How to Tell If Your Painting Is Any Good
- Martin Kinnear Studio
- Jul 14
- 4 min read
A Studio Blog by Martin Kinnear
If you’ve ever been swept away by the urge to paint, you’ll know the feeling: your head is full of creative ideas, and you simply have to get them onto canvas. But somewhere between that initial spark and the final brushstroke, something shifts. Inspiration evolves. Serendipity takes over. You find yourself navigating detail and abstraction, balancing between what you imagined and what actually appears.
It’s said that a painting is never finished, only abandoned. I prefer to think of it as a pause—a temporary separation to reflect, reassess, and consider how it might evolve. The canvas may not look exactly like the image in your head, and that’s perfectly normal. The important part is to paint with passion first, then look critically and compassionately at what’s been created.
But how do you actually know if your painting is any good?
Passion vs. Precision
Many artists create with raw emotion, but risk slipping into self-indulgence. Others apply impressive technical skill, only to end up with flat or uninspiring work. I believe the best paintings are a dialogue—between artist, subject, and viewer. And to truly engage in that conversation, you need to learn how to critique your own work honestly.
The Value of Self-Critique
Self-critique isn’t about tearing yourself down; it’s about lifting your work up. Accept that painting is imperfect and messy. You’re not solving equations—you’re exploring human truths. And those truths often lie in ambiguity.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t use certain benchmarks. When a painting captures your attention in a gallery—whether instantly or subtly—chances are, it’s working with some foundational principles. Let’s look at a few of the most important ones.
1. Value is Everything
Here’s one thing you can bank on: most great paintings have a strong value structure. We don’t see the world in black and white, but our brains are wired to respond to contrast. It grabs our attention, defines form, and creates structure.
When a painting feels lifeless or flat, poor value contrast is usually to blame. To fix it? Boost the difference between your darks and lights—especially around your focal point. Strong contrasts create visual interest. Weak contrasts dilute it.
And while it sounds simple, managing value is not easy. That’s why techniques like chiaroscuro were developed—to help artists make smarter, more intentional decisions about light and shadow. At my studio, value management isn’t optional—it’s foundational.
2. Visual Design Comes First
Every painting is a visual design before it’s anything else. We respond more instinctively to strong composition than to realism or technical fidelity.
This starts with seeing your subject pictorially, not just representationally. Ask yourself: Is this sky, tree, or figure adding to the design—or just being copied from life? The painting itself must be sovereign. Adjust elements, shift tones, reimagine colours—if it makes the painting better, do it.
And once again, value underpins it all. But visual design also needs variety—through colour, shape, rhythm, and edge handling.
3. Optics: Activate the Surface
Paintings are inherently flat. The magic lies in making that flatness come alive. Whether you're creating illusionistic depth or embracing flat design boldly, the key is to choose an optical strategy and stick with it.
The most powerful paintings exploit the medium. Think texture, translucency, glazing, or drybrush. If your surface is too uniform—like a print or photo—you may be missing out on what paint can do.
You don’t need to literally glaze to benefit from glazing principles. Just pay attention to how opacity, translucency, and layering can build optical depth and create intrigue.
4. Colour: Keep It Controlled and Purposeful
We fall in love with colour, but it's one of the hardest things to master. Colour is relative and proximate—it depends entirely on context. This means putting the right colours, in the right places, in the right proportions.
Overuse is common. Many paintings suffer from too many hues, all shouting at once. A limited palette, managed saturation, and strong value structure usually lead to more powerful results.
Artists like Keith Vaughan, Pierre Bonnard, and Ivon Hitchens were masters of colour structure. They didn’t just paint pretty colours—they composed with colour, much like a musician scores harmonies.
5. Bringing It All Together
A chair might be the most important tool in your studio. Sit in it. Reflect.
Ask yourself:
Are my values strong enough to create structure and focality?
Have I exploited the optical potential of paint—either through depth, surface texture, or transparency?
Is my colour controlled, meaningful, and supportive of my composition?
Refining any one of these areas will strengthen your painting. Improve all three, and you'll see transformation. But even that only takes you so far.
6. Vision: The Real Benchmark
The most important self-critique question is the hardest one:
Why did I make this painting?
Craft matters, but it’s not enough. I’ve seen thousands of technically strong paintings—great colour, value, design—but utterly forgettable because they lack purpose. They don’t say anything.
Your painting doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to mean something. Vision, passion, conviction—those are the real markers of great work.
Final Thoughts
Technique gets your painting onto the wall. Vision is what makes people stop and look at it. Self-critique helps you bridge the gap between the two. It’s not about judging yourself harshly; it’s about raising your own standards, and painting with honesty.
So next time you finish a piece, don’t ask “Is it done?” Ask instead:
“Is it true to what I set out to say?”
At The Martin Kinnear Studio, we believe that’s the question every serious painter should be asking.
A thoughtful read and very helpful. Thank you