History Main / ArtReflectsPersonality

* ''Literature/AdrianMole'': In an art lesson in ''Secret Diary'', Adrian draws a picture of a boy standing on a bridge, looking at a boy struggling in a river. He thinks that the boy on the bridge looks like himself, and the boy in the river looks like his ex-best-friend Nigel, who has just started going out with Pandora. The art teacher says that the picture "has depth", and so does the river.

* ''Literature/AdrianMole'': In an art lesson in ''Secret Diary'', Adrian draws a picture of a boy standing on a bridge, looking at a boy struggling in a river; and thinks that the boy on the bridge looks like himself, and the boy in the river looks like his ex-best-friend Nigel, who has just started going out with Pandora. The art teacher says that the picture "has depth", and so does the river.

* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'': Vampires are {{Damaged Soul}}s with CreativeSterility, so their art might be ''technically'' impressive, but it almost never makes any emotional impact on the viewer. This is no surprise to Changeling {{Emotion Eater}}s, who can get at most a single, stale-tasting point of [[{{Mana}} Glamour]] out of a vampire.

* ''Film/SuddenImpact'': Detective Callahans visit a waterfront town where a multiple homicide suspect has set up shop as an art studio. Callahan takes one look at the bleak, haunting, almost {{chiaroscuro}} images, and sees a woman with demons in her soul: she's taking grisly revenge on being raped as a teenager by some town ne'er-do-wells.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/PatronOfTheArtOfWar'' the art that Sabine has made on Thrawn’s "request", shows her loss over the Ghost Crew. The painting that has the crew in color while she is separate in black charco and in despair. When Ezra later sees them, he can feel the pain that she is in.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/PatronOfTheArtOfWar'' the art that Sabine has made on Thrawn’s request shows her loss over the Ghost Crew. The painting that has the crew in color while she is separate in black charco and in despair. When Ezra later sees them, he can feel the pain that she is in.

** In one early episode, Ezra asks Sabine to paint something in his and Zeb's quarters, so she paints a cartoon-ish picture of them doing something goofy earlier that episode. When Ezra and Zeb express disapproval at being depicted as fools, she simply states that [[StealthInsult she draws what she sees]]. This is one of a number of moments through the first half of Season 1 that shows that Sabine doesn't like Ezra until they both have CharacterDevelopment.

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E18SailorMouthArtistUnknown Artist Unknown]", when a curator visits his art class to see what pieces have been made, he dismisses all of them because they're all focused on Squidward ("I call this one, 'Bold and Brash'." "More like 'Belongs in the trash!'"), except for a Greek statue that [=SpongeBob=] made. Meanwhile, [=SpongeBob=] had been creating perfect pieces of art with little to no effort and he only joined for fun, whereas Squidward wanted people to look up to him as well as hoping to get rich and famous off of it. When [=SpongeBob=] starts taking Squidward's [[AntiRoleModel advice]], he fails to recreate his success and makes terrible pieces of art. At the end, Squidward throws a tantrum and [[AchievementsInIgnorance accidentally makes a beautiful statue without realizing it]]. The [[AnAesop moral]] of the story is do your hobbies out of fun and passion, not because you want to get rich and famous.

** In one episode, when a curator visits his art class to see what pieces have been made, he dismisses all of them because they're all focused on Squidward ("I call this one, 'Bold and Brash'." "More like 'Belongs in the trash!'"), except for a Greek statue that [=SpongeBob=] made. Meanwhile, [=SpongeBob=] had been creating perfect pieces of art with little to no effort and he only joined for fun, whereas Squidward wanted people to look up to him as well as hoping to get rich and famous off of it. When [=SpongeBob=] starts taking Squidward's [[AntiRoleModel advice]], he fails to recreate his success and makes terrible pieces of art. At the end, Squidward throws a tantrum and [[AchievementsInIgnorance accidentally makes a beautiful statue without realizing it]]. The [[AnAesop moral]] of the story is do your hobbies out of fun and passion, not because you want to get rich and famous.
** In another episode, Mr. Krabs asks Squidward to make a statue. Squidward has Mr. Krabs pose for his statue and makes it unflattering (spiky and cold) because it reflects how he feels about working at the Krusty Krab (cold, miserable, hopeless). Mr. Krabs isn't pleased, partly because of that and because the statue was supposed to be for children to climb on.

* ''Manga/NijigaharaHolograph'': at the start of ch. 4, Maki is chided by her college art teacher, who calls her work "nothing but technical skill" and boring, wishing to see her emotion and passion. She sulls up over this, but as the story goes on the teacher's comments prove to be on point as Maki is shown to be possessive, manipulative, and seemingly incapable of genuine love.

Compare AuthorAppeal, AuthorPhobia and RealitySubtext for specific ways in which the creator channels themselves through their work, and TrueArtIsAngsty and TrueArtIsIncomprehensible for general thoughts on the content of art.

* ''Manga/ShiawaseTorimungu'': Suzu, an art student, becomes enraptured by birdwatching, and she uses it to break out of her creative slump by painting awe-inspiring pictures of majestic birds.