I enjoyed this post; I feel like it’s a concrete example that’s pointing to something deep about the nature of skill learning that generalizes beyond just drawing (e.g. understand the underlying generators of a domain, rather than just the superficial elements).
It also reminded me of Raemon’s earlier drawing sequence, and in particular this post which discussed a similar point; I didn’t really understand it from that explanation, but your version made me feel that I got it (copying superficial elements only teaches you to copy superficial elements, understanding the deep structure lets you draw many versions of that structure). (I would be curious to know whether Raemon agrees that this was his core point as well.)
The problem with Example A is that the artist is copying superficial elements of a particular style, without understanding the underlying principles that make good a good figure drawing. Example B has lots of overlapping lines, and vague messy shapes. But the figures there communicate a good understanding of anatomy, a grasp of weight, decent composition.
I feel like it’s a concrete example that’s pointing to something deep about the nature of skill learning that generalizes beyond just drawing
I think this post is pointing to roughly the same thing as Gears-Level Models are Capital Investments. From that angle, it makes a lot of sense that it would be a fairly general principle about the nature of skill learning.
One thing I’m curious about is whether this post was more successful at conveying the ideas than this comment (not a comment by me). This post definitely goes into much more detail, but I’d have expected Nornagest’s comment to get across the basic idea.
I’m curious (pedagogically) if what happened here was more like ‘Nornagest’s comment didn’t sufficiently get across the concept’ (because it turned out exploring all the aspects of the idea was important to really grok the concept), or if the comment did get across the basic idea, but this post just fleshed it out more.
Hard to say: I didn’t remember Nornagest’s comment before looking up your post in order to reference it here. If it was enough to get the basic concept across, at least it didn’t do it in a way that would have stuck in my memory. (Given that reading this post made me think “ahh, that’s what Raemon was trying to say.)
If I had to guess afterwards, though, I would note that Nornagest only talks about the superficial style of drawing leading to drawings that end up with a “flat, disconnected look”. I doubt I would have been able to make the inference that this also implies “and you will be bad at drawing characters from any other angle than the one you are used to”.
I enjoyed this post; I feel like it’s a concrete example that’s pointing to something deep about the nature of skill learning that generalizes beyond just drawing (e.g. understand the underlying generators of a domain, rather than just the superficial elements).
It also reminded me of Raemon’s earlier drawing sequence, and in particular this post which discussed a similar point; I didn’t really understand it from that explanation, but your version made me feel that I got it (copying superficial elements only teaches you to copy superficial elements, understanding the deep structure lets you draw many versions of that structure). (I would be curious to know whether Raemon agrees that this was his core point as well.)
I think this post is pointing to roughly the same thing as Gears-Level Models are Capital Investments. From that angle, it makes a lot of sense that it would be a fairly general principle about the nature of skill learning.
Good point! I hadn’t made the connection, but you’re right.
Yeah, this post is highly related to what I was talking about there.
One thing I’m curious about is whether this post was more successful at conveying the ideas than this comment (not a comment by me). This post definitely goes into much more detail, but I’d have expected Nornagest’s comment to get across the basic idea.
I’m curious (pedagogically) if what happened here was more like ‘Nornagest’s comment didn’t sufficiently get across the concept’ (because it turned out exploring all the aspects of the idea was important to really grok the concept), or if the comment did get across the basic idea, but this post just fleshed it out more.
Hard to say: I didn’t remember Nornagest’s comment before looking up your post in order to reference it here. If it was enough to get the basic concept across, at least it didn’t do it in a way that would have stuck in my memory. (Given that reading this post made me think “ahh, that’s what Raemon was trying to say.)
If I had to guess afterwards, though, I would note that Nornagest only talks about the superficial style of drawing leading to drawings that end up with a “flat, disconnected look”. I doubt I would have been able to make the inference that this also implies “and you will be bad at drawing characters from any other angle than the one you are used to”.