Defining yourself as an 'Artist'
polycounter lvl 11
Hi there,
Ive been around for a little while, but I've only started spending more time here recently. Theres a lot of interesting talks going on here, for sure. Got lots to learn and this is definitely the place for it.
Anyway, moving on. Ive always considered the word Artist something very classy, fit for someone with great artistic capabilities and someone who inspires others, both through his/her art and through teaching. This is why Im having a really hard time calling myself a Level Artist, or a 3D Artist, because I never really thought of myself as someone like that. But I am calling myself that But its because, and just because, thats the title in the industry.
So Ive recently been forced to re-think my whole perception of artists and came across thinking about this: What makes someone an artist? Where goes the line between an Artist a non-artist? Is anyone able to open Maya/Max and make a cube an artist? Or is an artist simply someone who can impress others? I know its a wide topic so I think we should stick to the gaming industry.
So Id like to hear your thought about this.
When did you start to think of yourself as an artist?
Do you ever doubt yourself as an artist? Why or why not?
Sorry if I placed this in the wrong forum. Really looking forward to hearing some of your thoughts.
Cheers,
/Brygelsmack
Ive been around for a little while, but I've only started spending more time here recently. Theres a lot of interesting talks going on here, for sure. Got lots to learn and this is definitely the place for it.
Anyway, moving on. Ive always considered the word Artist something very classy, fit for someone with great artistic capabilities and someone who inspires others, both through his/her art and through teaching. This is why Im having a really hard time calling myself a Level Artist, or a 3D Artist, because I never really thought of myself as someone like that. But I am calling myself that But its because, and just because, thats the title in the industry.
So Ive recently been forced to re-think my whole perception of artists and came across thinking about this: What makes someone an artist? Where goes the line between an Artist a non-artist? Is anyone able to open Maya/Max and make a cube an artist? Or is an artist simply someone who can impress others? I know its a wide topic so I think we should stick to the gaming industry.
So Id like to hear your thought about this.
When did you start to think of yourself as an artist?
Do you ever doubt yourself as an artist? Why or why not?
Sorry if I placed this in the wrong forum. Really looking forward to hearing some of your thoughts.
Cheers,
/Brygelsmack
Replies
No clue.
Id say 3d art is now more artistic-like ever since digital sculpting came around, but before that pushing and pulling polys could be considered more as problem solving technical art.
Still, have fun being unappreciated by regular people. They can't wrap their head around what exactly you do to create your stuff.
Though I was thinking of changing my name to a symbol and calling myself "the artist"
Interesting. This idea was in my head exactly at this morning.
Luckily enough, in french, our work is called 3d graphist or infographist and not cg artist so, i don't have to be philosophical on a daily basis
really it's on my linkin
http://www.linkedin.com/in/drew3d
I really disagree with this attitude and think his work would be better if he considered himself an artist and as a creator of art. Not saying his work isn't good, just saying anyone can be better than they currently are.
a lot of people would claim the title with a lot less competence so why wouldn't you
Also Artiste Extraordinaire is the proper title to claim :poly142:
I hate not being able to make art.
I don't care much about defining the semantics of 'making art'
When doing other stuff, after a while it starts to become making art.
I always am unsatisfied with what I make to some degree.
I always want to improve.
I just figured after a while - Oooooooh, that's what this all means.
Still in my day job I sometimes have tasks which could be called technician type of work, but hey, sometimes I have to put up a shelf or something at home too. No big deal.
We're more like illustrators in that sense. We just render things, design things.
The thing is though, from a business sense, there's the programming side and there's the art side. And in the overall you could say that the visual aspects of games is art. But then the individual pieces of art are more like illustrations, which is to say, not really art. But that's fine, who cares? If we like doing it, then let's keep on doing it.
This is pretty much just my view, and it differs from the modern 'vibe' that art has gotten in that I think art is about the actual art work, not about the person making the artwork. Somewhere along the line, after the 19th century, artists began hogging the spotlight and making pieces that can't stand on their own without context or reference to the intentions of the artist, which imo just makes for weak visual art.
The way you become an artist is by calling yourself one or being called one by others. It's a completely arbitrary title that means absolutely nothing and only distinguishes you from the rest of the population in that you're called it and other people aren't.
To answer the personal questions:
I started thinking of myself as an artist when I realized I could make art, enjoy it, be good at it, and make money off it. "Artist" is my job title. Beyond that, I've always loved making art, but I never really thought of myself as an artist. I just thought of myself as someone who likes making pictures of stuff.
I doubt myself as an artist in the "Am I actually good at making art?" sense. I think this is entirely reasonable, and I think more artists should ask themselves this question. If you don't ever doubt yourself, you're either an art god (unlikely) or a douchebag (very likely).
As for the rather tangentially related topic of what art is, that's actually a fairly simple answer:
Art is metaphor. Period.
Music communicates primarily emotion and feeling, literature primarily communicates ideas and stories, and the visual arts communicate the same things as music and literature, though in a more abstract sense. They all communicate their respective properties through the use of medium-specific metaphors, be they notes or words or strokes of a brush.
People who make those things are artists, or at least craftsmen. The more skilled the application of the artistic medium, the better the art/craft.
Granted, this definition of art will likely peeve a rather large number of people -- specifically the ones who make any distinction between "fine" art and any other sort -- but look how many fucks I give:
I stopped thinking of myself as an artist when I saw a full studio of Chinese dudes pretty much modeling almost everyone else I knew to the wall. That was humbling.
From day dot. If you make something that can be considered art then you're an artist. Of course in my case I've said many times that I also enjoy design and would never be some kind of super-artist like some of these guys. Really the classification is only useful for job description. I would put artist if you want a job making pretty shit, and put designer if I want a job arranging pretty shit.
