Heyo!
I'm back from a month break!
I've been working hard to get these projects out that I've been alluding to over the last few newsletters (secret project, blog etc etc) and didn't just want to put out a newsletter for the sake of it.
The launch is in-sight for the projects, which also means I've had a bit more time to come across/gather some share worthy resources I've found over the last month.
So let's not waste any more time and get stuck back into my resources, thoughts, 'aha moments' and announcements from the past few weeks.
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- Resources
AI Art Conversations
As the AI art scene has started to become more main stream, and the power of the tools have been spread more and more throughout social media, I began to play around with it (Mid Journey in particular) and man was I impressed!
I've had a bit of experience in seeing how AI has shaken up different industries, in particular OpenAI's GPT-3's neural language processing for the copywriting industry and software development industries.
Both garnered a lot of "Is this the end for <insert your craft/job here>?".
And the same conversations have started to circulate around the art, design and any image-creating industry.
Some are saying it's the end for artists and art jobs as we know it and to the contrary, others believe it's a new frontier for the art industry as a magnificent tool, opening up new opportunities and empowering artists and the general public alike to make anything they can imagine.
I've got a lot of thoughts on this and how it could affect the industry and it's direct impact (both positive and negative) on my future business endeavours as an art educator/creator but I'll leave that to a longer form blog post.
For now, here are some great conversations around the topic from concept artists and illustrators that you might enjoy.
- [Adam Duff's Take on AI](
- [Trent Kaniuga's take on AI](&t=352s)
- Noah and Rachel Bradley's Take on AI
- Wesley Gardener's Take on AI
- Anthony Jones's Take on AI
- Ross Draws using AI in a project
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Video - Social Media for Artists (Stan Prokopenko)
This is a great Draftsmen episode about how Stan tackles social media as an artist. A lot of the things he mentioned would have been super useful to know before I jumped into it.
I loved the part about the growth strategy of 'Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook' which is something I'm a big believer in and was coined by Gary Vaynerchuck. Love or hate Gary, I really dig this principle.
I also got a lot out of Stan touching on the mental aspect of how the numbers can affect you as well as some insightful stats he shared which would have been SUPER useful to put into perspective when I started out.
Follow/like numbers is something I never thought would affect me much, but to my surprise It's something I've had to mindfully navigate – I'm in a pretty good spot with it now but it took a while to adjust.
Definitely worth a listen if you're looking for some actionable insights into the social media game as an Artist.
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Twitter Thread - The Feynman Technique (how to learn anything)
This is a great little twitter thread on the Feynman technique, one of the main reasons I started posting consistently to instagram in the first place.
If you've been following along with my journey so far, then you'll know I'm a learning nerd. I love to break things down, synthesise them and try to build skills as fast as possible, in all sorts of areas – art being one of them.
The basic premise of the Feynman technique is that if you can explain a topic or principle to someone else, and have them understand it, then you, yourself will have a better grasp on the topic. It's also an efficient way to find gaps in your knowledge as well!
Work a look if you're a learning nerd like me.
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Video - A traditional artist paints digitally for the first time
And guess what, he was amazing at it! And that's not by chance.
This is a fantastic example of how fundamentals can move across art disciplines more than you may think.
That's why most art 'principles' I like to learn are exactly that...'principles'. They can cut across disciplines and can be just as handy in traditional mediums as they are in digital.
For example, understanding the laws of light helps in traditional, digital or 3D rendering. It's a win, win win.
But if you only know how to use a particular brush in Photoshop to get the light effect you're after, then you're limiting yourself A LOT!
Worth a watch.
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Video - [Less is more (or is it?)](
Jacob Collier, an absolutely genius musician brings drops a little wisdom nugget in this video that I find has just as much meaning in art.
Basically the premise of this 1 minute clip is that Jacob believes that...
- "Less is more, only when you know what more is"
He believes the saying is true, only when you can take a step back and make a conscious decision to do less from a point of understanding, not just doing less because less is better.
Just like how master figure drawers can seemingly capture so much life in a single gesture – they're editing out all the complexity they already know about the figure down to it's essential elements.
Because they understand the 'more' the 'less' then becomes more powerful.
This is the reason I'm obsessed about the 'why' behind the things I'm learning and one of the reasons I like to dive deeper into topics like anatomy and rendering. Understanding the 'why' behind things is powerful stuff!
Just a cool little parallel that got me thinking.
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Updates
- I'll be moving this newsletters' schedule to once every two weeks for the foreseeable future to keep the value high as I continue to work away at releasing these projects (note to self, don't start so many projects at once next time yeah?)
- The blog and Secret project are inching towards the finish line. Keep an eye out on my stories for some behind the scenes stuff leading + launch info.
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I hope you've been well and have been kicking some art goals over the last month!
That's all from me for this week,
And as always, stay consistent, use reference, have fun with it and remember, it’s only pixels baybee.
Cheers, Ben
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