Demystifying Art: Loose v Tight

Demystifying Art:
Loose v Tight:

Loose and tight are terms used to describe an artist's style. Loose has been seen as synonymous with sketching and using intuition and instilling emotion into art, and tight with taking time, using intellect and technical ability, and including lots of detail in a piece. But both styles require structure to create good works.

Both terms can be problematic. If someone says an artist's work is tight, it may sound like saying it lacks imagination or is "uptight", too cerebral. Loose might suggest a style is messy, hasn't taken long or lacks technical ability. So when talking about other people's work I tend not to use those terms.

But to give examples, I'd say my figure painting of a female acrobat is tighter than my sketch of the Tŷ Coch Inn. My painting of two red sailed Mirror dinghies in a bay has a very definite loose background although it took me quite a long time to paint and my view of Criccieth is a sketch but includes quite a bit of detail, and took less time than the sail boats. So I don’t know how I’d define those. It's not all about time, and certainly not about skill!

I think loose or tight, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. Artists seem to value looseness and many seem to see it as something to aim for, to make their work more "free", expressing more of "emotional substance". But other viewers seem to respond more to my posts showing works that are tighter, wondering at how I've managed to create that detailed likeness.

To seem my art, including my cyanotype photography, please go to:

The art shown in the background to this video are available at:
The Acrobat: Life: Blaze Like Meteors:
Tŷ Coch Inn, Porthdinllaen at Morfa Nefyn:
Two Mirror Dinghies in Porth Diana:
And Cricieth/ Criccieth on Pen Llŷn/ the Llyn Peninsula:

And please feel free to subscribe to my YouTube video to see more videos like this one!

Thanks!

Sam aka LymphomaLass xx