which would you rather be?

I've just been looking at this thread, which documents one guy's 9-year journey from novice to artist. The site is getting hammered at the moment, but basically, it starts like this:

and ends like this:

It's really a great example of how, with constant, deliberate practice over a few years, you can learn just about any skill.

I've been thinking about stepping up my own efforts, but it's hard to pick an area to concentrate on. When I listen to great music, I want to be a better musician. When I read great books, I want to be a better writer. When I see great art, I want to learn to draw... on top of this, I'm always trying to improve my programming, business, design, and marketing skills (the things that pay my rent)...

So, if you had to pick one subject to study and master for the next decade, what would it be?

[edit]

Someone put together a video version of that thread I linked:

a great writer. not that i've made any attempt to do that but yeah. in fact i do the opposite..

i've done that with music too. just given up and made cheesy crap.

hmm, i'm gonna try to be a great philosopher :sup:

WATMM... go figure, we all want to be great musicians

visual artist i guess, runs in the family and is where I most excel

i think with creative minded people there is some overlap though. plus every genre of art influences and borrows from the other so it's kind of mix media

Out of the choices given I would have to sway towards musician. I'm currently working at programming and would like to think the work I'm putting in will eventually turn me into some sort of mastergod at it. Maybe I'll write a new program every day.

That's a big maybe.

I love being a musician but I would love to be a great artist or writer. I'm moderately good at super precise design/digital art, I'd love to expand that into illustration/painting though. And as for writing, it'd be mostly for lyrics, but stories would be amazing. I did write a few interesting nonsense stories in and shortly after highschool but I never really persisted once my music stuff took off.

I'd also love to be a visual artist because it seems to be more respected as an art form than music, I guess. And it's easier to get visual art out to people.

duh

What kind of question is this?

  On 9/24/2011 at 2:43 PM, Dropp said:

duh

 

What kind of question is this?

What kind of question is that?

Great link, Chaos!

I feel like I've learned a lot over the last year and a half about sound and music so I'm really excited about how my stuff is going to sound 2 years from now.

there's now a video for those that don't want to click through all 70 pages of that art thread.

http://vimeo.com/29510470

i'd love to be a talented musician/producer but i woudln't want to be famous

drawing / painting used to be my main thing up until i was 15-16 or something, now i pretty much suck at it and watching that video makes me wish i'd kept it up.

i was never good at drawing. i guess i would choose writer because of my career path, and I have a great passion for it....but there is something irresistible about fantastic music.

i would definitely want to be a classical composer rather than an electronic artist/rock guitar virtuoso.

i want to be great at building things in minecraft

I picked musician, why is obvious. Although I guess I would actually be a bretter writer than a musician... but what's a musician or an artist anyway?

I've been meaning to get into photography and painting for some time... I read about a guy who mixed sand and glass and stuff into his paint, made me wonder what kind of crazy textures and colours I could get if I started messing with unconventional media. Just haven't gotten my ass in gear. The photography threads here have actually inspired me for photography, so I"m attempting to save for a decent camera (i have a crappy four year old point and shoot sony and pics always come out grainy and shitty) as well as for school.

His journey, holds a great lesson. Remember the arc.

picked music

but like my dad always says

you cant turn a donkey into a racinghorse

So we could turn genban into a single daily post each, in a short one line post detailing our efforts. Whilst we get on with it then.

Make moderating a dream, and you lot would be pretty amazing by the end of it.

  On 9/25/2011 at 2:09 PM, Ranky Redlof said:

picked music

but like my dad always says

you cant turn a donkey into a racinghorse

Or there's this. ^^

Although, that guy started out with pretty shitty skills. But then i guess in visual art, it's easier to follow and practise established techniques to reach a result of reasonable quality. As you are honing your skills as a visual copier. You'll note that that guys imaginative art never really got much more interesting, just better drawn. (maybe, i dunno, i started skimming through at about halfway.)

In composing music though it's a little more abstract. But i'm sure even if you were clueless that you could still pull out some reasonable stuff in the style that you have chosen to ape.Of course as you are choosing one of the three disciplines, perhaps this will filter out some of those less capable in each sphere. So we could have a few worthwhile talents generated by the end of the experiment.

I don't know about being a great artist but I'm sure anyone can learn to draw or play music. I always wonder why people say 'I can't draw' as if it something you expect to be born with.

interesting link.

his talent for portraits really emerges as he builds his arsenal of technique with dedicated(extremely!) practice.

Writer>Musician>Artist

I'm tempted to try NaNoWriMo this year actually. I figure that it's a challenge that will get me writing at least, even if I don't finish it or it turns out to be shit (most likely).

But Arkham City comes out in late October... so, yeah, I probably won't want to dedicate November to writing.

also reinforces my dislike for digital art. all his pencil/paint stuff is miles better.

christ! i just got to where the guy's got a book out and teaches art for a living. what a story.

Oh, maybe i should check the thread out. Has anyone got an abridged version somewhere.

As for dissing on digital art. I'd say that round about when he was getting better he switched mediums, and so away from his original intention of learning to become good in the digital medium. There's actually a myriad of fantastic digital paintings out there.

I can teach almost anyone to draw like that in like 3 years, if he was serious...