What are some of the qualities a true artist must possess
What are some of the qualities a true artist must possess
Composition and drawing
in the foreground /background
in the top/bottom/left-hand corner
to arrange symmetrically/asymmetrically/in a pyramid/in a vertical format
to divide the picture space diagonally
to define the nearer figures more sharply
to emphasize contours purposely
to be scarcely discernible
to convey a sense of space
to place the figures against the landscape background
to merge into a single entity
to blend with the landscape
to indicate the sitter’s profession
to be represented standing. /sitting. /talking..
to be posed/ silhouetted against an open sky/a classic pillar/the snow
to accentuate smth.
4. Colouring, light and shade effects:
to combine form and colour into harmonious unity
brilliant/low-keyed colour scheme
mated in colour
the colours may be cool and restful/hot and agitated/soft and delicate/dull, oppressive, harsh
the delicacy of tones may be lost in a reproduction.
5. Impression. Judgement:
the picture may be moving
poetic in tone and atmosphere
an exquisite piece of painting
an unsurpassed masterpiece
distinguished by a marvellous sense of colour and composition.
a colourless daub of paint
obscure and unintelligible
cheap and vulgar.
Use the Topical Vocabulary in answering the questions:
1. What service do you think the artist performs for mankind?
2. Historically there have been various reasons for the making of pictures, apart from the artist’s desire to create a work of visual beauty. Can you point out some of them?
3. How does pictorial art serve as a valuable historical record? What can it preserve for the posterity?
4. There are certain rules of composition tending to give unity and coherence to the work of art as a whole. Have you ever observed that triangular or pyramidal composition gives the effect of stability and repose, while a division of the picture space diagonally tends to give breadth and vigour? Be specific.
5. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist. What are some of the qualities a true artist must possess?
6. Why does it sometimes happen that an artist is not appreciated in his lifetime and yet highly prized by the succeeding generations?
7. The heyday of the Renaissance is to be placed between the 15th and 16th centuries. Artists began to study anatomy and the effects of light and shadow, which made their work more life-like. Which great representatives of the period do you know?
8. What national schools of painting are usually distinguished in European art?
9. Classicism attached the main importance to composition and figure painting while romanticism laid stress on personal and emotional expression, especially in colour and dramatic effect, What is typical of realsm/impressionism/cubism/expressionism/surrealism?
10. What kinds of pictures are there according to the artist’s theme?
11. Artists can give psychological truth to portraiture not simply by stressing certain main physical features, but by the subtlety of light and shade. In this respect Rokotov, Levitsky and Borovikovsky stand out as unique. Isn’t it surprising that they managed to impart an air of dignity and good breeding to so many of their portraits?
12. Is the figure painter justified in resorting to exaggeration and distortion if the effect he has in mind requires it?
13. Landscape is one of the principal means by which artists express their delight in the visible world. Do we expect topographical accuracy from the landscape painter?
14. What kind of painting do you prefer? Why?
ART
The word art derives from the Latin ars, which roughly translates to «skill» or «craft», and derives in turn from an Indo-European root meaning «arrangement» or «to arrange». This is the only near-universal definition of art: that whatever is described as such has undergone a deliberate process of arrangement by an agent.
There are a variety of arts, including visual arts and design, decorative arts, plastic arts, and the performing arts. Artistic expression takes many forms: painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, music, literature, and architecture are the most widely recognised forms. However, since the advent of modernism and the technological revolution, new forms have emerged. These include photography, film, video art, installation art, conceptual art, performance art, community arts, land art, fashion, comics, computer art, anime, and, most recently, video games.
Within each form, a wide range of genres may exist. For instance, a painting may be a still life, a portrait, or a landscape and may deal with historical or domestic subjects. In addition, a work of art may be representational or abstract.
Most forms of art fit under two main categories: fine arts and applied arts, though there is no clear dividing line. In the visual arts, the term fine arts most often refers to painting and sculpture, arts which have little or no practical function and are valued in terms of the visual pleasure they provide or their success in communicating ideas or feelings. Other visual arts typically designated as fine arts include printmaking, drawing, photography, film, and video, though the tools used to realize these media are often used to make applied or commercial art as well. Architecture typically confounds the distinctions between fine and applied art, since the form involves designing structures that strive to be both attractive and functional. The term applied arts is most often used to describe the design or decoration of functional objects to make them visually pleasing. Artists who create applied arts or crafts are usually referred to as designers, artisans, or craftspeople.
