What is your artistic purpose?

[Surzsha]

I checked to make sure if this question hasn't popped up before. Let me know if it has.

This has been a question that I've seen popping up from time to time, and lately it has had me thinking. Why do I draw? What is my ultimate purpose for drawing? My ultimate passion?

I have long since known my purpose for drawing, and why I want to be what I want to be. Now it is my turn to ask you, fellow artists.

Why do you draw/paint/sculpt? What strives you to create your works of art? Is it for someone? Is it for yourself? Is there something you've long wanted to let out for all to see? A vision? A dream? Don't be afraid to share. Everyone has different reasons, no matter how big or small.

[Farvus]

Thanks m@.

What he below said.

:down::down::down:

[m@.]

I draw because it's a fun thing to do,it's one of the rare things I don't totally suck at, and I'd rather spend my day sitting in front of a computer than working physically. I'm kinda lazy.

How about you?

[el coro]

haha i think m@ pretty much covered it.

c36

[DavePalumbo]

I saw a Carl Barks interview once where he mentioned something about it being better work than riveting on the assembly line.

I think most people here just enjoy making pictures

[Black Spot]

Don’t do it kids. Once you start it kind of eats away at you until you are totally absorbed. Drawing is worse than heroin and impossible to kick no matter how hard you try. Once it’s there, you’re addicted for life. Some people you meet can appear to be quite normal, but what you’re not aware is that they are scribbling away in unseen corners feeding their habit.

Like most addictions, we should stop children now from picking up the habit. This will give the secret drawers the chance to come out, find themselves and develop mega egos.

[H.Evans]

fun + food

[kev ferrara]

I want to download spiritual e-books.

[squidmonk3j]

I want to download spiritual e-books.

you've come to the right place:)

...artistic purpose? i am following my bliss.

[Surzsha]

Bah, should have known this was a stupid question. Who the hell thinks deeply about why they draw, anyways?

[Mock]

I want to be able to draw, pay my rent, and someday help convince young aspiring artists not to take the safe route by pursuing a career they don't love in lieu of doing the work it takes to succeed in art.

[Peter Coene]

Well, what you have is a complex question.

m@ gave the easy answer:
we wanted a job that we enjoy and are relatively good at.

Honestly, for a professional this is all the answer neccesary. Of course some people have spiritual/philosophical/personal reasons, but unless they are some messed up psychopath nobody cares and it begins to feel like they are saying "hey, look at me!" more and more while saying "hey, look at my art!" less and less.

[Max Challie]

Artists like Sammy, sparth and barontieri have pushed my interests further. The thumbnails on what is now sparth's archive page (http://www.sparth.com/gallery/) make me want to paint landscapes of the future, landscapes which house colossal structures of no obvious purpose. I love landscapes, because quite often, the centre of interest will receed into the distance, pointing towards either nothing or a small gesture of something, both of which make me stop and wonder what could be there.

Go read "Eye of the Painter" by Andrew Loomis. http://acid.noobgrinder.com/Loomis/

[Ryuartyi]

I create art because I feel it's what I should be doing. I always drew in my notebooks at school and always had an idea for a graphic novel in my head. I have fun drawing and I feel as if I do something else with my life I will have failed in living the way I want.

I've always been a storyteller, and cartoons and comics were what I grew up with.

It's just...fun.

[Ilaekae]

My artistic purpose is to annoy and embarrass as many people as possible with the least amount of effort on my part...

[Flake]

Short version: My purpose is to try and make cool stuff.

[tsujni]

My artistic purpose is to simply provide me with as much self denial and entertainment as possible. And no, this is not a stupid question.

[spaztastic]

long answer.
my hands shake when they are absent of pen and paper. My eyes can't focus unless it's visualizing something to present. Because rendering a Awesome picture is better than the darkest Chocolate, and becuase I feel called to draw, to portray with my God given talents the world in which I live, to show truth, and beauty. And to lift the soul closer to heaven...
now ask me if I have obtained that yet...not in the least, but it's what I strive to do.

short ansewer...
what m@, Ilaekae and tsjuni said :D

[loveandasandwich]

To make myself, and others, happy!

and to make the bucks doing something I love.

