Hmm, so riding the train to work means I've blazed through all of the Dresden Files books in pretty short order (on the last one now). Anyone got any suggestions for further light reading that I can cram onto my Kindle?
Unfortunately I've already read so many of them, and I no longer have all the ones that I have read, that because of my shitty memory it's become increasingly impossible to keep track of which I've read and which I haven't. I know I've unintentionally rebought Discworld books I already known at least once or twice.
I discovered Fred Vargas a few years back and her books are light good crime fiction while being just weird/french enough to make you feel your brain must be benefitting somehow
Hrm
not light
but I'd recommend Borges' Fictions
certainly to enrich the creative juices
ugh wow
I really can't recommend anything else
I need to read more
I have a copy of this on my bathroom floor, I've read about an hour's worth of it total over the course of several months.
Resting on top of it is a secondhand iPad, with which I've played about a million hours of Crossy Road whilst on the can instead.
Once again proving that my desire to look well-read and intelligent by buying Great Works of Whatever is a lot stronger than my desire to actually sit down and read them.
Part of that is knowing I don't have significant large chunks of free time to dedicate to absorbing work that is Challenging But Enriching because summer vacations are not a thing as an adult.
Part of that is realizing that post-college, it became clear that nobody actually cares if I've managed to read the complete works of Dostoyevsky or if I am familiar with the films of Wim Wenders (to pull a random name that got dropped in some of my old film classes, but which I've never seen any movies of). Honestly, if I wanted to impress people in my circles in the real world, I'd be much better off filling in the gaps of all the pop culture I missed as a kid, like watching Willow and a bunch old Thundercats episodes.
Guys I can't figure out what "Masters" to study...
I really like William-Adolphe Bouguereau, but his paintings are super complex and also, mainly figures which I can't help but think I would be better off doing studies from life.
What do you guys suggest?
Edit: Oops, probably should have posted this in the questions thread.
Hrm
not light
but I'd recommend Borges' Fictions
certainly to enrich the creative juices
ugh wow
I really can't recommend anything else
I need to read more
I have a copy of this on my bathroom floor, I've read about an hour's worth of it total over the course of several months.
Resting on top of it is a secondhand iPad, with which I've played about a million hours of Crossy Road whilst on the can instead.
Once again proving that my desire to look well-read and intelligent by buying Great Works of Whatever is a lot stronger than my desire to actually sit down and read them.
Part of that is knowing I don't have significant large chunks of free time to dedicate to absorbing work that is Challenging But Enriching because summer vacations are not a thing as an adult.
Part of that is realizing that post-college, it became clear that nobody actually cares if I've managed to read the complete works of Dostoyevsky or if I am familiar with the films of Wim Wenders (to pull a random name that got dropped in some of my old film classes, but which I've never seen any movies of). Honestly, if I wanted to impress people in my circles in the real world, I'd be much better off filling in the gaps of all the pop culture I missed as a kid, like watching Willow and a bunch old Thundercats episodes.
Have you guys read the Jack Reacher series of novels? They're pretty fun to read. The film with Tom Cruise in it doesn't really give the character justice. When I had a long subway commute I burned through about 11 novels in the series. These days I can barely get through one newspaper article before my subway stop so I haven't been doing as much reading for pleasure.
Guys I can't figure out what "Masters" to study...
I really like William-Adolphe Bouguereau, but his paintings are super complex and also, mainly figures which I can't help but think I would be better off doing studies from life.
What do you guys suggest?
Edit: Oops, probably should have posted this in the questions thread.
Really you can choose anybody whose work inspires you and who you think you'd learn from. I'd choose artists from as wide a time-range as possible. Some people say you shouldn't study anybody more recent that the past 50 years, but I personally think it's fine to study some contemporary artists so long as you've also got a good number of more "vetted" artists that you're working with.
The biggest thing to avoid - and the reason some people are so stalwart about the "50 year" rule - is studying work that's too influenced by modern trends. Time does a good job filtering out the stuff that survived off novelty, and what it leaves behind is the often stuff that really endures. For a real-world example of how quickly these fads can come and go, just look up my Personal Favorite Anime Senpai Shirow Masamune (note: nsfw), and wonder where you might be right now if you spent your formative art years carefully studying how to abuse the burn and dodge tool on this new-fangled "Photoshop" computure programme.
