Revolutionary videos...

With a title like that you would expect earth shattering stuff....however this is not totally the case. haha Though I got some pretty amazing videos to watch!

For this first video, sometimes the greatest teacher is watching...this video clearly opened my eyes to amazing possibilities:

Artist: Will Terry

Website: http://willterry.com/

Blog: http://www.willterry.blogspot.com/

Next is a video (once again no talking) that totally revolutionized my view on line-work...as you watch the video you might notice that instead of one continuos line the artist works up to it with short strokes! (The Japanese are so meticulous about their line-work.) The coloring process is also fun to watch.

Artist: 得能正太郎

Website: http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~ppss/

Another Will Terry speed painting:

Artist: Will Terry

Website: http://willterry.com/

Blog: http://www.willterry.blogspot.com/

These next two I couldn't get to post on blogger. So click on the link below the image, once the page is loaded click on the video and wait for a few seconds before it starts:

Realistic Old man:

http://nicoviewer.net/sm1380867

Realistic cat:

http://nicoviewer.net/sm1503266

Artist: Matataku

Blog: http://matataku.blog.shinobi.jp/

I think that this enough for now. I guess today ended up being only "Watch them paint" haha. Hope you enjoy!

Zinaida Serebriakova - Katya in the Kitchen ~ composition/color

I am addressing an artwork by one of my favorite painters, Zinaida Serebriakova.

Katya in the Kitchen 1923

by Zinaida Serebriakova

Zinaida's life was filled with much hardships, including being a woman painter during the Russian revolution era (1917). Despite extenuating circumstances of her husband dying young, and even being separated from half her children for several decades due to the war, she turned out a large body of solid artwork. In fact a large portion of her work involves paintings of herself and her children as the main subjects.

The reason I gave you background info is because the painting I'm covering today is one of of Zinaida's two daughters, Katya, or as my wife pointed out Katerina (Katya is a Russian name, short for Katerina. Its nice having a wife that speaks Russian).

Collection of Zinaida's paintings online: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/zinaida-serebriakova

----Never at any point will I attempt to break any picture down in its entirety; just a quick analyzation of some of its strengths. ---

As I began to break the picture down I noticed something that stood out...

If you draw a line following the ACTUAL lines in her painting in the lower portion, and then the implied lines in the upper half it creates a diamond. The diamond compositionally frames and contains the busiest and most important elements of the painting. Notice how she craftily included elements outside the diamond that give us a moment to reflect (the negative space), and then to gradually lead us into the heart of the piece (such as the blue fish tail, radish tails, and the orange pot).

If that wasn't enough, the disovery continues... One of the most useful methods I've found in analyzing a picture is to take it out of context: greyscale, flip it backwards, or in this case paint over it/simplify it.

Despite the obvious predominantly use of complimentary colors (orange/blue, red/green), I found some interesting relationships with the colors as focal points. As I took the painting out of context, I also drew lines relating the colors throughout the painting...the results were almost mathematical, which surprised me for a domestic casual looking subject.

Interesting facts to note: all but the yellow and green start or bounce outside the diamond. In fact the green is the only color that does not have a relating jump-point. Overall a very balanced painting.

Justin Gerard - St. George's Dragon ~ part 1 colors

Sometimes it is hard to decide why you like a particular illustration. Justin Gerard is one of those artists that make it almost impossible for me!

St. George and the Dragon

by Justin Gerard

Justin's website: http://justingerard.com/

Justin's blog: http://quickhidehere.blogspot.com/

----Never at any point will I attempt to break any picture down in its entirety; just a quick analyzation of some of its strengths. ---

The first thing that caught my eye about this piece is the character design.

Like most of Justin's pieces this illustration had a bit of fun infused into it. For me, the humans was it. Perhaps it was the simplicity of their design (in comparison to Justin's more serious and deeply rendered pieces), or the comical/hopeless nature of their scale (in comparison to the towering cliff walls and even the dragon), or maybe it was their colors (that were a bit more lively than Justin usually uses on main characters), whatever the reason, I loved the humans.

The next thing I wanted to discuss was his color usage. If you take a moment to analyze the picture, like I did, you will notice an ascending use of analogous colors starting from yellow to red.

This hiarchal use of color is much like traffic lights in the U.S., where the yellow is a warning and red is STOP! Our eyes are drawn to the yellow, they naturally travel to the orange (we are further warned by the drawn sword) and then rest on the RED dragon and we stop and think about what we saw.

The second thing you might notice is his use of complementary colors. In the foreground Justin introduces some green, so that he could use it MORE of it around the dragon, which is obviously red. Next, if you look in-between the crevices of the canyons distant wall, it is a toned purple, while the closer cliff faces are a tinted hazy yellow. This color usage also carries below in the foreground with the water.

Well thats if for my first official post. I hope that it wasn't too much blah, blahing. haha! Hope you enjoy!