Hello!

This is a method or strategy attributed to Jerry Sienfeld the famous standup comic. Now it’s possible that he wasn’t the first to use it, but this is how it is known in popular culture. The idea is in some sense a result of the adage “You are what you do.” Therefore if you want to be something, let’s say a singer or rally car driver - then you should sing or drive a rally car as often as possible.

This “as often as possible” translates to “everyday” in the Seinfeld method. He is a comic so …

I’ve had to build another logo in Aseprite for a tiny personal software project. And I really liked making pixel art. Something about the sharp angles, jagged edges, limited palette, limited canvas and limited drawing tools - helps you get creative.

Therefore I wanted to compile a list of resources about where and how to start with pixel art.

What is Pixel Art?

Let’s take first things first though. There is no canonical definition, but if you are working with a small canvas, editing it at the pixel-level, and working with a limited palette - then you’re probably making …

Hi Guys,

For a few years I’ve been watching this bird come and rest in the trees next to my balcony. It rests for some time in the mornings and evenings. It is used to me now, and does not fly away when I’m near.

So yesterday we were having a cup of chai on the terrace, and this guy came around and sat down on our neighbour’s terrace.

And then when I started clicking, this fellow stared right back at me!

I don’t have a …

A CityScape drawn in MSPaint

Happy New Year!!

The best way to keep an ongoing art practice is to incorporate it in things you already do. So if you write a lot of programs or make a lot of presentations, why not learn to make cool graphics to use them in your documents. Instead of searching for existing graphics online, you could create some of your own.

When it comes to digital art, pixel art is perhaps the oldest discipline - because early computers were limited in image processing and display. It is a wonderful art form which still survives today. And there are modern tools …

Ah! The dreaded artist block! When we keep staring at the blank page or canvas and nothing is happening. We are frozen, or we keep getting distracted, there is no inspiration. And internal voice screams “Why is this not working!!!! Gaaah!”

Well what if we could develop a strategy to deal with this mindfully. Instead of just worrying about this state, what if we could fix it. It’s better to fix it - I think we all agree. But HOW!?!

Easy 1st Step - Recognize

I think the first step is to recognize that you are blocked. And this condition could …

Getting Substack Newsletter Posts into a Pelican Site

A few weeks ago I started writing a newsletter at substack.com (which is an excellent platform btw, and I'm loving it). My newsletter is called ArtNoob. Now, substack allows you to export of all the posts on a newsletter, which is a very handy way to grab all the posts and host it on another site. And that's exactly what I wanted to do.

This is a static website https://abhishekmishra.in generated using Pelican. So all I wanted to do was to grab the exported posts and convert them into …

People call it being in the zone or being in the flow state. Some special conditions are required to get into the zone of creativity, where the mind is working smoothly and creative energy is flowing uninterrupted. Any interruption when you’re in this special place has a huge cost. You might not get back into the zone again that day, and even if you do, you would lose a lot of time.

Thus - protect the zone. Build a quiet workplace, let your partner, family, flat-mates know that you are not to be disturbed when you are in there. Such …

Dear Reader,

Wish you happy holidays. Have a wonderful time, and do spend some time to enjoy the beauty of nature. And if you have time draw, photograph, make music.

And last but not the least, don’t forget to set some goals for the new year.

I leave you with this painting of contemplation.

Abhishek (art noob)

I didn't know creating a powershell profile was so easy. I'm just going to document this in case I need it again.

The $profile environment variable holds the value of the powershell profile file. This file is sourced when a new powershell session is started - whether normal or elevated.

Here's the command to create a new profile file. In windows this will usually create a folder named <HOME>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell, where <HOME> is your home folder. A file named Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 will be created in this folder.

New-Item $profile -Type File -Force

One of the few useful things one …