Just remember, you're doing these master studies to learn how these people interpreted the world and solved the artistic problems of translating that interpretation onto canvas. This is also why you should do studies of things like figures and faces. You're not trying to learn how to draw a person, you're trying to learn how they figured out how to solve the problems of representing that form.
[Edit] And to clarify, not all trends look bad, per se. I wouldn't say that Riot's concept artists and illustrators are bad, for example, but they do represent a style that's very much in vogue right now and which may end up being considered stale and boring in a decade. Choosing artists from a wide time range ensures you get the best range of styles from artists who really knew their shit.
I have a copy of this on my bathroom floor, I've read about an hour's worth of it total over the course of several months.
Resting on top of it is a secondhand iPad, with which I've played about a million hours of Crossy Road whilst on the can instead.
... Honestly, if I wanted to impress people in my circles in the real world, I'd be much better off filling in the gaps of all the pop culture I missed as a kid, like watching Willow and a bunch old Thundercats episodes.
Ah man, reading is like the best though, especially when you find one that fits you like a glove and you don't feel strain to read it, I will ditch a book if it starts to leave me cold, my e-book is littered with half starts. Reading the Dresden Files description I'd recommend Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency or the Third Policeman, is it a bit tongue in cheek? Getting into the older classics can be a bit challenging, but the modern classics I find easier to get into. 1984, animal farm, brave new world, the trial, the stranger, I loved all of those books and they didn't feel like a chore. The Stranger is pretty fantastic, it's really short, and I thought about it for quite a while after reading it. It's not about impressing others! It's about expanding your mind!
I'm kinda all over the place, but I like books that are weird, have a good narrative voice, philosophical content, or feel like a dream. My most recent books have been: Hollywood and a few others by Bukowski, Trainspotting, just for the experience of reading through a scottish brogue, The Left Hand of Darkness which I never finished but interesting concept of non-gender, and Trout Fishing in America, which is like the craziest shit I've ever read. I'll check out Borges for sure.
I agree with fug on all points. If you are lacking for masters that you are interested in, it maybe a good time to just explore a little art history as well.
So a few weeks ago, I found myself hired as the web and graphic design person for a local food company. Hooray!
Thing is, I know fuck all about print. I do decently well in Illustrator and sort of get InDesign, but I've been asked to design two posters, one that is 3' x 3', another that is 3' x 6' for hanging up at conventions that the company goes to and is represented at. What is the best program to set that up in? Would it be the printer's responsibility to sort out my .ai file?
It's your job to make the file print-ready. Make sure you either vectarize the type you're using, or provide them with a copy of the font file. If you're going to use Illustrator, be sure to embed your images under the links window or it'll come up blank for them, this will also make the file bigger so you may want to create a .zip file that includes everything they need. Use folders if you need to keep order, and label everything clearly. Once your poster is completely finished, add crop marks. Make sure it's in cmyk. Ask for a proof to check spelling or color mistakes, and stick with an agent at the print shop so that they'll become familiar with your work and know how to handle it.
Guys I can't figure out what "Masters" to study...
I really like William-Adolphe Bouguereau, but his paintings are super complex and also, mainly figures which I can't help but think I would be better off doing studies from life.
What do you guys suggest?
Edit: Oops, probably should have posted this in the questions thread.
@F87: I don't think that 'hey what are the masters I need to copy, how old do they need to be, etc' is the right way to look at it.
The point of doing these studies isn't simply to mindlessly go through them, just copying them blindly in the hopes that 'good artist-ness' will rub off on you since they're good artists. Rather, identify a problem you want to improve in your own work, find an artist or work that you think succeeds at that very well, and figure out what steps you would need to take to replicate that which you admire in that work.
So your question- should you study from Bouguereau- well, lets break it down.
What's special about Bouguereau's work, what would you learn by studying from his work? Well, I'd say he's unmatched for executing rendering under very soft, diffuse light- an incredibly difficult task for most artists. If you admire that quality in his work, by all means, he is worth studying from.
