The remarkable masterpieces of art always have glorious titles. Leaving your artwork untitled is not a very astute thing to do. If you want critics to write about your art then a title is a must. Critics find it hard to talk about untitled art. Another drawback of leaving your work untitled is that it leaves more room for the audience to have an interpretation of their own and the message you intended to give is never decoded.

If you want the audience to spend more time on your paintings, an interesting title will help you do so. Imagine you came across a brilliant painting on your recent visit to a museum exhibiting contemporary art in Dubai. You are back home now and want to see the painting again. Without a title, how will you Google the painting?

Here are various ways that will help you come up with a great title for your painting:

Brainstorm your ideas:
Brainstorming is the best way to generate ideas. You can use escape thinking, mind mapping or reverse thinking techniques of brainstorming for best results. In my opinion, mind mapping works the best. Generate a lot of ideas that reflect what your artwork is about. Try using vocabulary that can be understood by your audience. Make it complex only when you know your audience have a better understanding.

Review literature for inspiration:
Read poems and quotes by famous poets and writers. Now select a part of the poem and make sure you select the one that goes best with your painting’s theme. This might take a while so, do not give up soon. It doesn’t matter whether you deal into surreal art, abstract art or portrait art, this strategy can be used for generating title.

There are no copyright issues if you are not using a lengthy quote. If you choose a few words from a poem and appropriate it in a new way then it’s perfectly fine. You can also choose titles of books and movies. For instance, David White made use of books and movies such as “The man who knew too much” and “The man who would be the King” and repurposed them into titles for naming his series of paintings.

Acknowledgment:
If your artwork is inspired by a great master of the past, then you can acknowledge it. Use the title of the painting that you have taken inspiration from and pay homage to the artist. Andy Warhol created a series of paintings that reflected pop-infused culture and named it, “The Last Supper” as a reinterpretation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”.