“I was struck dumb with admiration”~Vincent van Gogh, speaking about Howard Pyle.
Howard Pyle: "Pirates"
The Delaware Art Museum Celebrates 100 years
The Delaware Art Museum,in Wilmington, was founded in 1912 to preserve and exhibit the art of Howard Pyle following his untimely death in November 1911. Its recent eshibition, “Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered” kicks off a series of shows and events that the museum’s centennial. For more information on upcoming programs and events, visit www.delart.org
Howard Pyle's, "Buccanear of the Caribbean"
As a painter, writer, and teacher, Howard Powell believed in the practice of mentally projecting, or envisioning unseen worlds through the lens of one’s on experience. Here are a few other concepts this great artist and teacher believed:
Concentrating solely on copying could stifle the imagination.
Too much emphasis on technique would result in a kind of overindulgence in which the means became more important than the message.
A great many thumbnail sketches before settling on the final design. He sometimes made as many as 50 for a single painting.
The fewer the tones, the simpler the picture.
An artist should lighten the light areas and darken the dark areas so that the lights and darks were distinct from each other.
Push every picture toward the extremes. A painting with a thousand birds in the air should show one or a thousand.
Howard Pyle: "Pirates Fighting for Treasure"
During his life, Howard Pyle was considered the father of American magazine illustration by The New York Times. He was a consistent contributor to Harper’s Monthly, Collier’s Weekly, and Scribner’s Magazine. During a period of explosive growth in the publishing industry, he was one of America’s most popular illustrators and storytellers.
He had a great many famous students. N.C. Wyeth (the father of Andrew Wyeth) was one of his students. Another student, Elizabeth gurney, said that Pyle’s most frequent admonition was “Respect the truth.”(This quote was taken from May 2012 issue of American Artist Magazine.)
The system of loosely dabbing and dashing paint employed by Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir to preserve the spontaneity of a late summer or early autumn moment at Argenteuil (a suburb of Paris on the bank of the Seine), or, perhaps, to capture the sun dappling of a woman’s torso, involved the eye of the beholder more directly than ever before. This was color laid down separately next to each other and mixed only by the spectator’s eye. The eye perceives a mosaic of various colors from broken brushstrokes forming a vibrant whole only interpreted from a distance.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Claude Monet Painting in His Garden at Argentuil
An Impressionist painting attempts to capture an elusive moment. The sudden explosion of scientific activity left the nineteenth century artists rich in new pigments. The colors rushed onto canvas squeezed liberally from a tube. It was the Impressionists that set themselves the sternest task of all when they attempted to find a technique with which to capture a mere instant in time.
Renoir: The Swing (La Balencoire) (1878)
Renoir would be what we call today, a starving artist. There were times in the 1860s when he didn’t even have enough money purchase paint to work with. He wasn’t without friends that recognized his prodigious talent and helped him along the way.
Later in life, but still painting, he became wheel chair ridden afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis, needing an assistant to place the brush in his hand. He did, however, have the pleasure before he died to view his paintings among the master’s at the Louvre. His painting, Bal au moulin de la Galette sold for 78.1 million dollars in 1990. That’s pretty good for a poor boy.
Artist’s paint media is made by grinding pigment and dispersing it in a binding medium which binds the pigment to a support or substrate.
Wax was the earliest known medium and was used mainly by the Greeks and Romans. It lasted in favor until around the eighth century. During the middle ages, the main type of paint was tempera in which the pigment was bound by eggs. In the fifteenth century, oil became popular as a medium.
Oil had a slow drying time and, despite the addition of drying agents, was both an advantage and a disadvantage. The disadvantage was the slow drying time but this could not overlook the advantage of a medium much easier to handle and correct. Oil has dominated painting ever since.
Early in the 20th-century, the acrylic medium was created. It is made from polymerized resin and has become popular for its quick drying time, and flexibility.
Watercolor is bound using gum arabic. When you mix it with water, it can be applied smoothly and will adhere to the substrate when dry.
