Artist of illusion - what skill needed?

[Lucy_Valentine]

I had the thought today that a magically capable and artistically-minded character could use illusions to make some glorious temporary art. And then I thought there might not be a mechanic for measuring the artistic merit of illusions - most taught artistic skills being substantially related to the mechanical craft of the medium concerned. EG as an amateur painter, I haven't been taught to imagine stuff, I've merely been taught a bit about how to make the paint look like my imagination. So I imagine illusion magic as almost the ideal tool for turning imagination into picture. And yet, it still seems like there should be people who are relatively good at making visually attractive illusions, as opposed to merely functional ones.

So... what skill do I need? Or is it a feat? It seems like craft (illusionary artwork), perform (illusion play), or profession (illusion artist) could all work, but am I missing something?

(I might be overthinking this.)

[avr]

There's an Artistry skill in PF Unchained. If not using that, as a GM I'd probably use Spellcraft as it is quite literally your skill with spells

[Tacticslion]

We always add a house-rule Perform (magic) skill (with sleight of hand and UMD as the bard skills it grants with Versatile Performance); we also always use Craft (magic) for specific artistic representations.

Artistry (magic) works really well, if you're using Unchained.

[Piccolo]

Lucy_Valentine wrote:

(I might be overthinking this.)

If you like Pathfinder humor, PM me.

[Gray Warden]

I don't think this is anything different from what the Craft, Perform and Profession skills already cover. For example, Craft(Sculpture) already encompasses sculptures made of marble, wood, wax, papier-mache and so on. All these media require a very different set of practical skills, and yet they are all covered by a single, mental, skill. An illusory sculpture is just a sculpture made using yet another medium, and requires the same artistic sense any other sculpture would require: knowledge of anatomy, volume design, equilibrium of the shapes and so on. You could be the most talented spellcaster (maxed Spellcraft), but if you have no aesthetic taste (zero Craft), your art is still going to suck.

So I'd say that if you want to see how technically well made your creation is, it would be Craft. If you want to see how much of a living you can make out of it, then it would be Profession. If you want to see how entertained people are because of your work, then it would be Perform.