As an artist, it's good to know how to critique yourself and
your painting techniques -- and that's the key element: HOW to critique
yourself.
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Stride into
that studio of yours and take control of analyzing and
critiquing your own
work. Cadence by Steve Henderson of Steve Henderson Fine Art.
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This type of "critique"
when you are learning how to paint doesn't work: "What a lousy painting.
I'll never know how to do this right."
And quite
frankly, that's not critique so much as it is self-evisceration. You'd never
say this to a friend or fellow painting artist, and probably not even to an
enemy, at least not to his or her face, so why attack yourself with it?
On the
opposite spectrum, this also is not valid critique: "I am so amazing!
Everything I produce is so significantly superior to what I see out there that
I don't understand why I'm not artist-in-residence on the Oprah network."
While it's
good to be confident, arrogance is confidence on steroids, and it'll wind up
eventually bringing you and your fine art painting down, because if you are
already at the pinnacle then where do you go from there?
So, the best
thing to try for as you give yourself painting lessons in self-evaluation is
something in between the extremes, which applies to pretty much anything in
life. Look at your painting art -- closely -- and try to define what it is
about a particular piece that you like and don't like, and why. While this may
be difficult if you've never really done it before, it gets easier with
practice.
And, since
you're doing this for yourself, it's not as if you are crafting an English 101
essay, to be returned with red marks throughout for all of the aspects you
"missed." You're doing this for yourself, for the betterment of your
art, and for the increased ability to view, analyze, and critique your own
work. You're the judge, so be kind and strive for fairness.
--Carolyn