Before you invest in artwork, it’s important to understand what makes artwork great. While artists may disagree over what makes a painting good or bad, some objective markers can be used to analyze the quality of a painting. This blog post will highlight some of the things that you should look for in a painting.
Careful Isolation
Before you buy a painting, see if the elements are obvious. When a lot of elements are in the same plane, it can be difficult to focus on each element and ascertain whether it’s important or relevant to the overall composition. The work of many artists—particularly impressionists, such as Monet and Renoir—is famous because they carefully isolate each element uniquely. They make sure that every element and stroke is made with a purpose in mind.
Good Use of Color
The overall color scheme of a painting is one of the most important factors to consider when evaluating its quality. For example, if a piece of art contains jarring or distracting colors, it may seem annoying.
An experienced artist’s use of color is more consistent than that of an amateur. If you look at the works of Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt, you will find less-saturated colors used consistently throughout their paintings. They are also capable of creating dramatic contrasts between the light and dark aspects of a painting.
Material Used
How you perceive the painting may have a lot to do with your personal preferences, but it’s always important to consider whether an artist has used quality material or not.
Using traditional mediums like oil paints or watercolors helps create a strong background in paintings. However, an experienced artist is capable of doing so even with spray paint or acrylic paints.
Underpainting
The quality of underpaint can reveal many things about the quality of artwork. A good underpaint shows that the artist has invested their time and money into the artwork, and it’s worth the price.
When an experienced artist begins to paint, they have the end product in mind and spend time on the underpaint accordingly.
Focal Point
We talked about isolation earlier. When every element of an artwork is used in isolation, it’s easier to determine the focal point of the painting.
It’s important to understand that the focal point isn’t necessarily the same as the central subject of the painting. Paintings can have a focal point even if they don’t have an obvious meaning. It’s up to the artist to make the focal point obvious, or leave it for others to determine.
A focal point is simply a particular aspect of an artwork that forces people to hold their gaze.
Many modern-day artists follow in the footsteps of great artists of the past. If you’re looking for fascinating pieces of artwork that will look great in your house or workplace, then reach out to me. I have been producing fine art and have gained popularity for my unique paintings in different categories. You can browse through my collection of unique paintings for sale, or reach out to me to learn more.