What Makes A Work Of Art Suck?

Avoid doing what people expect you would do.

We're talking about "good" not "salable"

Should avoid thoughts about saleing during paint progress

Artist should create their vision and use their talents to create as close to the vision as they can.

Only the viewer and buyer determine in their own heads if they like it or not. Artist can't influence that!

As we know what is good, and what sucks is always subjective.

I think that it's important to think about some of the basic principles, like balance, proportion, emphasis, variety, harmony, movement, rhythm, and scale although some folks would disagree and believe that those principles are not necessary to make art, that doesn't suck.

Yeah sucking is subjective. Mostly make it look good, don't leave fingerprints, keep it clean looking even if its dirty. Do your very best, and don't ever pat yourself on a job well done and never improve. Mostly its how well its not done. Like no training at all, and it shows. Really depends what we are talking about though.

As a photo it shouldn't look cluttered, like the objects in the scene should look like they go with the scene. It should be straight, shouldn't have people cut in half on the edges. One should be able to look at an image and know - oh I see what they were going for there.

If its a sunset, don't have a massive amount of trees or wires in the way. Don't shoot it through a car window and if you must, clean the window, no streaks or that blue line. Don't use a camera while on a pogostick, so many look that way. If you must shoot people, don't hide behind the bush like a peeping tom, get around those branches instead. Clean the cmos. Use the light well.

You can usually tell good from bad, you have to be able to see your stuff and think if its good or bad.


----Mike Savad

This is another one of those very subjective topics.

I will say that personally, the same thing that makes one work of art "suck" in my opinion could make another fantastic. It really depends.

Yes, what sucks is subjective. Who says its sucks are the same few people that declare something a masterpiece. It's a bit like movie critiques. But too often "we" are afraid to speak against those few and share our real opinion.

When I create a piece that I think sucks, it is usually always because I tried to force the work without really being in that creative zone.

Avoid thinking what other people might be thinking

and anybody who knows what "good art" is, please step forward

Political views

The 3 F's suck!
Fakes
Frauds
Forgeries

Gosh, there are some really good answers here.

Although I am not sure really what makes a painting awful or a photo for that matter, I sure know when I see it and judge it as such.

I think that fear shows up in my artworks. I do a lot better when I'm not pressured to perform and when I become pressured about something needing to be changed or reworked, I often ruin my work. And that sucks.

It's intuitive, you just know.

Is it? David?

LOL

I notice color due to my slight color blindness and the fact that I usually smell and sometimes taste colors, and because of that, I notice colors that are continually selling.

I think that too many colors is the key to really poor choices for both painters and photographers.

For example, really overly thought out colors that are extemely vibrant taste like a lot of flavers like cheese puffs, with hottomalies and chocolate chip ice cream...all at once too. I produce these kinds of works and I can tell when others do the same. I want to scream, "STOP IT!" to myself.

On the same note, charcoal drawings taste like wine and are extremely beautiful to my eyes.

Although I use many colors due to the fact that I'm a color blind binge eater, it's far superior to cut down on fake digitalized, overly bright, slap in the face colors that actually look a tiny bit like AI images that I've produced.

But people compliment them and I wonder what's up with that. They sure as heck aren't selling nor do I want my name them and my real paintings aren't nearly as vibrant as my digital works. Why I do this is such a mystery! Well actually one of my vibrants just sold. Weird.

Its not that its intuitive, its more like comparative. If all works looked bland, then whatever looked best of the bunch, would be the winner. And the rest would suck compared to the rest.

And if you get that winner with a group of other winners from the loser groups, and compare them to something else, then only the winner of those would be chosen and so on. Does that make sense?

Its like as a kid hot dogs were the number one food and you couldn't eat anything else. Then you found out about crabs and now hot dogs are kind of a loser meat. And crabs are king. Then you find out about filet mignon, and now crab is boring and the new meat is king. Then you get into steak, and that fancy wagyu stuff, and all other meat before that, no matter how good you thought it was is now a loser to the new king.

So basically everything can suck, and nothing sucks, it depends what you compare it too.


