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I have been a professional artist for about twenty years and it is my considered opinion that any "rule" given out to beginners is actually a warning: violate t

I have been a professional artist for about twenty years and it is my considered opinion that any "rule" given out to beginners is actually a warning: violate this rule and making something that looks good becomes a lot harder, so you should probably better make sure you're not violating any other "rules" unknowingly. If you know damn well that you're violating multiple rules then sure, go for it - break your perspective, fill the drawing with tangents, shade with black, etc, break the fuck out of these rules, and you can end up with something pretty good. You have to know your shit backwards and forwards to really pull this off; go look at how solid Picasso's pre-Cubist stuff was, for instance. There are good reasons to choose to use black and there are good reasons to avoid using it; this article talks about several. IIRC, one of the reasons painting teachers traditionally like to tell you to avoid it is because most commonly available black pigments can very quickly ruin the saturation of any other color you mix it with, ending up with unpleasantly grey shadows. But if you do more graphic work that treats each color as a largely separate entity then a lot of solid black can make stuff positively glow.

eternityforest 5y ago
Rules are great for when us non-pros make something that looks bad, but we don't exactly know why, we just know we made something we aren't happy with. I mostly like skeuomorphic designs, so I'll definitely keep this one in mind next time something looks off.
e12e 5y ago
>> go look at how solid Picasso's pre-Cubist stuff was, for instance > “It took me four years to paint like Raphael,” he famously explained, “but a lifetime to paint like a child. https://mymodernmet.com/picasso-early-work/ https://mymodernmet.com/picasso-early-work/
- pvaldes 5y ago
  You can paint like a child, as long as you has the network of social relationships that Picasso had. Artists provide often a connection between the rigid wealthy class and the low classes seen as more free to experiment. We can see it in Picasso, but also in Warhol or Bacon, for example. Context is everything, and in that context drugs, sex or friendship play a big part, so is not just as simple as paint anything and sell if for an obscene amount of money. Today videogames and internet provide similar experiences of living a second life and hanging up with interesting people so making the same impact as Picasso as a new artist would be much more difficult.
- egypturnash 5y ago
  “Drawing like a kid” is it’s own special part of the craft. You have to deliberately step back from a lot of the skills you’ve learnt about what makes a “good drawing”, and yet since you usually have a reason to make a drawing that looks like a kid’s work, you still have to keep in mind all the skills that apply even if your rendering and anatomy is deliberately lacking and broken. You can’t even just draw a stick figure because after a serious education your stick figures are bursting with life and anatomy. So you look at a bunch of kid’s drawings, recall a few of your own special kid-art quirks, and you make sure the composition is crystal clear, maybe add a few labels in a childish scrawl or a neat parental addition...

eternityforest 5y ago

Rules are great for when us non-pros make something that looks bad, but we don't exactly know why, we just know we made something we aren't happy with. I mostly like skeuomorphic designs, so I'll definitely keep this one in mind next time something looks off.

e12e 5y ago

>> go look at how solid Picasso's pre-Cubist stuff was, for instance > “It took me four years to paint like Raphael,” he famously explained, “but a lifetime to paint like a child. https://mymodernmet.com/picasso-early-work/ https://mymodernmet.com/picasso-early-work/

pvaldes 5y ago
You can paint like a child, as long as you has the network of social relationships that Picasso had. Artists provide often a connection between the rigid wealthy class and the low classes seen as more free to experiment. We can see it in Picasso, but also in Warhol or Bacon, for example. Context is everything, and in that context drugs, sex or friendship play a big part, so is not just as simple as paint anything and sell if for an obscene amount of money. Today videogames and internet provide similar experiences of living a second life and hanging up with interesting people so making the same impact as Picasso as a new artist would be much more difficult.
egypturnash 5y ago
“Drawing like a kid” is it’s own special part of the craft. You have to deliberately step back from a lot of the skills you’ve learnt about what makes a “good drawing”, and yet since you usually have a reason to make a drawing that looks like a kid’s work, you still have to keep in mind all the skills that apply even if your rendering and anatomy is deliberately lacking and broken. You can’t even just draw a stick figure because after a serious education your stick figures are bursting with life and anatomy. So you look at a bunch of kid’s drawings, recall a few of your own special kid-art quirks, and you make sure the composition is crystal clear, maybe add a few labels in a childish scrawl or a neat parental addition...