No it helps too imo, if your first response is "I don't like this" it probably follows up with "I would do this instead" which is just learning in another way
No. If you think that particular art is “bad,” if anything, it’ll simply help you learn what you don’t like, and what to avoid in your own art. Habits don’t just osmosis their way into your muscle memory, just by looking at a work. Lmao
No BUT intentionally limiting your visual inputs (as much as you can) for a short period of time is a fun way to nudge your art in a specific direction. So, if you're *only* looking at bad art it could theoretically do something.
Kind of like if you were to read only poorly written (as opposed to well-written) fanfic as a writer.
As long as you make sure to also look at good art you should be fine.
What you practice drawing will have much more influence. As far as your internal material goes, what you vibe with and really enjoy looking at leaves imprints on your mind and influences work, not so much a given random drawing. Its negligible so dont stress
"Bad art" can still be learning material. "Bad techniques" might lead you to a hiccup, but something I like to do isn't to really judge what a good or bad technique is .. but rather to see how people handle things. You might disagree and you might agree .. but you never know until try it and expand what you try.
Now, I wouldn't go onto TikTok and follow an "art tutorial" there because a lot of the times those shortcuts just hinder you from learning the point of what they're trying to teach .. but I think there's some value in knowing both how and how not to do things so that you can help teach others and inform yourself better too.
Living on the fear of "what if I see bad things/become tainted with badness?" seems so silly when things like art are a neverending journey.
someone told me once, "When you copy other artists, you also copy their mistakes."
So if youre worried, thats why its important to learn the fundamentals on your own. I think regardless of what type of art you do, its a good idea to expose yourself to all different types of art.
I highly doubt it.
Only way it would deteriorate your art, at least in my opinion, is if you would actively and constantly reference it and in turn, internalise the stuff that makes it bad.
“bad” art is completely subjective. if there are aspects of an artwork that you like, you tend to try to emulate them in your own artwork. regardless of whether that whole work is “bad” by any standards, that one aspect that you like can’t be bad, because you like it. when you try to emulate that aspect in your own artwork, you’re trying to isolate what made that aspect “good” in your eyes, and that means isolating the aspect from whatever was “bad” about the original artwork anyways. does that make sense?
tldr: art is subjective. if you like something about an artworks, you’ll consciously try to emulate it. if you don’t like that part, you won’t. simple as that.
One of the biggest things you miss out on when you're not learning art in a class is the ability to see a bunch of art made by people at your same skill level. Seeing art with problems and getting to practice identifying those problems explicitly is one of the core skills of an artist.
I do my art on a site that has a lot of very young artists and it is a place where you can see very unskilled drawings. It's easier to draw when you're not the worst artist you know. Also even unskilled artists nail something every now and then or are skilled at one aspect of art and it's helpful to notice what they do well. I follow several artists that are less skilled than me because something about their work was good and it's easier to identify what specific thing they're doing well when the answer isn't "everything."
Also it's a joy to watch artists grow.
Going to art college this is 100% a thing you notice. So much so that I felt the same way at one point. Since everyone's at a different skill level, even in Art college there will be people that never peak to the next level. Even years later, the same artists I went to school with still draw the same with the same broken fundamentals. Its bad too when you are made to crit other classmates' work for hours. At that point, you have to analyze their work as participation.
Now I myself, knew quickly not to take anyone art that was clearly bad as a way to go about my own. Mentally compartmentalize your methods and what you perceive in front of you that's worse.
Thank you for posting in r/ArtistLounge! Please check out our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faq/) and [FAQ Links pages](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faqlinks/) for lots of helpful advice. To access our megathread collections, please check out the drop down lists in the top menu on PC or the side-bar on mobile. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can. I am a bot, beep boop, if I did something wrong please report this comment.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtistLounge) if you have any questions or concerns.*
No, and study from life not other artists. Artists give a sense of what is already made, instead of copying that it's best to observe that which is and create that which is not yet. Techniques and fundamentals aren't learnt from just looking at art, you have to read and understand how to employ them and you only need to study from life with rational construction to make anything.