Of course, as an artist, you’re always looking for good quality art supplies at the best price possible. I’ve never gone shopping at any of the art supply stores without first shopping at Dick Blick’s online store. Unless I’ve waited until the last minute, I usually shop online. So far, Dick Blick has never disappointed me. Dick Blick is an art supply mail-order company that stocks and sells all kinds of artist’s material.
R.D.Burton: Full-Size Pencil art detail of the "Old Woodie"
Art Center Information is proud to present the following: This is a pencil drawing that I did of a photograph of my father taken back in 1949 filling up a gas tank of the automobile we nick-named the “Old Woodie”.
I am slowly…but ever so slowly…and ever, ever so slowly painting an acrylic picture of this scene. The photograph I have is a very small black and white. I have hit Wikipedia to find a color photograph of both the wood-sided ford station wagon (or as we called them in those days, “panel trucks”) and the color of their gas pumps back in the 1940s.
It is sort of a neat nostalgic trip remembering those days. I was only five years old at the time, had no television, and listened to The Red Rider Show, Little Orphan Annie, Superman, and Boston Blackie on the radio.
I guess it is the nostalgia that nags at me to finish this painting, that for whatever reason is one of those put-me-offs. I have no aversions that it is a commercial work, but would like to finish it for myself. The painting will be 24″X36″ (as well as the pencil drawing above).
Full-size drawing for future work of art.R.D.Burton: Color Sketch Segment for "Old Woodie"
Here I am working on the pencil sketch. I believe it is important to work out all the details and problems in a painting with pencil and paint sketches so when you are doing the finished painting, everything works out properly. Of course, I am speaking of realistic paintings when I say this. However, I find abstract, as fun and colorful as it can be, is better when planned with black and white drawings. Then, of course, let loose and let the brilliant colors fly.
R.D.Burton: Color Sketch Segment for "Old Woodie"
This was my third color sketch of my father. It’s still not quite right and I’m sure I will make several more before attempting to call the painting correct. It is the closest that I’ve done to being correct with the shadows and the color of the skin. Remember, I have never attempted the tone of skin in acrylics. A few times in watercolor, but not acrylics. I’m not concerned. I know me. I know I will persist until I am satisfied. Most of us artist (whether formerly taught, friend and family taught, or self taught) will work until we are satisfied, and I’m sure, most are like me….the greatest critic.
R.D. Buton: Painting the "Old Woodie
Here I have a blocked out section, starting to concentrate on my father’s face and image in the just right of center of the painting. I need to work out everything with as much proper value and detail as possible in this area since it is the main focus. The reason, of course is because everything to the left and right will work against me in the painting if I’m not careful.
The red-orange pumps to the left of the main focus and the heaviness of the car can easily take away from the image of my father in the painting, so directional emphasis is important. I think the gasoline hose and the color of the center cube will soften the punch and help in this matter.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my frustration as an artist here and this has been some art information you can appreciate.
“Nothing much is really the way it seems. If you could travel faster than light, you might set out on a trip and arrive back before you leave.”~Einstein
Einstein also said that there’s really no such thing in the universe as a straight line. In the art world, when it comes to perspective, that seems to be the case. As straight lines stretch farther from the center, they appear slightly curved. Classical builders learned to add slight curvatures to columns and long walls to compensate for the way we see.
Cube From Below
Cube From Below:
We would normally draw a cube in perspective, seen from below, likethis, with its vertical edges remaining vertical.
Vertical Edges Receding
Vertical Edges Recede:
The vertical edges of the cube are not parallel. Think of a skyscraper. Seen from one end-from below or above-the parallel vertical edges appear to converge just as the horizontal parallel edges. There is a third vanishing point where the vericals meet.
Techniques of the famous artists in the world is as revealing as their biographies. Consider this, the reason artists painted landscapes for hundreds of years without moving toward impressionism lies not in the subject matter but in technique. Do you realize that before Van Eyck (some believe to have invented oil paints) artists working in fresco or tempera didn’t have the means at their disposal to achieve dazzling effects of trompe l’oeil (which Van Eyck so skillfully attempted).
