Sunday, December 13, 2015

Eye Candy for Today: Frans Snyders’ Still Life with Small Game and Fruit [feedly]



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Eye Candy for Today: Frans Snyders' Still Life with Small Game and Fruit
// lines and colors

Still Life with Small Game and Fruit, Frans Snyders
Still Life with Small Game and Fruit, Frans Snyders

In the Rijksmuseum.

It't interesting to compare this painting with a similar subject by Snyders in the National Gallery of Art, DC: Still Life with Grapes and Game.

 

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Color Theory Part 2 by JohnoftheNorth [feedly]



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The First Artists [feedly]



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The First Artists
// Archaeological Headlines - Archaeology Magazine

Hand stencils believed to have been created more than 30,000 years ago have been found in limestone caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.   Dating cave art is notoriously difficult. But a team of researchers has taken advantage of serendipitous conditions in caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to establish that images there rival any known from Western Europe in terms of age. A stencil created as the artist blew pigment around a hand is at least 39,900 years old, they report, and a painting of a piglike animal was laid down at least 35,700 years ago.   The researchers established the designs' minimum ages by calculating the dates of deposits that had built up on top of the pigment. They had observed that, as mineral-laden water percolates through the caves' limestone walls, calcite gradually accumulates on their surfaces. These deposits contain uranium, which decays to thorium at a known rate, so their age can be ascertained from the ratio of the two elements.   The discovery raises a new question: Did people in Southeast Asia and Western Europe develop artistic expression independently, or was it pioneered by early humans before they left Africa? "We don't know," says Maxime Aubert of Griffith University in Australia, "but my opinion is it probably developed a long time ago, in Africa, and then it just spread out."
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Friday, December 11, 2015

To Be a Success You Have To Stop Making THESE 8 Mistakes [feedly]



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To Be a Success You Have To Stop Making THESE 8 Mistakes
// Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement

