Why do a Critique?

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Portrait artists should not be afraid of doing bad paintings and making mistakes.  We learn far more from analysing and understanding the reasons behind a bad painting than we do from a fluke good one. If you paint a portrait you like and cannot identify why you like it how will you ever move forward and incorporate your preferences into future paintings?  Similarly if you do a portrait painting you dislike and cannot identify why you don’t like it, how can you possibly prevent the same thing happening again?
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Why ask someone else?

Artists tend to possess two characteristics.  Firstly they are perfectionists and are often highly critical of themselves.  Generally speaking this is not a bad thing.  As the great man himself once said….

“A painter who has no doubts about his own ability will attain very little.  When his work exceeds his judgement, the artist learns nothing.  But when his judgement is superior to his work, he will never cease to improve unless his love of money interferes or retards his progress”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Self portrait painting by Camille Pissarro

On the other hand, sometimes we are overly critical of our work and another person’s assessment can inject some objective balance into our critique.

The second characteristic is that artists often fail to see the obvious.  Inviting another person to assess your artwork can be quite a revelation.  They will often spot errors (and successes) which you completely miss.  If you cannot find anyone suitable then it is a good idea to hide your painting away for a few weeks; you’ll be surprised what you see with a fresh eye.  Here is one famous artist’s experience …

“Sometimes I am terribly afraid to turn around canvases which I have piled facing the wall; I am always afraid of finding monsters where I thought there were precious gems.”
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

 

Summary

If you take the time to do a formal critique after each of your portrait paintings, making sure that you record your thoughts, your art will progress much faster.

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Copyright Fiona Holt, 2011

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