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We've chosen one of Quentin's images from Victor Hugo's classic 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' @foliosociety for June's #QBPicoftheMonth .. pic.twitter.com/Pl3dNRwvJx | |
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Friday, June 30, 2017
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Monday, June 26, 2017
Witch Hunt
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Witch Hunt
// Deja View
Look how cinematically Disney's story artists thought when working out continuity for a dramatic sequence for their first feature Snow White.
At the end of the movie the Witch realizes she is being pursuit by the dwarfs, and it is time to run.
These terrific story sketches show how the artist not only worked out the continuity of this section, but also gave thought to staging, background mood and effects. The final film footage comes very close to these early gutsy concepts.
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electripipedream: The Mike Hinge ExperienceSupergraphics1973
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electripipedream: The Mike Hinge ExperienceSupergraphics1973
// Hyperwave
The Mike Hinge Experience
Supergraphics
1973
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Albrecht Dürer: The First Post-Modernist
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Albrecht Dürer: The First Post-Modernist
// Print Magazine
Self portrait
Albrecht Dürer was the very epitome of a Renaissance man. Born in 1471 at the height of the German Renaissance he excelled at painting, woodcuts, engraving, typography, book-making and writing. Having studied the family trade of goldsmithing, he went on to apprentice with his godfather Anton Koberger, the publisher and printer of the heavily illustrated Nuremberg Chronicle, published in 1493. While still in his twenties he established himself as an important illustrator with his chiaroscuro woodcuts, notably "The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse".
One of his lasting innovations was the poster. In 1515 he created a woodcut based on a sketch and written description by an unknown artist of an Indian Rhinoceros that he sold as a Broadside poster. Having never actually seen a Rhino, he depicted the animal as wearing armor, replete with breastplate, rivets and gorget.
Anonymous woodcut published in 1515, on which Dürer based his Rhino
Dürer's Rhino
Which brings us to post-modernism. Dürer actively utilized historical and cross-cultural influences in his work. His influences included the Greeks, the Italians and the Aztecs. He applied Da Vinci's proportions of the human body, as well as the mathematical theories of Euclid, to typography (you can read more of my writing on his typography here). He created textile pattern books for others to follow, and kept swatch books of others' textiles. His "knotwork print" was itself based on Da Vinci's own "knotwork roundels".
Da Vinci
Dürer applies Da Vinci's proportions to typography
Da Vinci knotwork roundel
"The Fifth Knot" Roundel by Albrecht Durer, circa 1498
Significantly, thanks to booty the explorer Cortés sent back to Europe, Dürer came to view the work of the Aztecs. He was so moved by the experience he wrote in his journal, on August 27, 1520:
"At Brussels is a very splendid Townhall, large and covered with beautiful carved stonework, and it has a noble, open tower. . . . I saw the things which have been brought to the King from the new land of gold, a sun all of gold a whole fathom broad, and a moon all of silver of the same size, also two rooms full of armor of the people there, and all manner of wondrous weapons of theirs, harness and darts, very strange clothing, beds, and all kinds of wonderful objects of human use, much better worth seeing than prodigies [myths, fairy tales]. These things were all so precious that they are valued at 100,000 florins [guilders] All the days of my life I have seen nothing that rejoiced my heart so much as these things, for I saw amongst them wonderful works of art, and I marvelled at the subtle Ingenia of men in foreign lands. Indeed I cannot express all that I thought there. "
Dürer, created the following year, 1521
A lasting work of Dürer's is the monogram of his initial letters, which lives on in the Art Director's Club logo still in use to this day.
Dürer's family coat of arms, with a pun on "door"
Latest iteration of the Art Director's Club Global logo
The post Albrecht Dürer: The First Post-Modernist appeared first on Print Magazine.
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Mesmerizing New Serpentine Tattoos by Mirko Sata
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Mesmerizing New Serpentine Tattoos by Mirko Sata
// Colossal
Milan-based tattoo artist Mirko Sata (previously) has mastered the art of inking snakes, creating elaborate tangles of scales and tails that wrap around the arms and legs of his clients. Sata frequently works with opposing color schemes, creating novel contrasts between black and white or red and green in the otherwise minimalist line-based pieces. He's also incorporated various floral motifs in place of the snake's scales in a number of recent pieces. You can follow more of his work on Instagram.
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Friday, June 23, 2017
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
10 Things...What You Cannot Know
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10 Things...What You Cannot Know
// Muddy Colors
--Greg Manchess
This year I was reminded of how the process of growing as an artist is shared by every artist. Each evolves and must pass through different levels of understanding on the way to mastery.
But none of us reach new plateaus on a schedule, or in quite the same way as those master painters before us. Some students understand certain aspects before their peers and then run into a different level later that slows them down. Back and forth and up and down, our progress is never a perfect diagonal line upward. No normal brain gets to escape this. It is frustrating.
And entirely practical. Our species creates imagery and finds a way to express thoughts outside of our body. We've learned to do this over time, and we continue our never-ending need for visual stimulation.
Thinking of those IMC students and answering questions about my work all week, I compiled the list below to point out facets we all have in common for the process of artistic skills.
Your mileage may vary.
You cannot know what you don't know.
Relax into the work and apply unbending patience. You cannot see or understand the levels one can attain until you have gained enough information to visualize those levels.
That's why we get fascinated by someone who seems to 'see' where they need to improve, sets a goal to get it, and then does. We think they have something special. Perhaps what they have is something easily attained. If only we can quiet the pressure we feel to do so.
The take-away: Accept that you need more information.
You cannot see what you don't see.
You're standing on a hill. You look outward over many hills and valleys and spot your goal. Then you set out downhill to reach the next hilltop. While in the valley, you cannot see your goal. Not even the hilltop in front of you. But you still climb.
