Surprised to see his blog here, I am a huge fan. He is very excellent, and also his munsel color videos are very good.
How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
21–30 of 170 posts
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#22> But drill isn’t popular. It’s widely seen as boring. Worse, there’s a body of opinion, especially in education, that considers it an ineffective way to practice. That’s a shame, because it’s the most effective way to build your skills. This resonated with me as I watch my kids go through school. Math used to be taught with more drill style. Now with common core every single problem is an epic quest of 10 frames and…
Math used to be taught with more drill style. Now with common core every single problem is an epic quest of 10 frames and double pluses. It seems so ridiculous. I'd rather them crush a worksheet of 20 problems that practices a single skill then 2 problems that try to include everything from reading to drawing just for a simple subtraction problem.
The problem with these 20 problems of basically the same identical challenge is that it's actually less effective than intermixing of different kind of problems, at least according to learning science.
You and I may prefer 20 problems that practice straight subtraction, but that's not what the science says is actually the most effective learning strategy.
You want different kind of problems in a problem set. It shouldn't be straight subtraction, but also additions, word problems, and so forth. This creates a level of desirable difficulty, which embeds knowledge more deeply than something that is very easy to do by rote.
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#23> But drill isn’t popular. It’s widely seen as boring. Worse, there’s a body of opinion, especially in education, that considers it an ineffective way to practice. That’s a shame, because it’s the most effective way to build your skills. This resonated with me as I watch my kids go through school. Math used to be taught with more drill style. Now with common core every single problem is an epic quest of 10 frames and…
I was taught math with the drill style. Being forced on a daily basis into repeatedly solving problems you struggle with, trapped with no ability to escape, by people with power over you (eg. parents), having your worth judged based on your ability to solve problems forced upon you, and once you learn a skill your parents find a new weakness to torment you with, is traumatic.
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#24For art and music there are pretty clear and well defined skills that can be drilled. Anyone have suggestions for writing drills?
Okay, I know this sounds crazy and probably difficult because we're pretty inflexible as human beings, but if you try my method, you should be able to accomplish what you're setting out to do. First, you're going to want to sit up with your back against the wall. You should be on the floor for this. Now, scoot forward a bit, enough such that you can place your feet against the wall behind your head. Next, you will use your feet firmly planted against the wall to push your torso forward. With the leverage of your feet against the wall. If you "cannot reach" you should still be able to angle your hips upward and meet yourself halfway. From here, you should be able to slide it all the way in your mouth. Good luck, friend. :)
Also, please do not try this if you have a wife and kids. It will ruin your life, trust me, I learned the hard way.
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#25The premise of Wooden's methods is that the players already have a lot of experience playing basketball. Many many games by the time they got to UCLA. Informal and formal.
And that's my caveat for this as advice on painting. If a person doesn't already have a history of painting, by which I mean starting and completing paintings as paintings, no amount of drill is going turn them into a painter. The willingness to execute paintings has to be there.
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#26> But drill isn’t popular. It’s widely seen as boring. Worse, there’s a body of opinion, especially in education, that considers it an ineffective way to practice. That’s a shame, because it’s the most effective way to build your skills. This resonated with me as I watch my kids go through school. Math used to be taught with more drill style. Now with common core every single problem is an epic quest of 10 frames and…
I was taught math with the drill style. Being forced on a daily basis into repeatedly solving problems you struggle with, trapped with no ability to escape, by people with power over you (eg. parents), having your worth judged based on your ability to solve problems forced upon you, and once you learn a skill your parents find a new weakness to torment you with, is traumatic.
That is not a problem with the drill style per say but toxic teachers and parents. You can make someone drill without tormenting them for failing. I think doing drills is good if done in a supportive setting, but it is also and should not be the only way to teach.
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#27For art and music there are pretty clear and well defined skills that can be drilled. Anyone have suggestions for writing drills?
I have one that I think helps - of course I made it up, so I'm biased. Take a passage from a book you think is written well. For each sentence, ask yourself what, in your own terminology, the sentence is doing - what's the function of the sentence. For example, "a person reacts bodily" or "a decision is made involving time". Then write your own passage for an entirely different story, wherein each sentence accomplish…
To extend on this - this method is extremely useful at work.
When writing a doc, look for similar doc and not just copy their high level structure, but at the paragraph structure in the same way the parent poster has mentioned.
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#28> But drill isn’t popular. It’s widely seen as boring. Worse, there’s a body of opinion, especially in education, that considers it an ineffective way to practice. That’s a shame, because it’s the most effective way to build your skills. This resonated with me as I watch my kids go through school. Math used to be taught with more drill style. Now with common core every single problem is an epic quest of 10 frames and…
We made factflow.io as a side project to help parents drill with their kids. I found it useful with mine, anyway. It's free.
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#29> But drill isn’t popular. It’s widely seen as boring. Worse, there’s a body of opinion, especially in education, that considers it an ineffective way to practice. That’s a shame, because it’s the most effective way to build your skills. This resonated with me as I watch my kids go through school. Math used to be taught with more drill style. Now with common core every single problem is an epic quest of 10 frames and…
Math used to be taught with more drill style. Now with common core every single problem is an epic quest of 10 frames and double pluses. It seems so ridiculous. I'd rather them crush a worksheet of 20 problems that practices a single skill then 2 problems that try to include everything from reading to drawing just for a simple subtraction problem. The problem with these 20 problems of basically the same identical cha…
You are combining too many things. Focusing on 20 simple with increasing difficult problems builds visual memory, pattern matching which is lacking with a few compounds problems.
The science must be missing some inputs because the current theory is lacking.
Re: How to get better at painting without painting anything (2015)
#30There was a reason John Wooden is still revered as John Wooden.
I was taught the difference between practice and play with a different phrase, "perfect practice makes perfect." I've applied that to every part of my life, because it's true.