How I became an artist • Hacker News Board

Re: How I became an artist

#21

Post by nedwin » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 9:23 PM UTC

bryang wrote: post #10

nedwin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure about that. As a product manager I wish I had spent more time on either learning to program or preferably designing interfaces for product ideas that I had. I did some of this stuff but not as much as I now realise I could have. As a CMO the best evidence of your skills is in marketing a product of any kind. It could be a blog or product that you've created yourself, or pro bono work for someone else.…

I guess I could clarify that what I'm talking about is the time it takes for skills to become apparent and credible. I'm not saying Noah's first works were Old Master level[1] or that they even are now, but clearly you can look at them and say "Kids got talent and has made tangible improvements." Sure, I can start a blog talking about social media marketing, but basically it's starting from absolute zero - whereas No…

I think better than the social media marketing blog or building and selling a product would be to find someone else's product you can help grow.

Like Noah you can find an old master to train under too.

A lot of self-taught coders do this by building websites for friends and family when they get started, why not do the same with marketing?

But overall agreed - not easy to demonstrate marketing chops until you're in the hot seat. :)

Re: How I became an artist

#22

Post by hiou » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 9:25 PM UTC

tjradcliffe wrote: post #13

sktrdie wrote: post #9

This is great and you're of great inspiration to young artists or simply anybody that wants to pursue their dreams. I think that living a humble life doing simple things that don't necessarily lead to professional success, is still a very noble lifestyle. The pressure society has brought upon us to follow our dreams, simply because it's nice to follow your dreams, is a bit of a pipe dream. What I'm trying to say is t…

The one objective measure of success in art is mastery of technique, which is something the kind of dedication and practice he has done can produced. A mature artist of any kind should be able to deliberately set out to create a particular effect or experience for their audience, and create a work that has that effect or produces that experience. This is a reasonable goal for artists to pursue, because it's one that…

I could not disagree more. What you are describing is craft and not art. Not to say that one is in any way better or more valuable, only that once something has a firm set of "particular effects or experiences" it have moved on from art and into the world of craft.

Re: How I became an artist

#23

Post by budu3 » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 9:42 PM UTC

zzkt wrote: post #19

kbv wrote: post #16

OP please add an nsfw tag ..

your workplace isn't safe for art?

I presume that he's talking about the nude sketches.

Re: How I became an artist

#24

Post by ak39 » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 9:53 PM UTC

And this, dear friends, is how Noah Bradley actually became a writer!

What an excellent piece. I am reading this to my kids.

Re: How I became an artist

#25

Post by tomcam » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 9:53 PM UTC

tjradcliffe wrote: post #11

The best thing about this piece is the rationality of his decision-making: didn't get a scholarship so take a year off to get better. School was getting too expensive so find a cheaper way to go. Need to pay off student loans so move back in with parents. These are excellent artistic decisions, because they allowed him to practice his craft and never take his eyes off his goal, yet didn't wed him to any particular pa…

I was going to write this post, but you did it better. I think for anyone to get substantially better than average they need not just to work effectively, but to self assess honestly and make regular course corrections.

Re: How I became an artist

#26

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 10:17 PM UTC

What an incredible journey, and what a tremendous amount of hard work.

Re: How I became an artist

#27

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 10:18 PM UTC

kbv wrote: post #16

OP please add an nsfw tag ..

If that's NSFW where you work then you probably should simply avoid browsing the web.

Re: How I became an artist

#28

Post by mvazquez » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 10:19 PM UTC

Incredible Journey, Well done. (y)

Re: How I became an artist

#29

Post by ninjakeyboard » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 10:41 PM UTC

That was super - really - thanks for writing this.

Re: How I became an artist

#30

Post by mari_says » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 10:50 PM UTC

It's good. I'd try to avoid a bit more the emotional aesthetization. That would fit more in painting that lacks technique, but you paint too good for that. Make it more rough. Don't mean to know more than you of course but a good trick is to try to paint humans as if they were landscapes. no it's as if you don't leave anything outside of the painting, for the viewer to fill... Only my opinion do.