Art appeals to human emotions. It can arouse aesthetic or moral feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Artists have to express themselves so that their public is aroused, but they do not have to do so consciously. Art explores what is commonly termed as the human condition; that is, essentially, what it is to be human, and art of a superior kind often brings about some new insight concerning humanity (not always positive) or demonstrates a level of skill so fine as to push forward the boundaries of collective human ability.
IV. CONVERSATION AND DISCUSSION PAINTING
Unit 18*
Topical Vocabulary
1. Painters and their craft:a fashionable/self-taught/mature artist, a portrait/landscape painter, to paint from nature/memory/ imagination, to paint mythological/historical subjects, to specialize in portraiture/still life, to portray people/emotions with moving sincerity/with restraint, to depict a person/a scene of common life/the mood of. to render/interpret the personality of. to reveal the person’s nature, to capture the sitter’s vitality/transient expression., to develop one’s own style of painting; to conform to the taste ofthe period, to break with the tradition, to be in advance of one’s time, to expose the dark sides of life, to become famous overnight, to die forgotten and penniless.
2. Paintings. Genres: an oil painting, a canvas, a water-colour/ pastel picture; a sketch/study; a family group/ceremonial/intimate portrait, a self-portrait, a shoulder/length/half-length/knee-length/full-length portrait; a landscape, a seascape, a genre/historical painting, a still life, a battle piece, a flower piece, a masterpiece.
3. Composition and drawing: in the foreground/background, in the top/bottom/ left-hand corner; to arrange symmetrically/asymmetrically/in a pyramid/in a vertical format; to divide the picture space diagonally, to define the nearer figures more sharply, to emphasize соntours purposely, to be scarcely discernible, to convey a sense of space, to place the figures against the landscape background, to merge into a single entity, to blend with the landscape, to indicate the sitter’s profession, to be represented standing. /sitting., /talking. to be posed/ silhouetted against an open sky/a classic pillar/the snow; to accentuate smth.
* Використано матеріали підручника: Практический курс английского языка. 3 курс / Под ред. ВД. Аракина.- M.,1999.- C.161-173
5. Impression. Judgement: the picture may be moving, lyrical, romantic, original, and poetic in tone and atmosphere, an exquisite piece of painting, an unsurpassed masterpiece, distinguished by a marvellous sense of colour and composition.
The picture may be dull, crude, chaotic, a colourless daub of paint, obscure and unintelligible, gaudy, depressing, disappointing, cheap and vulgar.
1. Read the following text for obtaining its information:
Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, in 1727, the son of John Gainsborough, a cloth merchant. He soon evinced a marked inclination for drawing and in 1740 his father sent him to London to study art, He stayed in London for eight years, working under the rococo portrait-engraver Gravelot; he also became familiar with the Flemish tradition of painting, which was highly prized by London art dealers at that time. «Road through Wood, with Boy Resting and Dog», 1747 is a typical ‘genre painting’, obviously influenced by Ruisdael. In Many aspects this work recalls Constable’s «Cornfield».
In 1750 Gainsborough moved to Ipswich where his professional career began in earnest. He executed a great many small-sized portraits as well as landscapes of a decorative nature. In October 1759 Gainsborough moved to Bath. In Bath he became a much sought-after and fashionable artist, portraying the aristocracy, wealthy merchants, artists and men of letters. He no longer produced small paintings but, in the manner of Van Dyck, turned to full-length, life-size portraits. From 1774 to 1788 (the year of his death) Gainsborough lived in London where he divided his time between portraits and pictorial compositions, inspired by Geiorgione, which Reynolds defined as «fancy pictures» («The Wood Gatherers», 1787). As a self-taught artist, he did not make the traditional grand tour or the ritual journey to Italy, but relied on his own remarkable instinct in painting.
