I want to know how to become a master

[Poto]

I know there are many subdivisions in the art field, such as graphic design, illustration, UI design, and other different directions. I don't have a specific idea at the moment, I don't come from an art school, I just like beauty and art allows me to experience a visual impact, which I enjoy.

But I also want to create work that strikes a chord. But I'm not sure how to do that, how I should choose the field of design I like and how to study and further my education.

I hope the experts and gurus in this forum can give me direction and even a few words can bring me inspiration.

I know I can search more pages than I can read in a lifetime with just Google keywords, but I've tried reading quite a few articles and I'm still not sure what I want to do.

[GarryP]

Learn. Practice. Experiment. Repeat.

Your requirements are so vague and wide-ranging that it’s difficult to give any really good advice.

• Look for something that you like.
• Take a small part of it.
• Think about how it could have been made originally.
• Try and replicate it for yourself.
• Try to find out which techniques might have been used and try to find tutorials for those techniques.
• Try and replicate it differently using what you have learned.
• Once you have got some results, ask questions about how you can improve them.
• Look in the “Share your Work” section of this site and ask the contributors specific questions.

I’m sure that other people will have their own advice so keep coming back to see what they post.

[Bad_Wolf]

Maybe this advice will sound far fetched but it worked and still works for me. Go to Amazon and look for the book from Australian author Melissa Crowhurst with the title "Real Manifesting" and subtitle "Hacking the law of attraction". She only publish paperbacks, regretfully no epubs or kindle versions. But I tell you, she is very good. She also has a very good Udemy course "How to manifest using the law of attraction certification". The book is a good alternative for those moments you do not have access to the Internet.

I recognize myself in what you have said. You have to bring your brain into that creative state of art. It isn't that difficult but you need to know "how". Do you recognize you want to create something, have a very good idea and then when you actually want to create you block? Your idea doesn't seems so good anymore or you do not know where to start.

When you are staring at that blank page and don't know where to start, then take a good look at your idea. Just start drawing, if it is good or bad, doesn't matter, just draw. You correct later. Also split down your idea in regular shapes. See which shapes you need and how you can combine those shapes into the form you want. The boolean tools in Affinity Designer are your best friends.

Take a good course about Affinity Designer. I can recommend Simon Foster's "Affinity Designer: Solid Foundations" on Udemy. This course is project based and you go through several different projects. This is also a very engaging and motivating teacher. I bought this course and followed it to  the end. Like the title says; after finishing, you have a solid foundation to step up for your own projects.

I do a lot of word processing and I started to make my own ornaments for lists, lines and so on. In the nineties I had an vegan ornamental font on the Mac I used back then. Regretfully I lost it when I switched to PC. A few months ago I started to create those ornaments again in Affinity designer based on my memory I had from them. So what I do is make sure I have a strong image in my head about the complete ornament. Then I break it down in small parts and start drawing each individual part. When I have all parts, I assemble the different parts in the whole ornament.

It is very important to know what you want to create, the how you create is much less important at that stage. Focus on what you want to create. Avoid questions like "Can I draw this?" or "Will I succeed?" because they are limiting your creative thinking. Once you know what you want to create, just start and whatever you do, don't correct at that stage. When you create and correct, you switch between the right and left side of your brain. That switching has a negative influence on your creativity. You are creating digitally, so just start a new object instead of correcting or leave the object with its flaws and continue being creative. This is something I learned the hard way. Even in my word processing, I don't look for errors or mistakes when I am typing, that comes later. Many times my documents contain several different layouts which are defined in styles. So I type the text, then when finished typing correct it. After that, I create my styles by first format a small part of the text and then create a style based on that formatting. I also could just ask for a new style and start inputting the properties of that style. However, that breaks the creative process and invite mistakes. When the first style is finished, I go to the next and so on... When I have all styles then I start to apply them to the text itself. In the end, the text looks like I want. I deliberatelly left out the page creation itself just to make this example not to complex. Here it does not matter if it is word processing or artwork or anything else, what matters is the creative process and let it continue flowing with as little interruptions as possible. Withing your thinking, try to remain at one side (the left or right) of your brain and avoid switching between the two.

