The more I read and analyze art, the more I realize how insanely subjective it is.
Outside the elements of PPVH that I talked about last week, I don't know how anyone can create guidelines to follow when it comes to how "good" art looks; unless it is simply following proportion and perspective appropriately.
Of course I've heard the "rule of thirds" thing; place your subject at the intersections of a 3x3 grid on your canvas/paper. But why? Who said that was good? There are plenty of successful art works being sold that do not follow this.
Then there's "never place something directly in the middle of your canvas/paper" which is of course stupid, because if I want to emphasize something why wouldn't I put it in the middle of the paper?
Andrew Loomis had a bunch of rules as well in his "Creative Illustration" book, but the only thing I ever practiced was his technique of "Informal Subdivision". It's essentially creating perpendicular and diagonal lines until you begin to get an idea of what you want to draw based on the layout of the lines, but the lines you place can never be at the 1/3, 1/4, or 1/2 mark of the paper.
I'm sure there's dozens of other "rules" out there that artists "should" be following.
But then it makes me wonder, is every artist following these? Is that why viewers have lost interest in art? Everything now is some cookie cutter riffraff? Does the artist stop and think about what others want to see? What others want to hear? Is the modern artist more convinced at finding places to fit in so they use art as a bridge?
If so, what a colossal waste of time.
I contemplate these rules, critiques, and other fluff when I'm not creating, but they do not paralyze me when I'm standing in front of a blank surface. When I create I let what I want flow on a canvas.
The best thing an artist can give to the world is a piece that stems completely from their own personal vision and interpretation. If an artist allows rules & cookie cutter influence to affect what they create then that vision is tainted and no longer pure to the artist.
I do not start every creation I make by using Loomis' Informal Subdivision. I do not carefully draw my subject so it's placed neatly on a third section of my canvas. I do not place a figure so that the entirety of it may be seen on a paper.
I pull from the infinite and put it on a canvas however I see fit.
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