Gainsborough is famous for the elegance of his portraits and his pictures of women in particular have an extreme delicacy and refinement. As a colourist he has had few rivals among English painters. His best works have those delicate brush strokes which are found in Rubens and Renoir. They are painted in clear and transparent, in a colour scheme where blue and green predominate.
Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife, 1750
The particular discovery of Gainsborough was the creation of a form of art in which the sitters and the background merge into a single entity. The landscape is not kept in the background, but in most cases man and nature are fused in a single whole through the atmospheric harmony of mood; he emphasized that the natural background for his characters neither was, nor ought to be, the drawing-room or a reconstruction of historical events, but the changeable and harmonious manifestations of nature, as revealed both in the fleeting moment and in the slowly evolving seasons. In the portrait of «Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife», for example, the beauty of the green English summer is communicated to the viewer through the sense of well-being and delight which the atmosphere visibly creates in the sitters. Gainsborough shows the pleasure of resting on a rustic bench in the cool shade of an oak tree, while all around the ripe harvest throbs in a hot atmosphere enveloped by a golden light.
Emphasis is nearly always placed on the season in both the landscapes and the portraits, from the time of Gainsborough’s early works until the years of his late maturity: from the burning summer sun in «Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife» to the early autumn scene in «The Market Cart», painted in 1786 — 1787, a work penetrated throughout by the richness and warmth of colour of the season, by its scents of drenched earth and marshy undergrowth.
It is because his art does not easily fall within a well-defined theoretical system that it became a forerunner of the romantic movement, with its feeling for nature and the uncertainty and anxiety experienced by sensitive men when confronted with nature: «Mary, Countess Howe» (1765), «The Blue Boy» (1770), «Elizabeth and Mary Linley» (1772), «Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet» (1785).
The marriage portrait «The Morning Walk», painted in 1785, represents the perfection of Gainsborough’s later style and goes beyond portraiture to an ideal conception of dignity and grace in the harmony of landscape and figures.
Gainsborough neither had not desired pupils, but his art — ideologically and technically entirely different from that of his rival Reynolds — had a considerable influence on the artists of the English school who followed him. The landscapes, especially those of his late manner, anticipate Constable, the marine paintings, Turner. His output includes about eight hundred portraits and more than two hundred landscapes.
2. Answer the following questions:
1. How did Gainsborough start his career?
2. What is known about the Ipswich period of his life?
3. What kind of practice did Gainsborough acquire in Bath?
4. What is a self-taught artist?
5. What do you know about the Flemish tradition (school) of painting?
6. What contribution did Van Dyck make to the English school of painting?
7. What are Rubens and Renoir famous for?
8. Why did Gainsborough place the sitter in direct contact with the landscape?
9. How is his conception of the relationship between man and nature reflected in the portrait of «Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife»?
10. What distinguishes «The Market Cart»?
11. What do you know about the portrait of Jonathan Buttall («The Blue Boy»)? 12. Who was Sir Joshua Reynolds? What role did he play in the history of English art?
13. How did Constable and Turner distinguish themselves?
3. Summarize the text in three paragraphs specifying the contribution Gainsborough made to the English arts.
4. Use the Topical Vocabulary in answering the questions:
1. What service do you think the artist performs for mankind?
2. Historically there have been various reasons for the making of pictures, apart from the artist’s desire to create a work of visual beauty. Can you point out some of them?
3. How does pictorial art serve as a valuable historical record? What can it preserve for the posterity?
4. There are certain rules of composition tending to give unity and coherence to the work of art as a whole. Have you ever observed that triangular or pyramidal composition gives the effect of stability and repose, while a division of the picture space diagonally tends to give breadth and vigour? Be specific.
5. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist. What are some of the qualities a true artist must possess?
6. Why does it sometimes happen that an artist is not appreciated in his lifetime and yet highly prized by the succeeding generations?
7. The heyday of the Renaissance is to be placed between the 15th and 16th centuries. Artists began to study anatomy and the effects of light and shadow, which made their work more life-like. Which great representatives of the period do you know?
