The Art of Art. A musing about learning.
There is something quite mathematical about learning art. (or learning anything). They say that talent is 10% and hard work is the rest. I think that another way to put it is to say that the 10% of talent, the flair, is actually having a more perceptive mind to understand the right way of looking at things, the right way to look/think about something in order to grasp a medium, clinch an inspiration, evoke an idea etc.. Something that comes easier to some people simply because their mind is in the right place.
Another saying is that practicing doesn’t make perfect. Right practices makes perfect. I see now, that it’s another way of saying the above. One must attribute hard work but also work smart, and practice the right way. It really is all just saying that you need to be able to look at things a certain way to learn faster.
For example, I have friends who works 10 times harder than others. Drawing studies after their day jobs, churning out pieces.. but then they seem to be stagnant in their leveling up of skills. Almost everybody has a friend or two like that. And you want to tell them to stop, rethink their approach, to work smarter, not harder. To tell them that hard work doesn’t guarantee success despite what they tell us. hard work at the wrong thing makes it worse, makes you good at doing something bad- and it’s even more difficult to unlearn something you put in so much effort to learn. Some people however, is able to grasp the concept of painting much faster. Not necessarily needing to do 10 studies a day to whip out a painting more magnificent than others. These people usually use lesser strokes, lesser steps. That’s because they are thinking about it the right way. Looking at it in a way their minds are able to process and translate with paper and tools. I used to think that blind hard work will definitely get us there ( I was in denial and perhaps lazy to admit that there is more to it) simply because the more you do something, the more you will surely stumble upon a way to level up. I don’t have to sharpen my dull mind, and work my mind around it. That’s just a lazy way of leveling up- to work hard blindly. Ironic isn’t it.
All that led me to think that talent when it comes to art, is really the ability to quickly work your brain around something, to un-see bad approaches, be flexible to “retreat and attack” something- be it, a new way of painting, a new medium etc. Talent is the ability to train your mind to see things a certain way your personal self is able to process. Art methods, tutorial and lessons out there are individual Talented artists ways of approaching things. their insights as to how they work, the mechanics of approaching a painting. Not many teaches you how to get the talent itself. Not many teaches you how to think and see. That’s because the way to think and see is so natural for them (and so difficult to explain in verbal or written words) and they share the technical tools instead of a mindset and how to develop this swirling ball of thoughts, right questions (which also needs nurturing), and set it in a direction.
The biggest jump in my work where I saw a huge improvement, was when I had the luck to learn from teachers who taught me how to see, and to think. They didn’t quite know it perhaps, but they were really nurturing me how to cultivate my “talent”. They were training my eye and my brain to work things out for myself. Style and personal voice comes from this realm. This self discovery of how you yourself see things and translate. Studies and methods should be the platform to perform these things, to serve as a place to test out ( other than its other purposes like helping understand technical side of art) and this is why they always say that style comes from painting often and doing more art. Now, where are the tutorials for that? :p
Here’s to hoping that talent is something that can be nurtured. not born with. for it is afterall, a mindset.
vaporwave
blakekathryn
gamechangershow
discoholicmusic
jimmyeatworldofficial
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
ellievsbear
theartofmadeline
stormborns