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I have some skin in this game. I'd say that painting is not difficult at all. Depending on your preferred style it can be as easy as literally throwing random p

I have some skin in this game. I'd say that painting is not difficult at all. Depending on your preferred style it can be as easy as literally throwing random pigments on whatever surface you prefer to target. Painting (or drawing) to some degree of visual similarity requires practice, so some effort is needed. You have to "rewire" some muscle-vision-brain coordination. It will be perceived as hard only because a) you will know how easy it is to snap a photo and apply filters/photoshop (or, propmt an AI), and b) because you will be your own worst critic. Others will see you progress quite fast if only you do the training part. What is hard about it, really hard, is making a living from it. Or, even getting small change out of it. Most often, if you've not been to the right schools and intermingled with the right people in the right way at the right times (with an added very big portion of sheer luck) you are not going to make it, ever. Even then, it is unlikely. Regardless of your talent. Talent does not bubble up like you would imagine. You can not just build a better mousetrap and they will come. This is a very controlled market, and also one where the different niches are working in very different ways. Even in very different ways from other markets you would know about. It's not sour grapes, it's just a fact that for every art market niche there are only a very small amount of people able to gain a foothold while there are thousands or tens of thousands that may have an equal amount of skill/talent but these people just does not make it.

yetanother12345 3y ago
> not difficult at all Replying to my own comment only to admit that it is fairly easy to give yourself a task (ie. a problem to solve through the medium of painting) that will be perceived as hard, or even extremely hard. I do not negate the difficulty of solving creative puzzles. You will experience that your ability to subject yourself to difficult problems will improve with time. That is, you will become better at what you do. This does not in any way correlate with creative style. There will be quite hard problems in non-figurative painting just like there will be in painting visually identifiable stuff. The upside is that problems that were once considered complicated may not continue to be so. And, that you are your own employer, and you decide the when, how, or "if at all" of the solving.
deleted 3y ago
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badpun 3y ago
> This is a very controlled market, and also one where the different niches are working in very different ways. Even in very different ways from other markets you would know about. Are you talking about making "art"? Because if you don't neccessarily want to make "art", but just paint paintings ordinary people will enjoy, the market is not controlled at all. The skill level required is very high, but if you can product museum-quality non-abstract paintings of subjects people are interested in (e.g. pastoral landscapes, or landscapes of the US South West), then you can probably sell them at non-negligible prices - a couple hundreds to even a couple thousands dollars a piece. The task is difficult, because there's so much competition that your work needs to really stand out, so that people will pay $1000 for it, instead of say paying $100 for painting done with good, but not great technique.
- fsloth 3y ago
  I guess it’s about the ”different markets”. I know the nordic art scene a bit and it looks like it’s hard market for ”good artists” trying to sell quality art as in order to ”qualify” for the scene there is a limited amount of gatekeepers and it’s not about skill for sure. The most talented artist I personally know retrained as doctor because art market was just too hard (this should tell something about the talent level - his art was impeccable and regarding his other qualities just choosing to go to medical school - into which many people try to get into for years - displays his other skill levels). So high end - it’s about luck, connections and brand rather than skill. If one chooses to operate in the non-gallery market, I’m sure it’s a bit easier. But also I guess this locks you out from the high-end prestige art market. Because - you know - selling to the plebs is so disqualifying (the latter part is my own inference and if some people know better please do counter me).
scoot 3y ago
This sounds similar in some ways to the startup/VC ecosystem - with enough practice you can produce something marketable, but with out the right connections, it's probably going to go nowhere, and even then there's no guarantee.

yetanother12345 3y ago

> not difficult at all Replying to my own comment only to admit that it is fairly easy to give yourself a task (ie. a problem to solve through the medium of painting) that will be perceived as hard, or even extremely hard. I do not negate the difficulty of solving creative puzzles. You will experience that your ability to subject yourself to difficult problems will improve with time. That is, you will become better at what you do. This does not in any way correlate with creative style. There will be quite hard problems in non-figurative painting just like there will be in painting visually identifiable stuff. The upside is that problems that were once considered complicated may not continue to be so. And, that you are your own employer, and you decide the when, how, or "if at all" of the solving.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

badpun 3y ago

> This is a very controlled market, and also one where the different niches are working in very different ways. Even in very different ways from other markets you would know about. Are you talking about making "art"? Because if you don't neccessarily want to make "art", but just paint paintings ordinary people will enjoy, the market is not controlled at all. The skill level required is very high, but if you can product museum-quality non-abstract paintings of subjects people are interested in (e.g. pastoral landscapes, or landscapes of the US South West), then you can probably sell them at non-negligible prices - a couple hundreds to even a couple thousands dollars a piece. The task is difficult, because there's so much competition that your work needs to really stand out, so that people will pay $1000 for it, instead of say paying $100 for painting done with good, but not great technique.

fsloth 3y ago
I guess it’s about the ”different markets”. I know the nordic art scene a bit and it looks like it’s hard market for ”good artists” trying to sell quality art as in order to ”qualify” for the scene there is a limited amount of gatekeepers and it’s not about skill for sure. The most talented artist I personally know retrained as doctor because art market was just too hard (this should tell something about the talent level - his art was impeccable and regarding his other qualities just choosing to go to medical school - into which many people try to get into for years - displays his other skill levels). So high end - it’s about luck, connections and brand rather than skill. If one chooses to operate in the non-gallery market, I’m sure it’s a bit easier. But also I guess this locks you out from the high-end prestige art market. Because - you know - selling to the plebs is so disqualifying (the latter part is my own inference and if some people know better please do counter me).

scoot 3y ago

This sounds similar in some ways to the startup/VC ecosystem - with enough practice you can produce something marketable, but with out the right connections, it's probably going to go nowhere, and even then there's no guarantee.