BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Creativity Is cheating okay?

Speaking of murals, you just reminded me of sizing and drawing/painting huge items: I was watching a documentary about a young artist the other day, and they showed how she drew an initial sketch in A4 size and then used an overhead projector to enlarge it and project it on the massive canvas she wanted to paint.

Is that cheating? Should she be trying instead to develop her "big" drawing skills? Or is that a legitimate image enlargement technique? What do other artists think?

I use transparencies all the time.....I take my own photos and generate them myself....it saves time AND the client's money.....

All the professional muralists I know, with the exception of the traditional fresco masters, use projectors and transparencies.

Work Smarter, not harder!! <img src="/images/graemlins/rolling.gif" alt="" />

As an artist myself, I think if you do use paint by numbers, templates and such, you shouldn't hide the fact...that's where the cheating comes in. For instance, it drives me crazy when I meet another polymer clay artist who insists they "do not use molds", but I work with this stuff and I definately can tell when something has come from a mold. I don't care if they use molds, but hey, just don't out and out lie about it and say you don't!

Sharon

My view is that with anything that can me created you should automatically assume that some sort of template or model is used at some stage of production.

When you get to a certain level, or honestly, in my personal experience, in most of the creative process, models, prototyping and copying is simply part of the gig. It doesn't denote "cheating", but when you get to the "production studio" stage, it becomes neccessary to use some sort of tool for consistancy. To wit; If you study fine art in Europe or New York or at your local college, you are automatically set with the task of copying the Old Masters/Classics. It builds skills/technique.

Potters use calipers and prototypes, painters use photographs, transparencies, collage, printing or other copying/repetative representative methods and other visual devices to draw-off/establish initial or continue imagery on or in a surface or space, musicians sometimes use musical phrases/sounds they have heard before to springboard into new songs/ambient sounds - sometimes even sampling sounds or phrases, sculptors use armatures and molds and found objects, seamstresses/clothing designers use patterns, even writers use drafts and other writer's work as fodder for the next piece....it is all part of 'legitimate' creating or in the greater concept, Art.

Within the context of this forum thread, "cheating' seems to insinuate that an artist is doing something underhanded or wrong if they don't create something 'from scratch'. (There is nothing new under the sun.)

I am smiling at this idea of "cheating"- at the sheer arrogance of it.

If one uses this 'logic', the art of Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, Claes Oldenburg, Louise Nevelson, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, thousands of glass artists, thousands of musicians, most modern installation/performance artists, virtually all jewelers, any chef that has ever used another's recipe, even wood artists/craftspeople of any persuasion would fall away from artistic 'legitimacy' because they use found objects, molded pieces, transparencies, use patterns or prototypes or generally use the items at hand to make art.

I realize that this long rant sprang from a simple question about paint by numbers, but it addresses a very real issue about art and what is considered 'real art'.
By definition -
art - [ahrt] -�noun
1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

IMHO - it's all legitimate. From the crayon drawing on the fridge to the bowl that holds your morning cereal to Mt. Rushmore. Art just IS.

Some cultures don't even have a word for art. It's that pervasive in their lives. It is like that here....we just have to breathe it in and accept that labels don't negate value.

Keep Creating! <img src="/images/graemlins/rolling.gif" alt="" />

I didn't intend this posting to be a buzz-kill, guys......please continue this thread....it just made me think alot about art and what it means.

If artists should not use photos, then writers should not read.

Jan Goldfield

I do agree with you there, Jan.

But it's interesting you should say that - when I first started making a serious attempt at writing, I was lucky enough to catch myself mimicking Dickens' style because I happened to be reading Oliver Twist at the time. Since I was writing a modern crime story, the Dickensian style stood out immediately. Any other book/author might not have been as obvious to pick up, which is why I say I was lucky I chose to read something so opposite. I made the decision to put my writing career first and not read any fiction for a year while I worked at strengthening my own style and voice. I really think I benefitted from that at the time, and now I can read as much as I want while I'm writing and not have it influence my own work. But believe me, it was hard not reading <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Will cheating give any joy?

Again, I think it depends on your own attitude as an artist, or even just as a person seeking a creative method of relaxation.

If you find great joy in painting from photographs, using paint-by-numbers, using a mould kit to make little clay figures, etc, then that's perfectly fine.

If, however, you feel guilty or feel you're cheating yourself if you trace something instead of free drawing, then you need to be honest with yourself and either not do it and go through the more difficult process of developing your skills - or you need to say to yourself: "this is just for fun, I'm going to trace/use a mould/whatever, because I want to, and I'm going to be honest about it."

I think harm to ourselves comes when we think we are better than we really are and we disappoint ourselves, and then we give up, and instead of working to develop our skills, we look for ways of making our work look better. If you realise why you are doing a certain thing, you need to decide if it really is in your best interests.

Sorry - really long-winded philosophical answer to a straight-forward question <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Great new pic, Elle!!!

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