EdwardsOtherSide

I am deeply concerned by the Deviantart staff's decision to ban the character, Hoofs.  To cave to a bunch of oversensitive, busybodies who want to impose their rigid, authoritarian world view on artists is an outrage.

Site Update: Hoofs BannedDue to the sudden increase in submissions of the character "Hoofs," our policies have been updated to prohibit the submission of any Hoofs art, fanart, or derivative works.
— Site Update
HoofsBanned
Hoofs is officially banned from DeviantArt. For more information, read below.
Due to the sudden increase in submissions of the character "Hoofs," our policies have been updated to prohibit the submission of any Hoofs art, fan art, or derivative works. We sometimes have to make difficult decisions for the benefit of the community as a whole, and the extreme nature of this character necessitated us making a change.
Though we do our best to err on the side of artists whenever possible, the nature of Hoofs as a char

#savehoofs2020 #hoofs #savehoofs #save_hoofs 

#shareyourheart

#ShowYourHeart

And


#ShowYourHeart 

In “101 Things to Learn in Art School” (www.amazon.com/101-Things-Lear…), the second point is “Learn to draw”*.  So drawing, gaining basic competence in the most basic skill of any visual medium is a good place to start in an art education.  It can be intimidating.  We see the works of the Renaissance masters and despair of every approaching that level of proficiency.  Thankfully, some diligent students of the masters like Robert Beverly Hale have carefully worked through what we can document and with detailed examination of the old masters’ works reconstructed much of the most basic education in art, as it was practiced** in the Renaissance (www.amazon.com/Drawing-Lessons…). Betty Edwards’ “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” (www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-S…) is more scientific than Hale, but compliments Hale’s lessons well, and never contradicts him. 

Moving past technical competency, which comes from putting in much practice to get the basics of technique down, the issue of inspiration, the core of original art comes up.  Some folks are truly naturals with inspiration, and often their challenge is taking the time to develop their techniques, and working through frustration at how slow the techniques can be to develop, or frustration at the limits of materials.  I am not one of them.  For folks like me, Kleon’s “Steal Like an Artist” (www.amazon.com/Artist-Turtleba…) is a lifesaver, something that you can cling to, that will give you hope when you are adrift in a sea of pressures to be original, without a single useful word on how to be original.

Honorable mention: 
Kimon Nicholaides’ “The Natural Way To Draw” (www.amazon.com/Natural-Way-Dra…)  is a classic and well structured approach to learning to draw.  Not extraordinary, but a solid syllabus to lead the self-taught artist forward.
“Draw It With Your Eyes Closed” www.amazon.com/Draw-Your-Eyes-… is the thoughts of undergraduate and graduate level art teachers on how to teach art. Not much technique, lots of weird stories and exercises, some good life advice, and the general message that art instruction at the university level is therapy led by amateurs who desperately need therapy themselves.

Okay... dishonorable mention.
Seriously. This is like absinthe for a novice artist’s soul.  Approach with caution, this stuff is potent, contagious, and is not for everyone.
Salvador Dali’s “50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship” (www.amazon.com/Secrets-Magic-C…). You go down this path, you have brought what ensues upon yourself, and don’t claim I didn’t warn you.
That having been said, if your ego and soul are strong enough to survive Dali’s untrammeled weirdness, there is a lot of interesting insight in here.

*The first thing is “Everything is art”.
**Or was inflicted upon apprentices.

So a lady friend and I went for her favorite dinner, hard shell crabs on Sunday night. We arrived at the restaurant a little late, eight-ish, and a half dozen hard shell crabs are a leisurely dining thing. So a bit after nine thirty, when the kitchen stopped cooking crabs (because they take a while) she was still enjoying dismantling and  eating those tasty bits. A little before ten, she is slowing down and talking about plans for making soup of the last two crabs after we get home.

A guy on crutches comes over, and offers us twenty dollars for one of the crabs (more than double what we paid) because his girlfriend wanted hardshell crab too, but they came in after the kitchen stopped doing them.  I could see my lady friend struggling with  "awww" vs "But they're MY crabs..."  So I looked him square in the eye and calmly said "no".

A few minutes later, I spot him at the bar and the GF is looking daggers at me
Then the light came on - he was hoping to get la- he was hoping for a cozy and intimate evening, and I sabotaged him, but he owes me a thank you.  That was the most entitled, passive-aggressive, manipulative abuse she could pull on him.  She made him do her bidding with both terrible manners and a high probability of failure.  He humiliates himself in front of strangers, grovels for some scrape of approval from her, and when he fails, is subjected  to her scorn.

I felt like we were in an episode of "Jersey Shore", except it was Delaware.

My companion was grateful, as she had a hard time just saying no, but really wanted the crabs.
And I am looking forward to the upcoming batch of crab soup


**UPDATE**
The crab soup is amazing. 
Exactly what I need when I am a little under the weather.