You type the text, you are using one half of your brain, you start editing then you are using the other side of your brain. The same is true for your drawing. You draw using the pen tool, or the shapes or whatever else, you use one side of  your brain. You start making corrections, then you are switching to the other side of your brain. Take this into account, because it is important both to be creative and to be productive!

To finish my reply, I like to add something very important: You can accomplish more than you think, as long as you believe you are gonna make it!

Chris

 

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Bad_Wolf said:

Take a good course about Affinity Designer. I can recommend Simon Foster's "Affinity Designer: Solid Foundations" on Udemy. This course is project based and you go through several different projects. This is also a very engaging and motivating teacher. I bought this course and followed it to  the end. Like the title says; after finishing, you have a solid foundation to step up for your own projects.

Simon also offers some free articles on his website:

https://theeagerlearner.com/the-big-page-of-articles

1 hour ago, Bad_Wolf said:

In the nineties I had an vegan ornamental font on the Mac I used back then.

That sounds most intriguing, Chris! Do you remember what the font was called?

[Bad_Wolf]

Hi Alfred,

Regretfully I cannot remember the font name anymore. It is too long. The only thing I remember is the clover like ornaments. Those ornaments where clover leaves which are connected at bended sterms. Anyway, the font was excellent designed because those ornaments kept beautiful even at small font sizes which is a credit to the font creator.

I had a subscription on MacUser and they had a monthly CD. From time to time, they had an extra CD which contained interesting extra's like applications, drawings, fonts and so on. At one time they included an extra CD full of fonts. However, in their next issue they asked not to use those fonts because for some unknown reason they had no permission to include those or some of those fonts.

I still have the disk but no Mac to read anymore. So I cannot read the disk. Those ornaments where part of a normal font. Sometimes, because I miss those ornaments, I lookup fonts at Google Fonts but never found anything which comes close.

Alfred, I know you are also a font creator because I also see you at the Font Creator forum just as Bhikku Pesala and some others. It would not surprise me if the font I cannot remember would be coming from your hand. Am I right in my assumption?

Chris

 

[William Overington]

I suggest the following, inspired by something Garry P wrote.

Start a thread in the Share your work section.

If you can, add in an image.

If you can't add an image, just write something about what you want to do.

Ask people to write something in that thread. I will try to do that, I expect at least one other person will probably post too.

I do not consider myself an expert with Affinity Designer but I enjoy myself.

What has made it a great experience for me is that I get prints of what I produce and frame them using what are sold as photo frames and certificate frames at the supermarket.

I really like thinking of an idea, getting it into Affinity Designer and having a framed print.

I doubt that I could sell my art to anybody but that is not why I do it.

So, I shall look to see if you start a thread in the Share your work section and I will try to help.

William

 

[William Overington]

@Bad_Wolf

There are a few fancy leafy ornaments in the Google fonts EB Garamond font.

I used two of them in the first illustration on page 8 of the following thread.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/138654-artwork-for-greetings-cards/

William

 

[thomaso]

18 hours ago, Poto said:

I'm still not sure what I want to do.

Do you mean "how" – or indeed "what"?
Concerning your topic's title: In what do you want to become a master? In technical skills – or in the ability to imagine ideas, to see inspiration or to get satisfaction by creating things? Or simply in everything * ?

As GarryP pointed out, technical skills require practice: Learning to see & simulate.

See: visually recognize | shapes, geometry, structures, patterns, light vs. shadow etc.
Imitate: replicate with simulation what is seen.
Imagine: combine see & imitate mentally.

To develop these skills no computer or ink is needed, often they may be exercised just in mind.
But they are the prerequisite to become a master in technical skills. It's a lot easier to develop them first and the technical part later, than vice versa – how a kid with a ball doesn't need to know the math of the parabola to make every shot a hit.

* in case of "master in everything": see Buddhism and Asian cultures.