/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

[Anonymous No.2949443]

Who here has read Art and Fear?
What was your opinion of it?
I finished it like a month ago and felt disappointed.
You can tell it was written by two different people with totally different voices.
One author was straight to the point and understood the struggles artists go through and addresses those struggles well, the other was a pretentious name dropper more interested in showing off his knowledge of obscure art history than trying to provide useful information to the reader.
It pissed me off because to me it felt that the latter dominated the book than the former.
I didn't want to read some smarmy art school faggot randomly drop quotes from a host of literally-who's that add nothing to subject at hand.
But that's what I got.
There some insightful stuff in the book but it gets drown out by the uppity stuffy author.

[Anonymous No.2949455]

I bought it as well, I felt like it was more addressed to writers than artists.

[Anonymous No.2949456]

Can you drop the insightful stuff here so I don't have to read it then?

[Anonymous No.2949462]

>>2949455
Right, It didn't feel like it was aimed at artist in the painting and drawing spectrum of "art".
Not surprising being both authors are photographers.

[Anonymous No.2949466]

>>2949456
To tell you the truth it's mostly common sense shit you've probably heard before.

[Anonymous No.2949842]

>>2949443
>What was your opinion of it?
it should definitely be required reading on /ic/. As important as anything on the sticky list tbqh.


>>2949455
that's odd, I didn't get that at all.

>>2949466
common sense isn't so common at times. look around /ic/. if more people read it we wouldn't have such asinine questions like "how do I draw like X" and "am I as good/better than Y yet?"

>>2949456
you really need to just read it from start to finish and then come back to what struck a cord with you when you need to hear it again. like yeah obviously it's "common sense" that to improve in art you "just do it" but the book goes into why exactly is it hard to "just do it" when it comes to art. it also goes into other useful shit like the difference between art and craft which /ic/ definitely needs to fucking learn.

[Anonymous No.2949851]

>>2949842
pic related is the part about craft

[Anonymous No.2949852]

>>2949462
>both authors are photographers
Into the trash it goes.

Yeah, photography is art and all that shit, but you can't compare the struggle towards proficiency, let alone mastery, of painting/sculpture/music/acting to fucking photography.

[Anonymous No.2949859]

>>2949842
>>2949851

Wow.. Is the whole book this beautifully written? I can't tell if I've read it before or if it's simply summarized a lot of complex thoughts I'd never put into words before.

[Anonymous No.2949865]

>>2949859
>it's simply summarized a lot of complex thoughts I'd never put into words before.
that's exactly what the authors tried to do. to some it seems like "common sense" but it's the putting into words that's the hard part.

pic related is one of my favorite parts of the entire book. last pic I'll post. "do your work" should be a common phrase in /ic/. no one else can do your work, so you might as well do it.

[Anonymous No.2949879]

I got nothing from it, I felt like it was aimed at bodyhair mixed media artists and post-pre-modernist genderfukt metallurgists

[Anonymous No.2949891]

>>2949443
i have it, it's okay, a bit platitudinous for me. i didn't have a problem with any art history or whatever, i think that's your greenness showing possibly.

[Anonymous No.2949899]

>>2949879
>post-pre-modernist genderfukt metallurgists
solid

I read Art & Fear, The Art Spirit and The War of Art not too long ago. Good books - they're 1-on-1 conversations with the authors with tidbits of things that we are better off hearing from an outside voice than from our own.

[Anonymous No.2949908]

>>2949443
I'm of the sort that prefers non-fiction writing to be plain and simple. The roundabout ways of saying things without saying anything outright triggers my autism.

A phenomenal read nonetheless, though a lot of it is more about building up a sort of
'art pride' pretty gay 2bh. My opinion though,

I believe making art is no different than making anything else, it's only when the different artists work together that I get all fluttery about it. Though pretty much anything that's exceptionally well done gives me a bit of human pride.

[Anonymous No.2949915]

>>2949865
>tfw thought I was a poser doing art all this time
>tfw it's explained why I feel this way
W-what. This book is amazing.

[Anonymous No.2949919]

I haven't read it personally but it seems to have some good insight from what I've seen.
pic related

[Anonymous No.2949931]

>>2949919
Jesus Christ, my life right there. Although this is genius really, if you assigned a fuck ton of work, I would have to get on that shit or else there's no way to bullshit it at the last minute.

[Anonymous No.2949935]

>>2949842
>>2949851
>>2949865
>>2949919
gaaaay. but in all seriousness, how many pages ? it seems interesting enough to check out if i dont have to waste a whole lot of time on it

[Anonymous No.2949938]

I have a copy of it sitting on my dresser.
Too lazy to read it though.

[Anonymous No.2949939]

>>2949938
How about you read it and record the audio, so I can just listen to you read it?

[Anonymous No.2949951]

>>2949443
How does it compare to "The War of Art"?

[Anonymous No.2949953]

>>2949951
Tell me about this book.

[Anonymous No.2949957]

>>2949953
Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do.

Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That's why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there'd be no Resistance.

[Anonymous No.2949959]

>>2949957
>Fear tells us what we have to do.
i thought it tells us we're about to die

[Anonymous No.2949964]

>>2949959
If you're going to nitpick, at least nitpick on the whole book, not the couple sentences quote I posted.

[Anonymous No.2949966]

>>2949935
117

[Anonymous No.2949978]

>>2949966
How do they know so well but non-artists don't get it at all?

[Anonymous No.2950499]

>>2949443
>You can tell it was written by two different people with totally different voices.
>I didn't want to read some smarmy art school faggot randomly drop quotes from a host of literally-who's
When I read it and I googled some of the names they were a bunch of obscure people who barely qualified as artists. That aside the book offers a some sound advice and insight about the trials of being an artist.
I still think it's worth the read even if you have to power through the one author's shitty writing style.

[Anonymous No.2950524]

>>2949951
By Tzu Sun

[Anonymous No.2950621]

>>2949879
>I got nothing from it,
Same.

We all already know how it feels, now tell us how to get rid of it. The book does not do that.

[Anonymous No.2951041]

i think it's a great book and very helpful

[Anonymous No.2951420]

>>2949443
I actually read it twice. Twice becausee it wasn't until the end of the second time I realized I had read it all the way through once, I thought I only had parts of it.

And I totally agree. Talking about the struggles of photographers and amateur dancers is fucking cuck as shit compared to the singular goal of gitting gud and gitting paid.

Overall, not a fan. Definitely doesn't make me want to draw or lift any worries off my chest. Nothing does that for me like watching some old guy who's been at it for decades drawing and still going at it, everything else can step aside as far as motivation or inspiration or insight goes.

[Anonymous No.2951438]

>>2949919
I get the message of this, but I'm afraid of rushing myself and adopting bad habits out of the pressure to produce quantity

[Anonymous No.2951544]

>>2951438
Just adapt by alternating between mediums. If you prefer graphite, make use of pencil crayon or chalk. Make copies of fairly broad images.

[Anonymous No.2951573]

>>2951544
That sounds at least worth trying for a while, I'm going to try that approach