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

How I became an artist

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 110 posts

Re: How I became an artist

#101

Post by lectrick »

ryan-allen wrote: post #65
gbog wrote: post #41

Most comments seems positive here, nice. I'm a bit less enthusiastic. A twenty-so young boy has no lesson to teach. He can't be an artist because artists are either over fifty or dead, no matter how many times he'll repeat the mantra. One does not choose art among other professional activities: a very few men or women are chosen to become artists and they will be no matter what else they try to do. Also being an arti…

I don't know why this comment is being downvoted, do we downvote on differences of sentiment now on HN?

No True Scotsman fallacy. Pessimistic bitterness. Is insane enough to read Kafka fucking four times. Appeal to some ominous nameless oppressive judgmental force in order to discourage (perhaps this was informed by all that Kafka reading). Is obsessed with nihilism. Spreads negativity unnecessarily, which does not help anything. Senseless comparison to optimistic soldiers entering a warfront... Getting rejected by art directors until you're successful is not the same as killing "enemies" in cold blood, I'm sorry.

All of that and more in a mere 3 short paragraphs.

How did you NOT see why it was downvoted?

Re: How I became an artist

#104

Post by archagon »

kul_ wrote: post #64
archagon wrote: post #61

This might be a dumb question, but I figure it wouldn't hurt to ask anyway! I'm really interested in learning how to create art, and skill-wise I'm currently right where you were at the start. If I were to follow your exact path, it would take me many years to get anywhere near your level, and while I'm up to the challenge, I don't have four solid years to devote to a new college run at the moment. However, looking b…

I wonder, is art only about education? I used to be pretty good at sketching in general, But i feel i do not have the imagination to create such wildly out of the world landscapes. Is there a way to learn how to imagine? Or would one say art isnt for everyone?

When I was younger, I was really worried about learning how to imagine, specifically in regards to music. So many musicians seemed to have started out at ridiculously young ages, and despite the fact that I had been plunking away at piano lessons for many years, I still couldn't hear any original music in my head. Then, when I got to college, I decided to do a side-major in music, just for fun. As I was doing my listening exercises (hours of analytical listening) and diving into the depths of music theory, I started noticing something in my head opening up. I could hear snippets of music... recombined from others I had heard recently, perhaps, but with definite original streaks to them. I was not actively playing an instrument at the time. I was not even composing. All I was doing was building a solid musical foundation. And just like that, after a couple of "aha!" moments, music was no longer a formless mist. It had structure. It had rules (that you could elect to break). Now that I could see the walls of my room, I could finally start to build on my own.

Anyway, my hunch (and reading between the lines of the article) is that something similar happens with art. Once you learn to intuitively visualize shapes in three dimensions, and once you develop a large mental "reference library" of architecture/landscape/characters/etc., you'll be able to create imaginitive new worlds without much effort. But without having that foundation, you're still stumbling around in the dark.

Re: How I became an artist

#105

Post by gbog »

lectrick wrote: post #101
ryan-allen wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why this comment is being downvoted, do we downvote on differences of sentiment now on HN?

No True Scotsman fallacy. Pessimistic bitterness. Is insane enough to read Kafka fucking four times. Appeal to some ominous nameless oppressive judgmental force in order to discourage (perhaps this was informed by all that Kafka reading). Is obsessed with nihilism. Spreads negativity unnecessarily, which does not help anything. Senseless comparison to optimistic soldiers entering a warfront... Getting rejected by art…

It's just that I'm old. I didn't read Kafka four time in a row mind you. I'm not nihilist at all, what made you think that? I have a high opinion on art, music, movies, literature, and prefer Kafka over Harry potter if you don't mind. When I see a twenty so claim himself an artist and a bunch of appraisers, I insert my view which is that artistic genius is a curse, happens very rarely, and certainly cannot be taught by a twenty so blogger who draws.

Re: How I became an artist

#107

Post by vacri »

gbog wrote: post #105
lectrick wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No True Scotsman fallacy. Pessimistic bitterness. Is insane enough to read Kafka fucking four times. Appeal to some ominous nameless oppressive judgmental force in order to discourage (perhaps this was informed by all that Kafka reading). Is obsessed with nihilism. Spreads negativity unnecessarily, which does not help anything. Senseless comparison to optimistic soldiers entering a warfront... Getting rejected by art…

It's just that I'm old. I didn't read Kafka four time in a row mind you. I'm not nihilist at all, what made you think that? I have a high opinion on art, music, movies, literature, and prefer Kafka over Harry potter if you don't mind. When I see a twenty so claim himself an artist and a bunch of appraisers, I insert my view which is that artistic genius is a curse, happens very rarely, and certainly cannot be taught…

He said he was an artist, not an artistic genius; on the contrary, he's fairly humble and critical of his own work. You're putting words in his mouth, then talking down to him for things he didn't say.

Re: How I became an artist

#108

Post by vacri »

ryan-allen wrote: post #95
gbog wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me very defensible that "how I became an artist" cannot be taught by someone who has only a few years behind. "Becoming an artist", for real artists, is a life-long achievement, it takes a lot of struggles, travels (inside and outside), it requires knowing a lot, reading a lot, et cetera. "How I became an artist" from a 20-so is a absurd, risible, as "how to learn Python in 20 mn" confer: http://norvig.co…

My thoughts are that both views are valid. I don't think it'd be difficult to look back and discover that some of the great artists were tortured with what they did. My somewhat cynical view is that anything significant requires great sacrifice and no matter what positive spin you put on it, few great artists got there with an abound of positive emotions. Getting good sucks. It sucks, a lot. An anecdote I remember re…

... so the reason why this painter is 'not an artist' is because when he describes his journey in prose, he doesn't sound sufficiently woeful and depressed? If the tone of the article had focused more on the downsides and the setbacks, blowing them up out of proportion, his painting would have more meaning?

Re: How I became an artist

#109

Post by stefanix »

Love seeing the progression in skill.

On a different note, most artists I know are successful because they excel in making insightful commentary on contemporary culture. They look at human agency and make sens of it. They crate a playground of imagination for possible futures.

Skills in traditional art practice are often secondary to the latter.

Re: How I became an artist

#110

Post by myth_buster »

noahbradley wrote: post #46
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #3

Awesome post! Very useful to have the inside scoop. There was a recent posting on "Ask HN" about pressure to quickly succeed. The exact quote was " I'm 22 and I feel if I don't hit it big within the next 2 years I probably won't ". [1, 2] Success is a slow road, as this post so nicely illustrates, you need to constantly be putting in the hours! It's easy to browse HN/startup eco-system and only see the career highlig…

Exactly this. As an artist, I constantly have people stumble across my recent work and exclaim how much they like it. That's awesome! It makes me feel so good. But they see that without the context of the years that came before it. They don't understand the struggles that lead to that piece. So this article was all about providing some of that context.

Thanks for the perspective and this incredible article. It's quite motivating and I love how you use the light (being a photographer I think it's easier for me to see) and the details/texture.

Going through the article, I felt two transitions: a. Where you did portraiture with landscape background, b. where you did the imaginative landscapes

   would do imaginative sketches of landscapes
The place where the article really connected/resonated with me was:

  But then I started getting annoyed. I got annoyed with how students are taught 
  and with how art schools take advantage of eager young art students. 
  I saw too many of my peers taken advantage of. They charge tens or hundreds 
  of thousands of dollars and give very little in return.

  So for one thing, I wrote that angry rant that a few of you might have read.

  In 2013, I started Art Camp.
What you are doing is incredible and it's nice to see your passion being cohesively molded into a purpose which helps you to give back.

Kudos!

Post reply on HN