The Art of the Self-Critique for Painters

If you are just beginning to learn how to paint or working on improving over time, this Self-Critique can be your favorite new tool in your toolbox.

Why is that? Because it's like having a mentor looking over your shoulder pointing the way, except that mentor is YOU.

This isn’t the same thing as being critical or judgemental-- or valuing perfection over progress. That stuff will always be a waste of your energy, and slows you down. Let’s not even go there!

This Self-Critique is different.

It’s a set of questions you can ask yourself that are designed to get you results. They can override any negative ideas that might be coming up for you--by keeping you curious and engaged in problem solving rather than feeling like it’s game over.

I teach painting from a framework of what I consider to be the essential skills every acrylic painter needs, and organize it into a "Skillset Toolkit". Each builds on the next, then they work in and around each other.

So when you perform a Self-Critique, what you are doing is looking at your work through the lens of various essential skills. This gives you a clearer picture of what you need to do--or change--to get the look you are going for.

There are also some questions about how you FEEL about it as well. That’s a big part of the evaluation piece. Why? Because, if you love an effect or piece of work that’s not technically ideal--the feeling wins every time.

How can that be?

This is because technical skills aren’t the only thing that makes great art. Ideas, emotion, originality, spontaneity, all have a big part in what ultimately works and what doesn’t.

The Self-Critique Exercise

Pull out a painting that you’ve either been working on lately, or have recently finished. It’s good if it’s recent, because you remember more about what you were thinking while working on it--but it can be an older piece too.

This series of sample questions you can ask yourself fall into a few basic categories: Feeling, Thinking, and Technical. See what works for you, your style of art, and the piece you are evaluating.

Feeling Questions

What do you love about it? Any specific areas you can point to?
What were you excited about before that’s leaving you a little bored now?

Thinking/ Decision Making

What is the weakest area visually? What can you do to make that stronger?
Did you use color as well as you think you can? What’s one adjustment you could make, if not?
Is the area or element that you wanted to be the most focal the part you notice first, or is something else grabbing attention instead?

Evaluative/Technical

If you used underpainting, were you able to retain it--or did it disappear?
Does the composition overall look intentional?
How is your brushwork? Are you getting the effects you wanted for each area of the painting? Is there an element that might need a different detail brush?
Is there an area that looks unintentionally “thin”? Can you add a glaze to build it up a bit?

The kinds of questions you ask yourself depend on the type of paintings you want to make and the kind of painter you want to be.

If you are just getting started with painting, I really recommend you write it all down. Take time out to think as technically as you can, and ask evaluative questions that get your wheels turning a little differently than usual.

Over time, you can do this automatically while you are making key decisions in your painting--or when you run into a rough patch where you need to turn off your headphones and stop and think for a bit before you paint over something good.

You’ll know what’s you and what isn’t. Customize these questions to fit your style.

It’s all about getting to YOUR sweet spot between personal style and technical skill. It’s a balance that only you know the answer to--and it can or more likely will change over time. That’s part of the fun.