For someone who has a head full of negative messages about who is allowed to be an artist I for one embraced the online learning. If I become overwhelmed with negative thoughts I can pause and come back later. If I don’t understand I can rewind and watch/listen again. Online eliminates the automatic comparison with other students that can be discouraging (in my head). I realize there is more joy & energy in teaching in person but there is value in sharing your gifts with those of us who grapple with the process. Mini lessons work for me. Looking forward to your future posts.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jane! I am curious: who decides who is allowed to be an artist?
I hear you about the impulse to compare your work to others and feel discouraged. I think you must remember that every person who draws well now, has been working at it for years. Try to find one thing they're doing that you can try for yourself. And your drawing will improve with time, but there will always be some one better, no matter how "good" you get.
Sounds like all these initiatives ahead are super exciting - best of luck. I appreciate the 'consistency' lesson in this post. It's a good takeaway for me.
In my TEFL instruction, I went through two full years of online teaching. I know exactly where you are with this. It was a re-transition back to the classroom when we all went offline. I still don't know if I ever got used to it - though it had its advantages (no commuting!). I have no doubt this will all work out for you!
Nice one, Bogdan – looking forward to the drawing lessons!
I remember in my first year as a model, many of the veterans told me “You don’t have to stay for the lectures, you know, I just go smoke” (or read, play with phones, etc) I was incredulous – “how could you NOT?” And I was fascinated over time, when I realized that even hearing the same lecture from the same teacher, several years in a row, taught me new and useful things, every single time (as my own thinking advanced for me to perceive them, and my own projects advanced to where I finally needed – and could therefore suddenly recognize the wonderful utility of – the offered solutions).
The Natural Way to Draw is outstanding (and along with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain – pretty much a drawing course in itself – a wonderful source of growth for any interested in art). I devoured them both as a young man (along with Andrew Loomis, and tips from many cartoonists).
Great to remind people that such deep and lastingly useful resources remain available, and very approachable also (lovely that neither descends far into specialist critical language, but instead stay practical and enabling throughout – the English and Criticism courses are down the hall, anyhow!)
I am so much a book-guy, that I had to be dragged kicking and screaming onto social media (initially, just to flog my books). The funny thing is, I soon discovered that I had kind of been training for it, my whole life. “Logging tape” and editing – that is, the post-production side of audio and video work is an old friend (first did them on four track cassette and betamax, respectively), and I was making weird little ‘zines’ and small-run recordings from the early eighties, and so have tons of time on physical editing, type-layout and paste-up. But the thing that really made me laugh, as soon as I realized
that social media was actually low-cost broadcasting, and my own shoe-string budget creative talents were all suddenly relevant again, was that even though I came to the party late, I arrived with so much more to say than I would have, had I been lured away from the library earlier, that I’m grateful even for being a laggard. Give me useful insight or profundity in complete obscurity – not virality for the inane!
Well okay, maybe not quite complete obscurity, but you get my meaning, anyhow... ;o)
Not to mention, early social media was just really combative – Substack and long form interviews rose to prominence later, and they are the appealing side for people who want to learn and make more sense.
The reason I mention that, is that that part of it – having something to say – developing a mature and personal, non-imitative voice, is a part of the creative process very few now discuss. Doesn’t really fit profit metrics, nor grand ideal conceptions – falls in between the functional and spiritual, almost.
Most simply – how do we, as creators, find the way (and will) to commission our own best work from ourselves? The stuff no editor would know to ask for, and no market has yet shown interest in. The big work (or at least, the great themes which we can engage with endlessly, without ever exhauting them)
Here’s a piece I did after sitting for several superb drawing instructors in a row – and I did the header painting (my own highly amateurish effort) directly after coming home from your superb class on fast grayscale portraits in acrylics – I was so excited, I just had to put some of those lessons down on the old plane, while they were still freshly thrilling my brain. Thanks again for that inspiration, Bogdan!
