What makes an Artist?

Warning! Art rant ahead! Some one recently asked what it was that made an artist an artist and what made an artist great. Don’t like such discussions? Think I’m beating a dead horse? Move along. You don’t have to read.



There are four answers to this from personal experience. What we were taught in collage back when I attended (and mind I’m consider to old for the type of art I do by my local community, I’m 38 years old, and this view is hopefully changing or changed since I left collage) was a REAL artist is some one that “creates art for art’s sake” and a GREAT artist is some one that does this AND can evoke an emotional, empathetic, sympathetic and/or relatable response in the majority of the people who view their art. By this definition I was NEVER a real or great artist because I was a graphic designer, a commercial artist. I did things for money. I made my commissioners happy instead of exploring the essence of my art and my self. I had tossed away my spirt and soul. Because of this I have issues with people that call themselves fine artists to this day and the local art community still will not accept me as an artist. The local anime and fandom community does grudgingly however. They like my work but again consider me to old to be doing this. That I ‘lost my chance to be great’ because I didn’t pursue an art career by the time I was 24 and had to take a 6+ years hiatus from drawing at all.

My family and most of my close friend’s from when I was younger definition of a “great artist” is some one with amazing technical skill. Some one that can produce hyper realism and capture things photo real both living people and animals and landscapes and city scapes. Anime and cartoons are “not real art”. They constantly told me my stuff looked to immature and cartoony even when it was as hyper realistic as I could muster and to this day constantly ask “why don’t you draw other then anime?”

Then there is the aesthetic side of things. There is tuns of scientific and non scientific studies of what is most appealing to the majority of human beings. Composition, the golden medium, appreciation and an entire slew of formulas, many derived from nature itself, all help create the illusions of shapes, lines, weight and space humans find most appealing. A great artist can be some one that understands and utilized all that regardless of their actual technical skill level. But individual taste still applies. What is one person’s cup of tea will not be someone else’s. And some people truly do not care about a person’s skill level, or master of aesthetics so long as the subject matter of the art is recognizable as something they enjoy or like such as big eyed cats, serine cottages in the meadows, bustling city streets, fast cars, a famous actor, a political commentary, their favorite character from a book or show, flowers, or sex. The list is endless.

Then there is the fourth thing that can make an artist great and the thing I believe the most in. Passion. A love for art regardless of if your drawing it for yourself or a company or a random commissioner. A great artist is some one who puts their heart and soul into their work, that truly enjoys what they do regardless of how fruitless or frustrating it gets at times. I personally believe “there is a little piece of me in everything I do”. This makes letting go of mistakes hard but it’s part of the learning process and I feel the more you like your own art, mistakes and all, and are able to keep going and trying to improve the more you learn to also like yourself and improve yourself as a person. You yourself, are a work of art in progress. This is also why I feel every task can be an art form from drawing, to writing, to cleaning, interior design, gardening, sculpture, carpentry, sewing, cooking and so on. If you work hard and think creatively and are not afraid of growing and improving, you are an artist, a REAL artist, and though great as you are now, you will only get greater. Sometimes this is also why I find sketch books and studies more enjoyable then finished works. You can see the passion, get a glimpse of how the artist thinks and works. You get to know the person behind the art some.

So in summary, purpose and intent, technical skill, aesthetics, and hard work and passion are all things that make an artist “great”. You can peruse all, some, one or none, for as cliche as the saying is, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and in my opinion, the heart of the creator.