To Be a Success You Have To Stop Making THESE 8 Mistakes

barriers to success I know it sounds crazy. How could you be blocking your own success, you want it more than anything. You're always thinking about how you want things to be, how you feel they should be by now, but somehow they're not. And it doesn't seem like you're getting any closer. It's like running on a treadmill. You've been doing it for hours, you're sweating profusely, and the machine even says you've covered a number of miles but you're still in the same place. You have no idea when your dreams are going to become real. All you know is you wanted it yesterday, but you're still waiting. But you can't just keep sitting there waiting and wondering, daydreaming about how you want it to be. All that's going to do is frustrate you further and put more space between you and it. There are simple ways to close the gap. Going Nowhere Fast You're stuck in this torturous la-la land of dreaming of what you want instead of actually living it because you're nowhere near it. You're not making any progress. Instead of taking things to the next level and enjoying where you currently are, you're sulking every time you're reminded of how difficult things are. And painfully reminded about how easy it could be if you had what you wanted. You're not in the worst possible place but you're not living your idea of success either. What's the deal? Right?! You're trying to take steps to make things happen but you're not getting much of a return. At least not like how you thought, or how other people are. You're trying to do all these new things, you can barely keep up. And still you've only moved an inch. The fact of the matter is you're making mistakes that are limiting your progress, limiting your success. If you keep doing this it won't matter how much more you do, what else you try, you'll still be holding yourself back in every way. You still won't get as far as you could otherwise. Getting There These mistakes are putting the nail in your coffin. These are the mistakes that are putting you in the slow lane to success. It seems simple enough to just stop doing them right? Well it is, if you know what they are. The only way to get over this mountain sized speed bump on the road to success is to figure out what these disturbing mistakes are and put them behind you. Once you're in a place where these mistakes are no longer have a place in your everyday life you'll start to notice that you're not running in place anymore. You'll actually start seeing some real progress. You'll be excited and motivated to do more and get even further. The heights you'll reach will be unimaginable. To get off the treadmill and hit the ground running you have to stop making these mistakes:
  1. You're busy doing nothing
You're days are filled to the brim. You barely have a minute to yourself. You couldn't imagine doing one more thing. You just don't have time for it. But what are you really doing? Being busy all the time doesn't exactly mean that you're productive. Honestly, your day could be filled with nothing, just a bunch of time wasting activities lined up, one after another. Chances are you're spending all of your time doing the light, ease work that isn't getting you anywhere. You know there's more to do but you just don't have time for it. Or at least that's your excuse. Busyness doesn't equal progress. Do things that are actually going to get you farther.
  1. You avoid discomfort
If every time you wanted to try something new but didn't, because it made you nervous and uncomfortable, you'll always be missing out. New things are always going to make you feel weird because they are foreign to you. But that doesn't mean you still shouldn't go for it. When you want to be successful and reach new heights you have to be willing to feel a little uneasy. Doing new things means breaking boundaries. Continuing to do the same things you've always done, the things that you're comfortable with are not going to get you anywhere.
  1. You have bad habits
Habits are the things that you do naturally without even thinking. They tend to be the thing you always want to do, sometimes not because you actually want to but because it's so easy. Habits can be both bad and good, but obviously the bad ones are going to undermine your efforts at success. Like having a lot of responsibilities and things to get done during the day yet not getting up until 11am to start doing them. A bad habit like this would make it impossible to get everything done before the day is over. If you need more time during the day you need to make it. You can't keep getting up late and expecting to get more done with the same amount of limited time. Make sure that your habits, whatever they are, are bringing your closer to achieving your dreams.
  1. You don't have goals
Just about everyone has a general idea of what they want. But not having a clear picture is like having nothing at all. You might think you know what you want but if it isn't detailed you've got nothing. Without being more specific how will you know how to achieve, how could you be certain you want it. Things can sound good in a general sense but when you get down to it they can turn out to be not so great. Successful people know exactly what they want, that's why it seems so easy for them to get it. And they review their goals often. Get a clear picture of what you really want and set it as a goal.
  1. You don't have a plan
If you don't have a goal, you don't have a plan. And if you do have a goal you probably still don't have a plan. Chances are your everyday life is just a series of things you do in reaction to something else, not anything that you are doing purposefully. Living reactively won't get you anywhere. If you want your life to be awesome you can't be passive, you have to take control of it. Once you have your goals in place, create a plan to make them happen.
  1. You're inconsistent
You know what you need to do but you only do it sometimes. Not all of the time, certain times when you feel like it. That's cool and all but don't expect much to happen. In fact, if anything happens it'll happen just like that, sometimes. I know planning sounds boring and unspontaneous but so is living passively. You don't have to plan every minute but you do need to be consistent if you want to see progress. Once you've created a plan for your goal, work on it consistently.
  1. You're not learning
If whenever you experience a failure you only focus on the setback then you're making a huge mistake. A failure or mistake isn't there to keep you from what you're trying to obtain, it's to teach you something. Don't just look at it as a disaster but an opportunity to learn something. When you only focus on the failure you're doomed to repeat the same mistakes and never make progress. But if you take something useful from it you can start again with that advantage. Learn what you can from the experience, make the changes necessary and try again.
  1. You're worried about the wrong things
Are you still hung up on something that happened a few days ago or even years ago, why? You don't have a time machine so you can't go back and change it. So, really, what's the point? Just let it go. Focus on what you can change now and work towards your future instead of focusing on your past. Making it easier The road to success can seem long and torturous when you're doing little things that you don't even realize are hurting your chances. You don't go through the trouble of making an effort just to stay in the same place. Ditch these disturbing mistakes so you can get off the treadmill of dormancy and start to see some real progress.   So… Don't you think it's time to get out of your way, which mistake are you most guilty of? --------- Lea Bullen is a certified life coach, foodie and lifehack expert. Stop letting simple mistakes keep you from being successful, get unstuck and get to the next level. Take the eye-opening Live Your Dreams course to get moving!

The post To Be a Success You Have To Stop Making THESE 8 Mistakes appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.


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humanoidhistory: Original Star Wars concept art by Ralph... [feedly]



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humanoidhistory: Original Star Wars concept art by Ralph...
// Hyperwave



humanoidhistory:

Original Star Wars concept art by Ralph McQuarrie shows the Millennium Falcon in a hangar on the Death Star.


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Leonie Bos’ architectural illustrations are informed by traditional printmaking [feedly]



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Leonie Bos' architectural illustrations are informed by traditional printmaking
// It's Nice That

Leonie_bos_int_list

Amsterdam-based illustrator Leonie Bos' architectural forms are minimal and modernist, and their simplicity is what makes them so appealing. Taking influence from traditional printmaking, Leonie's digital images are created by layering semi-transparent colour areas to create new shades and tones. The off-white grain of the paper is just as important to Leonie, and she often consciously leaves patches and squares ink free. Texture as a whole seems vital to her work, with rough gradients of colour giving the impression the images have been printed on concrete.

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Harold Speed, Chapter 4: The Painter's Training [feedly]



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Harold Speed, Chapter 4: The Painter's Training
// Gurney Journey


Today we'll take a look at Chapter 4: "The Painter's Training" from Harold Speed's 1924 art instruction book Oil Painting Techniques and Materials.

I'll present Speed's main points in boldface type either verbatim or paraphrased, followed by comments of my own. If you want to add a comment, please use the numbered points to refer to the relevant section of the chapter.

1. The traditional way of teaching painting is to teach Drawing first, then Painting. It's better to divide the problem into three interrelated elements: Form, Tone, and Color.

