BACK TO BASICS

How many times have you seen a marvelous piece of art ruined by poor draftsmanship?

As artists the creation is the focus of all of our efforts, get out there and make something damnit! But in this fever of creative inspiration do we get a free pass to let the basic principles of art slide by?

So much of the art world is dominated by the conceptual movement. The idea behind the art is more important than the actual presentation itself. Representational art has faded into obscurity in recent years and the shape of things has come to mean the idea driving the art and not the images seen in the art.

Is this a good thing? Sure, it gives the artist more freedom to move the materials around to achieve the effect that inspired the work in the first place. Collage, photo montage, assemblage, expressionism, impressionism, surrealism and abstract all owe their birthrights to the conceptual movement. And some of the greatest art has come from this fertile field, but does that excuse sloppy anatomy?

Pablo Picasso is the name which springs to mind, rightly or wrongly, when conceptual art comes up. Picasso used Cubism to fracture the world of the eye and create a new vision of floating parts and disembodied anatomy to build a world where what the work makes the viewer feel is more important than what the viewer sees. But does this excuse poor draftsmanship?

No, no and even no, if you break the rules you have to know how to do it right before you color outside of the lines. The basics in conceptual art are even more important because the image may not be readily apparent to the viewer. If the viewer spends all of his time trying to see what the heck is happening in the picture he won’t be open to what the image is saying.

Build your impact image on a good foundation; make sure you have the basics of the image right before you start around the Maypole. If you are running Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, be sure they look like they are articulated like modern humans or the temptation by the serpent won’t matter. You can’t have ankles facing one direction and knees heading the other way without distracting the viewer and if you are more interested in why Eve is so conflicted anatomically you won’t care if she is tempted.

Get the basics right, then no matter what you do within the concept the image will call to the viewer with all of the energy its creator poured into it.