Been reading up on the thread and I'm on my second beer now. Hi again skel et al. Your work evokes emotion. You're just that good.
Fall has been hectic for me what with studying at the uni and all. Haven't had time to paint at all, much less start that wip-thread I've been wanting to. Four half finished minis are standing here looking at me accusingly, and two of them are even pointing guns at me.
I would like to share a few thoughts on art, competition and objectiveness/subjectiveness that started to turn in my head when I read about that whole Golden Demon debacle. These thoughts go out to all of you artists reading, and not just skel. I would like to add that although I don't like Games Workshop's business politics (I seldom hate. That's too strong a word) these thoughts are speculative at best and not meant to convey any values, but might spawn such in anyone reading.
I have a huge amount of respect for artists of all kinds, what with many of my relatives, and friends of family, being artists. Art is subjective, sure, and while someone might not like a painting it might still be valued at 175 000 SEK and hang in a museum, as is the case with the work of one painter who is a friend of family. With this subjectiveness however comes a conflict. How can you compete in art?
The simple answer is: "You can't". Or at least: "You shouldn't be able to".
Still, it's done. In the case of many types of art and craftsmanship.
It's not only the qualities of art that are subjective, but also what actually constitutes art is widely discussed and debated. Can a video game be art? Can a well crafted tool be art? Is music art? End rethorical questions.
I personally collect art to decorate my home. As of now it's mostly paintings, but I have one smaller sculpture and would like to aquire more in the future. I have a pretty good insight into what is required of a person to produce a work of art when it comes to the time spent to achieve the current skill at the chosen type of expression, the time spent to produce a piece, the inspiration needed, the discipline to finish, and also the soul of an artist. Artists share a few traits that in my opinion are what drives them to become artists and accept that they might not be able to live on their art, just to be able to pursue their passion.
So how do you get around the problem of judging something which has subjective quality? Some times, as someone pointed out, open judgement criterias are used, and sometimes other artists are the judges, someone who understands the medium and what it takes to produce the type of art in question. You're judged by your fellow artists. Are there other ways? But should it really be required to work around a problem? It's a dilemma for sure.
I'm split as to having a page where you can rate art, like cmon. While this platform serves to help artists of all levels of skill to improve their work, get ideas and inspiration when they're stuck, and so on, it's very easy to misuse and above all, misunderstand the purpose of.
When I read that skel was considering, albeit briefly, to conform, I was furious. Not at skel, but at a system that bullies a person into thinking what they do is not good enough. An artist needs to find their style and stick to it. That's what makes art have soul. If an artist does what others ask of them, their work soon become lackluster and dull. Eventually the artists loses interest in their own work, because they're not connecting with it anymore. They're producing someone else's dreams.
So where are miniature painting in all of this? One problem is that miniatures originally were designed for being used in gaming. But since long, it has evolved. Nowadays miniatures are also produced to be decorative items, which allows artists more freedom. I think that depending on what sort of miniature an artist paints, and to what end it was produced combined with in what context it's scrutinized give very different results when it's judged. Games Workshop isn't producing art. They're producing tools. They pretend to have artistic standards and pretentions, but in the end they're creating minis to be moved around on a battle mat. Insert name of any miniature gaming company in the place of Games Workshop.
As an example I'd like to bring up the period of time Games Workshop started to display very poorly painted miniatures on their website. From what I've heard, the reason for this was that they thought that their customers were put off by high quality painted minis being displayed and therefore consumed less, as a result of feeling like they could never paint as well themselves. Their painting guides that show how you, step by step, get a "Games Workshop quality" result is possibly further evidence of this. The artists working for Heavy Metal are also, as far as I've heard, told to paint at a certain standard. Is Games Workshop really interested in art? If not, what is the point of having painting competitions like Golden Demon?
But enough about Games Workshop.
I love surfing for miniatures. It's my "internet porn". I love finding high quality, or original miniatures from small or little known manufacturers. I do my best to do the miniatures I buy justice in my painting. I'm not an artist. Not yet, because that takes a lot of invested time and practice that I don't yet have. But I try to improve. I love looking at well painted miniatures, both for inspiration, but also for learning. To that end, cmon is a great place.
Jumping between thoughts, is miniature painting really a hobby? Or is it a craft? An art? Is it going through a very slow revolution? Will we one day see painted miniatures being sold as works of art, for decorative purposes? And at sums that really reflect the worth of the time and soul invested by the artist? I'm not talking about commision work. That's usually painting someone else's dream. Not necessarily the customer, but the creator of the miniature. Like going with a Lego kit to a sculptor asking them to assemble it. Would anyone in their right mind do that? Of course there are people who would gladly assemble your Lego kit for you. Those people aren't artists however.
Enough of my ramblings. I'm not getting anywhere, not that I intended to.
Happy new year everyone! And a toast, to a revolution in miniature painting, where artists and their works have a greater place, and are accepted and valued justly.
