uwot wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 12:19 am
Dunno if I qualify as an artist, but I went to art school.
If you do art then you are an artist. I'm not sure art school qualifies either way.
The thing with really learning to draw is that you have to learn to see what is actually there, rather than what you imagine; so no outlines for instance. And to understand movement and proportion, it helps to know a thing or two about anatomy. I decided that I wanted to understand the universe, so started studying physics and mathematics, which I figured were analogous to seeing what is there and anatomy in the case of physics, with maths being more akin to movement and proportion. But to me the interesting questions are what is everything ultimately made of, and how does it actually work? Both of those are actually philosophical questions, so I went and got a degree in philosophy.
I think the philosophical ideas about idealism and phenomenology have something to say about art training - when the aim is to get a likeness, and to see what is there ,and not what you think is there. However much art does not aim to achieve this. Rather than aim for the objective, and search for the ideal and the subjective can make better portraits and more interesting an abstract works.
For my money though as a sculptor who most often does live portraits and nude life sculptures the abstract is not the aim, but to unpack and sidestep the
ideal and to seek the objective.
Nonetheless I can make a sculpture of a nude in a class with half a dozen other experienced sculptor and despite the skills towards fidelity of form there is no way you could mistake one sculptor's work for another.
Portraits of faces is no different.
Dunno if I qualify as a philosopher, but I got an MSc and had a few things published. The thing is, the process is fundamentally the same. You have to learn the tools and techniques; practise for years and accept that not everyone will appreciate your output no matter how technically proficient you become, because people make decisions for essentially aesthetic reasons, as much in science and philosophy as in art.
Aesthetic achievement is always more mature and worthwhile if you have the skills, and capabilities that the discipline of finding the objective will get you.
So much in modern art is devoid of the crafts(man)ship that gives art its underlying dedication .
Its a shame that so many modern artists are such poor craftspersons.