Evaluating Your Own Work Is Vital

By: Marion L. Brown

Having watched many students and many on this Ovation website, I wonder how many artists and photographers evaluate there work. So many seem to be aiming exclusively at making and showing as many prints as they can without ever evaluating their work or comparing it to the masters or to their own older works. I say this because I’ve so often seen an artist’s work not improve even when they are producing a lot of works.

The key to becoming a good artist is constantly striving for improvement. But, isn’t the true in any endeavor in life. To do so, one has to take time to study and evaluate his or her own work. Question why you made that picture, asking if you really got involved with the scene, why you didn’t see that junk you included that is so distracting, etc.

For evaluations to be helpful, you need to be honest with yourself when asking such questions as: How does my work compare to that of great artists? More importantly though is the question: “How does my art or photography today compare to what it was a year ago, 5 years ago, etc.?” If you can’t truly say it has improved over time, you have not made progress.

One way to tell if you are making progress is to dig out your works from 3-5 years ago. Study them carefully; don’t just flip through them; concentrate on such questions as: Did I use light well, are the details sharp when they should be, have I used and captured colors well, did I include distracting elements, did I arrange the compositional components well, etc. For more details, may I suggest you read the other articles I’ve posted to get more insight into this and various compositional factors.

If you don’t now look at much of your older work and say, “Gosh, I thought this print was good then, but now I can see it is not or that it could be improved by doing this or that, for the following reasons,” then you are not making good progress.

You must constantly study and think about how to improve your work. Establishing a pattern of constant improvement makes your art fun – a critical factor to continuous growth; it has to be fun or you will quit it altogether or show little interest in seeking improvement. I’ve seen too many persons who had the potential to become quite good give up because they wanted to get great overnight. They didn’t consider improving a step at a time.

My final suggestion: spend time picking only your best to post on the internet or on this website. This helps force yourself to evaluate your work and see areas for improvement, as well as to see where you have improved.

Marion