8. What national schools of painting are usually distinguished in European art?
9. Classicism attached the main importance to composition and figure painting while romanticism laid stress on personal and emotional expression, especially
in colour and dramatic effect? What is typical of realism/impressionism/cubism /
10. What kinds of pictures are there according to the artist’s theme?
11. Artists can give psychological truth to portraiture not simply by stressing certain main physical features, but by the subtlety of light and shade. In this respect Rokotov, Levitsky and Borovikovsky stand out as unique. Isn’t it surprising that they managed to impart an air of dignity and good breeding to so many of their portraits?
12. Is the figure painter justified in resorting to exaggeration and distortion if the effect he has in mind requires it?
13. Landscape is one of the principal means by which artists express their delight in the visible world. Do we expect topographical accuracy from the landscape painter?
14. What kind of painting do you prefer? Why?
Topical Vocabulary
1. Painters and their craft:a fashionable/self-taught/mature artist, a portrait/landscape painter, to paint from nature/memory/ imagination, to paint mythological/historical subjects, to specialize in portraiture/still life, to portray people/emotions with moving sincerity/with restraint, to depict a person/a scene of common life/the mood of. to render/interpret the personality of. to reveal the person’s nature, to capture the sitter’s vitality/transient expression., to develop one’s own style of painting; to conform to the taste ofthe period, to break with the tradition, to be in advance of one’s time, to expose the dark sides of life, to become famous overnight, to die forgotten and penniless.
2. Paintings. Genres: an oil painting, a canvas, a water-colour/ pastel picture; a sketch/study; a family group/ceremonial/intimate portrait, a self-portrait, a shoulder/length/half-length/knee-length/full-length portrait; a landscape, a seascape, a genre/historical painting, a still life, a battle piece, a flower piece, a masterpiece.
3. Composition and drawing: in the foreground/background, in the top/bottom/ left-hand corner; to arrange symmetrically/asymmetrically/in a pyramid/in a vertical format; to divide the picture space diagonally, to define the nearer figures more sharply, to emphasize соntours purposely, to be scarcely discernible, to convey a sense of space, to place the figures against the landscape background, to merge into a single entity, to blend with the landscape, to indicate the sitter’s profession, to be represented standing. /sitting., /talking. to be posed/ silhouetted against an open sky/a classic pillar/the snow; to accentuate smth.
* Використано матеріали підручника: Практический курс английского языка. 3 курс / Под ред. ВД. Аракина.- M.,1999.- C.161-173
5. Impression. Judgement: the picture may be moving, lyrical, romantic, original, and poetic in tone and atmosphere, an exquisite piece of painting, an unsurpassed masterpiece, distinguished by a marvellous sense of colour and composition.
The picture may be dull, crude, chaotic, a colourless daub of paint, obscure and unintelligible, gaudy, depressing, disappointing, cheap and vulgar.
1. Read the following text for obtaining its information:
Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, in 1727, the son of John Gainsborough, a cloth merchant. He soon evinced a marked inclination for drawing and in 1740 his father sent him to London to study art, He stayed in London for eight years, working under the rococo portrait-engraver Gravelot; he also became familiar with the Flemish tradition of painting, which was highly prized by London art dealers at that time. «Road through Wood, with Boy Resting and Dog», 1747 is a typical ‘genre painting’, obviously influenced by Ruisdael. In Many aspects this work recalls Constable’s «Cornfield».
In 1750 Gainsborough moved to Ipswich where his professional career began in earnest. He executed a great many small-sized portraits as well as landscapes of a decorative nature. In October 1759 Gainsborough moved to Bath. In Bath he became a much sought-after and fashionable artist, portraying the aristocracy, wealthy merchants, artists and men of letters. He no longer produced small paintings but, in the manner of Van Dyck, turned to full-length, life-size portraits. From 1774 to 1788 (the year of his death) Gainsborough lived in London where he divided his time between portraits and pictorial compositions, inspired by Geiorgione, which Reynolds defined as «fancy pictures» («The Wood Gatherers», 1787). As a self-taught artist, he did not make the traditional grand tour or the ritual journey to Italy, but relied on his own remarkable instinct in painting.
Gainsborough is famous for the elegance of his portraits and his pictures of women in particular have an extreme delicacy and refinement. As a colourist he has had few rivals among English painters. His best works have those delicate brush strokes which are found in Rubens and Renoir. They are painted in clear and transparent, in a colour scheme where blue and green predominate.
Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife, 1750
The particular discovery of Gainsborough was the creation of a form of art in which the sitters and the background merge into a single entity. The landscape is not kept in the background, but in most cases man and nature are fused in a single whole through the atmospheric harmony of mood; he emphasized that the natural background for his characters neither was, nor ought to be, the drawing-room or a reconstruction of historical events, but the changeable and harmonious manifestations of nature, as revealed both in the fleeting moment and in the slowly evolving seasons. In the portrait of «Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife», for example, the beauty of the green English summer is communicated to the viewer through the sense of well-being and delight which the atmosphere visibly creates in the sitters. Gainsborough shows the pleasure of resting on a rustic bench in the cool shade of an oak tree, while all around the ripe harvest throbs in a hot atmosphere enveloped by a golden light.
Emphasis is nearly always placed on the season in both the landscapes and the portraits, from the time of Gainsborough’s early works until the years of his late maturity: from the burning summer sun in «Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife» to the early autumn scene in «The Market Cart», painted in 1786 — 1787, a work penetrated throughout by the richness and warmth of colour of the season, by its scents of drenched earth and marshy undergrowth.
It is because his art does not easily fall within a well-defined theoretical system that it became a forerunner of the romantic movement, with its feeling for nature and the uncertainty and anxiety experienced by sensitive men when confronted with nature: «Mary, Countess Howe» (1765), «The Blue Boy» (1770), «Elizabeth and Mary Linley» (1772), «Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet» (1785).
The marriage portrait «The Morning Walk», painted in 1785, represents the perfection of Gainsborough’s later style and goes beyond portraiture to an ideal conception of dignity and grace in the harmony of landscape and figures.
Gainsborough neither had not desired pupils, but his art — ideologically and technically entirely different from that of his rival Reynolds — had a considerable influence on the artists of the English school who followed him. The landscapes, especially those of his late manner, anticipate Constable, the marine paintings, Turner. His output includes about eight hundred portraits and more than two hundred landscapes.
2. Answer the following questions:
1. How did Gainsborough start his career?
2. What is known about the Ipswich period of his life?
3. What kind of practice did Gainsborough acquire in Bath?
4. What is a self-taught artist?
5. What do you know about the Flemish tradition (school) of painting?
6. What contribution did Van Dyck make to the English school of painting?
7. What are Rubens and Renoir famous for?
8. Why did Gainsborough place the sitter in direct contact with the landscape?
9. How is his conception of the relationship between man and nature reflected in the portrait of «Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife»?
10. What distinguishes «The Market Cart»?
11. What do you know about the portrait of Jonathan Buttall («The Blue Boy»)? 12. Who was Sir Joshua Reynolds? What role did he play in the history of English art?
13. How did Constable and Turner distinguish themselves?
3. Summarize the text in three paragraphs specifying the contribution Gainsborough made to the English arts.
4. Use the Topical Vocabulary in answering the questions:
1. What service do you think the artist performs for mankind?
2. Historically there have been various reasons for the making of pictures, apart from the artist’s desire to create a work of visual beauty. Can you point out some of them?
3. How does pictorial art serve as a valuable historical record? What can it preserve for the posterity?
4. There are certain rules of composition tending to give unity and coherence to the work of art as a whole. Have you ever observed that triangular or pyramidal composition gives the effect of stability and repose, while a division of the picture space diagonally tends to give breadth and vigour? Be specific.
5. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist. What are some of the qualities a true artist must possess?
6. Why does it sometimes happen that an artist is not appreciated in his lifetime and yet highly prized by the succeeding generations?
7. The heyday of the Renaissance is to be placed between the 15th and 16th centuries. Artists began to study anatomy and the effects of light and shadow, which made their work more life-like. Which great representatives of the period do you know?
8. What national schools of painting are usually distinguished in European art?
9. Classicism attached the main importance to composition and figure painting while romanticism laid stress on personal and emotional expression, especially
in colour and dramatic effect? What is typical of realism/impressionism/cubism /
10. What kinds of pictures are there according to the artist’s theme?
11. Artists can give psychological truth to portraiture not simply by stressing certain main physical features, but by the subtlety of light and shade. In this respect Rokotov, Levitsky and Borovikovsky stand out as unique. Isn’t it surprising that they managed to impart an air of dignity and good breeding to so many of their portraits?
