't very fun. Hope you guys have some interesting opinions on this ^^
The main idea we were talking about was what the more efficient way for us to learn was. The thing we both found was that we really only learned anything when we were enjoying ourselves. Those days we spent staying late at the studio to do additional studies when we were already tired didn't actually do much for us. Rather, they made it so that we felt burned out the next day and couldn't focus as well. Then in our projects, nothing valuable ever came from the days were we were just grinding away on autopilot. The time when we learned the most were the days when we would go to the studio early in the morning on the weekends, it's all quiet and empty and we would just work on our projects for hours on end. This was the time when we would get all kinds of ideas and solve many of out own problems we were struggling with, and it all came from time when we were enjoying the work we were doing. For me, it felt like every weekend I learned something major that totally changed the way I worked or how I thought of something, and then I'd be exited to get to continue on my figure drawing on monday.
Now if I remember correctly there is a bit of psychology/sciency-stuff backing this. You're gonna have to check me on this but if I remember correctly, when something is being done the brain shoots signals back and forth and the more knowledge and experience someone has in the subject they're working with the more efficient the brain becomes at transmitting these signals. Then when this knowledge and experience is being access, put into use and feedback is given, the brain releases hormones that make us feel good. This would be why watching something like soccer is very boring for someone who has never watched it before but becomes very intense for those with knowledge and experience of the game. The same for art. Again, you'll have to check me on this. This is what I remember form a psychology course I took like 2 years ago.
So how I'd assume this works for art is that when you are actively using the knowledge in your head to work with a drawing and getting visual feedback from this, this releases these hormones that make you feel good. Then if you're tired, upset or distracted, your brain may have trouble sending these signals back and forth and this good feeling doesn't arise. Also, if you're doing something that doesn't access this information in your head, it's gonna be fairly boring to work this way.
I think there's another thing that a lot of artists, especially self taught artists are most at risk for and that is a lack of clarity when understanding the principals of drawing and painting. We often hear people talk about 'fundamentals' but what about them? Just because we know that a subject like values has to do with a greyscale from white to black, it doesn't give us any tangible information or principals to work with, and without that, we can't access the information in our head and apply it to get that good and intense feeling as well as gaining additional information. Without clear principals to work from, I think learning becomes very difficult.
I'd liken it to climbing a mountain and clear principals are like a clear path. You know that if you follow the path you'll get higher on the mountain and if you don't, you know that you haven't followed the path properly and you can more easily self correct by emphasising the following of that path. A lack of principals is as if a mist came in and you can't see the path. You have a general sense of where to go but you don't necessarily know the most efficient way to get there.
So to summarise: I think that a gage on how efficiently we are spending our time is how enjoyable the thing being done is. If it feels like a long grind, I don't think you're learning a lot form it, even if you get a bunch of decent looking drawings by doing so. Now this is important, I do not mean to say that you should avoid struggle, difficulty and challenges. Challenging yourself is very important and really going up against something very difficult is important, but your goal is to over come it and feel extremely good when you have done so. I remember that I struggled a lot with one of my cast drawings. For about a week I was struggling a lot and I kept trying different things to get it to work, eventually I figured out what the problem was, fixed it and learned a lesson I will never forget. The thing to remember is that when struggling, keep trying things to overcome your challenges rather than just poking around and suffering, or worse, accepting a bad drawing/painting and not truly taking on the challenge. It's kinda like Dark Souls. You struggle but you're enjoying the struggle, even if things at times get difficult.
Anyway, let me know what you think of this. I know there's a weird culture online that I think stems back to the old CA days where the more you suffered, the more bragging rights you got. I know that I kinda got sucked into that way of thinking for a while and it wasn't very fun. Hope you guys have some interesting opinions on this ^^
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