Since what you do mostly is “spacey” art, I’d think about doing more than just putting multicolored spheres all over the place.
Speaking for myself, I like looking at art that makes me think I’m in another world. Even if it’s just a still life portrait of a bowl of fruit. If it looks like fruit that could exist on this planet or any other, I’m down with it.
Touched came closest to that for me. It didn’t have defined borders that the viewer can associate with something he is already familiar with. Most of your other pieces had spheres. Everybody knows spheres. Touched was less defined. It gave me more of a sense of being unable to recognize it…I have to venture closer to be able to understand what it is. That conveys a sense of mystery.
When I saw the thumbnail for Rainbow Atom, I thought it was a bird’s eye view of a crater at first. The lower left quarter of a crater, that is. Then when I saw the closeup I saw you just stacked more of those [sub]grumble grumble[/sub] spheres. If you had roughened the outline of those spheres and made them irregular objects, made them the same color as the background by making the bottom ones darker and the top ones lighter, it would have looked like a crater on another world to me. The sphere that acts as the nucleus could be made into a pool of bright yellow lava. That version would have led me to speculate why the crater was there, what purpose it served, and what was in the parts that I couldn’t see.
One more thing: by sticking to a certain style like that, you are limiting yourself in ways you express yourself. Kind of like the guy who paints velvet Elvises at the flea market. They may be good and people buy them, but he’d be a better artist if he chose to portray other things.
Thanks with withholding. Actually the third page is the stuff that I wasn’t as happy with. A few are early ones, a few felt rough. Go in particular is a game I like that noone else here has heard of, and since the picture is very simple, I really didn’t expect anyone else to relate to it or like it. Although surprisingly several seem to.
Knowed Out, “multicolored spheres all over the place”… “velvet Elvises at the flea market”… Ouch. You tread heavily but you speak the truth.
Funny thing is I really didn’t realize there were so many spheres until a couple folks here mentioned it. There are of course; I just didn’t back up that far.
Fact is, you’re right: none of them are modeled after real things (except the sunset ones and Go), and none of them really look like real things. And they are pretty thematically similar. I’ll work on broadening some.
The trick, I think is to ask yourself questions about the pictures; what is the swarm of arrows about to do the the cluster of balls? - are they about to attack(‘conflict’), or are they poised, curious but hesitant? (‘contact’), maybe they represent two complementary items willingly coming together? (‘alliance’)…
The colors were quite vibrant, don’t change anything about whatever process you do to create it, however more variety amongst the objects would be nice. After awhile it seems the pictures seem to be small variations on the same theme, no matter how different the landscapes, placement and positioning and atmosphere is.
Experiment with other shapes(squares, triangles), and also try drawing less abstract objects.
All very good works, you could make some money off of them.
Thanks Mangetout. Ironically, that one isn’t conflict, contact or alliance, but somewhat sexual. I guess that does make it all of the above though, doesn’t it?
Like a lot of other people, I really liked Touched. I’d hang a print/poster of that.
I didn’t see anyone else mention Smoke, but I also like that one alot. I think it would look good with a slate grey matte, similar to the hint of darker grey in the corner.
I’m just a college student without much money, so most of my “art” is of the ten-dollar-poster variety, but I’d buy prints of both of those.
I would also recommend doing more ‘series’ stuff, even if only a few of your experiments see the light of day; ‘blue disk’ would be particularly suited to experimentation, I think.
Don’t worry about whether or not you are overusing some motif. I recently attended a course at a corporate institute. On the walls they had paintings by an artist I’d never heard of that were selling for, IIRC, $800-2000. They were all kind of the same - a coloured background with sea creatures in some kind of pattern in the foreground. The sea creatures were various sizes, brightly coloured and often repeated - rough fish shapes, shrimps, diatoms, octopus, coral, starfish etc.
Graphically they were very nice to look at. The technical skill required for the painting seemed minimal when you looked at the actual sea creatures - what made them appealing was the artist’s eye for colour and pattern. And although, after looking at several, I ended up thinking “ho hum more of the same” I still liked the ones that had caught my eye and this must be the norm because plenty of them were marked as SOLD.
Aslan of Narnia, thanks for the suggestion to branch out. And thanks for the kind words about the colors and potentially making money with them. Hope you’re right.
No offense Bill H. (nor to anyone else), but I don’t care for them.
I find them pretty pedestrian and uninspired. The compositions are dull, the color schemes are bland and the subject matter is cliched. From the OP, it sounds like you sort of felt that way yourself when you created them.
This is not to say you can’t sell them. I’ve seen much worse things in hotels and restaurants. I just don’t think they’re compelling art.
Yes, yes I know. I’m an art snob.
The big question is do you like them? That’s really the most important thing.
rogzilla, any specific thoughts on changes or new direction?
Well, I do like making them. And as a businessman, I’ll enjoy this little divergence of marketing and selling them. And I do like them enough to hang them on walls. But clearly the level of talent to make one of mine is far far less than that required to create a Dali or such.
So, to answer your question, I guess I’d say I do like them, but I don’t really respect them.
I would agree wholeheartedly with mascaroni that it’s easy to be over-critical of one’s own work when so engrossed in details. Some of my own artwork that I didn’t care for much when originally created I have come to like more with time (while others have dated and lost appeal). I would also add that the more you produce the more likely you are to produce something of quality - no artist is perfect and a certain amount of mediocrity is inevitable - but some of your work will stand out.
I do like one or two of your pieces as they are now and I believe they are significantly better than a lot of overpriced trash that I constantly see on corporate walls (my current employer no exception) - even if only decoratively (which at this stage seems your objective). Keep experimenting!
capybara I read your criticism with interest - (while avoiding a hi-jack) would you care to look at some other work?
I would agree wholeheartedly with mascaroni that it’s easy to be over-critical of one’s own work when so engrossed in details. Some of my own artwork that I didn’t care for much when originally created I have come to like more with time (while others have dated and lost appeal). I would also add that the more you produce the more likely you are to produce something of quality - no artist is perfect and a certain amount of mediocrity is inevitable - but some of your work will stand out.
I do like one or two of your pieces as they are now and I believe they are significantly better than a lot of overpriced trash that I constantly see on corporate walls (my current employer no exception) - even if only decoratively (which at this stage seems your objective). Keep experimenting!
capybara I read your criticism with interest - (while avoiding a hi-jack) would you care to look at some other work?
Thank you very much. Could you tell me which ones in particular you liked, and also which you didn’t? One of the main reasons I’m asking (and appreciate very much the feedback) is that I’m framing several for this exhibit, and have to decide which ones. I have a tentative list, but I seem to be changing it each day.
Sorry, I can’t laugh at your art because these aren’t horrible, Bill H. I actually like them. In fact, I will bookmark your site so that I can check back periodically to see if you’ve added more.