12. Is the figure painter justified in resorting to exaggeration and distortion if the effect he has in mind requires it?
13. Landscape is one of the principal means by which artists express their delight in the visible world. Do we expect topographical accuracy from the landscape painter?
14. What kind of painting do you prefer? Why?
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5 Characteristics of Successful Artists
Some time ago, I described the four most important skills every artist needs in order to succeed. Those skills were:
At the end of that article, I mentioned that there were other skills every artist should develop.
I’ve been thinking about that ever since, and I’ve realized that skills aren’t the only things shared by most successful artists—there are also some common characteristics of successful artists:
1. Persistence
Persistence is the quality that allows someone to continue doing something or trying to do something even though it is difficult or opposed by other people. You don’t need a more comprehensive definition to see how persistence applies to being an artist.
Artists need persistence to:
Most of these are long-term endeavors; some are developed over the course of a lifetime. (Dali, for example, spent 50 years developing his Surrealist painting techniques.) If you don’t have the persistence to fuel your dreams, your dreams may never become reality.
If an artist’s goal is to earn a living from art, he or she also needs the persistence to continue improving and creating when the artwork isn’t selling. Nothing is more frustrating—or more disheartening—than to turn out the best work of your career only to have it go unsold. The temptation to give up can become very strong, as can the temptation to paint for the market or chase trends.
The artist with persistence resists those temptations and stays the course.
2. Patience
Patience is the quality of calm endurance. The stereotypical artist is passionate; either enthralled or disgusted with their work. Patience evens out those highs and lows. It’s similar to persistence, but while persistence is more of a discipline, patience is more of an attitude. You can be persistent without being patient.
3. Passion
Most of us know about artistic passion—it’s what motivates us to create. Passion is the driving force that keeps you making art even when there seems to be no other reason for it.
The dictionary defines passion in several different ways. The definitions that apply to this discussion are an “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction” and “a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.”
You don’t have to experience a flaming exuberance for your art (though flaming exuberance isn’t necessarily bad) but you must have the desire to do the work. Your passion is what fuels persistence and patience. It’s the gasoline that runs the “car” of your career.
4. A Sense of Adventure
All of life is an adventure. You start the day you’re born and travel a winding road until your last day. You never know what may await you around the next bend, over the next bridge, or through the deep woods.
Creating art is much the same way. It doesn’t matter how much you plan your next piece, there’s no guarantee it will turn out the way you meant it to. Happy accidents happen all the time, and a successful artist will recognize them and capitalize on them.
An adventurous spirit is also necessary if you want to explore new subjects or themes or tackle a familiar subject in a different way. Or even when a well-planned painting or drawing takes an unexpected turn and you end up outside your creative comfort zone.
Plus, if you’ve never marketed your work, you will need a significant sense of adventure to take the first steps in that direction. And once you begin marketing, your sense of adventure will keep you moving forward, always trying new things.
5. Discipline
Persistence, patience, and passion are necessary, but they need to be properly harnessed in order to serve you best.
Passion run amok can have you jumping from one project to the next without finishing anything. You need to discipline it with persistence and patience in order to finish artwork that can then be promoted and, hopefully, sold.
Persistence without the discipline of passion becomes dry and dreadful.
And no matter how adventurous you might be, if you lack the discipline to keep putting one foot ahead of the other—or making the next stroke of paint or pencil—you’ll never get anywhere.
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7 Characteristics of Successful Artists
However, in order to reach this level, the individual must possess all, or at least several, characteristics that are frequently observed in successful artists. This means that the individual may be required to acquire some or all of the traits in order to find the success that they desire.
These traits, just like the skills associated with drawing and painting, can be acquired. You don’t have to be born with them – although a few are. We are adaptable. We can be or become anyone that we like.
These characteristics are fairly universal across all of the arts – music, dance, and theatre. They are not confined to the visual arts. In my years working with artists and student-artists, these characteristics are consistent.
