neolateral

With the advent of smartphones, pens and notebooks have been disappearing steadily from pockets. For all those who want to get back to sketching, drawing, note taking, writing journals - I suggest buying a thin notebook and a cheap pen and always carrying it around with you.

When you’re bored take out your notebook and doodle what you see or think. It’s better than mindlessly browsing some app with endless scrolling.

Have a great Sunday,

Abhishek (art noob)

Hi there,

The journey of learning any craft is a long one. It has sprints, marathons, and pitstops. To be able to understand our own energy, our fatigue and what our body needs - we need empathy for ourself.

When we need rest, our ambition and our desires should take a vacation, and let the body and mind have some down time to rejuvenate.

I leave you with the painting - Trett (Tired. 1885) by Norwegian Painter Christian Krohg.

I really like the serene expression on her face.

Have a great weekend,

Abhishek (art noob)

This is a short post. I wanted to recommend another blog if you are interested in art related contemporary writings.

James Gurney has been writing his blog for almost 14 years now. I love his art and his writings. Here's the link - http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/ .

That's it for today.

Have fun,

-Abhishek (art noob)

Human figures are the most recurring feature in our drawings. They are also some of the most challenging objects to draw. One can spend a lifetime learning figure drawing, there’s so much to learn. But where does one start and what are the prerequisites.

Although there are no rules in art, generally if we wish to turn out believable figures, we should possess certain drawing skills before hand… (although it is possible to practice these along with learning the figure)

• outline drawing

• ability to recognize and draw shapes (2d)

• ability to recognize and simplify and draw form (3d) - especially …

Hi Reader,

At the beginning of a new month, here’s a dragonfly poised for flight.

That’s the post,

Tata,

Abhishek (art noob)

Hello Dear Reader,

Today I want to talk about a subject which I keep coming back to time and again in my own thoughts - so you could say it is close to my heart. And that is the long-form over the short-form of everything.

We all get one life (unless you are the proverbial cat) - and we would all like to enrich the experience of that life. We would like to make every second count for more and we would want to experience as many fulfilling experiences as we can.

So we want to do more per second and we …

If everything works right, you will get a banner along with today’s email. I made the banner in Clip Studio Paint 1 and the logo in Aseprite 2. The photo in the banner is from a few years ago - in the rainy season a frog was lounging near the fountain just posing for a photoshoot. I hope you like the banner - any feedback is welcome.

Here’s the full sized photo of the moody frog…

See you later, alligators,

Abhishek (art noob)

Hello Dear Reader,

Yesterday’s post had a glaring error in the technical section. I corrected the post after sending out the email and the web version has the corrected section. However I realized I need to institute some discipline on my part to ensure quality.

I’m thinking of delaying posts by a day so that I can read it one more time before I send it out next day. So it gives me a chance to review after a cool-down period.

Let me know what your thoughts are on the subject.

I leave you with a photo of …

“We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us. The sooner we get them out the better.”
― Walt Stanchfield

If we did 100 bad drawings a day - and these have to be studying line work, shapes, forms, light and shadow, tones, anatomy and so on. And they have to be each with some detail. Then we would be through our 10000 bad drawings in a 100 days.

If we did 10 a day which might sound realistic but it’s not easy, we would still take 1000 days which is roughly 3 years.

This is to reach basic proficiency in …

“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”
― Moliere

Art Skills cannot be 3D-printed

We usually have unreasonable expectations from our body and mind, and from our teachers/tutors and even the world. We want to learn art in weeks and months or maybe a year. But our art skills grow like plants, slowly and deliberately, and need a lot of nutrients from the environment.

Learning the craftsmanship part of art can be thought of like growing a plant in a nursery or a garden. The plant will wither away or be stunted if not provided proper nutrients …