Originally written in 2018 on my old blog. Revised.

A while back I started painting. Someone suggested it as a way to relax after work instead of staring at a television, and it worked. I bought cheap supplies and books of paintings and how-to guides, and I found myself looking forward to the current canvas at the end of the day.

The unexpected part was how it changed the way I think about the apps I was building.

When I paint, I keep asking how to make it more interesting and more pleasing to the viewer. If I don’t fully blend the colors or fill in every detail, the viewer’s mind finishes the job. The painting becomes interactive. The person looking at it is doing part of the work, and enjoying it.

Before, when I built software, I thought about making it easy to use and making it do its job, nothing more. After painting for a while, I started thinking about how a person glances at a screen and lets the colors, shapes and symbols blend into a single impression of what matters. A good interface, like a good painting, doesn’t explain everything. It arranges things so your mind fills in the rest correctly.

I was only at the beginning of learning to paint. But it’s a good reminder that skills from completely different places end up feeding each other.