Have you ever come to the conclusion that as a painter, you just suck at it?

Answer 1

No. Belief in your vision AND your ability to transmit it to others is the essential of every painter or artist. If you're asking about yourself, it's already a good thing. Nothing is more infuriating to me than the current "artistic' trend whic has so many artists saying "I don't care if anyone understands what I do or not." It's led to a codification of art with idiotic stuff filling gallery spaces, based only on the artist's 'reputation' (whatever that is). In fact, much of art has become nothing more that currency -- where the object itself has no value except that of the signature.

I'm speaking of visual art primarly, but as an analogy, it's easy to picture someone giving a "concert" which consists of smashing a grand piano with a sledge-hammer. Sure, it IS a concert. But when you consider all the things that can be done with a piano if you actually learn to play it, well it's awfully limited in comparison.

If you're speaking about yourself, feeling frustrated about the quality of your own work, I think all artists go through fallow periods like this. But even if you don't aspire to great things, there's nothing wrong with making things that please you, and if they bring pleasure to those you know, so much the better. Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried painting with your left hand? That can bring some freeing and surprisingly good results!

There's a well designed site (http://www.artsig.com) that's set up much like Y/A where you can post your work and get critiques on it, as well as commenting on others' work. Like Y/A, the quality of the critiques ranges from the conscientious and knowledgeable to the downright and even intentionally stupid -- but like what we do here, it's good fun, and free to sign up and participate.

You might run into my work there, though I've kind of cooled off going there from looking at too many barns, birds and boobs. Here's an example:

http://www.artsig.com/go/works/view?id=53541

Answer 2

Yes I do. But you know what? I keep on working at it. I hope someday that my name will be synonymous with da Vinci and Michelangelo, but that will take years. I have only been painting for four years now, and haven't done much of it.

Although, I know I don't paint as well as the two painters I just mentioned, I am better at realism than some of the other so called famous artists. This is all without any formal training in painting.

Art is either a talent you are born with (like me) or you have worked at (like me, too). This may sound like I am bragging about myself, but honestly I am my own worst critic. It takes me a long time to finish just a pencil drawing because of my attention to detail.

Mixing colors isn't easy for me at all, but I persevere and get through it. So saying "I suck at painting" is an admittance to how I feel I am because of my standards, not because someone told me that. The first large painting I did was all with an image in my head, and my oldest neice was so impressed she wanted me to teach her.

Don't give up unless you just want your dream to paint to die.

Answer 3

Many times. So I kept trying to figure out what else I could do, and no matter what, I just kept trying to succeed at something else. It never happened. Finally, I didn't know what else to do, so, I went back to art. Now I understand that's where I was supposed to be all along.

I have always thought my art work was bad, but along the way, I noticed that the pieces I thought were the best in the class, were only regarded as equals of my work by the other students. For a while I thought they were trying to be nice to me. Then I thought they were students, so how could they know good art when they saw it. Then one day the thought occurred to me that if my fellow students could think my work was among the best, that maybe other people might think that, too. It was an original thought. And I kept going.

The more classes I took, the more positive remarks I got from fellow students during critiques, and from professors. When I took a figure painting class, the professor thought my landscapes were so good he told me to just paint landscapes for his entire class. I did even better in my sculpture classes. So I had to allow myself to recognize that I have talent, that I will always be improving my abilities, and my goals are always about how much better I want to be.

As it turns out, this is the goal of most artists throughout history. We are rarely satisfied with our work. So with that understanding, we need to acknowledge that we are in a growth process, that we will improve, now we need to let that happen. Keep going.

By the way, painting may not be your best art, don't just think you have to stick that alone, try a lot of the fun stuff.

Answer 4

Yes,.....almost every day for the past 33 years I've asked myself why I do this for a living?....personally I think I suck at this but people just seem to keep buying my stuff I'm 49 and I've been doing this since I was 16,.....I went to seminary school to be a preacher, God gave me this talent and for some reason I've just had to paint, I'd much rather be a normal every day guy who works an 8 hour day and has friends and a house and a pickup truck and a storage shed out back and all that normal stuff but nooooooooooo, not me,.....I had to be an artist,......and I cant just paint what I want to, I have to paint for my market which is 2500 miles from me back in Texas and I'm in Oregon,......I'm so sick of painting I could just puke and yet i'm forced to keep doing this cuz it's just what I do for a living........I cant just stop.

Answer 5

Well that is part of being a good painter...the painting is never good enough! If you care that much, you should hang in there....because you always improve with practice!

Answer 6

No, and neither should you.

In most cases the difference between a good painter and a sucky one, is that the good one didn't give up while he was still sucky !!!!

So, don't give up !

Answer 7

Almost did but i stuck it out. My work can be checked out at hellosanantonio.com under artist name ''Guerro'' in the local artist section. There one can see some of the painting i've painted to keep and some of the ones i've been hired to do.

Answer 8

No, as a writer.

Nietzsche said that as a musician, Wagner was an excellent actor.

Answer 9

yes.

That's why I'm an Engineer

Answer 10

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.