By Form I think he means both outline and modeling of 3D bulk. By Tone he means light or dark value, both tone as a function of design and tone as a function of defining 3D. Color presumably means both hue and saturation, but Speed points out it can't be seen separately from tone. Speed suggests that in the French academic schools, tone was overemphasized.

I'm still a little confused by this. I don't see how Form and Tone can really be separated.In Speed's scheme, then, when does the student make the switch to painting, and what are they doing exactly at each stage? I haven't reviewed the chapters ahead yet, but I suppose this will become clearer.

Lilian Braithwaite by Harold Speed

2. Systematic training isn't much help for design (or composition).

This comment, made in passing, struck me as an important one, and it's why I resist the idea of writing a book with any kind of authoritative tone on composition. Unlike the fields of color and light, which are full of verifiable facts, composition is elusive. Speed says it's unteachable, and not a subject for hard drilling. Still, I think it can be addressed in a classroom setting on an individual and a picture-by-picture basis by a mentor figure, the way Howard Pyle did.

The minute someone says that here are "The Five Laws of Composition" or "The 20 Don'ts of Design," I start thinking of masterworks that are exceptions to those laws. Composition by statute leads to sterile, conventional, and forgettable pictures.

Morelli, Temptation of St. Anthony

3. "Before you can express anything you must feel something to express."

Here's another comment made in passing that is essential to the study of picture-making. Speed criticizes work that is solely an excuse for an "unimpassioned rendering of the appearance of things." The works that stick in our minds are the ones that are both deeply felt and masterfully painted, and as a result the feelings transmit to the viewer.

4. "The English language is not very rich in terms that express aesthetic things."

So true, and a good reason why painters have had to learn foreign vocabularies for words like effet, which were so central to foreign training. French and Italian languages have a great many words that have now been adopted in many painting ateliers, but that's another topic for a blog post.

5. "The heightened effect that there is in all artistic work, and which is in a way a departure from cold accuracy, must not be made the excuse for careless and slovenly work."

I've noticed that the words "creative" and "expressive" are often used nowadays as code words for sloppy work, but they shouldn't be.

6. Western art is more concerned with naturalistic outward appearances than Eastern art, but in the great Western works, there are "variations from strict accuracy."

And Speed points out that these subtle expressive enhancements and aesthetic choices in realist painting have escaped critics. That's more true now than ever because most mainstream art critics are so visually unaware. As Speed says, realism makes the work "persuasive to the beholder" but it's only the first objective in doing something with lasting meaning. The expressive quality is more valuable, and he reminds us that a strongly expressive work that is executed with some rough technical edges may be preferable to a technically polished work that is empty of feeling.

7. "Nature is not one of those who disclose their best to a shallow observer; she only reveals herself fully to those who seek her reverently."

This is because it takes a lifetime to learn to see. And it's not just a matter of seeing optically with the eyes. It's about apprehending with compassion and insight. One has to perceive what is fine in a subject and bring that out. Speed reminds us that we need to call up from memory the fine things one has seen in art and nature and bring that out in what one is painting.

8. "If you cannot paint what you see, you will find yourself handicapped in trying to paint what you imagine."

This is why it's so important for fantasy artists and concept artists to paint outdoors. What you can paint from your imagination will only be 75% as convincing as what you can paint from nature.

"Vast themes seem to demand simple language for their expression."

You can insert any Rembrandt painting here.

Speed finishes the chapter with more thoughts about Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, but hopefully we covered that ground in the last few sessions.


Next week—Chapter 5: Tone Values
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In its original edition, the book is called "The Science and Practice of Oil Painting." Unfortunately it's not available in a free edition, but there's an inexpensive print edition that Dover publishes under a different title "Oil Painting Techniques and Materials," and there's also a Kindle edition.

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New Works from Banksy at the The Jungle Refugee Camp in Calais [feedly]



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New Works from Banksy at the The Jungle Refugee Camp in Calais
// Colossal

banksy-1"The Son of a Migrant from Syria

Based on an update to his website this morning it appears Banksy visited the Jungle Refugee Camp in Calais, France, one of the largest refugee camps in western Europe. The artist left behind four new artworks, most notably a piece featuring Steve Jobs carrying an early Macintosh computer and a sack over his shoulder noting his background as a "son of a migrant from Syria," (Jobs was adopted, but his biological father was from Syria). In another piece he references Géricault's famous Raft of Medusa painting, depicting an imperiled group of people on a sinking raft as they hail a modern cruise ship just on the horizon. The artist previously brought attention to the refuge crisis in a piece at Dismaland earlier this year.

In addition to the artworks, part of Banksy's team installed 12 permanent structures and a makeshift playground inside the squalid Jungle camp using materials left behind from Dismaland, a project he refers to as Dismal Aid.

