I wrote ~5000 words on what 40 hours of studying drawing can do.

[nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt]

I wrote ~5000 words on what 40 hours of studying drawing can do. I know my drawing is not great, but it has improved considerably, and I believe it is a story worth sharing.

https://www.ninakalinina.com/notes/iseeidraw/

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@nina_kali_nina it is my opinion, as a lapsed formally trained artist, that if you are motivated to work through a book like that in the pursuit of your need to connect with images on a deeper level, you've more than earned the right to call yourself an artist with pride. In most cases, the only thing someone you might see as being more skilled than you has over you is the benefit of more recent practice, not more total practice.

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@nina_kali_nina I'll have to give your article a closer reading when I'm done with work, but I think you might find Lynda Barry's writings on teaching STEM college students how to draw again (and unlearn their trained fear of it) an interesting contrast to Betty Edwards's book.

In particular, the part you mention about drawing from memory to surface symbols is a common thread between the two, but it seems the two authors have very different conclusions about what the value of those symbols are.

[nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt]

@aeva nod nod; thanks for the recommendation, I'll look it up! I've read and watched lots of advice after this book that made me convinced that the system of symbols is extremely important in both art and commercial illustration. It's just it seems like the system of symbols needs to be expanded and polished so it can be put to good use.

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@nina_kali_nina I think Lynda's primary goal as a teacher is to help her students unlearn the destructive inhibition, shame, and fear of making imperfect works / of making art in general. Her philosophy is that "bad" drawings by naive hands are able to capture something fundamental that is a lot harder to reach as a practiced trained artist, and that fundamental something (she calls it an Image) is something to cherish and is worthy of study.