Art criticism

[SOLA No.1150756]

I just finished an oil painting. I am in desperate need of criticism. so please tell me wat you think firstly on a scale from 1-10. secondly what you think it means and just let me know what you think. thanks!!!

[Anonymous No.1150760]

>>1150756
I only looked for a second but I liked it. It means that we think (or what is in our mind) is what we see/perceive? That's my first impression anyway.

[Anonymous No.1150762]

>>1150760
I interpretted it as eye brain lasers.. xD

[Anonymous No.1150763]

Love it.
First impression was the perception of intellectualism.
Perception is obviously a huge part of this piece but what is being perceived could vary. Not sure about the skull. Obviously death springs to mind but I can't work it into my first impression and I doubt it's as meaningful as the brain.

[anonymous No.1150773]

I'm an artist. When people tell me how talented I am, I'm like, uh whut? To me talent has nothing to do with it; it's patience, persistence, and consciousness of details. All I do I imagine an image, then begin by trying to put it on canvas. The first attempt is always horrifyingly, gutwrenchingly wrong: that's NOT the same image I had in my head! The only way to "fix" it is to keep at it. Not talent, but patience and persistence, not giving up while I layer mistake over mistake and try desperately to shape the abomination I started with into something approaching the image in my mind. Consciousness of the details, of WHY it's wrong, and what needs fixing, is the rest of the battle.

Your painting displays those three qualities very strongly.

The image, however; the idea behind it--seems shallow and not very well thought out. A surface gimmick, an attempt at effect rather than real honest emotion.

I'd say you have the mechanics down. You can only get better. Keep painting, remain conscious of what it is you feel, what it is you're trying to say--hint, don't be so literal: people communicate emotion to each other on a more abstract, less literal level--and while you're teaching yourself to visualize your emotional ideas in paint, your technique will improve even more. Keep at it, you'll be great someday, probably way before I get there.

[Anonymous No.1150774]

First impression was pain and that your skull was going to get stabbed in the eye.

Second impression was that you were trying to convey we get our 'brainwaves from a screen or visa versa...

Third impression was that it was created by somebody that doesn't spend a lot of time outside and needs to make their ideas more abstract and veiled because when an idea is thrust at you it's not art, it's design.

Art should have a different meaning for every viewpoint; design should have one meaning for all viewpoints.

And from a purely compositional standpoint, all my eyes want to see is the pink wiggles of brain you have in that triangle- I don't generally like triangles in paintings anyway but the color and the content made me really dislike looking at it.

[Anonymous No.1150781]

i don't get it, sorry. not pleasant to look at, or thought provoking in any way. i kept trying to force meaning onto it, such as the old idea of phlogisten, but it did not mesh with the artwork. you paint far better than I, so please keep painting.

[anonymous No.1150836]

The problem with surrealism--with concrete images that have a specific allegorical meaning--is that the put the viewer at an extra layer of remove from the idea being conveyed. They have to stop and "translate"--wait, if this symbolizes this, and that symbolizes that, then what it means is--etc. You can convey an emotion just as strongly--more strongly--with a color, or a texture. People don't always think in 1:1 allegories, in rebuses. So surrealism is the easiest style to attempt, but the most difficult to succeed at.

Instead of painting concrete images in an attempt to construct a concrete, specific message, try to disengage that conscious storytelling part of your brain. Paint images that don't make sense to you; see if you can get at what's in your subconscious. If you try to avoid concrete, translatable images, you might just be able to tap into that more abstract, more universal emotional thing that great paintings do.

I'm not saying to paint only abstractly; shapes and colors, or whatever. Paint a tree. Paint an apple. Paint a self portrait. But put everything you have into it; don't make it MEAN something, make it FEEL something.

And don't worry: artists work to get at this their entire lives; it won't come out in the first painting you try, or the second, or the twenty-second. But you'll get better at transmitting that visual abstraction of a feeling from your subconscious to your brush hand, the more you keep at it.

