How to Critique a Painting

Whether you want to evaluate your own work or someone else's, learning to critique a painting can encourage growth in an artist. You probably do this unconsciously whenever you view a painting. A formal, organized critique can really benefit the artist. Follow these steps to evaluate a painting.

Instructions

1. Lay aside the painting for at least a week. The longer you wait, the more details you'll catch in your critique. When evaluating the work of other artists, prepare a checklist to make sure you don't miss an important aspect of the painting (see Resources for a link).

2. Assess your gut response to the picture. This guides your critique because, in the end, it's the most important thing about an art work. Accept that you may be repulsed by the images but find other aspects of the work excellent.

3. Spend a few minutes taking the picture in without judging. This is like reviewing the contents of a textbook before reading it. It heightens your awareness of the details and prepares you to examine each one to see how they all fit together.

4. Identify the strongest areas of the painting. This gives you something positive to start with. That can be especially important when you're critiquing a friend's work.

5. Consider the painting's title, if it has one. This helps in deciding if the artist managed to create unity between what was in his mind and what he's communicating in the picture.

6. Notice how your eye travels across the canvas. A painting full of tiny details should make you pause slightly at each one. Long strokes and harmonious colors cause your gaze to sweep down the picture. Consider how this fits in with the subject matter.

7. Concentrate on the color scheme. Consider the subject before deciding the colors clash. Pain and suffering aren't conveyed well with soft colors, for instance. Vivid reds, yellows and oranges stimulate rather than relax.

8. Critique the painting's weakest spots last. Concentrate on what will communicate the ideas expressed in the picture better.

Tips & Warnings

• When critiquing another artist, don't tell them how to improve the painting, just what you think.

Resources

• Here's an extensive self-critique checklist.