But then, how do you actually go about studying that effectively? It's easy to say, "I'm going to do a master study of this person's work", and bang out an ok replication over a few hours. But to replicate this specific quality you're seeking to replicate, this wouldn't be enough- the only way to learn that difficult task of rendering would be sticking with rendering it out over many sessions, in exacting detail. He didn't achieve his rendering ability by a dashing off figures in a quick session, he did it by spending a long long time doing it.
Now, if you wanted to work on say, achieving a sense of 'grace' to your poses and linework, you might put Bouguereau aside for a bit and look at say, Mucha. And if you're studying him for that purpose, you'd probably get diminishing returns if you were to study his in the same way as Bouguereau, spending that same amount of time on rendering. Instead, you'd be better off concentrating your time on getting the linework right, practicing control of pressure in your linework, practicing keeping your linework flowing and smooth, without sacrificing precision.
If you want to work on color composition, you might study any number of artists- Monet, Sargent, Zorn, whoever, but study them more quickly and in less detail, concentrating on the broad ideas rather than the details of drawing.
So I'd ask- what issue(s) do you want to improve presently? Keeping that in mind, it becomes a lot easier to suggest artists or work that would help you improve those things, and how you would go about studying from them in an effective manner.
Unrelated: I fear that asking specifically for light reading because I need something to read in 20 minute chunks while tired from just waking up/exhausted after a long day at work has made me seem like I must be some kind of dumb-dumb idiot that doesn't like reading in general.
Hmm, so riding the train to work means I've blazed through all of the Dresden Files books in pretty short order (on the last one now). Anyone got any suggestions for further light reading that I can cram onto my Kindle?
I've only read a little bit of Sandersons Legion but it's looking interesting so far and definitely in the category of light (surprisingly from him). You could try Butchers Codex Alera, as the character dialogue has the same enjoyable tang to it, that his Butcher work does, albeit it a bit heavier.
If by light you mean short then i'm not the best person in the world to advise you, but if by light you mean light hearted banter between characters then either Lies of Locke Lamora have alot of fun characters dealing with some bad times with a smile. Or Riyria Revelations has some enjoyable banter.
Whatever you do stay away from Abercrombie or Grossman, because they will make your heart hurt.
Oh and I guess Peter V Brett is light hearted as well often, but his books feel more like guilty pleasures as they're all about power fantasy. "Grah muh tatoos give me super powers." Surprisingly the author is a fantastic role model to his daughter.
Bacon, you are the bees knees! Very well put, Sir. I see it differently now, these studies can be extremely helpful if I know what I'm really looking for. Which I don't. I just feel like I need to improve all around, I'll have to think on it.
Also, I applied for a commission and received the craziest response. They want some sort of questionnaire and a creative test with a "sample piece". Thing is, they CC'd like 35+ other artists... wow.
I forgot to thank you all for your reading suggestions, so thanks guys. James Bond in space sounds fun.
EDIT: Wait, which Bond are we talking about? Book Bond, Connery Bond, Roger Moore goofball Bond, humorless thug Craig Bond, kilt-sporting Lazenby Bond?
@Grifter: I've only seen the movie, would I have the same issue with the books as I had with the movie?
Reposting my Facebook blathering about the subject below:
Is anyone going to pick up what I'm throwing down if I talk about how it makes the classic B-movie error of thinking that making your main character super competent at pretty much everything makes for a compelling character- 'hey this guy's an off-the-grid ghost karate master/detective/sniper/stunt driver/tactician, how could watching him be boring?'- but then you pit him against some standard average joe mafioso schlubs and it's just super dull- why would these dopes ever be a threat to your Superman Tom Cruise character? He is entirely in his element fighting dudes like this.
That movie only comes to life when there are a few moments that sort of hint that maybe Mr.Reacher is actually NOT all that competent, that he's just skating by on luck and bluffing his way through his adventures- but has been so successful at it that he's gained a massively undeserved reputation that he's trading on.
If that was what the entire movie was about, it would actually probably be a lot of fun. But no, then you have to go have him fistfight a dozen dudes and defeat them easily, or hit a bullseye from like 5 miles away, and it instantly becomes boring again.
