Evaluate a painting Bold school
Composition and Balance Rule of Thirds
The Dominant Element Secondary element
Balance and Flow
At different times during a painting you need to step back and evaluate what you’re creating. Otherwise it can go down strange rabbit holes and take on a life of its own.
This isn’t about asking the question do I like it or not? We are too biased with our own work to make that simple an evaluation. Our questions need to be more direct and address issues like: Am I creating original art? Does it draw me in to want to look longer? Is it too busy, overwhelming? Or is it just plain Boring?
If you decide your painting has gone in the wrong direction, it is then important to evaluate if the painting is salvageable
Be careful. During the process of evaluation or critique you have to be careful not to be too rigid with rules. But I do believe we can all agree that rules can and will stump your growth. Remember to leave room for growth and experimentation in this process. However, we all have hopes and dreams for our work and to help you go in the direction you were planning there are a few steps to take. First, develop an evaluation process that helps you decide if the work is going in a good direction and then to find the problem areas. Second, if the piece is worth continuing, troubleshoot to solve the problems //
EVALUATION TIPS
TIP 1: OBSERVE AT THREE DISTANCES.
Close up is already taken care of. Go to the back of your studio and see how your painting looks at that distance. Then go outside the room, maybe at the end of hall and see it from a far distance. The 3 perspectives will give you a very different view of how all the elements are balancing. If you can’t get a far away view here’s a cheat. Try taking a photo with your phone. The painting will appear tiny as it would if you walked away from it.
TIP 2: DON’T RUSH.
Each step of a painting requires a different type of evaluation. In Module 6 we evaluated how the outline was going. At that point we were looking for the features being in the right place. We weren’t looking for any kind of balance at that point. Later we evaluate for face shape and even later we evaluate for overall balance. It’s usually 2-3 hours into a piece before I start seeing depth and at that time I stop to evaluate balance. //
TIP 3: DON’T BECOME PROTECTIVE
You may see some parts of your painting that you are really enjoying. This can cause you to ‘protect it’ and often comes at the expense of the rest of your painting. If you find that you become protective early in the painting here’s a tip: take a photo of it with your phone and move on…cover it up. That may sound scary but having it on your phone helps you to remember why you liked it so much. Protecting it will be much more devastating to your final piece. // TIP 4: Don’t take your mom or spouses word as gold: They are bias. Enough said. //
TIP 5: DO SELF EVALUATE
No one knows your goals better than yourself. Try not to be overly critical. It’s okay to acknowledge when you fail to meet a goal, or when you try something new and it doesn’t work out. But rather than allowing self-doubt destroy the journey, let those failures be a springboard from where you launch the next artwork, Negative self-thoughts are counter-productive at the best of times, so be on guard against them. Learn to recognize the signs that you’re getting hyper-critical, and step away from your work for a while. Take a walk, then evaluate your work later with fresh eyes.
// SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK Q1 //
Is the Painting interesting?
What about the work makes you want to keep looking at it? Or look away?
Q2 // Does the painting feel busy?
Q3 // Do you feel overwhelming when trying to look at it?
Q4 // Have you seen this before? As in, does it look like everything else you’ve ever painted?
Q5 // As a way to have an unemotional response to the piece, try to describe it to yourself. What colors, shapes and textures do you see? Begin to see the elements instead of attached feelings. //
CHECK THESE ELEMENTS FOR PRESENCE & BALANCE
This list includes elements of design you most likely heard of before. It isn’t an exhausted list. I’ve included the elements that are most important to painting in my style. //
LINE: Does your eye flow easily through the piece? Does it have a sense of rhythm? Or does your eye stop or get led off the edge and feel lost? //
DEPTH: Does it have dimension? Is there a variety of texture, marks, color, etc. Or does it feel static? // VALUE: Is there a full range of values? If it’s meant to be high key, mostly light, do you have a tight range of these light values? Is there at least one value at the light end of a value scale and one value at the low end of the value range? // You will want to ask questions continually as you paint, but as you draw nearer to a completed piece it’s a good time to sit back from your work and think through all of these elements. See it with fresh eyes. Being that as artists we live a very isolated life in our studio it’s important to learn how to self evaluate properly. During University I Practiced the valuable tool of critique. I believe in the real world we don’t use this tool often enough. I invite you to come and share your work in the discussions and community. During thoughtful and considerate critique we can help each other break through creative barriers to the next level of our art journey. //
FORM & SHAPE: Does the face look human? Or does the subject matter have the proper form? Is there form or does it fall flat? // COLOR: What was your intention with color? Is there too much of one color or color family? Are the color values correct? // FOCUS: Where does your eye go when you first look at the painting? Does your eye go directly where you want it? Or are you fighting to go somewhere else?Have you controlled the focus?
// JUDGEMENT Q1 //
Does the piece feel successful? Q1 //
What feelings do the piece evoke?
How does this compare to the feelings you intended for it to evoke?
Q1 // Is this original? After analysis, you may decide the painting is not worth pursuing. It may have been a study, or a subject you’re not that attached to. Sometimes it’s just so bad that you might as well start over. But those are rare times. Instead of taking the route of destruction or painting over it, consider this: I USUALLY decide that if a piece is bad enough to abandon then I have nothing to lose by taking risks and pursuing new ideas with the piece!! I decide to move forward and use some bold techniques I’ve never had nerve to try before. What have you wanted to try that you were to scared to risk a good painting on? Bold, unrealistic color? Paint splatter,? Collage? Embroidery? Stencil? Introducing a different subject matter?
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