Comments on: Creativity In Action: From Boring To Magical

By: Vivien

Vivien — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 07:28:43 +0000

You’re absolutely right about the WHY part, Lauren.

Thanks so much for the link to Koons vs. Blanche. For everyone else, who doesn’t have time to read the entire article or open it in a new tab, here’s that important 4th paragraph that answers my questions:
“The painting’s use does not ‘supersede’ or duplicate the objective of the original, but uses it as raw material in a novel way to create new information, new esthetics and new insights. Such use, whether successful or not artistically, is transformative.”

By: LaurenMarie

LaurenMarie — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:05:57 +0000

I took 3 classes in Photoshop for my degree, which was a total of 9 months of training, 4 hours/week, plus countless hours of experimenting and figuring things out on my own. I still don’t know many of the features and I’ve been working in it for over 2 years!

Vivien, you said it exactly perfect, “I teach them only fundamentals, it’s up to them to take the acquired knowledge to the next level.” That’s what I learned, the fundamentals, and I learn easiest from someone teaching me (then I can ask questions!!!). Tutorials are nice, but the ones that teach you WHY something is done a certain way (and that there are plenty of other ways to do it) will be the most valuable because then you know how to translate that knowledge/skill into a real life situation.

As to copyright, in the spirit of the Fair Use law, if a work has been significantly altered by another individual it is legal (perfect example is your nephew’s illustration). This is called “transformative use.” See Koons vs. Blanche for more info, especially paragraph 4 :)

By: Vivien

Vivien — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:19:40 +0000

You’re right, dandelion - I thought that 2 links are okay, but it says 2 or more - put in a queue, so I just changed it to 3.

Thank you, seo training. I hope my nephew will stick to Photoshop and other programs and stay as curious and fearless to try things out as he is now.

By: seo training

seo training — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:21:36 +0000

vivian,

that is excellent piece of work by the 11yr old champ. Wonder what he is going to do with photoshop and other tools once he grows older, feel he is going to create a bit of magic

By: dandellion

dandellion — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:06:26 +0000

(about comment going to moderation… probably because of two links in it)

By: Vivien

Vivien — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:26:07 +0000

dandellion, I’m sorry - have no idea why your comment went into moderation, it should’ve appeared right away.
Thanks for those links - I agree, internet has changed our ways of thinking and perceiving new information. I think overall we become more spoiled as the time passes by, too many things we take for granted, our expectations are much higher now. And thanks for answering my questions about giving credits. I wouldn’t mind anyone using my work or photo if I can’t even recognize it myself.

kher Cheng Guan, thanks for the book recommendations. You’re absolutely right - children are not affected. I wonder at what age do we start building stereotypes?

By: kher Cheng Guan

kher Cheng Guan — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:10:23 +0000

I totally agreed with you that kids or children are definitely more creative.They are not inhibited and they don’t stereotype either. To them, anything goes….that’s where creativity thrives. Or having the ” what-if ” mentality. Like you’ve mentioned self-reading is a great way of learning. I love reading These are two of my favourite books on creativity. “How To Get Ideas” by Jack Foster and “Jump Start tne Brain” by Doug Hall. Highly recommended.

By: dandellion

dandellion — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 03:36:23 +0000

I was always more into “learn as you go” than taking courses. Though PS was a too much of a mistery to me, I did used tutorials on the internet. They are more useful than any course: you do them in random order, and they are “hands on the job” way of learning. I think that is connected to our generation. Internet changes the way we think and learn. From the invention of the hypertext we tend to access information randomly, not by preset order. We learn differently from our predecesors.

About credits… We live in the XXI century. Manipulation and derivation from existing works is treated as a new work. Giving credits is welcomed if it is possible, but sometimes it just can’t be done. But, there is no point in not publishing something just because you don’t know who was the author of the one of your sources.

By: Vivien

Vivien — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:24:08 +0000

You did a smart thing, Tara, getting someone to teach you and point to the right direction. It does make the learning curve not that curvy and cuts down on the hours of frustration.

A few times I’ve asked my colleagues-designers to teach me some stuff in PS or AI. It only took one of them 10 minutes to explain me how PathFinder works in Illustrator, but it made so much easier for me to work with Illustrator afterwards.

I agree, Joey, training helps but it shouldn’t stop there. When I was teaching full time, I was always telling my students that I teach them only fundamentals, it’s up to them to take the acquired knowledge to the next level, and that they shouldn’t think that there will be no more learning for them after the graduation, on the contrary - that’s when the real learning starts - in real world, not at school.

By: Joey

Joey — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:56:27 +0000

I tend to just finally figure things out too through trial and error. I have Adobe CS and haven’t gotten very deep into it. I haven’t looked at the tutorials, one day I will just sit down and tinker.

I think when you combine training with out of the box thinking and experimentation you get a more skilled user of a product than when you just utilize one method.

Interesting image.