Huh. I always just thought it was because my cat isn't smart enough to differentiate between "can noise, human making tuna sandwich" and "can noise, human is dispensing cat food."
I always just thought it was because my cat isn't smart enough to differentiate between "can noise, human making tuna sandwich" and "can noise, human is dispensing cat food."
To me, the weird thing is that my cat knows the sound of a can opener at all.
We got her when she was waaaaay too young. Someone abandoned her on the vet's doorstep. She has never known that a can opener means food because for her entire life, she has been fed canned food with a pop-top.
But still, when I pull out the can opener to open some vegetables, she comes running.
I have no idea why, but it's one of those things that makes me think that knowledge can be encoded in DNA and passed down through generations.
Maybe because she didn't do that the very first time, and then rememebered can opener is for opening food cans. i mean, dogs and cats are super smart, obviously, with different expressions of it.
I really enjoyed Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. It's more of a kick in the pants than an inspirational book, but it actually helped me think about (and act on) my priorities.
"The Art of Responsive Drawing" by Nathan Goldstein.
It's an in depth analysis of the elements of drawing and, more importantly, what those elements actually do. It really celebrates the expressive and creative aspects of drawing, in a way that's both beautiful to look at, and accessible to read.
The generator stuff is pretty wild - I got some real Cronenbergs.
I wonder if, in 5 years, we'll start to see this kind of trippy AI aesthetic filter into illustration and animation. Or maybe the AI will just get more naturalistic.
The analogy between pitch and color recognition is funny to me - it's like the skill gradient is backwards for artists versus musicians. One critical skill in learning to paint (naturalistically, at least) is learning to differentiate relative color, not absolute color. Learning to look at an apple and see warmer/cooler bits of red, for example. As the article points out, naming "red" is easy for most people, and then you spend years learning to mix all those funny shades in between.
There's a whole school of painters - after Edwin Dickinson, mostly - who talk about "color notes" and "color pitch". I wonder what the analogous cognitive processing skills are for artists.
For those arguing that grit is all that is needed to lift oneself from poverty: I recommend the book "This is all I got" by Lauren Sandler (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/51229737-this-is-all-...). It's a very powerful, deep account of how even those with incredible tenacity need societal support to succeed.
Looking at your website - I don't climb, but I used to use chalk for powerlifting - I desperately want to see photos of HANDS! My immediate question was "what is chalk cream", and that makes me want to see the product in use. Does it turn your hands white? Is it powdery? How could a wet cream do the same thing as dry chalk powder? This seems like a really tactile product, so I want photos that help me understand it on a tactile level. The mountain photos are beautiful but don't sell the product. The photos of tubes could be renders for all I know.
You could also try signing up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and scanning for outdoors or climbing-related pitch opportunities. A lot of the posts on there are trash but there's the occasional good one.
Agreed. I use chalk in the gym as well, and I'd like to see a picture of it to see how it's different from what people use currently.
As an aside, I was caught without chalk the other day and bought some liquid chalk from a climbing shop. I quite liked it as thicker than usual - more like a moisturiser than a pourable liquid.
Yeah. We worked on making the chalk "thicker" than the cheap brands because smell + texture influences quality perception the most. For the crystal chalk the different formula allows us to get rid of the "alcohol" smell. We even tried adding fragrance but that was a failed experiment, may revisit that later.
One other liquid chalk aspect you could maybe lean into - the alcohol must be a natural hand sanitiser. Obviously less of an issue for rock climbers, but might be a selling point for gym goers if that point could be emphasised or enhanced in the formula.]
We researched this & making hand sanitising claims would put is in the "biocide" category of products in the EU, which comes with a whole new bag of certification headaches. At best we can say something like "has light antibacterial properties".
Don't forget that a lot of us have weights or other exercise setups at home now. I would definitely try something as an alternative to powdered chalk to keep my palms from getting slippery on my equipment. Especially now that summer is coming and I mostly train outside when I can.
Also, at least in Chicago, gyms have been open for months. They have reduced maximum capacity (I think it's 60% right now), but they were only closed for a short time. You may be severely artificially limiting your sales possibilities.
The funny thing about drawing is that it’s not one skill - it’s a collection of many different skills. An architect, a cartoonist, an illustrator, an animator, Michelangelo and Picasso are all drawing, and clearly what they produce and its goal are very different. Arguing over whether to use Drawabox or Right Side of the Brain or Bob Ross videos is silly, because these courses are all trying to teach totally different parts of the skills we call “drawing”.
So here’s my very general advice for you:
- Start trying to make the drawings you WANT to make, before you think you have the skills. Illustrate your ideas and blog posts! Then, take a step back and evaluate that work - was it effective? What do, or don’t, you like about it? What skills do you think are missing, and what processes might you use to achieve it? A lovely illustration is much more than looking realistic - it may be completely unrealistic at all. It has mark making, color, design, composition...all separate skills you can work on.
- Identify people whose work you love. Find someone who you look at and think, “yes, I want my drawings to look like THAT.” Make copies of their work for practice (call it a “master copy” to feel smart about it.) Find out which artists inspired them or taught them, and copy their work, too. Find out what artists they like and stalk them on Instagram. Buy a print of their work and marvel at it, every day.
- Get a sketchbook on cheap, terrible paper, and fill it up. Doesn’t matter with what. Get comfortable experimenting and producing a lot, even if it’s junk. The time investment is important.
- Expose yourself to as many different skill sets as possible. Take a community college life drawing class! Draw a comic! Design a chair in AutoCAD! Draw from life, and imagination, doodle and paint and play with infinite patterns in Illustrator. You may start to feel what ways of thinking work for you. Perhaps you enjoy academic drawing and not cartooning. Or maybe you’ve got a hidden fascination with the abstract expressionists. That’s one way to find out.
- Make friends who draw. Share your work with them, and let them share their work with you.
- There are many introductory drawing classes taught by adult education centers, artists communities, colleges, etc. These are likely to introduce you to the same basics as a book like Right Side of the Brain, but also a little bit more of the “artistic” side, like smooshing charcoal around and exercising your arm. If you’re lucky you’ll get a nude model. These are great fun and I recommend one regardless of what kind of drawing you’d like to do - it’s a great introduction to issues that are common to many kinds of drawing.