Do you ever doubt yourself as an artist? Why or why not?
This one is almost rhetorical, I'm sure practically everyone here, even the greats have doubted their passions.
To me it's more about the skill level than what kind of art it is. If a n00b-retard or a child can do it, then it's far less respectable than if it's something that only well experienced and skilled individuals can do. Anyone can take a crap on a chair, can anyone create a super realistic scene which even non-artsy people appreciate?
There is no time when you start believing that you are an artist. Only when you want to believe it. Like today a person with no background of anything relative to arts can make doodles on a piece paper to tell a story and that would be his starting point of being an artist. As long as one conveys their message through their drawing, music, 3d graphical image, or even writing. He/ she is an artist. In practical world, there is no starting point of an artist because almost all of us drew something when we were kids and probably forgot about it by now.
When we start taking arts seriously and decide what field we will pursue in the art field is usually the time when we decide to start focusing on it. For me it was about 3-4 years ago.
I guess I always knew that things will end up to me being sitting at the computer table, sketching concepts out, then creating them out in 3d and implement them in a game engine. Before that I used to compose music and used to play guitars (another sort of art that I've done for like 10 years (learned by ear).) I took CG and concept arts seriously 3-4 years ago (as stated before,) when I started having these story ideas which I couldnt forget, which forced me to write them down, which also forced me to this end of arts (3d game arts.)
Through out the years people insulted at me for not making art and posting it here, not having art skills on the game industrial standard (which I have no idea what is,) even ignored me in many discussions happen on this forum. I do post my work here every now and then but it just gets buried by other threads where there is some kick ass art images, made by some guy who works in some kick ass game company. ( I call it a pointless artist show off. Not soo inspiring and it also defeats the purpose of the PnP section but you can not complain since its a privilege to be a part of this community) and there fore I get less to no critiques now, but I never doubted nor backed out from learning art and still learning it.
Other than that you can just be creative and apply that creativity to the artistic field. (Which means you can be a sucky artist, but creative enough to create something considered to be artistic?)
I don't know , it's a tricky subject. Not sure if there is a right answer at all.
But seriously speaking, this is the only truth:
______
Anyway, I think my perception of the word is a bit skewed because of its meaning in Swedish. Artist basically translates into 'konstn
Haha! Calm down, man. I don't want to mess up your thread. Just express my point of view. That is exactly what I posted before.
See? This guy has his shit sorted out.
I like that I've always called myself an artist because thats what other people labeled me as I just liked to draw ^^;;
Nowadays I'm an Art Producer, though, so I'm a sell-out, not an artist
I think game art is ultimately art but not fine art (for most people art=fine art) but applied art.
My title is environment artist but I feel what I do is a cross between art and craft.
It requires creativity and some degree of technical knowledge to make something that is not only nice looking but also functional.
My `art` has function. That function is to provide a visually engaging world to the player. The creative side is making it look good.
All the other bits are technical(gameplay constraints, optimizations, bug fixing etc.) So I`m a weird mixture of an artist and an artisan.
In that regard I think game art is art but it`s not fine art but part of applied arts.
Applied arts
I think we could add game visuals to that list.
Many games' art that can be considered fine art in my opinion, just look at Trine 2, it's like a moving painting.
I think the word artist is used like a general term for things involving graphics. What would you call a character artist otherwise? A character designer? That's something else. Character creator would be a bit misleading since you wouldn't know if an artist, writer or a programmer has the job to create it(in job postings etc).
I agree with the fact that it doesn't matter in the end though, however I do find this an interesting topic and worthy of discussion. It's just a word and again, the art word is being used so widely that it's lost it's value.
This is. America
i´d like to see art in a way like saman, but most people in the non-cg modern art world don´t.
so i think there is no use in forcefully trying to fit into that category.
just keep doing what you love and try to improve yourself. doesnt matter if it is art or not.
+1
http://visualartmerchandising.blogspot.ca/2012/06/dont-be-artist.html
but...
think of yourself as an artist, and you'll never be one. ask a caterpillar how he uses all his legs and he'll start tripping while he explains...
I like the quote that someone posted of "I just make stuff", because that's pretty much it.
Read it, man he took a while to get to his point. I somewhat agree, but at the same time if I just want to describe something casually, Artist will do.
Also for some reason I burst out laughing at:
probably some of students who're expected to pick up marketing bits from him don't fall under any other tangible category, so there you have
better than "'l'artist" already, but still not saying much.
Interesting coincidence, but I just finished watching this [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Norman-Rockwell-Paintiing-Edward-Herrmann/dp/B00002RATJ/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1341554552&sr=1-3&keywords=american+masters+norman+rockwell"]documentary about Norman Rockwell[/ame]. Pretty cool, I recommend it to everyone.
One thing that struck me, which they kinda glossed over in the documentary, is how you repeatedly see Rockwell struggling with his own notion that he's not a real artist. There's a part where you see his sons talking about how he wanted them to be painters. And he would tell them this quote that says it all:
"I want you guys to be serious artists, not a commercial artist like me, I want you to be the real thing".
And he refused to refer to himself as an artist, but as an illustrator, which is astonishing considering he's Norman f'n Rockwell. But he really did consider himself to not be a real artist.
There is another part about how in his later years this became really troubling for him. He even went to the old Rembrandt (his favorite artist) house in Europe and managed to get access to Rembrandt's own studio. There he's asking Rembrandt if he approves of him, and of course, there is no reply. Which to himself is symbolic of a big divine "maybe" as an answer to his question.
Interesting stuff.