Motivated by a show of Rubens drawings at the MET, and some portraits she saw last summer in Vienna, “Goethe Girl” explores Goethe’s take on Rubens.
“..but looking through his writings on art I discovered that Rubens was a lifelong enthusiasm.
Here’s a quote from Goethe on Ruben’s female figures: “What the painter hasn’t loved, doesn’t love, he should not portray, cannot portray. You find Rubens’ women too fleshy! I tell you, they were his women, and had he populated heaven and hell, the air, the earth, and the sea with ideal beings, then he would have been a bad husband, and powerful flesh would not have grown from his flesh nor [powerful] bone from his bone.”
Read the entire essay here.
From the Portrait Society of America Web Site:
“The Art of the Portrait® Conference is right around the corner, and we would like to invite you to register for our celebration of excellence in portraiture and figurative art. Attendees from around the globe enjoy opportunities to experience more than 30 individual demonstrations, lectures, panel discussions, workshops and shop directly from top manufacturers at special discounted rates, including Art Boards, Peggy Baumgaertner, Custom Canvas Workshop, Gamblin Artists Colors, General Pencil Co., HK Holbein Artist Materials, Hughes Easels, Jack Richeson & Co., Liliedahl Video Productions, Martin/ F. Weber, Silver Brush Ltd., Studio Incamminati, Turtlewood Palettes, Natural Pigments and Signilar Art Videos. Attendees are also invited to visit area museums and ateliers, share portfolios in one-on-one critique sessions with agents and internationally acclaimed artists, view an exhibition of top works from the International Portrait Competition and network with over 700 attending artists, agents and manufacturers. Join us April 23 – 26, 2009 in Washington, D.C. for the 11th Annual The Art of the Portrait”
When I saw this progression of a digital portrait from start to finish on Heather’s blog, I recognized the mass-in approach many oil painters use. I suspected she had been trained in classical media. As it turns out, she has. It seems to me that digital artists who were first trained in classical media can do good work in any 2 dimensional media.
For this work Heather used a pressure sensitive digital tablet and started with a blank ‘canvas’ — without tracing: “Everything is drawn by eye though, no painting over a photograph or cutting pieces of the photograph to match up the sizes. I think it’s better practice that way.”
The U.K. Guardian reports on this week’s sale of drawings in Dorchester that includes a David Hockney portrait sketch of Peter Schlesinger, and “is expected to fetch up to £15,000.”
“The portrait, along with another Hockney sketch, a pencil drawing by Henri Matisse valued at up to £40,000, and etchings by Picasso and Lucian Freud worth between £30,000 and £25,000, have been owned by a private collector in Wiltshire since the 1970s, who is described by auctioneer Guy Schwinge as having ‘a refined eye’.”
Here’s a link to the story
Over at TakeOutPhoto, Marc responds to a question about how to approach people on the streets without creeping them out. So he hits the streets with the goal of asking 10 people for permission to shoot.
“I reacted quickly when I saw a girl with some pretty original tattoos coming toward me with her bike. “Great tatts! Can I take a picture?” She obliged. It was that simple. We talked about how a friend of hers did the tattoos then she introduced me to her girlfriend (I really should have taken a picture of them together), and that was that. I love the personality in her expression.”
After relating a few more experiences like the one above, Marc shares what he learned. Like this, for example: “Most people will let you take their portrait if you are natural, complimentary, and friendly about it. Tell them it’s for a project if you like or an assignment from a crazy blog that you read..”
The read and the accompanying photos are here.
National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition “Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the Twentieth Century,” runs from today through August 16.
Wendy Reaves, curator of prints and drawings, said that exhibit offers 187 portraits from 66 artists, including Alexander Calder, Edward Hopper, Chuck Close, David Hockney, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.
The drawings “….in the exhibition make it clear how much of a ‘different species’ the self portrait is from a portrait done of a sitter and how much self-portraiture, a 500-year tradition, has changed just in the 20th century. In a self-portrait, as opposed to a commissioned portrait, for example, the artist doesn’t have to appease a patron.”
The announcement can be found here, and the photo gallery lives on this page.
It’s about creativity, life, and art — this short video is deserving all the net buzz it’s generating.
Atlanta based editorial photographer Zach Arias responded to Scott Kirby’s invitation to guest-blog. It starts out whimsically and ends up — well, just see for yourself.
I love coming across really nice drawings on the web.
This charcoal and pastel portrait by Ramesh Jhawar effectively uses the tint of the paper for the midtones, charcoal for the darks, and white pastel for the lights.
Marcel Duchamp is best known for his 1912 painting “Nude Descending the Staircase.” That’s nice enough, and if you can get past the toilets he adorned as art, the the Dada movement he is associated with, then you might find a few portraits interesting.
“Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture,” is on show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. These are portraits of Duchamp — not all are by Duchamp. Here’s some name-dropping: Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Jasper Johns, and Ray Johnson.
The NPG’s exhibit page can be found here.
Over at artstudiosecrets.com, artist Lisa Gloria relates how she’s handling a multiple portrait commission.
“One portrait is a challenge, but 3 distinct framed paintings pose a new set of problems to be solved. I needed to make them look like they belonged together, while using disparate photo resources. Also I wanted the installation to seem harmonious as a whole composition.”
“I didn’t have the option of posing them similarly, so instead I chose to balance different poses against each other as though they were in the same composition. Their suits and ties are in shades of grey, with check patterns as a recurring theme – sometimes in a tie, sometimes in a jacket.”
The writeup is here, and Lisa promises to share the portraits after they are accepted by the client. The crop of the oil portrait you see on this page is “Isobela in Tahitian Dress” from Lisa’s gallery, and can be admired by visiting this page.
Darren Rowse offers this thoughts why he prefers environmental portraits:
“They give context to the subject you’re photographing. They give points of interest to shots (something you need to watch as you don’t want to distract from your subject too much). They help your subject relax. They often give the viewer of your shots real insight into the personality and lifestyle of your subject.”
This article also provides some tips on taking environmental portraits, as shows some examples of environmental portraiture from Flickr’s vast catalog.
The article lives here.
When we think of digital painting, the tool that usually comes to mind is photoshop, or if you’re really into it – Coral Painter.
But the free image editing program known as Gimp also supports brushes in conjunction with pressure sensitive tablets. This Steve Halpin time lapse video, 3 minutes long following a 30 second ad, shows what can be done with Gimp and a skilled hand.
David McKelvie posted this entertaining piece on his reluctance to be on the target end of a lens, and included a couple of self-portraits as well.
“… Puberty, however, killed any desire to be recorded for posterity…
…I think I’m too acutely aware of what is expected – and what is expected is that this image will represent me. I am more than what is contained with these edges, I think to myself. And that makes me assume a perverted image of myself. All of this happens against my will. Discomfort, both before the photograph is taken and once it is viewed, is the result.”
Get entertained here.
In this short entry, Leia Brown discusses why she sketches thumbnails before painting a portrait.
” It is good to take advantage of the benefits that come from drawing preliminary thumbnails….”
“The most effective way of using thumbnails would be to test out different compositions, different values and even the shape of your canvas or paper. It’s amazing how many different versions of the same subject can be created!”
Here’s the post.
Howard Zehr explores the relationship between subject and photographer on his restorative justice blog.
“This experience of being a subject is something all photographers should subject themselves to from time to time. We need to be reminded what it is like to be on the other side of the lens and, more generally, of the mutual relationships that photography entails.”
“The mutual regard underlying such a portrait involves a relationship of trust and vulnerability, if only briefly. Power relationships are also involved.”
The essay can be read here..
In this 3 minute video, Shen Wei discusses his latest project “Almost Naked.” He explores sensuality, intimacy, and instinct, and how he exposes his subject’s vulnerabilities and nakedness, both physical and emotional.
“My most exquisite moment is when I feel I’ve really bonded with my subject.”
New York based artist Matt Held is well into his facebook project.
“My goal for this project is to build a large collection of paintings that mirror individual self-portraits, sum 200. With the development of social networking sites, I’ve developed an interest in how people take simple or complex snapshots of themselves, post them to their page as a representation of who they are and what they want people to see.”
Here are a few of my favorites for your enjoyment, posted with Matt’s permission. Pertinent links follow.
Rick Sammon discusses the role of feeling vs thinking in this post at Layers Magazine.
“I feel that a photographer must know exactly what all the buttons, knobs, dials, and settings do on a camera so that when he or she sees a shot, the process becomes more about feeling than thinking about the technical side of photography (this must become second nature).”
Read all about it here.
The 591 Photography blog features self-portraits by Michelle Marie Roy through May 30.
“The basis for my work has nothing to do with capturing a moment or exploring the world through documentation. I create purely fictive scenarios that are an expression of an inner world or concept.”
“With regard to technique, all of my images are straight photographs. In other words, no Photoshop was used. This was mainly out of necessity at first. I was late in learning the program, and now, given the choice, it is the way I prefer to work. The effects in the photographs were created by several means, such as mixing daylight and artificial light, photographing through various materials, using make-up and costumes, and reflections.”
OutofNapkins (huh?) just posted 22 guidlines for portrait posing. Each item is short and to the point. I particularly like number 8: “For any portrait – avoid tight stripes or corduroy as they significantly increase the odds of developing a moiré pattern in smaller prints.” But I might change it to: “For living a life, avoid corduroy….”
Get your guidelines here.
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