Likewise for painting an idea. You set the goal, and you begin. The effort of building an image is like that downhill trek. You can bottom-out in the valley, lost in the weeds, but as you continue to climb up things get clearer until you reach the top and head out again. While you are in that valley, you cannot see the goal, but the valley is necessary.
Skills improve with time and effort. Not in a straight line, but in a generally upward diagonal, much like the stock market. An artist must trust that the stage they are in at the moment will improve over the long run. You cannot see nor implement the kind of ability you want in the present as you will in the near future —if enough effort and focus is applied.
Take-away: Make the trek anyway.
Mental tolerance.
An artist has to tolerate the fog of an unrealized idea. The effort needed to find clarification can be simple or nearly debilitating. But what kind of growth is built from already knowing where you need to go? What kind of character is built from a lack of effort? Why is anyone interested in the gift of automatic knowledge?
Unfortunately, we do find fascination with people who seem to not have to work to attain something. The reason is curiosity. We want to know why no effort was needed because we intrinsically know that work is necessary.
Take-away: Stay with your idea, even through the changes.
Focused observation skills.
We think we see what we are looking at, but often we miss subtle shapes that inform our minds about how to define an edge or capture a shape. Many students at IMC missed the subtle sculptural edges of a simple forearm. Edges they might've used to make a better drawing of the arm, or any other part. The smallest indention will give clues to musculature, character, and shape.
Take-away: Sweat the small stuff.
Listen without judgement.
Teachers who say they weed out the ones who will make it by being harsh and dismissive are merely amplifying their own ego. It is important to be firm with a student, but not to the point of dream-killing.
Finding someone with a growth mindset, who can point out your successes and failures without dragging you through the mud, is critical to your improvement. When you find them, listen with the mind of an athlete. Take nothing as personally as it may feel, but look for the clues for further real improvement. Listen without comment. Listen without explaining what you meant to do.
One can only absorb so much information before the extra gets dumped and you have to reacquire. But remember that repeated long-term effort is more important than short bursts of learning.
Take-away: Absorb from all quarters.
Drawing is your super-skill.
Learning to achieve a line with character is the ultimate knowledge necessary to create compelling drawings. Making many, many lines is what it takes to discover and repeat good line sense.
Is that too hard to figure out? A pitcher throws baseballs into a glove thousands of times to achieve speed and accuracy, but somehow we think the moment one attempts drawing, it must be instantly good, or they can't create.
Insanity.
Take-away: Draw first; think next.
Learn strong composition.
Putting elements on a page seems simple enough, but it is the rearrangement of elements that creates impact. It may feel comfortable at first to place things in the center of the rectangle because our minds love to clean-up and organize random visual forms, but it takes repeated effort to learn how to balance and counterbalance elements across a two-dimensional plane to gain depth. Resist the temptation to keep things organized, and learn how to overlap elements for visual interest.
Take-away: Learn what makes compelling pictures and drop the need to be an "artist."
Learn to handle pigment.
At the IMC, I watched students try to put down paint like a pro. They really did want to not only try hard, but to achieve. The problem was that many were judging their strokes too soon.
Simply because you laid a paint stroke on a surface doesn't mean you know how to handle paint. But laying many strokes down builds a catalog of effort and each new effort after is weighed against the first. All this is recorded in your brain and once it feels the need for repetition, the brain builds memories needed to re-achieve.
Paint strokes are like calligraphy. We believe we need to know how to hold and manipulate a pen to get a result, so why not the same for a brush on canvas. Take-away: Traditional training is critical.
Watch others progress.
Students and peers around you are achieving at different rates. Causing yourself grief over not having what they have is a waste. You may be ahead in other ways.
Learn from them. Watch and pay attention to how they may be progressing. This is one way that we help each other.
Take-away: We don't grow in a vacuum.
Get close to success.
As above, when we watch others achieve skills we want to own, we mirror their success. As a species we are very good at mimicry. And it is, after all, how we actually learn. Place yourself around others who are better than you whenever you possibly can. Strive to get connected to people who have a growth mindset. This is an infection you do want.
Take-away: Use information that is readily available.
Embrace fear.
Damn near any new endeavor causes some sort of anxiety about getting better. We want to achieve things quickly. We strive to be good at something fast. We have an intense desire to avoid work. Yet, work is where the learning is. The work is the point, not necessarily the final painting.
Learning to paint involves fear. Fear is going to be there no matter what you have in mind. Embrace it. Work with it. Use it. Fear is what the brain needs to improve.
Take-away: The way around is through.
All photos by Irene Gallo
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japhers: it always helps to use reference pictures but in...
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japhers: it always helps to use reference pictures but in...
// How to Art
it always helps to use reference pictures but in general here's a quick basic process for really fast rose making if you're pressed for time :D just remember that the petals are usually more packed in the middle and get farther apart as you go outwards!
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An Ollie Johnston Masterpiece
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An Ollie Johnston Masterpiece
// Deja View
One of the greatest acting/comedy scenes in Disney Animation.
That's actor Don Barclay as Mr. Smee pretending to give Captain Hook a shave. Of course Smee doesn't realize that he is actually shaving the rear of a seagull.
Ollie took great advantage of the comic possibilities. The staging is hilarious, I have no idea how he came up with Smee's exaggerated poses during this dialogue scene. And his face shows amazing flexibility and range. I love the nervous acting as he adjusts his glasses and pulls on his hat when realizing that Hook's head is missing. This is definitely a scene worth studying frame by frame, the timing is ingenious as well.
Ollie had Milt Kahl go over some of these expressions. I do have a few of those sketches and will show them on my next post.
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