noahbradley

I don't know, they've always seemed nice to draw with.

There's a very nice Wayne Thiebaud that's worth stopping and looking at.

I'd recommend Tim Urban's (of waitbutwhy fame) new book, What's Our Problem. It's a deep dive on a lot of these things in the last decade and how we ended up where we are now.

There are a few of those discussions going on in artist's circles these days. I imagine they'll get sued for doing this, but it'll probably take a very famous artist or a hell of a class action suit to make it happen.

I'd say a whole lot has changed in drawing styles. There just happened to be a fairly accessible style of drawing that these sort of books teach which has stuck around well. It can be a nice intro to art and at least starts you thinking about how to construct your drawings. But yeah, once you move past that it's fairly impressive how much things have changed/evolved in drawing.

Art is a pretty broad category. Any particular sort of art you're interested in?

Decades feels a bit long, from what I've seen/experienced. I'd say if you're dedicated you can hit a professional level in 5-7 years.

Good luck! Art is a hell of a fun pursuit and I hope you have a good time with it. The long periods of boredom and frustration lead to those moments of bliss as you make things you're proud of and you start to understand what you're doing.

It's an endless road but it's a damn fun one.

Art school can really suck the joy out of art. Not always, of course, but it's so sad when it does.

Hope you found a way to still do art on your own!

There are a lot of decent books out there and obviously a million good online resources, but I think if you're looking for a starting point, I'd suggest you look for classes at a local community college or atelier. Avoid anything that looks too "artsy". Self expression is great but find somebody who will teach you how to draw. An atelier would be an ideal option as they tend to have very good technical instruction and you can avoid forming bad habits early on.

It's very doable to do it yourself, but having somebody there to show you when you're screwing up is immensely valuable. Once you've got the basics and know how to learn then you can take more time to study on your own.