@F87: Since you're not going to get anywhere very fast trying to figure out who is "best at everything" and a way of studying such a person's work that will yield "makes everything better" results, just pick one of any of the number of categories you may want to improve and get started on it, rather than wracking your brain for some perfect solution.
It's like trying to move house- what's going to help you move in faster- one giant, perfectly organized box containing everything you own, including all your furniture, or a bunch of little boxes separated by category? Yeah, it'd be real convenient to get it all done in one trip with a big box labeled "everything"...but you'd never be able to move it, or even get it in the door. It's too big, it's too heavy, and too unwieldy- and the idea of trying to move it is so intimidating, you're liable to not even try pushing it with any real amount of force, because it seems so pointless. In practice, it's not a useful solution.
Parcel all that stuff up by category and take it one thing at a time, and you'll be able to start moving stuff in a lot quicker- what order or manner you get all of that stuff in isn't nearly as important as just being able to get them in in the first place.
Here all the stuff you're trying to move in is the information you're trying to learn, and the house is your brain.
If you don't know where to start, starting somewhere- anywhere, really - is going to be a lot more productive than thinking too much about where to start, as long as you go about learning it properly- seeking out information on how to study a given area in an effective manner, and being wholly dedicated in the moment in executing on that information in a dedicated, rather than haphazard, manner.
The choice of what you study at any given time can be somewhat loose and arbitrary in their order, but the study itself shouldn't be.
If you're stuck looking for things to study, you'd be much better off writing down a bunch of terms like, "skeletal anatomy", "perspective", "construction", "torso musculature", "gesture", "soft light rendering", "drapery", "male figure", "female figure" etc. anything you can think of that you might want to improve on- tack those words up on a dartboard. Chuck a dart at it, and whatever term it lands on, go work on that thing with full dedication. Save your time and mental energy for the important bit- doing the work- and not on trying to figure out the 'perfect next step' in your studies. There's no perfect next step- no matter what you do, you're going to have to loop around and hit everything over and over and over again in a cycle, so you might as well just start, immediately, somewhere.
If you do some dedicated practice and it's falling short because you realize, "hey, I should have studied this other thing first!", congratulations- you've just figured out what your plan is for tomorrow. Even if all you learn is that, you've still learned something a lot more valuable- what to do tomorrow- than you would if you were just stuck staring out in despair at that big box marked "everything" sitting out on your front lawn.
You still need to take the stuff out of a PODS to get it into your house, no?
They don't just Kool-Aid Man that thing right through a wall of your living room, do they?
I forgot to thank you all for your reading suggestions, so thanks guys. James Bond in space sounds fun.
EDIT: Wait, which Bond are we talking about? Book Bond, Connery Bond, Roger Moore goofball Bond, humorless thug Craig Bond, kilt-sporting Lazenby Bond?
@Grifter: I've only seen the movie, would I have the same issue with the books as I had with the movie?
Reposting my Facebook blathering about the subject below:
Is anyone going to pick up what I'm throwing down if I talk about how it makes the classic B-movie error of thinking that making your main character super competent at pretty much everything makes for a compelling character- 'hey this guy's an off-the-grid ghost karate master/detective/sniper/stunt driver/tactician, how could watching him be boring?'- but then you pit him against some standard average joe mafioso schlubs and it's just super dull- why would these dopes ever be a threat to your Superman Tom Cruise character? He is entirely in his element fighting dudes like this.
That movie only comes to life when there are a few moments that sort of hint that maybe Mr.Reacher is actually NOT all that competent, that he's just skating by on luck and bluffing his way through his adventures- but has been so successful at it that he's gained a massively undeserved reputation that he's trading on.
If that was what the entire movie was about, it would actually probably be a lot of fun. But no, then you have to go have him fistfight a dozen dudes and defeat them easily, or hit a bullseye from like 5 miles away, and it instantly becomes boring again.
