What makes good art good

What Makes Good Art?

If you have ever been to an art gallery, you probably saw a painting or piece of art and thought, «this is amazing,” but you’re not sure what makes it good art. Many people have argued over or wondered what makes good art? There is no right answer to this question. The different answers show that there are many opinions about art.

Some people see it as something with deep meaning, while others see it as something that is pleasing to the eye. Good art can be in many forms, including paintings, music, literature, and sculptures. These art pieces include aspects like color or sound, or words that can make them either good or bad depending on what people think.

What is Good Art?

This is a difficult question to answer because people often have different opinions of what is good art. It’s important to remember that not everyone will see art the same way. There are many different types of art, and some are more universally valued than others.

Good art is often subjective. It is not always possible to objectively say that something is «good art.” Artists are usually judged on how well they can express themselves in the medium they are working with. Themes that can help identify good art are the ability and technical skills of the artist to use color, line, shape, composition to create a sense of beauty or meaning.

While technical skills are essential, originality is also a factor in what critics perceive to be “good art.” Often, in order to be original, an artist must break with convention and disregard established techniques or rules.

There are many examples of breaking the rules to create something special. The abstract art, movement does not follow the conventions of “good art” established in previous centuries, and yet the work of abstract artists fetches high prices at auctions and can be prized by collectors.

How Do You Know If Your Art Is A Good Art?

The artistic process is a difficult one. Artists are constantly trying to improve their skills while at the same time trying to understand what makes for «good art.” There are no set rules on how an artist should create, what is considered good, or even who can create art. This makes it difficult for artists to know when they have created something that is good enough.

However, some common themes that come up in discussions of what makes for «good art» are originality, meaning, and technical skill. Originality means that the artist had to think outside of the box to get their idea across without being too similar to other artists’ work. Originality also means that there was no copying involved, so the viewer knows where the inspiration came from. Meaning is an important theme too.

Many people have tried to answer this question, but there is no one way to know if your art is good. If you are looking for feedback on your work, ask others what they think about it.

Nobody is the best in every field. Artists may feel like they are not good enough because they cannot make something amazing without any experience in art. But, there are several ways that one can determine if their art is good or not.

The first way to know if their art is good or not is to look at who has complimented them on it. If someone who knows about art compliments the artist, such as a critic, that is an indication that their work is good. If nobody has complimented them on their work, then this could mean that they need to improve more in order to get better feedback from people who know about art.

Another way to know if their work is good or not is by looking at how much effort they have put into it. The more time, energy, and thought one puts into the art, the better it is.

What Makes a Good Art Investment?

Some artworks will be considered a good investment, even if you don’t personally think they are good artworks. Art that is a good investment is usually original artwork, may be from a well-known or famous artist, is a rare find, or is in very good condition for its age. Earlier works from established artists may not be as technically good as later works, but they will still be considered a good art investment based on the artists’ notoriety.

Buying Good Art

In summary, good art is the art that is praised, valued, collected, and admired. Original, high-quality art is both prized and desired by individuals, online galleries, critics, collectors, art investors, and museums.

To find your next piece explore our original art for sale. If you want to buy good art as a serious art investor, you should always look to buy original art.

What Makes Good Art? 2 Things You Need To Know

When someone starts a discussion about the quality of art and tries to define what makes art good or bad, the talk will always circulate around artist’s skills, technique, fame and acknowledgment of the artist, the size of the artwork and even the prices the artist sells for.

These factors are great for a talk, but defining the goodness of art is really not that complicated.

If you are looking for the best way to define art, check out my earlier blog post on what art is.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD ART

That’s about it. We are all different and our judgement of art is based on our own tastes, experiences and values.

And that is why we should have our own, personal judgements about art.

So it is perfectly OK to hate an artwork that someone loves and to love an artwork, that everybody hates.

Now let’s discuss these two most important characteristics.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT

The purpose of art is to move us emotionally, so if you are looking at a good work of art you will feel an emotion.

You can feel aesthetic pleasure, be inspired or disgusted, curious or angry. Whatever emotions you experience, if the artwork moved you, it is good.

