Art - Daniel Bourke

The amateur's advantage

An amateur pursues a craft for the love of it. They're armed with the superpower of not requiring the approval of others.

Art

Find your art and let it kill you

Been getting distracted. Trivial things getting in the way. String enough of those together and that's when people start to say "where did the time go?" I’ll tell you where it didn’t go, it didn’t go towards your craft. It didn’t go towards practicing. It didn’

Newsletter

Filtering out what matters

What do you have without your health? Five questions to ask yourself everyday. The optionality of life. Using time and boredom to guide your decisions.

Getting Started

“I’m not sure where to start”

We were sitting at the dinner table and my little brother, Sam, starts speaking. He says he’s not sure where to start. Then he keeps going. “I’m not sure where to start, so I’m just making whatever I can think of.” I tell him. “That’s the

Creating

Your first 100

If you’ve never created anything, you might be trapped in a mental prison. In year 8, my art teacher told me my drawing was bad. So I stopped drawing. In year 12, my English teacher said my writing was too repetitive and didn’t have enough structure. So I

Creating

What if you couldn’t see the metrics?

When the like button arrived, things changed. When view counts were made visible to everyone, things changed. Changed? Now everyone had something to compare their work to. If you created a post and it had less likes than another, it wasn’t as good. When you search for a video,

Art

You can use your day to day as fuel for your art

Stuck? Write a story about what happened today. Working a job which doesn’t set you on fire? Remind yourself, it helps to pay for food, it gives you funds to work on your craft. Art and opportunities to create are all around. All it takes is looking at things

Art

No Eggs On Toast

If you’re ever in Melbourne (or Paris), you should visit Hardware Societe. I found them because of a book I picked up in a cafe at the markets. The book was pink with big green letters across the front spelling out NO EGGS ON TOAST. As I flipped through

Life and Living

When will you be ready?

When you think of starting something new, sharing your work, putting your art out there, it can be tempting to wait. Wait until you know more. Wait until you're not a student anymore. Wait until your work is better than the rest (who decides this?/who are you comparing to?

Life and Living

Hunter S. Thompson vs. Mark Wahlberg Schedule

One is a very popular actor, known for his physique and attitude. The other is one of the greatest writers of all time, known for savagery. Mark Wahlberg wakes up at 2:30 am. Mark Wahlberg's daily schedule.Hunter S. Thompson would wake up at 3:00 pm. Hunter S.

Work

The reward always tastes better when you've worked for it

The hot shower at the end of a cold run. The big meal at the end of a hard training session. The paycheque after writing an article people enjoy. The view at the top of the mountain after hiking up it. But the best? The best reward? The best reward

Art

How many times do I have to be reminded?

I finish this afternoon and not everything has been done. The work started to decline by the end. The dogs were barking, the wind was blowing far too much. I start feeling agitated. And a deeper agitation starts to form because of the first. Compound interest. Then I put on

Art

Attention to detail

Dad and I went to the barber today. The local one down the road. I always get Alex. He's from Colombia. Loves baseball, loves his little girl. She's 7-months old now. Time flies. I was watching him while waiting. The start of each cut was rough. Through the bulk of

Life and Living

How to deal with imposter syndrome

The first time I walked into an artificial intelligence meetup, I felt like I shouldn’t have been there. The second time I walked into a machine learning event, I felt like I shouldn’t have been there. The 20th time I walked into an artificial intelligence meetup, I felt

Creating

Is it beautiful?

That’s question one. The next: Is it functional? Whenever you make something, keep these in mind. Why beauty first? Because beauty is a function. If something is beautiful, it doesn’t have to be anything else. It’s how we are. We’re attracted to things which look beautiful.

Creating

Create like a toddler

My friend was over with his son the other day. My friend has been to my place plenty of times, his son too, but it’s only now he’s starting to explore the world on his own. He grabbed the markers from my white board and was popping the

Creating

The creative habit

Treat creativity as a habit. If you want to be more creative, practice being more creative. I wanted to get better at writing, so I started writing every day. I wanted to get better at making videos, so I started making videos every week. Creativity isn't only for the recognized

Creating

Approach Your Art Like a Professional Golfer

How often do you see someone get a hole in one? Professional golfers only land 1 in 2500 holes on the first shot. For an amateur, it’s more like 1 in 12500. You should treat your artworks the same. It will rarely be a hit on the first try.