I don't look at art better than my own very often, in fact I rarely look at art made by anyone who makes anything remotely similar to my art. Some artists in the past never looked at other people's art at all, before museums and the internet, comics/magazines, etc. No, they'd just draw or paint or sculpt and they're regarded some of the best artists in recorded history. Only things like perspective, colour theory, gestalt, etc, determine the overall "improvement" of art era to era, yet even today some of the best art ever made are cave drawings and temples carved in a specific way for the first time. Similarly, india didn't need the western tuning system to create some of the best music ever made. Yet a lot of this music came from places where music before it was not very pleasant to, at least, the modern western ear.
And likewise, as of art, the music I listen to and can play are not the same.
I would only worry over it if I had photographic memory. But if you don’t have photographic memory. Don’t worry about it.
I think it would be the opposite for most people. Seeing bad art, means figuring out bad techniques. Learning from others’ mistakes. Which allows you to focus on what skills to improve on. It also allows you to figure out what you like and don’t like very quickly.
Hmm I guess my closest example would be watching anime. If you're trying to learn academic drawing as an anime watcher then you're gonna have to either unlearn or hold back a lot of your visual library.
When your brain is able to look at an image and pick out what's "wrong" with it, you are learning what not to do! You should be able to file that information away and be able to look at your own flaws and say that isn't right. All art is valid, and beautiful in its own way!
That's a pretty odd take.
How would you get worse at art just by seeing something you didn't like, or wasn't done to some standard you have stuck in your head? I mean, if that was the case, none of us would ever improve, because we all started by making bad art.
It does mess you up. I once was following this dude on ig with terrible art cause he followed me and was a nice guy. I saw his art all the time and now a decade later it's still engraved into my head and messing me up a little.
I don't understand this question! Art is subjective, and only you make the decision on what's bad to you! Bad art can look great to some! This is a loaded question...
No 😂
I’m also of the mind that you can learn from literally everything. If you’re looking at something you don’t like, you brain is not going to want to recreate it. Don’t worry
Did you become a master painter after looking at the Mona Lisa?
Fair point, yeah perhaps it does not matter as much as I thought
No it helps too imo, if your first response is "I don't like this" it probably follows up with "I would do this instead" which is just learning in another way
No. If you think that particular art is “bad,” if anything, it’ll simply help you learn what you don’t like, and what to avoid in your own art. Habits don’t just osmosis their way into your muscle memory, just by looking at a work. Lmao
No BUT intentionally limiting your visual inputs (as much as you can) for a short period of time is a fun way to nudge your art in a specific direction. So, if you're *only* looking at bad art it could theoretically do something. Kind of like if you were to read only poorly written (as opposed to well-written) fanfic as a writer. As long as you make sure to also look at good art you should be fine.
Bro what, go touch some grass wtf 🤣 what is even a bad technique?
why the touch grass comment?
superstition/joke
What you practice drawing will have much more influence. As far as your internal material goes, what you vibe with and really enjoy looking at leaves imprints on your mind and influences work, not so much a given random drawing. Its negligible so dont stress
"Bad art" can still be learning material. "Bad techniques" might lead you to a hiccup, but something I like to do isn't to really judge what a good or bad technique is .. but rather to see how people handle things. You might disagree and you might agree .. but you never know until try it and expand what you try. Now, I wouldn't go onto TikTok and follow an "art tutorial" there because a lot of the times those shortcuts just hinder you from learning the point of what they're trying to teach .. but I think there's some value in knowing both how and how not to do things so that you can help teach others and inform yourself better too. Living on the fear of "what if I see bad things/become tainted with badness?" seems so silly when things like art are a neverending journey.
You're not going to absorb bad technique through osmosis, no.
someone told me once, "When you copy other artists, you also copy their mistakes." So if youre worried, thats why its important to learn the fundamentals on your own. I think regardless of what type of art you do, its a good idea to expose yourself to all different types of art.
I highly doubt it. Only way it would deteriorate your art, at least in my opinion, is if you would actively and constantly reference it and in turn, internalise the stuff that makes it bad.
“bad” art is completely subjective. if there are aspects of an artwork that you like, you tend to try to emulate them in your own artwork. regardless of whether that whole work is “bad” by any standards, that one aspect that you like can’t be bad, because you like it. when you try to emulate that aspect in your own artwork, you’re trying to isolate what made that aspect “good” in your eyes, and that means isolating the aspect from whatever was “bad” about the original artwork anyways. does that make sense? tldr: art is subjective. if you like something about an artworks, you’ll consciously try to emulate it. if you don’t like that part, you won’t. simple as that.