It was not until freedom of brushstrokes unleashing powers of expression by Titian that individual strokes of the brush were shown through disturbing the illusion. Rembrandt was the first artist that took sensuous pleasure in oil paints.
“One can take a late Rembrandt portrait by the nose, so thickly are the colors applied!”~Houbraken
For your art information, we are proud to include in the blogs an occasional discussion of famous artist’s techniques. Today we will briefly discuss the art techniques of El Greco. We hope you enjoy and include it in your art information files or bookmark http://www.artcenterinformation.com and become a regular visitor.
El Greco: “Christ Driving the Traders From the Temple”
Domenikos Theotokopoulas, known as El Greco was born in Crete (1554) where he painted in the style of the Byzantine icon art. Later in life he settled in Toledo, Spain and remained there until his death (1614).
He had few followers and failed to find favor with his patron, Phillip II of Spain. He painted elongated figures with brilliant, unconventional colors and this made him lose the acceptance of many critics at the time.
However, with the development of the modern art movements of the 20th century, there began a wider appreciation of his works.
El Greco’s works are painted on a fine canvas and covered with a warm reddish-brown ground. This was common in the second half of the sixteenth century. He used thick oil with the consistency of honey to temper his pigments, applying it with broken strokes using a course hog’s hair brush.
In his studio, there were a great many clay models that he used for the arrangement of figures in his compositions. It is more than probable that he made preparatory sketches and drawings for all his works, but not many of these were found.
Architecture segment of the painting
The architectural background made use of perspective. It was probably based on contemporary Italian stage design. The blue pigment must have been azurite, because of the high price of ultramarine blue at the time. (This is a conjecture, it is not absolutely known.)
In spite of his straight-forward technique, El Greco was a slow worker that retouched his paintings many times to improve on his first brush strokes.
Segment of painting
He consistently used a method of building up flesh tones with lead white and blueish charcoal black as seen in the head of the boy with the basket. If you will note, the grayish tone is marked.
The face is painted sketchily with a stiff hog’s hair brush. El Greco is known to have used not only a coarse hog’s hair brush but an early form of palette knife as well. The coarse brushes were popularized in Venice at the time because it was unsatisfactory to use a soft brush on the coarse canvas. The knife would have had a wooden handle and a flexible wooden blade.
Segment of painting
The sleeve of the robe is an excellent example of El Greco’s technique for painting drapery. The thick, opaque light layer was dabbed on with a stiff bristle brush worked in different directions. A transparent lake was applied. The red lake was tempered with a thick medium and applied using hatching strokes. This was a departure from other artists at the time, because usually when a lake was applied, it was done with a soft brush.
In conclusion, the technique and art style of El Greco did not receive the recognition he deserved until the impressionist artists and other schools of the free thinking modern art movements of the twentieth century began to realize and appreciate the true talent he had.
Please note: The book was given away and any reference to this book (The Louvre: All The Paintings) being given away no longer applies as of July 16, 2012. To see the selection of the winner, please click on the picture.
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Imagine this: Wouldn’t it be great to hop on a plane and fly to Paris to visit the Louvre? My goodness! There are 3022 paintings to view. How long would that take? Well, for us artists, it would take longer than the non-artists because we don’t view a great work of art, we absorb it. We envision the artist making every brush strokes. It almost takes our breath away.
The Louvre All The Paintings
The next best thing to actually visiting The Louvre’s galleries is having the fabulous book, The Louvre: All The Paintings, at your fingertips as a wonderful coffee table book. This is something your family and friends will enjoy for a lifetime. Definitely, it is the first collection to showcase the permanent paintings of a museum of The Louvre’s stature.
The book takes the four distinct schools of painting: Italian, Northern, Spanish and French. It organizes them and makes up what you might call a mini-course representing each of the school’s best works.
The paintings are chronologically presented by the artists’ birth dates. The sizes of the photographs vary from full-page plates to six or more on a page.
