For Painters: Are You A Hard Edge, Or A Soft Edge?

When I paint or work with pastels I like to keep it soft but for my computer graphic work, I like using clean edges and geometric shapes most of the time.

It really depends on the piece for me. Sometimes I keep the subject more hard edge and the rest a little soft edge to put more emphasis on the subject.

Coming from an industrial design background, where lines rule, my default style is hard edged.

However for certain subjects, like seascapes, I tend towards softer edges.

Soft I think.

I try to include both in all the appropriate places.

Yes, thanks to all (so far), and David good point. I have been doing some small paintings of my barn photos and using pretty soft lines to get the right feel. But for my larger works I seem stuck on the hard edge. Anyone feel free to post examples.

I do both.
In the 90s, my NY gallery wanted hard edge...I started to use painter's tape...hated it. Too much of anything isn't usually a good thing.
These days when I use airbrush inks straight out of the bottle, it creates marvelous clean edges that I utilize in combination with my messy soft edge technique.

I do both, my watercolor/paper cut which has both soft and hard edges.

I try to be very precise with everything, so a crisp, well rendered edge is something I strive for.
However, lately I've been wondering if that attention to detail is slowing me down to the point of being unproductive.
I'm a perfectionist to a fault.
I've been curious about just allowing the paint to land where it will, but my anxious tendencies have yet to go there...

Joe Burgess
J.B. Imagery

I have not defined any edges... so yes, soft....i think..probably

Just beautiful all. Yes Marlene I agree you can have too much of a good thing.

Oh Abbey you are for sure a soft edge painter. I think hard edge got popular because of the introduction of arcylic paints, which dry quickly and allow almost immediate over painting.

Alfred, your work always stands out, hard or soft.

David here is one of my small, soft edge paintings. I hope you can see why I like your work so much.

i really don't know... i think i kind of mix it up as i go along...

I don't think the hard vs soft thing needs to be obvious, it can be relative. Like in Abbie's painting. A lot of it is soft but comparatively speaking there's a distinct edge where the horse's head and the woman's arm meet. It's not a real hard edge but compared to the rest of the painting it's a more distinct edge and is very appropriate since it's right in the focal area. I like that there are lost edges between the hair on both the horse and the woman that get lost against the background, in fact I think it might look just a bit better with more of that.

Here's a less obvious example of one of mine.



I don't claim to be great at this but sometimes I actually remember to keep it in mind. Most of this painting is relatively soft edges, but it gets more soft as you go farther in the distance, with one exception, the main tree. I wanted that to be my focal point. The foliage is still fairly soft edge, it is a tree after all, but it's relatively sharper compared to the other background foliage, but the biggie is that it has the one real hard edge in the whole painting, the tree trunk. That edge is not only the hardest in the painting, it also creates the spot of highest contrast.

Kevin, the barn in your painting is comparatively hard edged compared to the rest of the painting, and it should be, but it might be better if you picked one spot on the barn to be sharper and with higher contrast and maybe with more color than the rest of the barn to create a focal point since the barn takes up so much of the painting, I think the small window with the Z shaped bracing behind the shutter almost does that.

These are 3 of my acrylic abstracts that I utilized taping off for the hard edges against soft backgrounds and areas within some of the hard edges.


Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

Fairly hard edged.

This mocking bird is an example of my softer edged work in pastels.

Kevin, I don't think artists now a day just stay with one, here is another of mine with both.

Then again, some of my landscapes and still lifes really need soft edges to convey the mood and scene.


Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

I am always ON edge, when making a painting, which I have not done for a while now.

Painting was a hair pulling experience, anytime that I ever did it. No "happy trees" for me (Sorry, Bob).

This is much more typical of my work, very hard edged.

softer the edges, better the painting.....l think is the case for the most part....

Ah... the Old Masters weigh in. Good work Drew.

Both - without reading anyone else's posts I believe in the lost and found edges. Painters will known what I mean :)

of cource to depicted human made objects and contrast, hard lines work well.

Drew I like both styles.