Yeah, the film was pretty disappointing. Jack Reacher is actually supposed to be a big muscle guy at 6'3" and 220 lbs. He's ex-military police so that plays a role in his story. He's definitely something of a super soldier in the stories. He's an expert sniper and keen investigator among other things. Honestly, I hadn't thought about the stories in the terms that you've presented. There's a lot of information and back story in the books that help to make the character more than just a guy who's crazy awesome at everything. And some of the positions that he's put into seemed rather difficult. There's only one book where I really thought the enemy he was going up against was just lazy. Some of the investigations had me at the edge of my seat most of the time. And in typical A-Team fashion, a lot of the times where he wins the day he winds up going up against some authoritative figure who gives him a whole lot of crap for basically breaking a bunch of laws. Honestly, it's just good popcorn movie style reading. Try out the first book at least. It got me into the character.
You still need to take the stuff out of a PODS to get it into your house, no?
They don't just Kool-Aid Man that thing right through a wall of your living room, do they?
All moved into my new, new place. I think I'm going to like it here. It's got a nice lake view and I've already managed to get a sunburn from sitting out on my deck drinking beer.
I think I might actually be turning into Jimmy Buffett?
I'm going to try and start drawing regularly again, too. These last few months have been pretty hectic and I haven't had time for anything else.
You still need to take the stuff out of a PODS to get it into your house, no?
They don't just Kool-Aid Man that thing right through a wall of your living room, do they?
Posts
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Twitter
not light
but I'd recommend Borges' Fictions
certainly to enrich the creative juices
ugh wow
I really can't recommend anything else
I need to read more
I'll need one of each from each of you guys:
a character
an object
an environment.
GO!
a severed Barbie head
a world of lava
A statue made of steel
Favelas above a precipice
A yo yo.
Chasms that put the grand canyon to shame.
My Portfolio Site
The grave robber broke her hammer.
I have a copy of this on my bathroom floor, I've read about an hour's worth of it total over the course of several months.
Resting on top of it is a secondhand iPad, with which I've played about a million hours of Crossy Road whilst on the can instead.
Once again proving that my desire to look well-read and intelligent by buying Great Works of Whatever is a lot stronger than my desire to actually sit down and read them.
Part of that is knowing I don't have significant large chunks of free time to dedicate to absorbing work that is Challenging But Enriching because summer vacations are not a thing as an adult.
Part of that is realizing that post-college, it became clear that nobody actually cares if I've managed to read the complete works of Dostoyevsky or if I am familiar with the films of Wim Wenders (to pull a random name that got dropped in some of my old film classes, but which I've never seen any movies of). Honestly, if I wanted to impress people in my circles in the real world, I'd be much better off filling in the gaps of all the pop culture I missed as a kid, like watching Willow and a bunch old Thundercats episodes.
Twitter
I really like William-Adolphe Bouguereau, but his paintings are super complex and also, mainly figures which I can't help but think I would be better off doing studies from life.
What do you guys suggest?
Edit: Oops, probably should have posted this in the questions thread.
Well it's just helped me think weird
Really you can choose anybody whose work inspires you and who you think you'd learn from. I'd choose artists from as wide a time-range as possible. Some people say you shouldn't study anybody more recent that the past 50 years, but I personally think it's fine to study some contemporary artists so long as you've also got a good number of more "vetted" artists that you're working with.
The biggest thing to avoid - and the reason some people are so stalwart about the "50 year" rule - is studying work that's too influenced by modern trends. Time does a good job filtering out the stuff that survived off novelty, and what it leaves behind is the often stuff that really endures. For a real-world example of how quickly these fads can come and go, just look up my Personal Favorite Anime Senpai Shirow Masamune (note: nsfw), and wonder where you might be right now if you spent your formative art years carefully studying how to abuse the burn and dodge tool on this new-fangled "Photoshop" computure programme.
Just remember, you're doing these master studies to learn how these people interpreted the world and solved the artistic problems of translating that interpretation onto canvas. This is also why you should do studies of things like figures and faces. You're not trying to learn how to draw a person, you're trying to learn how they figured out how to solve the problems of representing that form.
[Edit] And to clarify, not all trends look bad, per se. I wouldn't say that Riot's concept artists and illustrators are bad, for example, but they do represent a style that's very much in vogue right now and which may end up being considered stale and boring in a decade. Choosing artists from a wide time range ensures you get the best range of styles from artists who really knew their shit.