Art may communicate an important message or simply be aesthetically pleasing.

You might even not be able to explain why you like it or hate it, and it is perfectly fine.

LONG LASTING IMPRESSION

You leave the exhibition hall and you can’t forget the painting you saw. Your mind keeps coming back to the artwork you observed.

You are wondering what the artist was thinking of when creating it, you are interested how he made it and want to discuss the artwork with other people.

You would gladly own it.

Alternatively, if you own a good work of art, you will realise how much joy it brings into your living space and will discover something new everyday, just by giving it another glance.

It never bores you, and if you removed it from your home, you would feel instant emptiness. You would miss it like hell.

You would never want to sell it.

So that’s it. These two characteristics have a lot to do with artist’s talent of course, but not so much with the price.

There are a lot of very good affordable artworks out there and very expensive ones that are not good at all.

Speaking about size — yes, it is important and although there are a lot of charming miniatures, and I love them as well, I must say that large formats will always have a stronger influence on the viewer.

It is quite obvious: the larger the artwork, the stronger impact shapes and colours have on the viewer.

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What Makes Good Art?: 4 Theories for Judging Your Art

I often argue against labeling art—especially our own art—”Good” or “Bad”. I believe there’s something to be learned and gained from every piece of art we make, even if it’s just a release of mental blobbies.

But our judgment often creeps in anyways, so it’s worth digging into how we respond to our art.

4 Theories for Judging Art

Your response to your art stems from what you believe art is and what its overall purpose is. There are 4 main theories for judging whether a piece of art successful: Imitationalism, Formalism, Instrumentalism, and Emotionalism.

Chances are, you already believe in one of these theories, even if you’ve never heard of them. Realizing which theory resonates most with you can help you make crucial decisions in your artmaking. Or perhaps you’ll find that you thought you believed one theory, but you actually believe another!

I purposefully did not include example artworks below, because I don’t want to influence which theory you are drawn to based on the pieces I chose. Try to really see which theory fits best with your true core beliefs!

Ok, let’s take a look at the four theories.

Imitationalism

Art is good when it imitates reality.

An Imitationalist artist focuses on mimicking and representing real life. In a successful piece of art, the textures, light, shadows, human proportions, and perspective are all highly realistic, as if you could reach out and touch them.

Formalism

Art is good when it masters the artistic elements and principles.

A Formalist artist focuses on an artwork’s form—the way its made and what it looks like. In a successful piece of art, the visual features are most important: line quality, color, composition, and other artistic elements and principles.

Instrumentalism

Art is good when it communicates a message.

An Instrumentalist artist focuses on context and message. A successful piece of art is an instrument to persuade the audience or provide commentary. It is often political, social, moral, or thought-provoking.

Emotionalism

Art is good when it evokes an emotional response.

An Emotionalist artist focuses on the expression of emotion. A successful piece of art communicates an emotion, but more importantly, it pulls out an emotional reaction from the viewer.

What Makes Good Art to You?

Personally, I’m a mix of Emotionalism + Formalism. I focus on the expression of my own emotions and moods and aim to evoke those same emotions in the viewer. However, my background is in Graphic Design, so I also have a strong love for the formal aspects of an artwork, like composition, line, and color.

I am farthest away from Imitationalism, though it may be the most commonly held theory. I certainly believe it’s technically impressive when art can imitate reality, but I have no desire to do so myself, and my personal belief is that realism is not the most important aspect of an artwork.

To find which theory (or a mix of theories) fit you best, you’ll need to think about where your artmaking desires and your personal belief in what makes a piece of art good align.

What Theory Are You?

It’s important to remember there is no right or wrong theory. Art is subjective, and the judgment of whether an artwork good or bad is a matter of personal opinion.

But realizing which theory you naturally gravitate to can help you recognize what you do or don’t like about your own work. When we can see more clearly why we believe our art is good or bad, we use that knowledge to nudge our art more in the good direction.

