BW10: Fundamentals and Learning

The more you understand of these most fundamental of fundamentals, the better and more effectively you will be able to learn even more complex ideas based on them. What applies to a cube could be refined into applying to a sphere, or a tree or a rock or an imaginary fantasy city. Knowing the fundamentals well will free your mind to focus on other, more creative aspects of doing art and design.

Learning

Next, I want to talk about learning, the first word in the common expression 'learning fundamentals'. There are especially two thing I like to say about learning, the first one is about how long time you need to spend to learn things, the second one deals with why it's important to spend that time. I think a lot of you will feel relieved after reading this to be honest, but again, this is just my own opinion about these matters.

10 000 hours...

...is kind of a meme. I watched this TED talk by Josh Kaufman (Youtube) in which he explains the origin of the '10 000 hours rule'. Personally, I have been drawing and painting for about 3 years and 3 months now. I know I've had this account for longer than that, but I never took drawing seriously as something I really wanted to get good at until July 2012. So even if I had been able to draw full time for all this time (which I haven't since I've had to work day jobs for at least half of that time) there's no way I would have been able to do 10 000 hours. the 10 00 hours rule is the time necessary to master a skill. I am nowhere near mastering drawing yet of course, but I'm good enough at it to be able to work with it. So in my experience, the 20 hour rule in order to learn anything that is presented in this video is quite accurate. Also much less intimidating. You don't need to spend 10 000 hours in order to get good at drawing. You just need to start by spending 20 hours. For example, if you spend 20 hours on learning to draw perspective, you will probably learn enough to be able to start drawing humans rather well in perspective also. So in comparison, spending 20 hours on perspective on one hand or spend a few more years in learning human anatomy in the other, which one gives the quickest and most satisfying result?

I recently picked up my markers after years, and I've been making these small cubes just for fun and play. When
I first had to do this in school, it was pain and suffering. Now it's effortless and fun. I could not only do it, but I
could also clearly explain the theory for my classmates while doing it. When you can do something, you want to do it

Passing the First Barrier

The reason I like this 20 hour rule is that there's an initial uphill, or barrier, whenever there's something new to learn. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a lecture about learning. "We can't do it just because we want to, but we will want to do it if we can do it already" said the lecturer. Once you pass this initial barrier of learning, once you spend these first 20 hours of drawing cubes in perspective, you will start to enjoy doing it. Simply because now that you know how to do it you won't need to spend the same effort to do it! It's a fantastic feeling. And once you get there, you will be more happy to spend the next 20 hours learning the next step of the subject, because you want to reach that point where, for example, drawing ellipses in perspective is no longer causing you headache, but is effortless. And so on and on. Very good artists always seem happy to dive back into fundamental studies for this very reason, while as a beginner artist one will find it very hard to get motivated to study at all. So if you want to get good, and get good fast, then I'd recommend you to take on your first 20 hours with enthusiasm and effort, and I feel quit sure that you will be amazed at what you can do and understand once you pass that first barrier. And don't feel discouraged about the seemingly simplistic task of drawing cubes. It's better to start with something achievable, because if it's easy then you will have lot's of brainpower left to find ways to learn more and start to slowly build complexity. When drawing a cube isn't a problem anymore you will automatically start to challenge yourself by drawing cubes stacked on each other, or in different angles to the camera. Variation is endless, as is the learning potential. The best way to learn is to be playful.

Thank you for reading! Before you comment, I have a short announcement:
I am looking into the possibility of once again taking on some students for tutoring. The subjects that I think I am most proficient at teaching is applied perspective drawing (or freehand perspective drawing if you please) as well as regular perspective drawing and presentation skills. This is what I was teaching the last time I had a student. A session would include critique and feedback, q and a and short theoretical demos and explanations. The hour long session rate would be 36 Euros, with the option that you can team up with one friend for the same total rate (18 per person in other words), but not more than two students at the same time or it would get messy. For now, this is only a possibility I'm looking over, but if you are interested then send me an email at jensbeng@gmail.com so I can see if there's any interest at all. Or you could comment below, but if you send an email, I can respond directly as soon as I have decided whether to pursue tutoring again or not. Thank you, and I hope you all have a good week!
Edit April 24, 2019: for more current information about tutoring see Tutoring - Sketch in Perspective

This is another study I did during fundamental training in school. Once you know enough perspective, and enough about light it's possible to start to train your
understanding of both at the same time. This still isn't 'good' in the result, but exercises like these were what stimulated my growing understanding of 'how to art'