Da ich auch häufiger mal 'nem potentiellen Designstudenten bei einem Glas Bier erkläre, worauf es meiner Ansicht nach ankomme bei einer guten Mappe(ich vertrete ja die Ansicht, dass die Selektion weit weniger willkürlich ist, als gerne behauptet) und ein wesentlicher Bestandteil meiner Ausführungen die Art der "Idee" ist, auf die es ankommt ... möchte ich dem interessierten Leser hier gerne mal meine Sicht der Dinge prägnant schildern; wo ich doch nun endlich mal dazu gekommen bin es aufzuschreiben.
(Ich hab natürlich auch nichts gegen eine Diskussion.)
Achjo, bitte verzeiht, dass ich den Kram jetzt erstmal nicht nochmal übersetze.
Lars "Duracel" Götze:
What is an idea? What is painting about?
I think Mikko goes the right direction, but i disagree with you Samspter and Ranath who might think about an idea only as something difffers from painting.
Its all connected and the best ideas are always intelligent combinations where many simple things forming a complex structure.
I distinguish between 3 things you can all an idea.
The first sort of idea is "the overall meaning / the message", some metaphoric/philsophical idea ... something like showing "love" or "relation", or some political or social statement or something; its the part of the image the viewer should think about(as the painter wishes).
If it comes to good art, this sort of idea is totally bullshit - you never need it to creat a picture the people like.
It might make your picture even better for those who like deeper thoughts, but don't care too much, people will ignore your opinion about the world.
But well, people might pay you for painting their so called "ideas" (often as cover for books or magazines or something) - good work.
This is really the sort of idea, you don't have to think about as an artist and if you like to have such a setting anyway .. well then you have to think about your life or took some existing ideas(i.e. out of the greek mythology or illustrate a book you like .. .. .. what the hell).
The second one is just "the combination of things / the design of purpose", it's like putting a modern football in the old Kolosseum between a gladiator and a lion. So it can be the "humor" of the picture, you combine things people don't associate in a direct way and don't really fit together(ok, this is soemthing inbetween the first and the second sort of idea). But it can be some concept-design too, if you combine things do fit together more or less ... a human with a lion-head, a modern football with a leopard-skin, _or_ (and this is typically for this sort of idea) if you transform a submarine into some sort of space-ship or if you skin an T-Rex with a tiger-skin; or if you form a bottle so its easy to grab with your hand, to design a bottle with a neck but a cup wide open, or just to add a window into the wall.
This is quite important to attract the viewer. Its the thing most people talk about if they "like the idea" of a picture and call you a "creative" person.
But its not that creative as people think ... its just combining the things you know of.
The last one is "the combination of graphical elements / the design of form".
This is the most important sort of an idea for a good artist!
It can be like creating a fat character out of a circle and putting him into a fir-wood out of tall triangles. Or the idea to put all Disney-characters, which are colored in cell-shading, in front of a soft-rendered landscape.
Also this one goes hand in hand with proportions, its just the idea to make this line a bit longer than the other; put the eyes in the exact middle of the head or just "a little bit" above or below.
And its the decision to put a hard edge to where the focus should be and leave the other parts quite undefined; and its the idea to push the background far away by adding depth and something.
And its the idea to use a tele-objective as photograph if you like to take a shot out of E.T. as black shape in front of the moon.
Its all those "ideas" of combining the subject with a form and creating a convincing composition.
I suggest, learn the last one as basic to become a good artist, learn the second if you want to invent things the easy way and learn the first one, if you like to express yourself.
But beware, if you can't handle the last one, any second and first idea will suffer and die without support for the physical perception; and if you can't handle the second, the first one will get lost for the impatient viewer.
.
