article review?

[Kevin Partridge]

i just feel the need to nitpick on top of your nitpicking...

> Michael wrote:
> I personally don't find examples of artwork very useful in terms of
> teaching me how to create my own artwork. Looking at a texture doesn't
> add much to my understanding the intricacies of using The Gimp. This
> applies as well to map editors, 3D-modelers, and sound editors as well.
> Knowing how to read music is helpful, even necessary, to playing a
> Saxophone, but not sufficient by itself.

i know you said it was your personal experience but i think it should be
noted for educational purposes that in the art community (i grew up in art
schools) emulating another artist is a mainstream and very effective method
of learning. will it teach you the progressive ratios of thinner, linseed
oil, and pigment necessary to paint in oils? nope. but the goal in art is to
...on second thought i'm not gonna enter that arena here... let's just say,
when producing an image it is the image that matters. technique is as
tertiary to an artist as the programming language is to a seasoned
programmer. you would build a driver out of php and you wouldn't paint a
hyper-realistic painting with crayons but one's skill in whatever medium
does not have anything to do with the medium. the vision, the ability to see
of the artist / programmer is the determining factor. this has been a
problem with many photoshop courses and computer art workshops i have
inspected. i have actually been to one computer art workshop series that was
conducted like a real art class... and a lot of the students hated it. the
instructor would start out showing a series of slides of "organic" art,
talking about the concepts and design. then he would demo the creation of a
rough piece of artwork in the style of the works he had shown. this would
take maybe 45 minutes. then he'd just say, "ok, now work." and he'd continue
to work on his art and expect you to work on something too.
i thought that was a great class.

anyway... just a juxtaposed view of art.

kevin