[None !UyhAEqbnp. No.1150855]

best thread on /lit/

[Anonymous No.1150885]

oh man, the people on /lit/ are such arrogant pricks, i'd forgotten.

art should be honk. art shouldn't be honk. honk honk honk honka honk honk

shut the fuck up.

OP, it's a nice painting. now go paint more paintings.

[Anonymous No.1150895]

>>1150885

when people ask for criticism they don't want to hear, "oh that's nice"

[Anonymous No.1150897]

>>1150895
you can start speaking when spoken to, you little shit.

[anonymous No.1150898]

>>1150885

Yeah not hearing any "should"s in this thread, just some honest reactions. What thread you readin?

[anonymous No.1150902]

>>1150895

Yeah, if he didn't want people to try to honestly describe and explain their reactions, he'd shown it to his mom.

[Anonymous No.1150907]

>>1150898
>>1150774
read that post again champ.

[Anonymous No.1150908]

>>1150897

your mother

[Anonymous No.1150918]

>>1150908
is a fucking saint, i know.

[Anonymous No.1150953]

>>1150918

a saint of fucking? hot

[anonymous No.1150962]

>>1150907

Yeah um when you ask people to talk about your painting, you're gonna get a bunch of individual opinions, not some wall of "should." It's a perfectly valid way for someone to try to describe how they feel about art. What about a discussion about art strikes you as not the personal opinion of the person expressing it? What if I had a feeling of what art should be for me to appreciate it?

You know what's more helpful? Some douche who's not even participating in the conversation to punch his way into the middle of it with a bunch of rules about how it should or should not be discussed--you can express "should" without using the actual word, champ--just because he's in need of a little negative attention.

You want to participate? Talk about the art, not about how the rest of us should be discussing it. You don't want to participate? GTFO.

Questions?

pic related

[Anonymous No.1151258]

>>1150962
text related

suck my dick. how the fuck do you convince yourself it's acceptable to actually write the word "um" out?

i think it's pretty clear i do not want to participate in this bullshit thread. also, i believe you to be mad, mostly because you failed to see the word should. so, sir, take that horse's bottom elsewhere or i will be forced to contact 4chan's administrators to come and SHUT YOU DOWN

[Anonymous No.1151289]

>>1150907

That was my post, and that quote is paraphrased from Andy Warhol. Suck my dick.

[SOLA No.1151370]

you people are awesome.

thanks for the input and encouragement.

and esp the raw criticism. (i.e. >>1150773 >>1150774 >>1150781 >>1150836)

You see, Im a bit of a masochist when it comes to criticism so thanks once again

[Anonymous No.1151388]

WHY IS THIS ON MY /lit/???

>>>/ic/

[anonymous No.1151405]

>>1151258

Yeah um I hadn't seen that "should" because I'd missed that post. But when I did read it, what pissed me off, horseass, was that the post in question was clearly expressing a personal opinion, which happened to include the word "should." Your post, on the other hand, where you whipped out this rule that you learned somewhere that discussions about art should (um) never use the word "should," was way more full of "should" than the post you retardedly objected to. So keep suckin my dick, you not there yet brah.

[Anonymous No.1151407]

It's alright for a piece of amateur work.

[Anonymous No.1151409]

I think you have very good technique, control of color, and overall ability; you are a good painter.

But your subject matter is a bit...immature? It looks like something a talented high schooler or weird conspiracy theorist might paint.

[Anonymous No.1151503]

As other people in this thread already mentioned, I think you have a pretty good painting technique and clearly you are at a level in which art expression can actually take place as opposed to being inordinately distracting by a bad technique.

The concept art, however, seems a bit too explicit--as some already mentioned as well--given that the painting shows some sort of wave-like transmission of a brain onto some screen (?). While clearly a respectable message, the clever and fun part of it of any great painting is to "clad it up" a little, like someone who's walking thorugh a forest to find an old diary as opposed to stealing it from someone you know--the mysteriousness, the aloofness of it is what makes it come alive, to reach deep into one thoughs. A great painting should convey complex emotions and ideas in unprecedented and seemingly unlikely forms.

Very good start though. I encourage you to keep painting and hopefully perfect paintings to work for you just like you want it.