One of the best ways you can help Syrian refugees is through donations to the UN Refugee Agency.

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Saturday, December 5, 2015

Tweet by Bob Ross on Twitter

Bob Ross (@BobRoss)
Lift it… Gentle. Just graze the canvas. This is two hairs and some air, normally we use three, but this is so delicate it's only two.

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Tweet by Martin Kinnear on Twitter

Martin Kinnear (@norfolkpainting)
Van Gogh used chrome yellow for his characteristic palette - but its very toxic and fugitive , so use Hansa Yellow Light or Cadmium Lemon.

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Friday, December 4, 2015

Thursday, December 3, 2015

translucentmind: Freedoms Flight // Hildebrandt [feedly]



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translucentmind: Freedoms Flight // Hildebrandt
// Hyperwave



translucentmind:

Freedoms Flight // Hildebrandt 


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Eye Candy For Today: Gilbert Stuart portraits [feedly]



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Eye Candy For Today: Gilbert Stuart portraits
// lines and colors

Portraits of Matilda Stoughton de Jaudenes, and Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot, by Gilbert Stuart
Portraits of Matilda Stoughton de Jaudenes, and Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot, by Gilbert Stuart

Both paintings are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use the download or zoom icons under the images on the museum's pages.

18th century painter Gilbert Stuart is an artist whose historical stature suffers from "greatest hits" syndrome. His portraits of early U.S. presidents, most famously his iconic portrayals of George Washington, overshadow his accomplishments as a painter and portraitist.

In this double portrait, Stuart pulls out the stops to portray a Spanish diplomat and his sixteen-year-old American bride at the time of their wedding, decked out in the elaborate finery customary in Spain at the time.

Stuart brought a European sensibility to his work — learned during his time in England as a student of Benjamin West — and was the most highly regarded portrait painter in America.

His command of the brush is evident in his confident handling of fabric and the decorative elements of clothing; the economical notation of hair, lace and brocade; and the lively, glowing visages of his young subjects.

 

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Shishkin Painting Methods [feedly]



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Shishkin Painting Methods
// Gurney Journey

Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898)
A couple of months ago we took a look at Ivan Shishkin's opinion of photo reference in his landscape painting. Now let's examine more about his specific working methods.

Preliminary Drawings
He would advise his students: "Before starting the painting, you have to do a sketch to clarify the idea and plan what you're going to be doing on a big canvas."

Note in the sketch at left, Shishkin draws a grid, probably to help him enlarge the composition onto the canvas. 

Shishkin continues: "It's also important to do a preliminary drawing [on the canvas] with charcoal. Put a layer of charcoal on a clean canvas and wipe it with a dry tissue. You'll have a smooth base tone, and you can draw over that with more charcoal. You can erase off halftones and lights using an eraser made from a chunk of black bread. If you do that you will get the effect of lighting you need, and then you're ready to continue with the final painting."

Shishkin typically used ink to clarify the outlines of the trees in his preliminary drawings. Once the preliminary drawing was finished, he would proceed to do a tonal underpainting in monochrome before painting in full color.

Paint and palette organization
"He carefully mixed organized groups of colors on his palette. All the colors must be prepared in groups in advance on the palette. He began by applying the darkest tones of paint. Then he proceeded to the halftones, and so on up to the light." (From a letter from Ivan Shishkin, St. Petersburg, 1896).

Shishkin studied in Düsseldorf, so it's not surprising that he used primarily German paints. "He used zinc whites for big studio paintings and lead whites during his traveling and for outdoor painting, because they dry more quickly. He painted on canvases from Dresden if he could." 

"He used to buy a lot of different paints. But if he didn't know the specifications of a given kind of paint, such as lightfastness and durability, he avoided it." 

"Because of this he completely stopped using carmine oil paint after [Vasily] Polenov showed him a chart of paints that was left in the sun for 10 years, and carmine completely disappeared."

Ivan Shishkin and A. Guinet in the studio on the island of Valaam
Here's a list of Shishkin's paints:
Red paints: 
English red, Chinese vermilion, rose madder, and rose doré, mostly used for glazing. Burnt sienna was his favorite.

Yellows: 
Yellow ocher, cadmium yellows and oranges, zinc yellow (for backgrounds and leaves in the sunlight), raw sienna, chrome yellow (rarely), and Indian yellow (for glazing). He never used gamboge or aureolin. Sometimes he used Naples yellow for sand and roots. Occasionally for foreground textures he would mix fine sand into the paints. 

Blues: 
Sky blue (?) and Prussian blue.

Greens:
He used a lot of different ones, including: permanent green, cobalt green, chrome green, vermilion green, emerald green, and others.

Blacks: 
Ivory black and lamp black oil paint.
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