324: The Difficult Truth
–I recently came across a video by Jeffrey R.Watts that had a lot of valuable information, especially for young artists. Watts spoke candidly about wh...
Category: learning
266: Review of James Gurney’s “Fantasy in the Wild”
MY new year’s resolutions include having more fun with art while exploring techniques outside my normal purview. A video that admirably ful...
262: You Can’t Until You Can
OVER the last year I’ve written an unprecedented amount of posts about artistic improvement. Recently I’ve been reflecting on the idea that artists ...
240: Painting with Gouache
I HAVE never experimented much with gouache–probably from bad experiences using the chalkier, less versatile version known as designers gouache back i...
239: The Improvement Cycle
A common obstacle for new painters is to get blocked in the improvement cycle. This means we have trouble closing the gap between the frustrating phase of ...
236: Getting better faster
Close-up of large acrylic LEARNING to paint embraces a wide array of skills. It requires motor skills, or the simple act of applying paint. It requires intellec...
234: How to succeed in art
Ghost, Woodcut, 1.5″ x 1″ Due to factors beyond my control I’ve recently experienced a creative low ebb. To use the time produc...
223: Learning to paint, Part 2
Artists might think that sheer repetition is the means to improve their paintings. We often hear reference to putting miles on the brush. But according to the l...
222: Learning to paint, Part 1
Dream of Light, 44″ x 44″, close-up In the book Make It Stick authors Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDanie...
212: The limits of talent
In the book Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin outlines what separates world-class performers from everyone else—deliberate practice. (Read previo...
210: Art Hurts–the pain of Deliberate Practise
In blog 205 I wrote about Deliberate Practise. Much has been written about practising deliberately for musicians and athletes but what form would it take for pa...
206: How to improve
Summer Light, 11″ x 11″, 8 block woodcut When reflecting on how to improve in the coming year we might come up with the usual ideas: practice and st...
205: Practice deliberately
When research psychologist Anders Ericson was young he played chess competitively with classmates. One day he played against a boy he had beaten decisively in e...
142 How to manage your brain
In the book The Chaos Imperative author Ori Brafman outlines the the biological mechanics of creativity. I consider myself well versed in the literature of both...
120 Learning by teaching
I recently finished teaching an illustration course at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. I’ve heard teachers say they learn more than their students....
98: Natural gifts vs. acquired gifts
THERE IS A POPULAR THEORY that has been around for a while called the 10,000 hour theory. In his book Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell write...