Ah man, reading is like the best though, especially when you find one that fits you like a glove and you don't feel strain to read it, I will ditch a book if it starts to leave me cold, my e-book is littered with half starts. Reading the Dresden Files description I'd recommend Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency or the Third Policeman, is it a bit tongue in cheek? Getting into the older classics can be a bit challenging, but the modern classics I find easier to get into. 1984, animal farm, brave new world, the trial, the stranger, I loved all of those books and they didn't feel like a chore. The Stranger is pretty fantastic, it's really short, and I thought about it for quite a while after reading it. It's not about impressing others! It's about expanding your mind!
I'm kinda all over the place, but I like books that are weird, have a good narrative voice, philosophical content, or feel like a dream. My most recent books have been: Hollywood and a few others by Bukowski, Trainspotting, just for the experience of reading through a scottish brogue, The Left Hand of Darkness which I never finished but interesting concept of non-gender, and Trout Fishing in America, which is like the craziest shit I've ever read. I'll check out Borges for sure.
Demand to fly it!
I agree with fug on all points. If you are lacking for masters that you are interested in, it maybe a good time to just explore a little art history as well.
Also, I did see this on twitter:
Its not a terrible collection.
Thing is, I know fuck all about print. I do decently well in Illustrator and sort of get InDesign, but I've been asked to design two posters, one that is 3' x 3', another that is 3' x 6' for hanging up at conventions that the company goes to and is represented at. What is the best program to set that up in? Would it be the printer's responsibility to sort out my .ai file?
@F87: I don't think that 'hey what are the masters I need to copy, how old do they need to be, etc' is the right way to look at it.
The point of doing these studies isn't simply to mindlessly go through them, just copying them blindly in the hopes that 'good artist-ness' will rub off on you since they're good artists. Rather, identify a problem you want to improve in your own work, find an artist or work that you think succeeds at that very well, and figure out what steps you would need to take to replicate that which you admire in that work.
So your question- should you study from Bouguereau- well, lets break it down.
What's special about Bouguereau's work, what would you learn by studying from his work? Well, I'd say he's unmatched for executing rendering under very soft, diffuse light- an incredibly difficult task for most artists. If you admire that quality in his work, by all means, he is worth studying from.
But then, how do you actually go about studying that effectively? It's easy to say, "I'm going to do a master study of this person's work", and bang out an ok replication over a few hours. But to replicate this specific quality you're seeking to replicate, this wouldn't be enough- the only way to learn that difficult task of rendering would be sticking with rendering it out over many sessions, in exacting detail. He didn't achieve his rendering ability by a dashing off figures in a quick session, he did it by spending a long long time doing it.
Now, if you wanted to work on say, achieving a sense of 'grace' to your poses and linework, you might put Bouguereau aside for a bit and look at say, Mucha. And if you're studying him for that purpose, you'd probably get diminishing returns if you were to study his in the same way as Bouguereau, spending that same amount of time on rendering. Instead, you'd be better off concentrating your time on getting the linework right, practicing control of pressure in your linework, practicing keeping your linework flowing and smooth, without sacrificing precision.
If you want to work on color composition, you might study any number of artists- Monet, Sargent, Zorn, whoever, but study them more quickly and in less detail, concentrating on the broad ideas rather than the details of drawing.
So I'd ask- what issue(s) do you want to improve presently? Keeping that in mind, it becomes a lot easier to suggest artists or work that would help you improve those things, and how you would go about studying from them in an effective manner.
Unrelated: I fear that asking specifically for light reading because I need something to read in 20 minute chunks while tired from just waking up/exhausted after a long day at work has made me seem like I must be some kind of dumb-dumb idiot that doesn't like reading in general.
Twitter
I've only read a little bit of Sandersons Legion but it's looking interesting so far and definitely in the category of light (surprisingly from him). You could try Butchers Codex Alera, as the character dialogue has the same enjoyable tang to it, that his Butcher work does, albeit it a bit heavier.
If by light you mean short then i'm not the best person in the world to advise you, but if by light you mean light hearted banter between characters then either Lies of Locke Lamora have alot of fun characters dealing with some bad times with a smile. Or Riyria Revelations has some enjoyable banter.