:sungod:

[tsujni]

long answer.
my hands shake when they are absent of pen and paper. My eyes can't focus unless it's visualizing something to present. Because rendering a Awesome picture is better than the darkest Chocolate, and becuase I feel called to draw, to portray with my God given talents the world in which I live, to show truth, and beauty. And to lift the soul closer to heaven...
now ask me if I have obtained that yet...not in the least, but it's what I strive to do.

short ansewer...
what m@, Ilaekae and tsjuni said :D

I don't think that you have experienced chocolate so dark that light cannot escape its surface. :)

[s.ketch]

The best art doesn't happen on purpose so I don't have one.

[spaztastic]

I don't think that you have experienced chocolate so dark that light cannot escape its surface. :)

do you have such chocolate??? cause I want some!!!

[donkeyslayer]

Since art is my life
and I don't know my purpose in life yet
I don't think I'll know the absolute purpose of my art for a while.

I just know that no two people see things the same way and experience the same things, so no two people's body of work will ever be the same. I just like to make a picture that I haven't seen before made from things I've seen before :)

[Oden]

If I have an artistic purpose, it would be to share the images in my mind with other people.
At the moment, the images I think up are way more complex and uhhh..straight up better than what comes out on paper or canvas.
I'm not totally sure if I want to eventually make art for a living (it would be a long road) but I at least want to put enough time and effort into it that I can actually render the visions/images I have in my head, and share them with other people.

Cool paintings are cool paintings, but sometimes you see art that makes you want to meet the person who created it, 'cause they gotta be at least kinda interesting. :)

[tsujni]

do you have such chocolate??? cause I want some!!!

Sadly no, all I have is self depreciation and alcoholism. The reference was to the Simpsons.

[MyOrangeHat]

Why do I create art?
Because it calms and quiets my mind. Normally I have an overly active racing stream of consciousness going on which is very stressful and exhausting. But creating art stops that completely and it's very peaceful. Sometimes not thinking is a wonderful thing.

[Straight Edge Ryan]

I do it to pick up women and try to trick them into doing nude modeling

[evildisco]

I'm not into bullshit:
ego masturbation, mostly.

[Ian Miles]

Because I want to change the world.

[Vehkt]

Once upon a time in my life, art just wasn't my thing. Sure I was about...4 or 5, but it really just wasn't my thing.

Sure i'd watch Saturday morning cartoons like any sane child, but beyond that, nothing!

Then one day, I glanced up at the wardrobe in my bedroom which me and my brother shared (he's about 9 years older than me, I must have walked in on him and his past girlfriends back then so many times its funny) and noticed something interesting. I asked my mum to get it down and it was a hardback copy of Garfield the Irresistable.

Now being about... 6 or 7 at that time, my vocabulary was okay, but not terribly great. I sat down and started to read it. A few strips in, I found myself laughing my head off. I became a Garfield fan overnight.

But it turned out not just to be a love of the humour, I was slowly but surely growing fond of Jim Davis' illustration style. The simplistic comic aspect meeting with nicely detailed backgrounds.

It was then I began to imitate drawing Garfield. I knew nothing of how to properly draw art, I was just going with it.

By the time I was 9, I was getting compliments from teachers that I'd put motion lines in simple doodles along with my work.

Now we skip the time between me being 9 to now where i'm 22, i've suckled hard on the vines of inspiration from all across the globe. Todd McFarlane's Spawn, random animes and mangas, the awesome works of Jhonen Vasquez, countless web-comic artists, random artists from Deviant Art and the copious amounts of talent here on CA.org.

I'm at a stage in my life where i'm LITERALLY trying my hand at everything. 2D art, 3D modelling, animating. I'm broadening my horizons because I want to see what avenue of creativity makes me feel at home most.