Judge this:
Fall has been hectic for me what with studying at the uni and all. Haven't had time to paint at all, much less start that wip-thread I've been wanting to. Four half finished minis are standing here looking at me accusingly, and two of them are even pointing guns at me.
I would like to share a few thoughts on art, competition and objectiveness/subjectiveness that started to turn in my head when I read about that whole Golden Demon debacle. These thoughts go out to all of you artists reading, and not just skel. I would like to add that although I don't like Games Workshop's business politics (I seldom hate. That's too strong a word) these thoughts are speculative at best and not meant to convey any values, but might spawn such in anyone reading.
I have a huge amount of respect for artists of all kinds, what with many of my relatives, and friends of family, being artists. Art is subjective, sure, and while someone might not like a painting it might still be valued at 175 000 SEK and hang in a museum, as is the case with the work of one painter who is a friend of family. With this subjectiveness however comes a conflict. How can you compete in art?
The simple answer is: "You can't". Or at least: "You shouldn't be able to".
Still, it's done. In the case of many types of art and craftsmanship.
It's not only the qualities of art that are subjective, but also what actually constitutes art is widely discussed and debated. Can a video game be art? Can a well crafted tool be art? Is music art? End rethorical questions.
I personally collect art to decorate my home. As of now it's mostly paintings, but I have one smaller sculpture and would like to aquire more in the future. I have a pretty good insight into what is required of a person to produce a work of art when it comes to the time spent to achieve the current skill at the chosen type of expression, the time spent to produce a piece, the inspiration needed, the discipline to finish, and also the soul of an artist. Artists share a few traits that in my opinion are what drives them to become artists and accept that they might not be able to live on their art, just to be able to pursue their passion.
So how do you get around the problem of judging something which has subjective quality? Some times, as someone pointed out, open judgement criterias are used, and sometimes other artists are the judges, someone who understands the medium and what it takes to produce the type of art in question. You're judged by your fellow artists. Are there other ways? But should it really be required to work around a problem? It's a dilemma for sure.
I'm split as to having a page where you can rate art, like cmon. While this platform serves to help artists of all levels of skill to improve their work, get ideas and inspiration when they're stuck, and so on, it's very easy to misuse and above all, misunderstand the purpose of.
When I read that skel was considering, albeit briefly, to conform, I was furious. Not at skel, but at a system that bullies a person into thinking what they do is not good enough. An artist needs to find their style and stick to it. That's what makes art have soul. If an artist does what others ask of them, their work soon become lackluster and dull. Eventually the artists loses interest in their own work, because they're not connecting with it anymore. They're producing someone else's dreams.
So where are miniature painting in all of this? One problem is that miniatures originally were designed for being used in gaming. But since long, it has evolved. Nowadays miniatures are also produced to be decorative items, which allows artists more freedom. I think that depending on what sort of miniature an artist paints, and to what end it was produced combined with in what context it's scrutinized give very different results when it's judged. Games Workshop isn't producing art. They're producing tools. They pretend to have artistic standards and pretentions, but in the end they're creating minis to be moved around on a battle mat. Insert name of any miniature gaming company in the place of Games Workshop.
As an example I'd like to bring up the period of time Games Workshop started to display very poorly painted miniatures on their website. From what I've heard, the reason for this was that they thought that their customers were put off by high quality painted minis being displayed and therefore consumed less, as a result of feeling like they could never paint as well themselves. Their painting guides that show how you, step by step, get a "Games Workshop quality" result is possibly further evidence of this. The artists working for Heavy Metal are also, as far as I've heard, told to paint at a certain standard. Is Games Workshop really interested in art? If not, what is the point of having painting competitions like Golden Demon?
But enough about Games Workshop.
I love surfing for miniatures. It's my "internet porn". I love finding high quality, or original miniatures from small or little known manufacturers. I do my best to do the miniatures I buy justice in my painting. I'm not an artist. Not yet, because that takes a lot of invested time and practice that I don't yet have. But I try to improve. I love looking at well painted miniatures, both for inspiration, but also for learning. To that end, cmon is a great place.
Jumping between thoughts, is miniature painting really a hobby? Or is it a craft? An art? Is it going through a very slow revolution? Will we one day see painted miniatures being sold as works of art, for decorative purposes? And at sums that really reflect the worth of the time and soul invested by the artist? I'm not talking about commision work. That's usually painting someone else's dream. Not necessarily the customer, but the creator of the miniature. Like going with a Lego kit to a sculptor asking them to assemble it. Would anyone in their right mind do that? Of course there are people who would gladly assemble your Lego kit for you. Those people aren't artists however.
Enough of my ramblings. I'm not getting anywhere, not that I intended to.
Happy new year everyone! And a toast, to a revolution in miniature painting, where artists and their works have a greater place, and are accepted and valued justly.
Judge this:
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later successes with miniatures has really settled me with my style, im not going to change a thing as this is the way i like to paint minis 
