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Using tech to get better at anatomy and utilising flow states for artists (or anyone)


Hey hey!

Here's this weeks learnings and my top resources, thoughts, 'aha moments' and announcements directly from my brain to yours.

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- What I've been reading this week

Art adjacent - mindset

Ikigai “The Japanese secret to a long and happy life”

I’ve been getting more and more interested in longevity and optimising my mental and phisical health. So this book seemed like a great fit!

I started to listening to a summary of this book to decide if I wanted to invest more time in it.

And I was pleasantly surprised!

A key section I enjoyed was “Finding flow in everything you do”

“flow” or being "in the zone" is something I try and achieve on a daily basis, particularily through working on both code and art.

You’ve probably felt it yourself, while doing something you enjoy (some form of painting or drawing I’m assuming??), where time just melts away and you drift off into your own little world.

To me, that’s one of the best feelings ever.

At a high level, the book suggests that you’ll be a lot happier in life if you spend more time in these ‘flow states’.

The book recommends a couple key ingredients to get there…

  • Choose a difficult task, but not too difficult (resonates a lot with my love of learning or upskilling in particular areas)
  • Have a clear, concrete objective
  • Concentrate on a single task

There’s a lot more to dive into regarding flow states and I’ve added “dive deeper into understanding flow states” to my to-do list.

Explorations that’ll definitely be going on the blog!

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- Resources I've found useful

Video - Great blender sculpting process breakdown of a stylised head

As I’m getting more into blender, this video is one that I wish I had watched when I first started, definitely worth a watch.

Video - A great example of colour variation in paintings

This video is a great introduction to 'Broken colour' and how to get a 'lively surface' when painting. I love understanding traditional painting techniques and trasnlating them into digital, and this is a perfect example where you could do just that.

Video - An interesting little illusion of value that you can use to your advantage

Ahmed Aldoori demonstrates a really cool visual illusion called ‘Simultaneous Contrast’. You can use this to help make certain sections/characters/objects ‘pop’ in a painting.

Website - Fantastic free anatomy resource to help reference your next study session

Ever get stuck wondering “what on earth does a tricep look like in this angle?” or “does the pec muscle go underneath or ontop of the deltoid?” (it goes undernead FYI).

This is a beautiful 3D anatomy tool if you’re in a pinch and just need a quick visual guide, no app to download as it’s in the browser.

App - 3d anatomy for the artist (nicely detailed app)

Not sponsored or affiliated, was just playing around with different anatomy apps.

I’ve mentioned https://3d4medical.com which is awesome and is a super detailed look at the human anatomy and is geared towards the medical field. It is a paid app but you get the skeleton for free.

But this one is worth mentioning as well.

It actually has a really nice looking 3D model, doesn’t have as many features as 3d4 medical's and is a little cheaper and it also has a bunch of free skeleton 3D models as well as a couple of muscular ones as well.

I highly recommend utilising technology to speed up the learning process for anatomy.

I personally couple apps with books like Elliot Goldfingers “Human Anatomy for the Artist” and Michael Hamptons “Figure Drawing Design and Invention”.

My logic is to attack the anatomy problem from all different angles to help the conecpts stick.

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This weeks art thoughts

Just a reminder to have fun and enjoy the process!

Jumping around and learning new topics art wise the last few months have been the most enjoyable art study months I've ever had, and I intend to out-do them in the following months (emjoyment wise).

I attribute a lot of this to both consistency, and using the 'Feinman technique' to teach others what I'm learning to help solidify concepts. It's doubly effective as a study tool because it keeps me accountable, and forces me to really understand ideas so I can exmplain them to others! I don't have all the answers, but I sure am enjoying trying to find them with you all.

I highly recommend trying it out for yourself!

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That's all from me! Until next week...

Stay consistent, use reference, have fun with it and remember; it's only pixels baybee!

Cheers,

Ben

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