Much to my sketchbooks distaste i've been dabbling in 3D recently and currently i'm giving a good go to animation.

When I look at 3D works or animations, I get that "transported to a world that isn't this one" feeling and I love it.

Which neatly brings me to WHY i'm doing what i'm doing, which is 1) To do something I enjoy, like most people here 2) To entertain people and 3) To plant the same seed of inspiration that Jim Davis managed to plant in me, in whoever will browse my future (And awesome) works to the point that makes them say "I want to take people there!".

And all my dabblings, learnings and ponderings are means to that end :>.

[morgothaod]

It enables me to escape reality

[Jazz]

Purpose? Well, when I said that I wanted to be an artist and would, my purpose then was to follow through with that. I was little and legally blind...my dreams were not to be crushed by such limitations! ;_;

And they haven't been!! Now my purpose is to challenge myself so I won't be simply good. I wanna be great!! O_O

I do the art cuz I love it. I know I'm at least good at what I do. And I am NOT taking a hardcore computer programming job. That's too boring! It needs some spice to it, so another purpose I have is to put that programming with some art and see what I can do.

[jhgoforth]

/shrug I have no clue what my artistic 'purpose' or 'vision' are really right now. I know I enjoy art because it's the only field that allows me to combine my interest in all things of this world and the even beyond into others. I love knowledge, but honestly in this day and age there is no career for 'renaissance' thinkers really. This world has become ruled by specialization. It is rare to find a career path that allows one to explore whatever their mind fancies. Art and other creative endeavors (writing, film, theater, music to greater and lesser extents) allow this kind of flexibility and intellectual wanderlust. I became an artist simply because it was the only thing that gave me that kind of freedom. Certainly didn't do it for the girls and fortune...

[nonie]

The human mind can only actively pay attention to about 6 things at a time. When you reach a level in your image where all of those possible attention facilities are in use, focused on what you're doing, all the rules for making something look right plus your experiences and memories that pertain to that detail plus the effort of making the right line, right value, right light and thinking of what your next move will be and making sure you keep it all in relation to the rest of the image, you no longer have any room in your head for ego or worries or distractions. You forget to eat for hours, you forget to get up and use the bathroom until you physically cannot ignore it any longer, you forget your money problems, your uncomfortable chair, your wrist pain. You can go without sleep and feel fine. Nothing exists but the picture you are making for a while. That is such a fantastic feeling. It's so meditative, and it releases positive hormones in your brain too - the accomplishments you get after that kind of "zone" experience are so much greater than those you get from anything else.

That's why I do it. I'm not really trying to change the world or further a personal agenda or anything like that. My art is not going to save anyone's life or cure world hunger. It can make a few people happy or inspired and that's cool. But really it's the one thing in life that allows me to forget all my worries and myself and really clear my head of anything but my goal. Essentially it IS like doing drugs only I get paid money for it :)

[J Wilson]

I do it for the ladies. Sure, I'll never be as popular as even a crappy musician, but it sure beats driving a bus.

Also, I gave up on being a ninja at age ten. I realized I'd never create a robot army, or fight space aliens. And yet as an artist I still get to live the dream and do all of those things.

[HunterKiller_]

Well... I would like to affect the world in a dramatic way, but all I can do is make some lame drawings... so.... yeah... *cough* ....

[alesoun]

I just like making a mess. :)

[Ilaekae]

Me, too. Bet I can make a bigger one than you... :P

[Hookswords]

Because the world I see in my head is better than the one I see with my eyes and I cant stop until I fix that.

[0kelvin]

It's easier than writing.



Eric

[alesoun]

Noooo.... I use charcoal and you can't see the room for a cloud of black dust (and I look like a coal-miner)!!!!

Edit; the digital equivalent is my pc freezing,- it does an awesome Ice Queen impersonation.... especially tonight when I tried to work on Titania.

[aylap]

Lol I just happened to have found a perfect picture for this thread.