Whatever you do stay away from Abercrombie or Grossman, because they will make your heart hurt.
Oh and I guess Peter V Brett is light hearted as well often, but his books feel more like guilty pleasures as they're all about power fantasy. "Grah muh tatoos give me super powers." Surprisingly the author is a fantastic role model to his daughter.
Also, I applied for a commission and received the craziest response. They want some sort of questionnaire and a creative test with a "sample piece". Thing is, they CC'd like 35+ other artists... wow.
EDIT: Wait, which Bond are we talking about? Book Bond, Connery Bond, Roger Moore goofball Bond, humorless thug Craig Bond, kilt-sporting Lazenby Bond?
@Grifter: I've only seen the movie, would I have the same issue with the books as I had with the movie?
Reposting my Facebook blathering about the subject below:
That movie only comes to life when there are a few moments that sort of hint that maybe Mr.Reacher is actually NOT all that competent, that he's just skating by on luck and bluffing his way through his adventures- but has been so successful at it that he's gained a massively undeserved reputation that he's trading on.
If that was what the entire movie was about, it would actually probably be a lot of fun. But no, then you have to go have him fistfight a dozen dudes and defeat them easily, or hit a bullseye from like 5 miles away, and it instantly becomes boring again.
@F87: Since you're not going to get anywhere very fast trying to figure out who is "best at everything" and a way of studying such a person's work that will yield "makes everything better" results, just pick one of any of the number of categories you may want to improve and get started on it, rather than wracking your brain for some perfect solution.
It's like trying to move house- what's going to help you move in faster- one giant, perfectly organized box containing everything you own, including all your furniture, or a bunch of little boxes separated by category? Yeah, it'd be real convenient to get it all done in one trip with a big box labeled "everything"...but you'd never be able to move it, or even get it in the door. It's too big, it's too heavy, and too unwieldy- and the idea of trying to move it is so intimidating, you're liable to not even try pushing it with any real amount of force, because it seems so pointless. In practice, it's not a useful solution.
Parcel all that stuff up by category and take it one thing at a time, and you'll be able to start moving stuff in a lot quicker- what order or manner you get all of that stuff in isn't nearly as important as just being able to get them in in the first place.
Here all the stuff you're trying to move in is the information you're trying to learn, and the house is your brain.
If you don't know where to start, starting somewhere- anywhere, really - is going to be a lot more productive than thinking too much about where to start, as long as you go about learning it properly- seeking out information on how to study a given area in an effective manner, and being wholly dedicated in the moment in executing on that information in a dedicated, rather than haphazard, manner.
The choice of what you study at any given time can be somewhat loose and arbitrary in their order, but the study itself shouldn't be.
If you're stuck looking for things to study, you'd be much better off writing down a bunch of terms like, "skeletal anatomy", "perspective", "construction", "torso musculature", "gesture", "soft light rendering", "drapery", "male figure", "female figure" etc. anything you can think of that you might want to improve on- tack those words up on a dartboard. Chuck a dart at it, and whatever term it lands on, go work on that thing with full dedication. Save your time and mental energy for the important bit- doing the work- and not on trying to figure out the 'perfect next step' in your studies. There's no perfect next step- no matter what you do, you're going to have to loop around and hit everything over and over and over again in a cycle, so you might as well just start, immediately, somewhere.
If you do some dedicated practice and it's falling short because you realize, "hey, I should have studied this other thing first!", congratulations- you've just figured out what your plan is for tomorrow. Even if all you learn is that, you've still learned something a lot more valuable- what to do tomorrow- than you would if you were just stuck staring out in despair at that big box marked "everything" sitting out on your front lawn.
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Wait, isn't that just a PODS?
Who is the PODS of artists? Seems like that's who I should be checking out.
They don't just Kool-Aid Man that thing right through a wall of your living room, do they?
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So I need to find a place with a really big door?
How do I accomplish this, as an artist?
I think I might actually be turning into Jimmy Buffett?
I'm going to try and start drawing regularly again, too. These last few months have been pretty hectic and I haven't had time for anything else.
<sigh>
I guess I'll just not use metaphors, like a giraffe.
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