art

Famous Artist Cartoon Course available as free PDF

Art

“So what is the Famous Artists Cartoon Course? Imagine Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but written by a dozen of the most successful commercial artists of the 1950s about the skills you need to cut it as a professional cartoonist. It is 18 chapters, 390 pages, on 8.5×11″ paper. There is approximately a 70:30 ratio of space taken up by text versus pictures (it’s a legit textbook).”

Artists, y’all need to buzz on over to this post on Random Nerds and get this marvelous textbook FOR FUH-REE-HEE.

 

 

 

 

Creativity Lessons from 2018: Improve your art with EDGES

Art

Art is design.

One important component of design is the kind of edges you choose to render.

Here’s a pic from ConceptArt.org’s Paintovers for Posterity that’s been of great use to me

Image of a viking, with the 4 kinds of edges and values pointed out

Paying attention to these kinds of edges doesn’t just help me render different textures…it helps me lead the eye around my work. Hard and firm edges tend to draw the eye towards them (and the clearer the edging/shape read, the friendlier an overall composition is; hence why children’s images and cartoons are so well lit), while lost edges add mystery and tension. Good times!

Creative Lessons from 2018: Quit Wasting So Much Time. Get an App Blocker

Art, everyday, Thoughts on Entertainment, Writing

I didn’t come to this conclusion instantly.

First, I watched this great video about quitting the internet for a month.

Two ideas hit me hard from this video: 1) you never run out of content on the internet. Compare this to reading a newspaper. That  activity  has a definite endpoint. The internet…just keeps going. There is always something there to consume. 2) A lot of what we consume as “news” isn’t news but peoples’ opinions of the news.

Some of the sites I was on were like that–it’d take me 3 minutes to read the article, then 20 minutes to read the comments for that article. And I’d want to read a dozen articles from a site.

That added up.

But one day, just being sick and tired of feeling sore and stiff after too much tablet reading, I decided to get an app blocker for my Android tablet.

I chose StayFocused, for Android.

WOW it opened my eyes. Even though I didn’t have a lot of apps (like Facebook, Instagram, etc.) on some days, I spent hours on one or two of my little games. And many, MANY hours were spent just reading sites on my browser. Pointless! And here I am wondering why I can’t get my art and scanning done!

So I used the app to restrict the amount of time I spend on certain apps on certain days. And like the Firefox/PaleMoon add-on Leechblock, it can also ban an app during certain hours of the day. Pretty flexible!

The free version of StayFocused only lets you block 4 or 5 apps, but since only 4 or 5 apps plague me, it works just perfect for me.

PS using an app like Habitica or TaskHero can help you start building systems that will help you use your time doing things YOU value. Leechblock is great for desktop to block time-sucker sites during certain hours, and Neil Cicierega’s WORK! program keeps you accountable in the programs you need to be working in!

And here are two highly relevant Mormonads to use for your lock screen:

A clock with different silhouetted items - like a girl kneeling in prayer, a man running, a globe, a temple, a book - is featured against a bright yellow background. Black text reads: Spend Time Wisely. "Choose to do many good things of your own free will" (For the Strengh of Youth [2011], 3)

A girl trying to hold on to the edges of a cellphone while apps around her blur like a vortex. Text reads: Don't get sucked in. Pay attention to your family and friends. Your status update can wait.