I’m gonna say that it depends. Are you self-taught? Then you’re doing great, keep going!
Serious critique and suggestions:
spoiler
The work you’re doing is pretty basic, fairly competent. You’re getting a rough feel for what you’re depicting, but not really finishing the impression. The color is okay, but the water and sky feel flat. It’s an idea of a mountain landscape, but not yet fully fleshed out in form or feeling. It’s more a quick sketch than a finished piece. This isn’t meant to be cruel or mean; if you’re a relative novice, then this is fantastic work, and you should be proud of your progress.
My suggestion is to take some drawing classes at your local CC, really learn to look at and see things, and then try to reproduce them on paper. Start with still lives, and work up to life drawing. (The schools I’ve been to had drawing I & II as prerequisites for painting classes; both were 3 credit studio classes. They end up being a little cheaper if you’re auditing rather than working towards a degree.) One of the things that you pay for when you take college level art classes is brutally honest criticism, with the intent of helping you find ways to improve and be more true to your subject, and to your vision of that subject. That’s hard to replicate outside of school, since friends and family usually aren’t going to really critique work for fear of hurting a relationship. (I had one teacher–German–that ended up making about a quarter of her students cry at one time or another because she was so blunt in her critiques.)
And hey!, you can ignore everything I’ve said, and keep painting the way you want to because it makes you happy, and that’s okay! It’s absolutely fine to do a thing just because you enjoy doing it! You don’t have to be an expert in order to enjoy doing something.
For myself, it’s taken me over a decade to get back into trying to make anything since I burned out so hard at art school. I’m slow, but I’m gradually working on patterning new apparel pieces. I might even have something finished by the end of the year. School pushed me to make fashion that was artistic, and I’ve realized that my own aesthetic is more utilitarian; I’m never going to need a mood board to create work.
I’m self taught- besides a few YouTube tutorials here and there, I like trying to figure things out.
I really enjoy creating. I’ve never been good at drawing and only half good at painting. But I’m realising not everything I have to create needs to be good- sometimes it’s about the process.
Burn out is so real. It’s important to enjoy what you’re doing.
I create for me- so I don’t care if my paintings aren’t all there. I enjoyed painting, and I’m proud of myself for sitting down and doing it.
Thank you for your advice- it comes from a good place.
I totally agree. I loved drawing and designing before I went to school. Now I don’t. I’m much, much better at it than I was, but I’m also apathetic about it. I think that being happy with what you’re doing, and getting joy out of the process, is more important than any kind of technical prowess.
I was also in a position where I burnt out and didn’t want to create anything for about a year. I’ve been starting back up again slow- first with gardening, now with paints, music and punch needling.
I’m gonna say that it depends. Are you self-taught? Then you’re doing great, keep going!
Serious critique and suggestions:
spoiler
The work you’re doing is pretty basic, fairly competent. You’re getting a rough feel for what you’re depicting, but not really finishing the impression. The color is okay, but the water and sky feel flat. It’s an idea of a mountain landscape, but not yet fully fleshed out in form or feeling. It’s more a quick sketch than a finished piece. This isn’t meant to be cruel or mean; if you’re a relative novice, then this is fantastic work, and you should be proud of your progress.
My suggestion is to take some drawing classes at your local CC, really learn to look at and see things, and then try to reproduce them on paper. Start with still lives, and work up to life drawing. (The schools I’ve been to had drawing I & II as prerequisites for painting classes; both were 3 credit studio classes. They end up being a little cheaper if you’re auditing rather than working towards a degree.) One of the things that you pay for when you take college level art classes is brutally honest criticism, with the intent of helping you find ways to improve and be more true to your subject, and to your vision of that subject. That’s hard to replicate outside of school, since friends and family usually aren’t going to really critique work for fear of hurting a relationship. (I had one teacher–German–that ended up making about a quarter of her students cry at one time or another because she was so blunt in her critiques.)
And hey!, you can ignore everything I’ve said, and keep painting the way you want to because it makes you happy, and that’s okay! It’s absolutely fine to do a thing just because you enjoy doing it! You don’t have to be an expert in order to enjoy doing something.
For myself, it’s taken me over a decade to get back into trying to make anything since I burned out so hard at art school. I’m slow, but I’m gradually working on patterning new apparel pieces. I might even have something finished by the end of the year. School pushed me to make fashion that was artistic, and I’ve realized that my own aesthetic is more utilitarian; I’m never going to need a mood board to create work.
I’m self taught- besides a few YouTube tutorials here and there, I like trying to figure things out.
I really enjoy creating. I’ve never been good at drawing and only half good at painting. But I’m realising not everything I have to create needs to be good- sometimes it’s about the process.
Burn out is so real. It’s important to enjoy what you’re doing.
I create for me- so I don’t care if my paintings aren’t all there. I enjoyed painting, and I’m proud of myself for sitting down and doing it.
Thank you for your advice- it comes from a good place.
I totally agree. I loved drawing and designing before I went to school. Now I don’t. I’m much, much better at it than I was, but I’m also apathetic about it. I think that being happy with what you’re doing, and getting joy out of the process, is more important than any kind of technical prowess.
I was also in a position where I burnt out and didn’t want to create anything for about a year. I’ve been starting back up again slow- first with gardening, now with paints, music and punch needling.
All good things. It def. feels better to be doing something creative and generative than just, I dunno, watching Netflix mindlessly. IMO :)