Comparing learning new skills to experiences learning art

@TheLemmaLlama any pronouns
Thu, 09 Feb 2023 10:49:13 +0000

@TheLemmaLlama wrote:

Lensing:

It´s a bit like drawing like Charles Schultz because it´s very limiting.The limits don´t bother me when I make music because I will play blues and rockabilly until I die and don´t need moretheory but they bother me when drawing because I can´t draw the things that I want to draw with limited theory/technique

Oh yeah, that makes sense too! I've always been pretty happy sticking to anime style for drawing humans, so that probably also explains why I might not have needed much theory for a long time compared to someone who wanted to draw people realistically or stylized in other different ways XD

darthmongoose:

I have the same feeling about comics where people are trying to tell the cleverest story and have the most complex and artistic art and so think they're above baseline pros, or even mid-level people like me, but they haven't mastered really basic stuff like making their visual storytelling clear and easy to follow, how to make pleasing panel layouts that flow well, how to pick fonts that fit, how to choose where to publish and market a comic to find people who want to read it etc. Always respect the people who are managing to hit the bottom targets; you can try to fly above them later.

I assume this is advice for people who are learning to go pro; certainly it makes sense to focus on the essential skills for hitting the baseline targets first if your aim is to get in asap.

Thing is, playing around with clever stories and super-artsy visuals is the part that's fun; it makes you feel special - while anyone could learn clear visual communication if they tried hard enough and good basics are good for basically the same reasons each time, works that are 'clever' or 'original' are considered such for very different reasons, unique to the work (and thus you, or at least that's how it feels).

So being 'that person who made that super unique work' is a more exciting prospect than being 'just another person who could reliably do decent work', and so if the former dream gives someone the drive to learn in a way the latter doesn't, I'd say let them try to be clever; let them try to 'fly above' people in the industry.

Ofc if you really are intending to go pro (or even just get a lot of eyes on our work, without involving yourself with 'the industry'), you should be grounded in reality and recognize that you need to learn the essentials at some point because it doesn't matter how unique your work is if there are glaring flaws that fundamentally disrupt the reader's experience of trying to take it in. But I don't think you absolutely need to learn the 'basics' first. 'Easier' skills aren't always prerequisites to 'harder' ones; you need to walk before you can run, but you don't need to walk before you can juggle 3 knives and a torch

darthmongoose:

Like if I was going to learn composition, I'd be chatting to people from Videogame Remix communities, composers from really small videogames on itch, or Homestuck fanmusic people

I like the spirit of this though; chat with people who are good at what they do, but aren't so in demand that they don't have the time to, uh, chat with you Even just hanging around in an amateurs' community you bump into people who are already pretty good, but still hang around :]

darthmongoose:

People tend to think about professional creatives like once you're pro, you're top level

Yeah, if I consider the pros in some given field (music, art etc) I would certainly have trouble arranging them in a 'hierarchy' If it's measured by experience, some of the works I look up to and aspire to the most are indie productions by people who haven't had much experience. Which I guess is what you're saying we should do XD But I admire them because they're 'clever and artsy' (in particular ways that resonate with me), and thus my admiration for them is going to inspire me to try to be 'clever and artsy' rather than inspiring me to master the basics :'D