Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 166 posts

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#141

Post by patrickxie »

My previous startup that I worked on was to solve the problem of "I want to paint, but I don't know where to start".

We used the deep learning style transfer to stylize pictures/drawings with Van Gogh Style. Here's the best one that turned out great (out of 10,000 pictures we styled, this is what everyone loves unanimously) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07831NQJ7

Then we turn them into paint by numbers kit. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H2VDKM1

Apparently the paint is classified as Hazmat, and it took us 6 month to get this thing approved to sell on Amazon. Which kind of killed the idea, as we had to pivot and do other things in order to stay afloat.

I always wanted to learn to paint, but I don't know where to start. I know the first few paintings is going to be ugly, and I don't really want to paint apples and oranges to learn. So this whole startup idea is to make it easy and fun to get started on painting and get the momentum going, because what you paint is idea(picture) created by you. And the painting methodology is simply filling in numbers with colors.

I hope one day I have the time to get back to this. I really believe in this idea.

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#142

Post by barry-cotter »

ericsoderstrom wrote: post #115
kingkawn wrote: post #59

I will tell you what I tell my students; To learn to make art you spend time working with the materials. That is it. When the urge arises to judge the quality of your work, it will be tempting to say this is good or this is bad. Take that energy that you might put into assessing the aesthetic and put it back into the materials instead. Persist and grow. Avoid aesthetic judgements, and instead produce work. Inevitably…

This advice reminds me of an anecdote from Art and Fear [1]. A ceramics teacher divided his classes into two groups. One group he told would be judged only based on the quality of the best pot they made, the other group would be graded based only on the number of pots they made. After the two classes had finished, the teacher noticed that all of the highest qualities works came from the class that was aiming only for…

If you follow the citation trail for that you end up with nothing, no individual who says they did that and had those results. The same anecdote shows up in the War of Art.

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#143

Post by barry-cotter »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #97
morley wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely there has to be some aesthetic guidance along the way? Up until my senior year of college, every writing course I took, I would never get any _aesthetic_ feedback on my work. In grade school, my grammar and spelling would get corrected, but otherwise, what I wrote was what I wrote. It wasn't until I took a sitcom-writing course in college that a teacher gave me feedback that would make my writing better: "this…

Compulsory education is not for that. They're not there to change your aesthetic, if they did then we'd lose a lot of good art IMO: people developing their own aesthetic are often considered to be "no good" because they disobey the conventions. When you've learnt all the tools, and different normative styles, read a reasonable body of work in different genre, that's when to develop your own style. Which corresponds w…

> When you've learnt all the tools, and different normative styles, read a reasonable body of work in different genre, that's when to develop your own style. Which corresponds with University/school leaving largely.

This is far too kind to universities. You get taught Theory in university. You are assumed to already be able to paint. If you want to learn to paint in a third level institution you’re better off studying illustration or graphic design, not fine art.

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#145

Post by a3n »

kingkawn wrote: post #59

I will tell you what I tell my students; To learn to make art you spend time working with the materials. That is it. When the urge arises to judge the quality of your work, it will be tempting to say this is good or this is bad. Take that energy that you might put into assessing the aesthetic and put it back into the materials instead. Persist and grow. Avoid aesthetic judgements, and instead produce work. Inevitably…

This is also the essence (but not the all) of how to learn to program. And maybe how to learn everything else.

To learn to do a thing, you have to do the thing, a lot.

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#146

Post by criddell »

kokokokoko wrote: post #56
Smithalicious wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This entire post sounds like a "hot take". There is indeed a ton of misinformation around and there is no reason to believe your post isn't exactly that, especially when you make undefended claims like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a completely wrong way to learn". I'm also puzzled that you explicitly put down dotrsotb but then go on to recommend Sycra, who recommends that book frequently...

It's all subjective in that most people who want to draw or paint, likely have completely different ideas of what being good at that is. "Drawing from the right side of the brain" is basically just a brain hack to allow a person to essentially trace what is in front of them. To some people that might be the goal. To make a reasonably accurate copy of what is in front of them. For others they may want to be able to dr…

What book would be a better choice?

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#147

Post by bonniemuffin »

Jemaclus wrote: post #2

I know a lot of people who have just painted along with Bob Ross. Maybe that's an option?

Painting along with Bob Ross is totally awesome. Even if it comes out badly (which it will, the first dozen times you try it), it's still super fun. He makes art accessible, unpretentious, and un-scary -- and meanwhile the skills can totally carry over into anything you could possibly want to paint.

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#148

Post by Smithalicious »

kokokokoko wrote: post #56
Smithalicious wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This entire post sounds like a "hot take". There is indeed a ton of misinformation around and there is no reason to believe your post isn't exactly that, especially when you make undefended claims like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a completely wrong way to learn". I'm also puzzled that you explicitly put down dotrsotb but then go on to recommend Sycra, who recommends that book frequently...

It's all subjective in that most people who want to draw or paint, likely have completely different ideas of what being good at that is. "Drawing from the right side of the brain" is basically just a brain hack to allow a person to essentially trace what is in front of them. To some people that might be the goal. To make a reasonably accurate copy of what is in front of them. For others they may want to be able to dr…

>"Drawing from the right side of the brain" is basically just a brain hack to allow a person to essentially trace what is in front of them.

I really don't agree with this sentiment mostly due to the way it is voiced. Yes, the core of "drawing on the right side of the brain" is learning to see objectively and draw what you see. I wouldn't call that a "brain hack" or say that is "essentially tracing" what's in front of them (since "tracing" is kind of a dirty word in art context). Even if it were, that by itself is a very valuable thing to a lot of people, since a lot of styles of drawing and painting boil down to essentially just that, whether it's drawings of nature, portraits, or still lives.

I would say that learning to see is a fundamental drawing skill and this book teaches you valuable things by forcing you to stop and consider what things actually look like.

Of course, that by itself isn't sufficient, but it doesn't need to be. Nobody is suggesting that someone use this book as their only resource. But I do think it's a good introductory book for people who have very little to no experience drawing.

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#149

Post by CyberFonic »

I can recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" as an excellent guide to overcoming the initial hurdles to becoming a painter. "The Artist's Way" is another inspirational guide.

The best advice I was given: Start right now! and don't give up! You will keep improving and don't be afraid to cultivate your own style. Even "mistakes" can provide great learnings.

Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?

#150

Post by WA »

patrickxie wrote: post #141

My previous startup that I worked on was to solve the problem of "I want to paint, but I don't know where to start". We used the deep learning style transfer to stylize pictures/drawings with Van Gogh Style. Here's the best one that turned out great (out of 10,000 pictures we styled, this is what everyone loves unanimously) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07831NQJ7 Then we turn them into paint by numbers kit. https://www.…

I think you think too much about this. From my experience: I took an art class for about a year. It improved my drawing and painting skills a lot.

Sure, the problem is that your first pictures are kind of ugly. But you can compensate this by just painting the next one and not thinking too much about the outcome.

Furthermore, I realized at some point, that it really doesn’t matter what you paint. An apple and an orange can be highly satisfying.

Painting has two different aspects to it: producing a satisfying result and the flow-like state of painting. Although I have to admit that I found painting to be quite exhausting. It takes a lot of attention and energy to be focused for 2-3 hours.

Post reply on HN