Portrait Artist Forum - Get rid of substandard work

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- - Get rid of substandard work (http://portraitartistforum.com/showthread.php?t=2270)

I do have a stack of "thinkabouts." The more I learn, the more I can correct errors. This stack is dwindling and the "send to gallery" stack is growing. If you think that someday you can save it, hang on for a while longer and give it a try. I trust that you'll know when to throw in the towel and cut your losses.

I suppose the main problem with those ones is that I get bored of them and want to move on to something new (or finish the commissions that I'm supposed to be working on!)

Karin, it's one really funny situation. You call to say you're coming over and they run to hang the work while you're hoping they would take it down! Neither can be honest. ;)

Here is another view on this topic from "Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter; Insight and inspiration for your artistic career." You can suscribe to this at: http://www.painterskeys.com The following is quoted with Robert's permission.

Quote:

February 25, 2003

Dear Karin,

Recently I've had my knuckles thoroughly rapped for recommending one of my favorite creative acts--burning bothersome paintings. Environmentalists have pointed out that it's not only anti-social, in some places it's illegal. Chastened, I'm now turning your attention to the fine art of hanging onto your dogs. And what to do with them.

"Hope," said Alexander Pope, "springs eternal in the human breast." Hope that you will eventually be able to breathe new life into some of your old failures. Truth is, given the confluence of desire and understanding, you can--with many of them. Half-finished or unresolved paintings, after being put aside for a while, can sometimes be figured out and fixed. You must often wait until the "knowledge" comes to you. If you're growing fast, this might be only a couple of weeks. Some of us must wait for decades. Here are a few suggestions, many of which will not apply to watercolourists, whose work, due to the nature of the medium, can often be permanently beyond redemption.

Glazing. More things are wrought by glazing than this world dreams of. In opaque-media a toning glaze almost always gives an opportunity to reorganize values and improve compositions. Often, the main thing that is needed is a "mother-colour" that pulls the painting together. Overworked and unfocused works can be revitalized and re-evaluated. Centers of interest, comings to light, colour surprises can then be found and cut in. For starters, I recommend a thin wash of Carbon black, Pthalo blue or Quinacridone gold. Go ahead; amaze yourself.

Take out. Very often it's what you take out that makes a work stronger. Simpler compositions generally win the show. Very often we tend to keep an element in because of the effort of putting it there in the first place. If it can be fingered as a distraction--chuck it.

Put in. I call it PMII (Put more into it). This doesn't mean cluttering it with another element--a new figure in the foreground or more birds in the sky. It means looking for the essential drama that already exists in the work, and building on it. Make storms stormier. Let lights shine brighter. Let flames burn higher. (Oops)

Best regards,

Robert Glenn

PS: "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." (Thomas Edison)

"Every path you take educates you and leads you to the next." (Martha Sturdy)

"There, I've failed again!" (Vincent van Gogh)

Esoterica: Artists are sometimes guilty of underplaying intellectualization and practical thinking. Lists that I use in my dog-resurrections include queries about pattern, design, grays, mid-tones, clutter, focus, style-force and condition. I accept the idea that problem-solving is one of the most rewarding aspects. One must patiently comb one's dogs with thoughts of "what could be?"

Tim,

Boy can I relate. My mother has a wall full of crappy still life paintings I've done. Every time I go over there I want to rip 'em off the walls. She shows them to anyone who has the patience and kindness to suffer through it. AAACK!!!!

Maybe you could paint her some new ones in exchange for giving you the old ones back.

Just a thought that hasn't been addressed on this thread yet.

If someone stumbles upon one of my pieces which I consider subpar, but wants to purchase it, should I go ahead and sell it? Being that I'm an up and coming (read: starving) artist, I would feel grateful that someone liked it enough to want to buy it.

Maybe later in my career it'll come back to haunt me, but I'd probably risk it for a sale now. If someone asks 30 years from now, I'll just tell them my little brother painted it. :D

Any thoughts on this?

I would not sell a piece of my art that I considered substandard. My problem is that some of my old work that I thought was pretty good at the time makes me cringe a little bit now.

How is selling art that you know is bad any different than selling poor quality food to an unsuspecting person or cheating someone by charging a fee for a service poorly done?

If you need money, don't quit your day job until your artwork is up to snuff. Just because someone is dumb about art doesn't mean that we have the right to take advantage of them. As a full time painter I'd like to think that this is still an honorable profession.

Point well taken. My little brother's name shall remain untarnished...

People love paintings for many reasons that have nothing to do with the artist's definition of "quality". A piece may consist of clashing colors, weak drawing, etc. but still
evoke a strong feeling or a reminder of a special person or place in another viewer.

If a piece I have done doesn't speak to me and I feel I can now do technically "better work", who am I to decide for someone else who feels an emotional connection to it that it's "substandard"?

I want to be proud of all the work I have out there in the world, but my reasons for being proud of something may not be the same reasons someone else may love it. If they love one of my paintings, maybe they feel something in in that I don't. It doesn't mean I want to to pull the wool over their eyes to make a few dollars.