585009

[Nam]

I just do it because it's the only thing I've done growing up that I was even remotely inclined towards. Art's always seemed weird to me too, in a good way, it's fascinating, like a complete otherworldly activity. Also very cathartic, good way to get the demons out.

Oh and this...

"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way to make life more bearable."
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr

[Straight Edge Ryan]

Ok serious answer. I like it because it takes time and patience to be good at it. Sure, some are better than others and progress faster, but for the most part, if you want to be good at it, you have to work and practice. A persons level of skill in art usually directly corresponds to the amount of hours they've put into learning from previous failures

Plus, I have horrible ADD and nothing makes me feel more successful than finishing something and saying "woah, I just put about 4 straight hours into that". Plus, a lot of the time art can tell a story. The choice of colors, the way things are positioned, the lighting, the subjects, the style it was used to make it can all affect the overall outcome and feel of something

Ok ok and I also use it to flirt here and there. Women seem to be more interested in you if you're artistic and sometimes I conveniently have my skethbook with all of my best works and I pull the old "what's this? oh this is just my sketchbook. Yeah some of it's ok but I'm not that great" lines if I see someone cute. Come on I know I'm not the only one who's done that!

[Dile_]

I draw because it's a fun thing to do,it's one of the rare things I don't totally suck at, and I'd rather spend my day sitting in front of a computer than working physically. I'm kinda lazy.

How about you?

thats what I said when I applied for art-school.... apparently it wasn't "deep" enough =(

[spaztastic]

I bet if you had said that Art keeps you from killing yourself they would have accepted you.... cause you know that's deep and all... suicide... at least they said it was in an old issue of cosmos :O

[corky13]

I draw because I can...

...and to get sex...yay !


On a more serious note = I tend to like fleeing from reality from time to time...

[OmenSpirits]

I draw, therefore I am.

:D

[central]

For the feeling that I get from drawing a picture of anyone/anything. Burne Hogarth put it best something like this "As the artist creates the picture, the picture in turns creates the artist". That's what I draw for.

[Equality72521]

i draw because i cannot.

so i practice.

[c-hsu-run]

I draw because I created a world inside my head, and words alone cannot describe its beauty.

[el coro]

im here to fuck shit up.

[Rist]

i draw because i'm weird and refuse to get laid.

[Rob!T]

Because there are sooo very many people who are much better than me.

[Hyskoa]

I tried everything else, and everything else was boring.

[Grief]

It enables me to escape reality

it enables me to embrace reality

what is my artistic purpose?

the same thing we do every night Pinky...

[Ahim]

i like pretty pictures

[Chermilla]

Because if I didn't draw, I'd be miserable.

[Twiggy]

it's an excuse to be the quirky odd eccentric art student and make big redicilous trash and call it "art" just to confuse the hell out of everyone.

[hatface]

Hm... it's the only way I know to get the images I have in my head out. It's an incessant need to make.


Also, it's fun.

[Crash]

Having fun and getting those butterflies in my belly when im on to something.

[Moai]

I draw because it's fun, it's challenging, I feel like I'm wasting my time when I'm not doing it, and because hopefully someday it'll save me from a future of stocking shelves and ringing up purchases. Plus, I'm filled with very persistent ideas for pictures and designs, and they tend to not leave me alone until I unload them onto a sheet of paper.

[Aaron Death]

I don't need a purpose to draw, it's natural instinct.

[Keeviin]

Because if I didn't draw, I'd be miserable.

i draw because i'm weird and refuse to get laid.

I do it for the ladies.

I do it to pick up women and try to trick them into doing nude modeling

Hm... it's the only way I know to get the images I have in my head out. It's an incessant need to make.


Hah! According to Freud, an artist is a neurotic who only desires honor, power, and the love of women (not sure if he even considered female artists) - all you nutcases are perfect proof :needle:


In the modern age, art is defined has having no general purpose at all, or being exclusively its own purpose (blame Kant for that) - so the question for an "artistic purpose" is indeed somewhat nonsensical.