Artists Take Risks
One of the most notable characteristics of an artist is risk-taking. Risks are not taken by the artist without some considerable thought however. The risks taken by the artist are calculated and based on experience.
Picasso was a risk taker. He was not afraid to make drastic changes in his art. But the risks he took were well-calculated. They were not reckless, but they weren’t safe by any measure.
If we are to adapt the characteristics of an artist, we must also must be risk-takers. They can be small – we may try a new medium or subject. Or they may be big. The artist finds excitement in risk and takes them often.
Artists Are Not Afraid to Make Mistakes
Fear is one of the most crippling emotions felt by an individual. Fear keeps us physically safe at times, but it also hinders us from experiencing so many wonderful things in life. Think of all things that you have considered doing in life, but didn’t because of fear.
Artist aren’t completely fearless, but they do recognize that mistakes are part of the creative process and they aren’t afraid to make them. Every work that has ever been created is not without at least one flaw.
So many of us stop at the first sign of an imperfection. The frustration grows and the work never gets completed. Artists don’t stop at this moment. They carry through, recognizing that no work with be perfect, nor should it be expected to be. Mistakes are noticed and may be amended, but they are never a reason to give up.
Artists Are Not Afraid Of What Others Think
To a certain extent, all of us are concerned with how others thinks of us. If we said we didn’t, we’d be lying. However, an artist does not fear the opinion of others. In fact, they crave feedback. They want to hear what others think – no matter if it is negative or positive.
They use the feedback as a means for improving their craft and don’t take what is discussed personally. They are able to look at their work as a product, instead of an extension of who they are as a person.
Those that shudder from other people’s thoughts or close themselves off from critique will never grow. Successful artists recognize that their “audience” is important and that their art is not “just for themselves”.
Artists Are Motivated
Perfecting a craft is hard work and takes time. Artists recognize this and do not expect immediate results. They understand that the process of creating may be enjoyable, but it does require hard work.
Artists are motivated to keep pushing forward. They have their eyes on the goal and they put in the hours to reach it. They are incessantly considering how they may improve and are taking action to do so. Over time they develop confidence in their work.
Artists recognize that there is no “magic bullet” or shortcut. If they are to be the artist that they desire to be, they must be in it for the “long haul”. They must be motivated to stay “on course” long enough to reach their destination.
Artists Are Ambitious
Not only are artists motivated to reach their goals, but they also set them very high. Some goals may never be realized, but this is accepted.
The ambition of the artist is not self-rooted. Instead, it is about the art. The ambition is cultivated from a love of the creative process – not from self promotion. In this way, the ambition of the artist is pure.
Ambition may start slow, but it grows over time, as works are created – as possibilities present themselves.
Artists Are Observant
Over time, artists begin to see the world differently. They notice things that are often overlooked by others. They may find joy in things that others find mundane. As they learn to “see”, in order to draw, their perception of the visual world changes.
Shadows, light, colors, and lines become the filter in which the world is viewed. Objects are analyzed and are no longer taken for granted.
Because of this heightened observation, they may also notice changes in how they perceive other people, relationships, and other aspects of life. They see people in their life in a different light and notice aspects about them that may have been overlooked previously.
Artists Are Original
Artists do not always come up with original ideas, but they learn to present them in original ways. They may borrow from others, but present ideas or subjects in new ways. This differentiates artists from “craftsmen”. In this way, artists are innovators.
Because they are innovators, artists are also problem solvers. Throughout the creative process, challenges present themselves. The artist is able to adapt and create original solutions, which result in a unique product.
The artist does not always accept standard approaches, although these may be best. Instead, they are open to new approaches and techniques and experiment frequently to discover what works for their vision.
What’s Missing?
We make the assumption that skill makes an artist. This simply isn’t the case. Skill is often the result of an individual that possesses (or acquires) these characteristics – no matter what the craft. There are artists all over the world at vastly different skill levels. Although their skills are at different levels, they are all artists.
Skill, in any field, can be learned and developed by anyone. It takes hard work and dedication and it isn’t easy. But it is accomplished by having the right mindset and by developing the characteristics of an artist.