5 Fundamental Skills Every Artist Should Master

As an artist, your job is to immerse your viewers into a world that you have built and guide them safely through it. Artists have much in common with storytellers. Storytellers have several tricks that they use to keep their readers coming back for more. Like storytellers, artists can use similar tricks to help them produce more compelling artwork. In this article, we will explain 5 fundamental skills that every artist should master. Let’s take a look! More

I read that a couple weeks ago when it came across my Twitter feed. I have to agree with one of the comments:

Rules are meant to be broken, and a real artist will push beyond those boundaries. That said, I think it's vitally important to have a firm grasp on the fundamental "rules" before you can break them:

1. Composition (Rule of Thirds in particular)
2. Perspective
3. Value
4. Color
5. Lighting

The human brain is an odd beast, indeed. Our eye is trained to look for certain patterns by default, even if we're subconsciously unaware of why we find something pleasing or displeasing. All that said, a photograph can be 100% technically sound, and still be crap. The real goal with art isn't technical merit, it's evoking an emotion.

You want the viewer of your work to say, "Wow, that was ____________."

Maybe it's a nifty HDR of a sunset and shoreline that elicits feelings of calm and "wish you were here". Maybe it's a naked hooker passed out on a stack of syringes that makes the viewer look away in disgust. Or a photo of a newborn swaddled up in a hand-made blanket that makes a smile creep up on the corner of your mouth.

Whether warm and fuzzy or shock and awe, emotions will always trump technical merit.

I found the article interesting, and I can see how it can relate to the art of photography. But I also found it hard to follow for me, with the examples shown adding to it being from a different medium. I got some of it though and I consider that a victory for me! Lol

I think if I break it down into chunks, learning a bit and practicing it till it becomes natural to me. Then moving on to the next bit, using the same plan. I think I can eventually bring it to a whole in my mind without being so overwhelmed. This I believe would be easier though if I didn't have to translate from medium used to the photographic medium.

Thank you very much for posting the link my friend! It gives me a lot to think about and to learn!

Bill16 said:

I found the article interesting, and I can see how it can relate to the art of photography. But I also found it hard to follow for me, with the examples shown adding to it being from a different medium. I got some of it though and I consider that a victory for me! Lol

I think if I break it down into chunks, learning a bit and practicing it till it becomes natural to me. Then moving on to the next bit, using the same plan. I think I can eventually bring it to a whole in my mind without being so overwhelmed. This I believe would be easier though if I didn't have to translate from medium used to the photographic medium.

Thank you very much for posting the link my friend! It gives me a lot to think about and to learn!

Click to expand...

The first one to remember and to practice should be the rule of thirds.

Thank you, will do!