What is your Bias?

[OleKobe]

Fascinating topic. This isn't a bias in a technical sense when it somes to drawing or painting, but I think I'm biased in that what I like to paint is nostalgic. Creating something new out of something old, forgotten or dead. There's something comforting in doing that, maybe something spiritual.

 

[JennieJo]

I find a lot of my verticals, buildings, windows, poles, etc. can lean right. I think this is from being right-handed. I'm aware of it now, and still often have to go back and correct it. "hand bias" tends to be pretty common, you can see it in a lot of paintings.

I also tend to paint scenes from a more elevated position - with Plein air, and in the studio. Why? haven't figured that one out yet.

So interesting.

Oh my, this question opens up a huge can of worms. Why someone would want to do that is another can of worms to open, and why one would want to do that...................

I haven't noticed this handedness with my paintings except that sometimes making the mark requires some awkward motion for me or rotating the work so it's easier to do. And my manual dexterity is terrible in all directions. It's so mental. I blame my third grade writing teacher.

But, between the law of thirds and the western way of reading from left to right this can certainly result in a certain look. We have cultural and genetic makeup (handedness) biasing our paintings right from the start.

And that's before we get into what our third grade teacher did to us. Made us get a crew cut, so she couldn't pull our hair....for instance.....so maybe now we paint round squiggly people, though we hate people, because they are our third grade teacher, who we can now control with our paintings. So there Mrs Beauterus ! You don't own me!

All because I could not hold the pencil the right way, even though I am a natural righty. But no, that wasn't good enough.


Thanks for this question Murray. This has been so cathartic. I'm going to paint a rabbit now.

Darn, we get the blame for everything. I blame me trying to copy make my left hand marks mimic my right handed world. But, maybe it was Sister Euphrates from Grade 4. Now you have me thinking ...

 

[Bartc]

Maybe that's what has happened often in my paintings of buildings. They lean improbably when taken off the easel, but look right when I'm painting - enough so that I don't spot it. I thought it was because I'm sitting with my easel to my left (or right) side so that I can see the scene in front of me directly. That side placement and tilt I figured was the cause, but it may well be your hand bias thing or some combo of both. I'm going to watch for this.

 

[Bongo]

I've just been talking about this (again) - hand bias in the plein air forum. It's like some magnetic force - I'm aware of it when I paint, but I still do it. Then, incredibly sometimes when I re-paint to correct alignment -- I'll STILL do it.

It's starting to drive me (more) crazy. I'm going to make a few very light graph lines on the panel before I start. Maybe 3 vertical, and 3 diagonal would be enough - to key off of. see if that helps.

If you look at other artist's work and various mediums, you'll it's not uncommon - but a small comfort

 

[stlukesguild]

I suppose I have lots of “biases,” but never thought of them that way. Maybe I’d call them preferences instead.

I'd probably think of a "preference" as something closer to a conscious choice. I prefer to paint/draw people/the figure and prefer not to paint/draw landscapes/still life. I am biased toward the use of red, complimentary color harmonies, and patterns. I don't really think any of these began as conscious decisions. For years I was also biased toward fitting the entire figure within the frame of the painting... and not cropping.

I like nature much better but never once have I thought, “I want to paint this scene.”

In fact, I just don’t like painting much of anything in real life because as I often say (tongue-in-cheek), “I hate real life.” That’s probably a huge and weird bias right there.

Hahahaha! I suspect I share that bias. My work has a degree of "realism"... but I never wanted art without a great deal of the fantastic/artificial. My taste is much the same with the literature I read... which is probably why I prefer poetry.

 

[stlukesguild]

Good question.I'm a leftie who sometimes uses my right.I don't like sharp rigid lines and prefer my tables to have rounded edges.The lines on my paintings are freehand and a bit squiggly which suits me

I usually lean toward a contrast of the curvilinear and the hard-edged.

 

[stlukesguild]

I didn't notice this was an older post... and that I had already responded to it.

 

[Artyczar]

I like it when older posts come back to life! It's good to keep talking about our practice (in my opinion).

I'm always trying to move away from hard-edge. I've had the habit of outlining everything with thick lines and it's been bothering me that I do that in more recent years. I keep intending not to do that, yet I seem to wind up with it anyway. I feel like I'm being too anal when doing that. Sometimes, I will try to make the outlines sloppier, but I wish I didn't outline anything at all! I'm still working on it.

 

[stlukesguild]

I always like strong contours or line. I remember an anecdote concerning William Blake in which another artist declared, "There are no lines in nature" to which Blake replied "But there are in the human imagination." Blake was long a favorite artist... along with Botticelli, Ingres, Dürer, Degas, Gauguin, Beckmann, and many other artists who made marvelous use of the linear aspects of art.