Real vs. Believable

While in art school I desperately wanted to learn how to make things look real. One of the instructors said to me on several occasions, and I’m paraphrasing here, “is it (the drawing) believable”?

Lately this idea has come to the foreground for me and I’m questioning what “believable” means to me.

Does believable mean that a thing looks like it has dimension, like it exists in space and has a logic to it? Does that logic have to be similar to how things work in the real world or can there be a logic within the world of the picture?

Or does believable mean that it is recognizable as a real person/place/thing?

Or that it seems “right”, that the picture has a certain confidence and intent about it even if it’s a more abstracted or highly stylized picture?

I can go after accuracy and work to make something look “right” or real but does it serve the picture? Is all that information working together to make a whole idea or story instead of accurate isolated pieces of information.

I think it’s all these things but I get to choose how I wield the tools. Sounds like fun to me! I’ve been enjoying looking at how other artists do this. There are so many wonderful examples out in the world, here a but a few:

Le Chevalier aux Fleurs (The Knight of Flowers)  by Georges Rochegrosse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Rochegrosse#/media/File:Le_Chevalier_aux_Fleurs_2560x1600.png

Bobby Chiu’s art http://www.imaginismstudios.com/artists/Bobby%20Chiu

Bill Carman’s art http://billcarman.blogspot.com/

Deb Kirkeeide’s animal paintings http://debkirkeeide.com/collections/7886

Yoshida Hiroshi Avenue of Sugi trees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshi_Yoshida#/media/File:Hiroshi_Yoshida01a.jpg

John Harris’ art http://www.alisoneldred.com/artistJohnHarris.html