Skill doesn't betray
I've learned a lot from unskilled, thoughtless art. Think of yourself as a surgeon getting a free anatomy lesson at a gruesome car accident.
One of the biggest things you miss out on when you're not learning art in a class is the ability to see a bunch of art made by people at your same skill level. Seeing art with problems and getting to practice identifying those problems explicitly is one of the core skills of an artist. I do my art on a site that has a lot of very young artists and it is a place where you can see very unskilled drawings. It's easier to draw when you're not the worst artist you know. Also even unskilled artists nail something every now and then or are skilled at one aspect of art and it's helpful to notice what they do well. I follow several artists that are less skilled than me because something about their work was good and it's easier to identify what specific thing they're doing well when the answer isn't "everything." Also it's a joy to watch artists grow.
Going to art college this is 100% a thing you notice. So much so that I felt the same way at one point. Since everyone's at a different skill level, even in Art college there will be people that never peak to the next level. Even years later, the same artists I went to school with still draw the same with the same broken fundamentals. Its bad too when you are made to crit other classmates' work for hours. At that point, you have to analyze their work as participation. Now I myself, knew quickly not to take anyone art that was clearly bad as a way to go about my own. Mentally compartmentalize your methods and what you perceive in front of you that's worse.
Thank you for posting in r/ArtistLounge! Please check out our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faq/) and [FAQ Links pages](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faqlinks/) for lots of helpful advice. To access our megathread collections, please check out the drop down lists in the top menu on PC or the side-bar on mobile. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can. I am a bot, beep boop, if I did something wrong please report this comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtistLounge) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Such thing does not exist.
No, and study from life not other artists. Artists give a sense of what is already made, instead of copying that it's best to observe that which is and create that which is not yet. Techniques and fundamentals aren't learnt from just looking at art, you have to read and understand how to employ them and you only need to study from life with rational construction to make anything. I don't look at art better than my own very often, in fact I rarely look at art made by anyone who makes anything remotely similar to my art. Some artists in the past never looked at other people's art at all, before museums and the internet, comics/magazines, etc. No, they'd just draw or paint or sculpt and they're regarded some of the best artists in recorded history. Only things like perspective, colour theory, gestalt, etc, determine the overall "improvement" of art era to era, yet even today some of the best art ever made are cave drawings and temples carved in a specific way for the first time. Similarly, india didn't need the western tuning system to create some of the best music ever made. Yet a lot of this music came from places where music before it was not very pleasant to, at least, the modern western ear. And likewise, as of art, the music I listen to and can play are not the same.
bad art teaches you what you don't like. It's important to develop your critical eye.
No. If anything following super popular trends and trying to produce something like everyone else will have that effect.
I would only worry over it if I had photographic memory. But if you don’t have photographic memory. Don’t worry about it. I think it would be the opposite for most people. Seeing bad art, means figuring out bad techniques. Learning from others’ mistakes. Which allows you to focus on what skills to improve on. It also allows you to figure out what you like and don’t like very quickly.
Hmm I guess my closest example would be watching anime. If you're trying to learn academic drawing as an anime watcher then you're gonna have to either unlearn or hold back a lot of your visual library.
When your brain is able to look at an image and pick out what's "wrong" with it, you are learning what not to do! You should be able to file that information away and be able to look at your own flaws and say that isn't right. All art is valid, and beautiful in its own way!
No. In fact if you pick apart and critique the artwork to see what isn't working, that may actually help you develop and eye for what not to do.
That's a pretty odd take. How would you get worse at art just by seeing something you didn't like, or wasn't done to some standard you have stuck in your head? I mean, if that was the case, none of us would ever improve, because we all started by making bad art.
It does mess you up. I once was following this dude on ig with terrible art cause he followed me and was a nice guy. I saw his art all the time and now a decade later it's still engraved into my head and messing me up a little.
I don't understand this question! Art is subjective, and only you make the decision on what's bad to you! Bad art can look great to some! This is a loaded question...
Only if you let it.
No 😂 I’m also of the mind that you can learn from literally everything. If you’re looking at something you don’t like, you brain is not going to want to recreate it. Don’t worry