This book, several years in the making, is an international collaboration and an official publication of the museum. With nearly 800 book pages and a supportive DVD-ROM, it is the only complete collection of masterpiece paintings from the world’s most famous museum.
If you are painting your landscape from nature, you may find the hues changing as the sun crosses the sky. In many instances there is the need to finish the work in the studio. You should get in the habit of constantly making color swatches of what you see. If you do this, be certain to make good notes describing the time of day, the month (season), the atmospheric conditions at the time, and the exact color mixing formula. Always keep these filed and notated. It takes time, but you will eventually have hundreds of color swatches that gives you perfect reference material.
Here are three tips that we here at the art center hope you can appreciate and use:
At Sunrise: The temperature of the painting becomes warm and not cool. The painting for this time of day should start with a Cadmium Yellow Light or Lemon Yellow wash. This color will dominate the painting and should be mixed with all the hues. However, as the sun continues to cross the sky, the cast of yellow becomes a deeper hue.
Arlen Burton, oil on canvas: "Signal Peak"
Midday:
When the sun is directly overhead, a darker yellow should be dominant throughout the painting. Experiment with this but often yellow ochre and oranges will be a good place to start. Whatever mixture of colors selected, the value should be light because the sun washes out the darker tones. Trees, for example, should be lighter at the top than at the bottom. Be sure to notice that shadows are more harsh at this time of day.R. D. Burton Painting: "Serenity in the Florida Keys"
3. Late Afternoon: As the sun falls into the western hemisphere, more oranges and reds and purples are evident. By sunset, the yellow hues have almost vanished. The closer to dusk, the cooler the temperature of the painting. These colors should be mixed into your foliage to make it appear normal.
I hope for the sake of art information you artists understand what I am doing here. I am working on the “Old Woodie. I hope as an artist you realize the importance of the different stages that an artist goes through to get to the finished painting of a work of art. Here I am working on only one small but important step to achieve, and that is the central point of the painting, the man in the painting. For your art information, it is a step by careful step. If I mess this part up, the entire painting will be ruined. Please follow the work I am trying to accomplish.
R.D. Buton: Painting the "Old Woodie"Sketch for "old Woodit"
A block out with a yellow ochre underpainting.
Different color sketches of the man’s face.
R. D. Burton: Full Size Drawing of the "Old Woodie"
A full size pencil drawing of the total picture: (24″X36″)
R. D. Burton: Blocking out and working on the man in the "Old Woodie"
A block out of body and a light color sketch of the man’s face.
Kazimer Malevich: “Black Square on a White Field” (1913)
For your art information, we present a few notes about Constructivism. The Constructivists declared art must be free of subject matter. Kazimer Malevich, with his “Black Square on a White Field” and his famous “White on White” painting probably sounded the first clear note in the abstract direction.
Kazimer Malevich: “White on White” (1917)
Wassily Kandinsky declared that painting needed no other subject matter than itself. First to paint abstract expressionist canvases that are a vibrant turbulence in motion of color in motion. Kandinsky was motivated by Einstein’s theory that matter is composed of invisible atoms in constant motion.
Wassily Kandinsky: “Composition Vii” (1913)
Piet Mondrian proposed that colors have weight and expansive qualities that could be calculated to reflect the balance and harmony in the invisible world. His immaculate squares of primary colors are lyrical demonstrations of his theories.
Piet Mondrian: “Composition II in Red, Blue,and Yellow”
We have presented this article and depictions of the paintings for your art information and education. We hope you have enjoyed it. Much of the information came from an old art annual that I had gathering dust in the attic. I’m glad that I found it, dusted it off, and read it. Sometimes it is good to refresh your memory with an old book.
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Copyright For Artists: Quick And Easy Copyright Protection
Copyright For Artists Was Written By An Attorney And Jeweler. It Is Over 30 Pages Long. It Contains Specific Illustrations, Graphs, Links, Resources And Information For Artists About How To Protect Their Arts And Crafts.
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