Random thoughts... - by Tocky
bjack on 24/1/2022 at 00:58
You be you Tocky and all the best to you and yours. Frustration of creativity unreleased can be an issue, to say the least. An artist without an outlet in tantamount to a dormant volcano. May your creativity be positive and fruitful. Don't overthink your craft. You are talented.
Tocky on 24/1/2022 at 02:34
Hey, I appreciate that. I wasn't sure I still had it. I used to doodle on everything in school and then I just quit. Now I can't remember why. Thanks for the well wishes. The same back at you. It's good to see you about, bjack, whether you wish me well or wish me hell. Well is better.
demagogue on 24/1/2022 at 02:48
I'm sure I've been influenced by the approach Japanese have towards arts, but I've found the main job or value of art is the pleasure of getting caught up in the flow of it. Especially I've realized the most valuable part is actually the practice, not the finished product. Or the best part of the product is just that it validates how much practice you put into the thing. If it's beautiful that's just a bonus.
But I think the practice works best, I mean in terms of getting into the flow, if it's regular and disciplined. Not the "you can do better than this" shaming kind of discipline, but the part where you're clearing your mind and doing mindless repetitions of technique in a kind of zen flow. But it's not directionless; it's still following a path that's designed to improve your technique bit by bit towards some ideal. That's what really gets you into a flow.
For me doing jazz piano that means scales, voicings & harmony, rhythm, memorizing tunes, etc.
For art I imagine the trick is keeping a notebook and being disciplined about drawing. But it reminds me when I took a calligraphy class, we spent a lot of time at the start just learning how to make a single horizontal line, and you can't move on until you've got that down, and so on down each technique. I figured if I took up drawing, I'd do it like that. Spend a day on each technique like outlining figures, different ways of doing shading, etc.
Everybody should have their own way in matters of art and taste, of course. I just recommend the disciplined road because I love the feeling of being in the flow of an art, and think that some other people may also get into it like I did.
zacharias on 24/1/2022 at 06:04
On that note I can highly recommend ceramics (in particular throwing on the wheel) to anyone if you are the type of person who enjoys regularity and discipline in art or craft making. We really should have a clay thread here one day..
Tocky on 24/1/2022 at 07:01
I just see it in my head and wonder if I can do it. Even if I'm drawing a person I may look at a picture but actually draw a different angle or pose. I just need the picture to remind me of them. It helps for reminding me of spacing of eyes or why the structure of their face makes this or that expression. If a scene and scenario is something I have in my head then I may start out with that and change mid drawing if I find I like another idea better. I'm the opposite of structured. I'm whimsical. But I do lose myself in what I'm doing. Drawing in pencil helps. Once I get used to all proportion and angle and perspective I may switch to pen. I used to favor that. Each medium has it's own quirks though. Each has it's own cheats and tricks. You can't carry what you learned doing in pen over to watercolor or watercolor to acrylic. And you learn as much by accident as on purpose.
Mostly I just want to have fun with it. Here is one I started and thought I would let sit till I decide how to do the details like stars and sun angle. It's not high art anyway.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/nVZuNh7.jpgI may try to add a refection of a woman in the capsule pointing at him or just move on to something else. It's silly anyway.
P.S. I would like to see your ceramics, zacharias.
Tocky on 25/1/2022 at 06:31
One I did of my daughter. She is always surprising me with paintings of me so turn about.
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/SWMtBdv.jpg
Thor on 17/2/2022 at 17:54
Quote Posted by Tocky
In absolutely no way whatsoever. Just because you lose an argument does not mean the other side are Bolsheviks or whatever other straw man you wish to throw up. He starts out calling people things which he does not support with fact and ends with saying people are scornful of him because of his beliefs. Ever think maybe it's the unsupported argument he started out with in the first place? No? Not a clue? Can't figure that one out? You see, when you are wrong and you name call without evidence, nobody is going to like you. Of course people are scornful of unsupported statements. It's hilarious to think anyone should listen to you when you start with a scornful lie about them and end with umbrage that others are scornful of you. Can you not see the hypocrisy? I don't even consider myself left and it insults my sense of what is right and true that he takes the high ground while pulling the low ground up with him.
I don't frequent ttlg these days, but I thought this one might have triggered a few as I didn't give the most open-hearted context (I've learned the hard way that it's less than pointless to try to discuss here with an open heart).
Ironic to call out name-calling/insulting someone when that's the basis for the argumentation culture here. Sure, it doesn't necessarily resort to swear-words, as you've mastered a more subtle/feminine/w/e way to insult others, as you display in this very post, but even when actual arguments are involved (and that isn't super often), it is nearly always undermined by the weight of the insult preceeding/following it. The thing that has always been off-putting to me about this place in particular (commchat, not the Thief fans part, it's like two entirely different worlds - one of flowers, other of toxic herbs, somehow coexisting side by side) is the sheer arrogance and intolerance of any diversity [of opinion, anyway].
Tocky on 17/2/2022 at 18:33
If your opinion is insulting and not just insulting to our intelligence then you are damn straight it won't fly here. Here we require fact and opinion don't mean shit. Make no mistake that is why you can't handle it here. All you have is opinion. Big deal. My dog has that. Also you come into MY thread and start your shit, a thread which has been nothing but light hearted, then speak of toxic. YOU ARE THE TOXIC ONE. You fall at curbing your own behavior yet tell others to curb theirs. Then for icing on your shit cake you have the nerve to call my forbearance feminine. Son I would kick your ass for that in person but what the hell weight does just saying that have here? Here you have to think and support your arguments with truth and you just don't have what it takes in that department. Hell, any department. That masculine enough for you?