----Mike Savad

Yes, that does make sense, Mike. It's also profound. Comparison is definitely a point I needed to read. Thanks.

It makes me really think hard about my upcoming art show.

The last time I hung at this particular gallery, one of my large paintings was rejected. I felt bad about it and put a low price on it at another show at a winery, not that the price means jack to me. I don't paint for money at all.

I sold it, of course because it was fabulous, but I could not see that it was so because for one, it was rejected at the best gallery in our small town. It was too large for all the small paintings it was being compared to, which was a good thing because it would have been a poor fit for that particular show! There was no hard feeling and I let it go if there were any negative feelings at the time.

What makes a work of art suck? Anish Kapoor black

That is an amazing black! Why would that suck?

When will this stop? OOPS, must be jpg, jpeg, gif etc., when is is jpg.

oh boy, just look at the recent sales announcement page, about every 10th work sold makes me cringe and I ask why did they spend money for that, but oh well, they liked it and bought it

@nina, just because its there doesn't mean they didn't buy it themselves.


----Mike Savad

However one arrives at their decision that something sucks is (to me) instinctive. Similar to the old saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Completely subjective.

Is there some standard for sucking? How does one person's hate differ from another's persons love for the same thing? It's a personal assessment.

It may stem from a lifetime of influences, as well as an eternity of instinctive evolution.

So, you do just know.

To add: My art must suck, even though I like it (well most of it)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Art is like a box of chocolates. Have fun, experiment. You can always come back later, ad to it or paint over it.

@Ronald
"Anish Kapoor bought exclusive artistic rights to the world’s blackest black in 2016, resulting in widespread controversy and a longstanding feud with Stuart Semple."

https://www.thecollector.com/vantablack-anish-kapoor-stuart-semple-controversy/

I used to like his work in the 80's but the selfishness of copyrighting a colour so no-one in the world can use it for me it's the height of artistic capitalism (never thought I'd write those words) put me off all his work.. Of course someone else (Stuart Semple) invented a similar but chemically different black so it ended his monopoly.

Thanks James, that explains it!

Sucking is in the eye of the beholder?

I am going out on a limb here and saying that no art sucks. If it does it isn't art.

If the artwork makes the artist happy of fulfills a need in them to create then the worst "suckiest" (in someone's opinion) art was worthwhile for that reason.

Adding: When I am speaking of "artwork" and creating I am not including images generated by text prompts in that definition. #supporthumanartists

>"What do you think an artist should avoid in order to produce good art?"

If there is only one judge, the artist himself, he should destroy artwork he believes sucks. That is the easiest way... But many people said here that a lot of low-quality works sell.

Therefore, the artist should decide what his priority is - to sell more or to have only pieces that do not suck, in his opinion.

A big Logo, spoils the image and by using one, it usually means the artist has a big ego and thinks his /her work is so great every one is going to steal it.

"What Makes A Work Of Art Suck?"

My opinion. That's all that's needed.

Overreaching. Tackling something beyond your abilities and vision, or using a profound theme to make a piece of art seem important. There's nothing wrong with testing our abilities, but it's good to know when we've failed, and scrape the thing off the canvas, so to speak.

Nowadays, a typo can make an "artwork" suck

Daniel

RE: "Tackling something beyond your abilities and vision"

I convinced that the reverse, creates art that suck

Tackling something that is less than your abilities and vision

my advice is don't go in without knowing what you're trying to create, toss a bunch of stuff together and then slap a title on it after - art is better when the energy embedded within it is condensed to a specific output.

And of course all the other stuff - you need training or at least lots of practice if it's going to be more traditional art - and if it's abstract then make sure the colours are vivid enough to evoke a strong feeling from others - you want them to feel what you want them to feel primarily, with some interpretation in there.

Also if you really want to stand out try to avoid what everyone else is doing on the site - landscapes, sunsets, flowers etc for example - those categories are just inundated with millions of those kinds of artworks - the more unique your stuff and your keywords the more likely you can be seen easier without CONSTANTLY having to make new stuff.

Me too Roger.

Alot of thees commments are maeking me luagh. All of them so fnuny!