12 Contemporary Artists Tell Us What it Takes to Make a Great Piece of Art

What does it take to make a great piece of art? This seemingly simple, yet deeply complex, question has been debated throughout the history of art. Who decides what is “good” art and what is “bad” art? While many look to art critics and curators for answers, we decided to turn to a wide variety of contemporary artists, going directly to the source.

From illustrators to paper artists, photographers to installation artists, just what do the creative minds behind today’s most stimulating contemporary art feel is the key to great art? For many, it’s subjective and can encompass a range of characteristics, but as we surveyed the artists there were overarching themes. Innovation, emotional connectivity, and a bit of luck were repeatedly mentioned no matter the medium.

The eternal quest for great art of course changes over time, ebbing and flowing with tastes and trends. So, let’s take a look at how these 21st-century artists respond when posed with this challenging question.

We asked 12 contemporary artists “What does it take to make a great piece of art?” Here’s what they said…

Li Hongbo

When I first started practicing art, our professors would make us draw the busts of widely renowned sculptures. The busts became patient friends and mentors of mine. To this day I will remember the time I spent sketching them. To breathe new life and revitalize old memories, I have recreated these tools of study using my own mode of expression—paper.

My artistic creation has lots of themes. However, they are all close to my thinking, my experience, and my life now. Those themes, which have been expressed, are the material, which comes from my inner thinking. When people look at a box, they think “It’s a box.” But, actually, it can change into another thing. I want to change the image, change how people see things so they think in another way, and more deeply.

There is a Chinese saying, “life is as fragile as paper,” which has left a deep impact on me. The concise and harrowing phrase sums up the fragility of life and rockiness of fate. Life is as pure as a piece of white paper when it is born. Yet, it is as fleeting as a galloping white horse against infinite time, as it is fragile and solitary against the volatile world. Life is vulnerable and transient; it is as fragile as paper.

Maybe I am like paper: pure at birth, silent in death, and blossoming like flowers even in my withered bones.

Rebecca Louise Law

Patience, courage, humility and hard work. I have found that focusing ahead is much more beneficial to my art practice than looking at the present. Living in the moment can be distracting and often hinder the creative process. The best work always comes from being challenged, whether in time, finances, materials or concept. It’s better to take risks than play safe.

Federico Babina

In everything, there is a bit of ART. There is, you have just to discover how to see it. It is often hidden, fragmented, disorganized, and unassuming. The challenge is to discover it, compose it, and order it. We should observe things from a different point of view. Looking at the world upside down can offer many creative ideas and awaken from a kind of “sleep of vision.”

There is no universal formula to create a piece of art. Everyone has to find their own path. Your traveling companions on this journey through these sensitive places are “fARTasy,” “creARTivity,” and “invARTiveness.” It is like composing a song or a melody. The notes already exist and they are seven. The hardest part is putting them together and finding a proper balance between the music and the silence, between harmony and melody.

Matt Shlian

This feels like a trick question. It can be interpreted as what (tools, materials, process) does it take to make a great piece of art? Or it can be read as what makes a piece of art great? Both are big questions.

Let me start with what makes a piece great:

A piece of art needs to connect. It needs to have some element of truth to it that resonates with the viewer and leaves them something after they’ve left the piece. A good piece asks questions and teaches you something you didn’t know or shows you something you didn’t know you knew. It articulates something we’ve felt, and we connect to that thing in a way where words aren’t necessary. It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe but makes us feel less alone in a way—that someone else understands us and gives a voice to this thing inside us. A piece of art extends beyond its frame and becomes part of us.

I’ve made work for almost 20 years and I’m made a ton of work in that time. Some are ok, most “meh,” and a handful of good ones. The ok ones lead to the next pieces (and are a necessary part of the process) and the good ones sometimes come all at once and sometimes you have to grind them out slowly for a number of years to get one. It’s equal parts mining for gold and standing in a field trying to get stuck by lighting. Some days you dig and other days you look up and wait.

This leads back to the first question—What does it take to make a great piece?

It takes time, sometimes a shovel and sometimes it takes being in the right place at the right time.

