some schmuck

I’ve seen a lot of criticism for realism as an artstyle. While that’s not an issue and I agree with the main idea, I’ve also noticed that a lot of people are having just straight up disdainful and biased attitudes towards the artstyle in general that are festering within the criticism.

I theorize that a lot of this is because a large amount of the artists discussing it don’t have the personal interest to paint realism and unfortunately let their own personal preference cloud their empathy and judgement of realism as a whole.

As someone who has had a passion for the artstyle, I feel it’s important to give another perspective from the other side that hopefully encourages more empathy and understanding to the conversation. It’s my deepest appreciation to anyone who acknowledges this message.

I absolutely do agree that replicating an already existing image pixel for pixel doesn’t encapsulate the individuality that makes up what art is. The original photo already did that part. However, I’ve noticed that when people discuss the topic in general, they often use language that implies realism is ALWAYS just making an exact copy of something that already exists, and therefore it is an inherently inferior artstyle.

“A painting shouldn’t strive to look like what the camera can do.” Shut up. You have no right to tell an artist what the meaning or goal behind their artwork is supposed to be.

“There is nothing original about imitation.” Once again, you are making the assumption that realism is just copying something that already exists. Sorry, I didn’t know giant platinum white lions who have human skulls for heads and multiple horns and also have wings sometimes is apparently a real fucking creature.

I could be wrong, but isn’t every artstyle an imitation of some kind? Whether it be obvious or less defined, everyone is trying to depict something in their work.

I’ve never painted artworks that I could easily just take a photo of in real life. The point of why I practice realism is because I want to capture how I would interpret fictional concepts if they were actually real, and how the camera might capture that fictional concept if someone were to take a photo of it. Anyone who has seen my realism artworks will notice that there is often a fantasy aspect to it.

I am using references the same as everyone else, not straight up copying and pasting. A lot of what I paint doesn’t even fucking exist in real life so how the hell would I even do that? Why would the artwork become any less meaningful just because of the way I choose to render it?

Please remember that just because people aren’t standing right in front of you or you aren’t talking to them directly doesn’t give you the excuse or right to be any less considerate or empathetic about how you speak of them. They are still listening. Being able to hide behind a screen doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole.

Again, a lot of the people talking about it don’t even have the interest for the artstyle and have never tried it, so it wouldn’t surprise me if their points really did stem from personal bias.

Hyper-realism absolutely has the ability to be just as original and have just as much individualism as any other artstyle. If you can’t paint something realistically on your own without having to rely on an exact replica that already exists, that is a skill issue.

Moreover, you cannot fully judge someone’s skill solely based on their artstyle alone. Just because someone primarily paints realism doesn’t mean they aren’t a professional, and just because someone primarily paints stylized doesn’t mean they are one.

Please stop generalizing realism. Every artstyle can be worthy of criticism without portraying this idea whether subconsciously or purposefully that it is inherently flawed and inferior. (Unless of course the artstyle is prejudice/discriminative and such.)

Remember that social media often doesn’t show you everything, and the algorithm might only be showing you one specific side of realism.

Always be considerate about the type of language you use, it’s more impactful than you may realize.

Thank you deeply for reading this far. If you think I misunderstand something, please feel free to let me know what I’ve missed and make sure your reply is as kind as you can personally manage. You’re welcome to expand on my points in the comments, of course.