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Do basic skills become instinctive?
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Message
Posted
Form my own perspective (pun intended) I have been painting architectural scenes for many years and can't recall ever spending much time debating with myself the issues of perspective. I do seem to have a feel if something is wrongly represented whilst it doesn't always come naturally to others.
I also find that I can apply artists licence (yes I have one) to colours, layout , positioning and general interpretation - I can paint tight or loose, and get away with all of this but if I get the perspective wrong it will be the one thing which will be pounced on by others.
Posted
Nice pun, Michael.
In my eighteen years of painting, all sorts of things, I too haven't given too much attention to perspective, my theory - if it looks right, that's fine. I think over the years you become tuned in to your subject, no matter if you have a diverse portfolio, plants buildings etc, with practice, over the years, I believe there is improvement between brain and hand. When I look back at my first attempts, there is an improvement. We soon learn how to represent a certain depth and distance with each subject we want to portray within painting.
Posted
Taking your question as one needing a basic yes or no answer, Michael, mine would be yes. A sense of perspective is a total asset once understood and acquired. There are plenty explanations available to understanding it, vanishing point, distance etc, so none needed from me. I think it follows that your art will benefit hugely from not having to thinks too hard on perspective as it's done automatically. .
Posted
Having said that perspective must always be right (I had in mind my own work where I paint local scenes) there are, of course, are exceptions to this. You can deliberately play around with it in styles like, say, Mikki Longleys..
A senryu:
Stray away from truth
Painting only from the heart
Artistic licence
Edited
by MichaelEdwards
Posted
I don't possess artistic instinct nor do I have an Artistic Licence (went to the Post Office but they had stopped issuing them). I tried learning the basics many years ago and still need to keep reminding myself. I pay attention to the basics in the initial drawing and from then on 'if it looks right...'
Posted
It surely has to be taken into account as to what type of art perspective refers to. I obviously refer mainly to vistas as opposed to portraits and still life interior works etc. . The art world is full of "masterpieces" from as long as 1000 years ago. Some of them wouldn't be considered so on here, never mind universally. If Picasso weren't famous some of his paintings would be classed as the ravings of a madman by some, Gaugain even moreso.
In some repects, art is a very foolish world in itself. Some of the descriptions of their works by "arty folk" put me in danger of incontinence. (Yes, I know we've done "aertybollox" etc). I admire the simplest of paintings (sorry, even good/bad perspective regardless) because somebody is expressing themselves in paint, or trying to . If/when they try to take me on a psychdelic trip around their head rambles or a semantics lecture, I pass on rapidly. I won't even mention psuedo "third person" biographies (oops, I just did).
I totally agree with Alan's view of " I never seek to replicate nature, that's why I'm an artist and not a photographer."
What's the point of perfection in taking hours perfectly replicating something a camera can do in seconds, (I include references as few of us paint plein aire (pardon) all the time, if ever in my case, and it still won't be your work as the more perfectly you do it takes it away from you and credits the original. To this end, perspective is important without being a total criteria. If it were so the museums and art galleries would be empty. I suppose it's all a matter of choice and a buyers market that decides end of day.
As ever, just views.
Jim.
Edited
by Wanderer69
Posted
Well, you can take the term artistic licence and let it be an excuse for all sorts of laziness, to be quite honest about it. But if you're going to muck about with perspective - which is quite possible to do - it needs to be deliberate, not so haphazard that you reveal you really haven't a clue about it.
I rarely measure carefully for perspective - because I've never yet seen a street or row of buildings which were entirely compliant with the set-square; if you're an architect, you need precision. But if you're an artist, not so much (and of course, perspective is a relatively modern invention/discovery - depending on what one means by 'modern': did Breughel worry much about perspective? A generation of artists about 100 years before him wouldn't have done, and I suspect he employed instinct more than measurement).
I do suspect though that some people need more help than others with perspective: I think my eye isn't too bad at judging it without the help of mechanical devices, but I may be fooling myself; and anyway, there's no shame in using any device that comes to hand if you're not sure you can get it right without them. To Jim, Gauguin and van Gogh seemed to get their perspective about right, with the odd wobble or two to add interest - Egon Schiele ditto; on the whole, if it looks right it is right, and if it doesn't, it isn't! And perfect perspective may leave us gasping in wonderment for a while, but can get a touch boring too.
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