I think what it takes to make a great piece of art is to connect with the observer on an emotional or personal level. A bit of mystery can let the observer interpret the work based on their own experiences and let them identify with it. If you spell it all out there can only be one way to interpret the work, and I think what makes great art is when everyone experiences it differently.

Miguel Chevalier

In my case, I understood in the early 1980s that computer tools were going to be the basis for a structurally original approach, whose stakes had to be grasped right away. These possibilities seemed unlimited and the transformations unending. They represented a fabulous dictionary of forms and colors, on whose basis I could work on the image, modify it, and regenerate it.

Digital art can explore new territory. I believe that is really a new kind of aesthetic of the virtual that is emerging. I have the feeling of being in tune with my time, creating a new poetry and a new poetic universe able to lift emotions. It is for me the art of the 21st century.

Sigalit Landau

To make a great piece of art you need to believe that you have an eternity of time—even though it is the most urgent thing in your life—and you also need plenty of nothing-to-lose, for its impeccable production. To consume a lot of music, love, and a little alcohol, of course.

Omar Z. Robles

It takes a larger combination of elements to create one great work of art, but ultimately the question should become “What does it take to make a great PIECES of art?” (Note the plural). Why? Because in order for an artist to truly excel they need to be able to create not one, but many great pieces of art. That’s how you can recognize, or rather distinguish, the artist from the layman. It’s the consistency in their work that separates them from just being a “one hit wonder”.

Now in order to achieve that, you need to be able to have the patience of going through the process of getting it wrong, many times. Until you start getting it right, then you continue pushing yourself on that same line and you don’t quit. Another element is to be self-critical. One of my mentors in photography once told me “the true secret to great photographers is that they only exhibit their best work.” We all can produce a bad piece, even on our best days. However, you have to learn to detach yourself from your work and be critical of yourself before you publish any kind of work.

Finally, it takes essence/context for a work to be great. That is, I guess, the hardest thing to assess. Great works of art, I believe, all share one thing, and that is that they are supported by context. It can’t just be beautiful, or shocking for the sake of it. Great artworks captivate you because you can, in one way or another, identify with it. Marcel Marceau used to tell me all the time “il fault toucher le publique” (we need to be able to move the audience). His message was, it’s not enough to be technically good, you need to have the capability to move and touch your audience. The only way you can move your audience is if your work is supported by context.

Charles Pètillon

Great authors, philosophers, or critics have published books about this subject without being able to answer the question, so I do not see how I can try to answer it….. The look on a work is multiple. There is an emotional and philosophical charge, the relation to space, the subject, the light, the relation to the spectator, the technique, the message, the concept etc ……

Lauren Brevner

Every time I see work from another artist that I love, I tend to have a visceral reaction to the piece(s). It could be a quickening of my pulse, or butterflies in my stomach, that strange twisty feeling you get in your gut that’s so similar to the reaction you would have when lusting over someone. That’s how I know it’s good. I can’t stop smiling, or staring; it brings me such a rush of emotion that I can’t help but feel drawn to it. I believe it comes down to a purity of the artist’s voice that you really can’t fake.

When making my own work, I know I’ve done my job when I get that feeling, that twinge of excitement (of course that doesn’t always happen, unfortunately) but I know I’ve done my best when I have those feelings.

Philippe Echaroux

An emotion. This is the first spark of every fire. Emotions that are not necessarily positive ones, but this first feeling creates the art. If you try to express what you are feeling that will be art no matter which way it takes and what form it has.

Loreal Prystaj

As an artist, it is important to create work that genuinely comes from within. This is the only way that a new and unique point of view is found. It is an easy trap for an artist to generate work she perceives her audience will like. True, the viewer ultimately determines the greatness of an art piece—great art impacts a vast spectrum of people. But a volatile audience cannot be predicted, hence great art is rarely a calculated guess, it is often an accident. The only way an artist can introduce new perspectives is continuing to be curious, ask questions, and explore. Seeing the world through curious eyes leads to new discoveries.

What Makes Good Art?

