Learning Art

[dayguard]

I would like to know how the designers/artists/animators here learn to perfect your art form. Is it through practice or through theory?

In particular how you improve in your drawings and mastering a complex 3D software like Maya.

[Santana28]

well, if we're talking skill.. i've never gotten anything from a class or book in my life that was helpful. repetition, and lots of time. if someone else knows things that i dont know, i like to sit over their shoulder and watch them a bit, before going home and trying out what i've learned. working on the same project together is a good way to learn, because you get to see what someone else would do in various situations and you might learn a much more efficient and speedy way of accomplishing the same tasks that would have taken longer to figure out on your own.

[Indigo]

I believe that talent is something a person is born with. It can't be taught. You just have it or you don't.

It's true that you can teach a person to draw, but you can't teach creativity. Creativity and talent can be developed. You just get better at over time from doing it.

As far as computer programs, I like to start out with a 'how to manual' to learn the most basic stuff. I can't learn from another person telling me how, I have to read it and do it on my own. After that, if I'm learning from another person, I have to write down exactly what they did, otherwise I won't remember. And then experimenting with the program. That's when I learn the most!

Designing

Learn all the aspects of what you are designing. Being a landscape designer for 5 years and now a landscape architecture student, I need to know about the plants, the construction materials, carpentry, the climate,geography, geology, what can be designed and what will actually work in the environment I'm creating the design for. And experiment all the time! Push the limits, do what hasn't been done before. Repition is boring! I don't want to do something that has already been done!

As far as drawing and painting, I just play with it. In my art classes, I did get benefit from learning some of the techniques, but I always put my own style into it, make it my own.

[Alpha Prime]

I believe that talent is something a person is born with. It can't be taught. You just have it or you don't.


"Talent", is a vague and misused term. It is completely useless. I believe "great skill"/"mastery" is a better term.

The statement that a skill, X*, is something one is born with, and which cannot be developed, is dangerous, and most likely, bullshit. It is a matter of developing something that is already present, within you.

To acquire/master something, first, you must, clearly, desire it. Then, you need a balance between theory, and, practicality. Surrounding yourself with inspirational sources is worth its' weight in gold.


It's true that you can teach a person to draw, but you can't teach creativity. Creativity and talent can be developed. You just get better at over time from doing it.


This, is contradictory.



* Where X is humour, sex appeal, leadership, creativity,etc.

[Indigo]

You must not be an artist!

[xhaan]

I would like to know how the designers/artists/animators here learn to perfect your art form. Is it through practice or through theory?

In particular how you improve in your drawings and mastering a complex 3D software like Maya.

Practice, and theory, combined.

xhaan added to this post, 1 minutes and 57 seconds later...

I believe that talent is something a person is born with. It can't be taught. You just have it or you don't.

It's true that you can teach a person to draw, but you can't teach creativity. Creativity and talent can be developed. You just get better at over time from doing it.

As far as computer programs, I like to start out with a 'how to manual' to learn the most basic stuff. I can't learn from another person telling me how, I have to read it and do it on my own. After that, if I'm learning from another person, I have to write down exactly what they did, otherwise I won't remember. And then experimenting with the program. That's when I learn the most!

Designing

Learn all the aspects of what you are designing. Being a landscape designer for 5 years and now a landscape architecture student, I need to know about the plants, the construction materials, carpentry, the climate,geography, geology, what can be designed and what will actually work in the environment I'm creating the design for. And experiment all the time! Push the limits, do what hasn't been done before. Repition is boring! I don't want to do something that has already been done!

As far as drawing and painting, I just play with it. In my art classes, I did get benefit from learning some of the techniques, but I always put my own style into it, make it my own.


Everyone has creativity. You were creative just by making this post, in which you say creativity can be developed and improved.

People who aren't 'creative':
1. Probably gave up too early. or
2. Are cognitively impaired. or
3. Are just being fashionably 'untalented'.

[Alpha Prime]

You must not be an artist!

I'll leave that, to your own interpretation.