HOW TO MAKE YOUR ART LOOK NICE - Developing Tastes (Text Version)

Trying this out where I share the text version of how I write tutorials. It’s usually very messy but I formatted it in a way that it’s somewhat understandable haha. I also put in my objective and threats I keep in mind when I write this stuff. Enjoy this sneak peak!

OBJECTIVE: Convince artists who want to improve their art that analyzing and improving their tastes presents opportunities for their art to grow and diversify.

THREATS: Don’t make it come off as elitist! You can indulge in “”trashy”” stuff too (which is what a lot of people do more on a daily basis).

“TASTE is a person’s liking to particular flavors” (-google)

“Wh- i thought this was an art tutorial not a cooking class.”

“hush, buddy, I’m gonna get to it.”

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INTRO

Different people enjoy all sorts of food.

Take Pizza, for example, some like pineapple on it while others don’t.

Illus: the Long War

And that’s totally okay! (Please don’t fight over this omg)

Just like pizza (or any other dish), people have certain preferences (or tastes) towards styles.

Illus: Cartoon! Realism! Anime! Furry! Contemporary whatever!

Essentially, Art is the dish, while style is how the dish is prepared.

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Let’s look at Pizzas, for example!

Pizza’s are essentially just 4 things:

Illus: Crust, tomato sauce, cheese, toppings

But there are many ways to execute a pizza!

Illus: traditional, newyork, deep dish

It can even deviate and innovate from its original form (which doesn’t make it any less of a dish btw)

Illus: Dessert, sandwich, hot pockets

This goes the same with styles where each “ingredient” is an aspect of the whole pizza and its “execution” is based on technique and theory.

Illus: Controlled line art, muted warm tones, urban and rustic themes ingredient on pizza

Taste is the ability to discern what makes a style appealing by analyzing how its “ingredients” and “execution” make it all come together.

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“Why do I need to know this? My art looks fine as it is!”

“You are entitled to what you should feel about your own art!”

But if your goal is to capture a certain audience, you have to identify and apply the aspects and techniques they like through developing your taste!

Illus: Scrutinizing a style pizza

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DEVELOPING TASTES

Consume different media (not just the ones you want your art to be like but also stuff that make you question: why do people like this?)

Illus: Different variations of dishes

Look into the inspirations of others. (Learning the context and genealogy of an artist’s style can open up more to discover and study) 

Illus: History?? Something

Apply and Experiment (Pick out aspects of a style you like and see if they integrate well with your existing style)

Illus: picking out ingredients

It takes a lot of reflecting and asking questions.

What makes this art effective? Where are they getting their ideas from? How do these elements harmonize together? Why does this look good?

Illus: beat

The more you learn, you pick up patterns in styles and you develop a sense of what looks good which you can apply to your own art!

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CLOSING

You can draw a bunch of parallels with art and food. Like the many kinds of dishes, art shines when consumed in certain contexts.

Illus: Formal dessert, street food outside, take out at home

For the sake of your sanity, it’s healthy to have a varying array of tastes so you don’t have to keep your expectations with your art high all the fricking time.

Not a lot of people get to make and eat salmon carpaccio or coq au vin every day.

Supporting illus

You can still indulge in the trashy things you all know and love. It’s what majority of people do on a daily basis, anyway!

Supporting illus

But for the sake of improvement, consume, discover, and apply the stuff you’re curious about may they be good, or bad! How can you make good things without knowing and understanding why good things are good? 

Open your mind

Illus beat