The Good and the Bad

Metaphorical Armageddon happens this Tuesday; judgment day, where all of us are to be judged and given some kind of mark or grade for this year or something. I'm not sure how it works, and everybody knows you can't grade art, can you? Isn't it all just a matter of opinion? It isn't? Uh oh, seems I've stumbled back into...


The good that makes it good and the bad that makes it bad.


I always have a bad time trying to put this subject into words because it's asking you to put art, generally something subjective, into words on this blog, which are objective. Trying to use one to explain the other strikes me as being rather quite difficult, but that's what's supposed to make it fun I suppose, ohoho.


In a previous post somewhere I'm sure I mentioned that 'goodness' in drawings - the sort we need to do - comes from confidence and experience, the former born from the latter. That's not a golden rule, though. After all there have been paintings and works of art done by people who've never picked up a pencil or paintbrush in their lives (Presumably!).


It's important to single-out what I personally am looking to do in the industry someday, which is to become a concept artist. This requires an excellent knowledge of art; anatomy, architecture, perspective, rendering and such, in order to convey things on paper which might not exist in real life. I have a general understanding that, to be a concept artist, these are the important skills I need.

You could almost say a concept artist draws in an objective manner - he's trying to convey an object in particular, whether it be a level or character. This is a world away from those artists who place abstract brush strokes on their canvas in order to convey a subjective, invisible thing, such as emotion. Concept artists really have no need to draw emotion; as much as they could do, no game I've seen is that abstract. Everything, even crazy things like Rez are made from solid forms, shapes, things. Concept artists create these things. Games are objective, right?

This strikes me as being one of the fundamental things in art - there are artists that draw (Or paint, or print, et cetera) the subjective - feelings, emotions, and there are artists that draw the objective - houses, cars, spoons. I am dedicated to the latter of these, and personally I feel no desire to experiment in the former. But that's just me.


But then, perhaps I should do. Would an understanding of how to convey things like abstract emotion assist and enhance my character drawings for example? Perhaps it would - but then, is there even a correct way of representing these things? Aren't emotions a little different for everybody? How do we know? Aren't these abstract paintings I mentioned just a matter of opinion? Isn't that what subjectivity is?


So therefore, that must mean that we are able to rate objective pieces of art. A picture of a human which is out of proportion can be said to be bad because it's out of proportion. A drawing of a city street which defies perspective can be said to be wrong because of the flaws in perspective. This sort of art is not subjective - it's not about opinion, emotion or feeling, it's about representing something real. It's objective. Thus, it can be rated, it can be graded, and and opinions take a back seat to the facts.


That's not to say a scenario can't arise where somebody dislikes the picture because the character's clothes look dumb, or that guy's sporting stupid facial hair. This sort of detail is all about opinion, but is ultimately pointless and should never be a criteria when assigning a grade. One's personal preference should be irrelevant when marking art - the only thing that needs to be examined is the technical proficiency in which the thing, whatever it is, has been drawn.


Hypothetically speaking, if someone draws a city which looks awful to you, the buildings are absurd, the windows are dumb and the architecture makes you cringe, but the execution, perspective and rendering is 'perfect', that image has to be given full marks. Opinions can't matter, otherwise they undermine everything and immediately the grading is completely unfair. This should be a no-brainer, it's obvious.


I think that's what I wanted to say with this blog post; it's quite a roundabout way of saying it, but regarding our art, opinion is irrelevant. Artistic skill is the key. That's what I believe anyway, take it as you will. I'm going back to drawing hands, bloody things.