Buckle up, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

This is Gustave Courbet’s L’Hallali Du Cerf (or ‘Killing a Deer’):

This is Gustave Courbet in his younger years:

really working the ‘tormented artist’ angle

And his later years:

(it appears that in older age, he was, perhaps, more satisfied with his choices)

To spare you the long biography, Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who contributed primarily to the Realism movement in the mid-19th century. He painted mostly figurative compositions, land/seascapes, and still lives, and often painted things that weren’t considered the subject of high art: peasantry and the poor’s working conditions, among others. Like many other good artists, he was eventually exiled and perished of liver disease.

His work is highly regarded and leaves a lasting impression, such as the likes of:

Still Life with Apples and a Pomegranate (Nature Morte aux Pommes et à la Grenade) The Trout (La Truite) Rising Tide (Marée Montante)

But today we’re going to look at L’Hallali Du Cerf in order to examine good art. We’re also going to take a look at some renders that use the same tricks (including trompe-l’œil) that Gustave Courbet used to create his highly detailed, realistic, and painterly work.

And, lest Daz 3D be perceived the authority, keep in mind that plenty of what makes good art is subjective. One person’s good art oftentimes doesn’t agree with someone else’s good art.

There are, however, some trusted standards that you can expect to see in art that you think is good, which have been carefully developed since people conjured the idea of ‘art’ in the first place. Those standards include Concept, Composition, Color Coordination, Lighting, and Balance.

Concept

Good art has good ideas behind it. ‘Concept’ refers to the idea that made the art necessary. Trust your ideas: if an idea is important enough to you to go to the trouble of creating it, chances are it’s probably important enough to someone else, too. In the case of L’Hallali (protip: click the word to reference the painting), it’s a hunt.

Courbet latches onto a concept that is ancient and primal: human beings need to eat, and oftentimes they choose to hunt in order to get food to eat, namely, meat. In this depiction, we see simultaneous nobility and savagery, happiness and sadness: the hunters developed and honed their skills, allowing them to be successful. Their success is countered by the deer’s bad luck (really bad, in fact).

And though L’Hallali depicts a harsh realistic representation of the hunt, there is beauty in its harshness: the stark contrast of the active characters (deer, hunters, hunting dogs, horse) to the landscape (cold, wintry, barren) opens up what the painting is allowed to be ‘about.’ It’s a hunt, but it’s about violence, the cold, ambition, the wild, and death, and, being so stark about those, and as nature exists in a (relative) equilibrium, it also implies those large concept’s inverses: peace, warmth, calm or comfort, civilization, life.

So how do you get a concept for your renders? Start by thinking about what moves you, or what matters to you. Think about big ideas — emotion, ambition, love, concern, place — and then think about a way you can make those ideas come to life through figures.

What concepts was the artist Kibosh using in The Doctor? What big ideas do you see? How are they achieved?

Composition

Ahhh, Composition. Composition is perhaps most difficult to do, and when done right, can be equally difficult to notice that it’s been done at all. Composition refers to the way that you organize individual elements or ingredients of your particular work of art. Composition also means combining individual elements such as Shapes, Colors, Textures, Form, and Space into a cohesive whole.

Sound difficult? We agree. So let’s look at L’Hallali again. Courbet’s composition includes a dark figure in the rough middle of the painting, to draw the eye in. This dark figure makes a rough triangle with the hunter figure holding the whip, which creates a theoretical drama to the eye, which thinks: why is there a dark triangle in the middle of an otherwise light background?

Courbet also is adhering to the “Rule of thirds,” which is a general guideline that designers, film directors, painters, and photographers use to divide space, create tension, and keep energy and interest in their compositions at the visual maximum. Notice how the foreground takes up roughly one third of the space of the painting vertically, and how the edge of the forest and the hunter-figure with the whip each occur at roughly one-third of painting’s horizontal length.

In Daz Studio, composition means keeping track of individual 3D models, environments, shaders, lighting, and even camera angles. It definitely takes work, but the end result can be stunning:

What do you like about the composition of Once Upon A Winter Tale? How does the image create drama that compels to look at it again and again, closer?