Gift Cards
Gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store
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@Stan Prokopenko This wicked learning idea put forth by @Marshall Vandruff reminds me a lot of Problem Based Learning like you find in some medical and veterinary schools. Basically you're given a problem and along with your group you brainstorm ways to solve it and do tons and tons of research on anything that you think will help shed light on the issue.
Like maybe the teacher tells your group "A dog is coughing. Find out why and what you're going to do about it." And like you go and research all the possible reasons a dog would be coughing like kennel cough, heart failure, something stuck in the throat, etc. And you'd find out different things in your research like how different types of coughing indicate different things. And what medical tests to do and what the treatment options are etc. etc. etc.
It's a very active type of learning because everything you learn you're able to apply immediately.
This is basically how I learned to code. I wanted to make a very specific type of browser-based game and there were no help guides specifically on that. There were just guides about how to make sites, how to program, how to manage databases, etc. and I could observe other similar sites from a user's perspective but I couldn't actually ask their site owners how they made their sites--that was top secret.
So from all these things, I had to infer how to build my own game and oh my gosh it was the hardest thing I ever did in my life. The logic... oh my gosh... I had to think so hard I got headaches. It took about two years of blood, sweat, and tears before I felt like I even kind of knew what I was doing. But eventually I became very adept at using code to solve problems and also at solving problems within code. I learned how to be a downright detective when bugs appeared.I taught myself how to investigate! Well, I'm proud to say that while some bugs were much more wiley than others, there wasn't as single one that I didn't eventually squash :)
LESSON NOTES![Drew Struzan]()
![William Stout]()
Stan and Marshall teach you how to be a good student. The mindset, habits, and things you can do that will speed up your learning process and make it more enjoyable. They also discuss kind vs wicked learning, methods for taking notes and staying organized, treating your education as a job and the importance of getting real world experience as a student.
References and books
(some contain affiliate links)
Itzhak Perlman
Blazing Saddles
David Epstein podcast
Workflowy
Asking Pros episode with William Stout
David duChemin’s Vision Mongering
How to Be a Superstar Student
Referenced Artists:
Drew Struzan
William Stout
COMMENTS![]()
![Stan Prokopenko]()
There are so many traits a good learner should develop to get good at a skill. Art students should be self-motivated, curious, enthusiastic and organized. In this episode of Draftsmen, Marshall and I teach you how to be a good student. The mindset, habits, and things you can do that will speed up your learning process and make it more enjoyable.