(of course lousy as a painting, but still several best-ever crossings for this lowly line-man)
For someone who has a head full of negative messages about who is allowed to be an artist I for one embraced the online learning. If I become overwhelmed with negative thoughts I can pause and come back later. If I don’t understand I can rewind and watch/listen again. Online eliminates the automatic comparison with other students that can be discouraging (in my head). I realize there is more joy & energy in teaching in person but there is value in sharing your gifts with those of us who grapple with the process. Mini lessons work for me. Looking forward to your future posts.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jane! I am curious: who decides who is allowed to be an artist?
I hear you about the impulse to compare your work to others and feel discouraged. I think you must remember that every person who draws well now, has been working at it for years. Try to find one thing they're doing that you can try for yourself. And your drawing will improve with time, but there will always be some one better, no matter how "good" you get.
Thank you for the encouragement.
Sounds like all these initiatives ahead are super exciting - best of luck. I appreciate the 'consistency' lesson in this post. It's a good takeaway for me.
In my TEFL instruction, I went through two full years of online teaching. I know exactly where you are with this. It was a re-transition back to the classroom when we all went offline. I still don't know if I ever got used to it - though it had its advantages (no commuting!). I have no doubt this will all work out for you!
Sorry I will miss this (work) — I hope it goes well! Looking forward to the drawing posts ✨
Nice one, Bogdan – looking forward to the drawing lessons!
I remember in my first year as a model, many of the veterans told me “You don’t have to stay for the lectures, you know, I just go smoke” (or read, play with phones, etc) I was incredulous – “how could you NOT?” And I was fascinated over time, when I realized that even hearing the same lecture from the same teacher, several years in a row, taught me new and useful things, every single time (as my own thinking advanced for me to perceive them, and my own projects advanced to where I finally needed – and could therefore suddenly recognize the wonderful utility of – the offered solutions).
The Natural Way to Draw is outstanding (and along with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain – pretty much a drawing course in itself – a wonderful source of growth for any interested in art). I devoured them both as a young man (along with Andrew Loomis, and tips from many cartoonists).
Great to remind people that such deep and lastingly useful resources remain available, and very approachable also (lovely that neither descends far into specialist critical language, but instead stay practical and enabling throughout – the English and Criticism courses are down the hall, anyhow!)
I am so much a book-guy, that I had to be dragged kicking and screaming onto social media (initially, just to flog my books). The funny thing is, I soon discovered that I had kind of been training for it, my whole life. “Logging tape” and editing – that is, the post-production side of audio and video work is an old friend (first did them on four track cassette and betamax, respectively), and I was making weird little ‘zines’ and small-run recordings from the early eighties, and so have tons of time on physical editing, type-layout and paste-up. But the thing that really made me laugh, as soon as I realized
that social media was actually low-cost broadcasting, and my own shoe-string budget creative talents were all suddenly relevant again, was that even though I came to the party late, I arrived with so much more to say than I would have, had I been lured away from the library earlier, that I’m grateful even for being a laggard. Give me useful insight or profundity in complete obscurity – not virality for the inane!
Well okay, maybe not quite complete obscurity, but you get my meaning, anyhow... ;o)
Not to mention, early social media was just really combative – Substack and long form interviews rose to prominence later, and they are the appealing side for people who want to learn and make more sense.
The reason I mention that, is that that part of it – having something to say – developing a mature and personal, non-imitative voice, is a part of the creative process very few now discuss. Doesn’t really fit profit metrics, nor grand ideal conceptions – falls in between the functional and spiritual, almost.
Most simply – how do we, as creators, find the way (and will) to commission our own best work from ourselves? The stuff no editor would know to ask for, and no market has yet shown interest in. The big work (or at least, the great themes which we can engage with endlessly, without ever exhauting them)
Here’s a piece I did after sitting for several superb drawing instructors in a row – and I did the header painting (my own highly amateurish effort) directly after coming home from your superb class on fast grayscale portraits in acrylics – I was so excited, I just had to put some of those lessons down on the old plane, while they were still freshly thrilling my brain. Thanks again for that inspiration, Bogdan!
(of course lousy as a painting, but still several best-ever crossings for this lowly line-man)
https://paulsnyders.substack.com/p/the-enemy-is-detail