I’m always curious about others’ learning processes, so I thought I’d share my own, stream-of-consciousness style. I should mention here that everyone has different amounts of free time and their own preferences as to how they’d like to spend it. There is no “right way” to learn new things, this is just what it looks like for me.
Subject-matter notes I updated this month: generative art, logo design, identity design, Illustrator
Week of Apr 30
- I’m currently learning Blender for the 100 Day project (do one thing for 100 days). I had taken a quick Skillshare class and tried to jump in independently, but found the learning curve for Blender steep. Decided to go for a Udemy class during one of their super-sales, and I’m currently working through that.
- I keep trying to jump the gun and learn things that the Udemy course hasn’t covered yet, which leads me to run into the high learning curve of Blender and causes more frustration. I give up on what I was doing and decide to stick with the current “task”, which is to make an object out of basic shapes. I start in on a side table in my apartment, where my record player lives (yes I am a hopeless hipster).
- I decide that there’s somewhat of a mismatch between the idea of focusing on just one thing and how many different things I’d like to dabble in. I open up my 100 day project to creating a morning practice habit, just getting in some time for creative pursuits before work. I’ll probably spend quite a bit of it on 3D, though.
Week of May 7
- Continuing to work on rendering my side table. I’ve found out how to round corners for the record player sitting on top of the table.
- I learn through 3D for designers that C4D Lite comes free with After Effects CC. I’ll have to look into that after my trip.
- Trip to Mexico City for a wedding and general merriment!
Week of May 14
- Back from my trip and back at my creative morning practice by midweek!
- I watch Kate Bingaman-Burt’s Skillshare class, Drawing Collections: Illustrating Stories through Taxonomies. Kate mentions that if she uses a color once on a composition, she tries to use it again elsewhere so it feels more intentional and less random. Hadn’t really thought about it like that, and suppose it would work the opposite way, too.
- I’m working my way through the CSS 2.2 specification. This week I read 11 Visual effects and 12 Generated content, automatic numbering, and lists.
- It occurs to me that I don’t really use the
clipproperty other than accessibly, visually hiding something. - I was not aware that
open-quoteandclose-quoteare valid values for thecontentproperty; I’d always used the curly quote-mark characters themselves. Using these values is better for internationalization than hard-coding characters in the:beforeand:afterpseudo elements.
- It occurs to me that I don’t really use the
Spec questions to investigate
- When would the value of
list-style-imagenot have an intrinsic height and width?
Week of May 21
- I decide as my “class project” for the Skillshare course I watched last week, I’ll do a little gouache painting of some bugs and such that I’ve Instagrammed. I just have a sketch composition thus far.
- Through this post on book covers I learn that Dick Bruna created the Miffy character, and that insouciant means “free from concern, worry, or anxiety; carefree; nonchalant” (dictionary.com).
- As I do pretty much every other month, I hate how my website looks and decide to make some adjustments. I’d also like to do some generative art as part of this update.
- Worms in the textile industry!
Week of May 28
- Via friends in the Pixel Lab Learning Garden, I’m reading this essay on generative art. I have a more solid idea of what I’ll do for my site.
- Early this week in CSS specifications, I read CSS 2.2: Section 13, Paged media
- To prep for a couple work projects, I watch a couple Skillshare videos on logo design. I have to say there’s a lot about Draplin’s process that I’m attracted to and decide to incorporate in the projects I’m working on.