Archive for June, 2007
Raphael was an Italian painter and architect schooled in the Florentine style of painting during the times if High Renaissance. His artworks were celebrated for their perfection and grace. They were also admired for their clarity of form as well as the ease of composition in depicting the ideal of human grandeur during his time. He was also best known for his Madonna paintings as well as for his large figure artworks that can still be seen at the Vatican in Rome.
Raphael, or Raphael Sanzio was born in Urbino on April 6, 1483 to Giovanni Santi, a painter at the court of Urbino, and Magia di Battista Ciarla. Sadly, his mother died sometime in 1491 while his father died on august 4, 1494. the young Raphael was left an orphan at the age of eleven and came to live with his uncle Bartolomeo who was a priest. The young Raphael showed his talent for the arts as a child and was said to be a great help to his painter father at his studio while he was still alive. By the time he was in his late teens, Raphael was already considered as a master by many people.
During Raphael’s time, Urbino already has become a center of culture that encouraged visits from outsiders of outstanding talents. And as a painter for the royal court at that time, Raphael’s father provided his son with access to the world of current culture and arts and came into contact with other great artists that provided the young painter with the different influences that would further develop his talent through the years.
Raphael’s first documented artwork was said to be an altarpiece made for the church of San Nicola of Tolentino. The artistic genius of Raphael was already evident from this altarpiece, so much so that he was given another important commission- to paint the Coronation of The Virgin for the Oddi Chapel in San Francesco in Perugia (the present Vatican museum in Rome).
Aside from being an accomplished painter during his time, Raphael was also known as a great architect and was commissioned to design a host of buildings in Rome. For a short time, he was also considered as the most important architect and painter in Rome and was even entrusted with the responsibility of preserving and cataloguing the Vatican collections of ancient sculpture.
For a time Raphael also became a student of two great Renaissance masters, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci. It was during his stay in Rome that Raphael was able to do most of his well known Madonna paintings such as the Madonna Della Sedia. But what is probably the most discussed and the well-loved of Raphael’s paintings is the Sistine Madonna. Many experts have tried to decipher the somewhat strange and troubled expressions that show in Mary’s face in the painting as well as that of the young Jesus Christ, pictured as somewhat terror-stricken. Sadly Raphael died at the early age of 37, on his birthday in the year 1520. He died at a time when people were still appreciating his marvelous works and could have shared more of his talent to a generation of art lovers.
June 27th, 2007
Peter Paul Rubens was known to be the most prolific and the most renowned Northern European artist of his day. He was also considered as one of the great artists who have largely contributed to and greatly influenced Western art history. He brought together the realistic tradition of Flemish painting and the imaginative themes being used in Italian Renaissance painting and redirected Northern European painting.
Rubens was, first and foremost, a Baroque style painter and was a proponent of the style that emphasized movement, sensuality and color in his paintings. He was best known for his works on portraits, landscapes as well as historical paintings depicting allegorical and mythological themes. During his time, he was able to run a large studio in Antwerp that has been producing paintings much sought after by nobility and art collectors of his day. He was probably one of the few painters who were able to enjoy the fruits of his success and fame while he was still alive.
Peter Paul Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia, to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. His father was a Calvinist who, along with Rubens mother, fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568, after much persecution was being handed over to Protestants during the rule of the Duke of Alba in the Netherlands. But Rubens was raised a Catholic since his father died while Rubens was still a small child and caring for him was left in the hands of his mother, who left for Antwerp after the death of Rubens father. Rubens was raised in a religious upbringing that it had a great influence in many of his works and was even able to become one of the leading proponents of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting.
Rubens started painting at the young age of fourteen by becoming an apprentice to a little known painter named Tobias Verhaeght. He eventually was able to study under two of Antwerp’s leading painters at that time, Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen, the experience of which greatly influenced and further honed his talent in the arts. Along the way he was able to learn more about other art styles through his travels in other art capitals in the world during that time and studied hard to emulate the different styles and techniques in his own works.
Through the years Rubens became a favorite of a number of noble families for art commissions which became a prized item for collectors even during his time. Rubens was known as a prolific painter who did a lot of religious paintings as well as historic paintings which usually contained mythological subjects. The portraits that he did were those usually of his friends and even those of himself as the subject. It was only later on in his life that he started painting several of his well known landscape artworks. Today, most of Rubens prized creations consistently fetch handsome amounts at the auction houses as they are considered to be much sought after pieces of art. His “Massacre of the Innocents” was sold for a staggering $76.2 million dollars to Lord Thompson at Sothesby’s on July 10, 2002.
June 20th, 2007
Learning to draw takes time and a lot more effort. It takes learning the basic techniques in order to come up with great drawings that people can appreciate more than usual. With the basic drawing techniques in mind, there are a great many drawing beginners who have continued to make the same mistakes over and over again. Here are some of them and what one can do in order to correct them.
1. Drawing On the Wrong Paper
Many beginners don’t seem to care for the type of paper that they are drawing on. In fact, the type of paper being used has all the importance in the world for every drawing hobbyist. Some may think that they make dull drawings without ever realizing that the reason might just be the paper that they are using. Some types of paper can make some drawings look pale. There are some papers that have a surface that has a kind of sheen that prevents most of the pencil particles to stay on them. Some sketch papers can be too coarse and will give your drawings an uneven texture. Try using photocopy paper for you basic drawings instead. They can have the properties that you need to be able to get the most out of your drawing materials.
2. Drawing Using A Hard Pencil
If you see that your drawings don’t seem to have the shadowing or shading effects that you want, chances are, you are using a pencil with a hard tip. Try to now the different grades of pencils and know which ones to use. If you wish to have a darker tone on your drawings, you can use type B, 2B and 4B pencils.
3. Drawing 2D Photos Instead of 3D Objects
This has been a very common mistake for many beginners. They seem to prefer drawing a scene from a photograph instead of practicing on, let’s say, a certain landscape that is in front of them. Practicing drawing from two dimensional photographs seem to give your drawings certain flat features without certain depths in them. This can rob the beginner of practicing how to draw the fine details and features of three dimensional objects and scenes without much perspective and depth. What may come out would just be ordinary drawing that may not have that much on an effect to anyone else.
4. Drawing the Head out of Proportion
Almost every one may have experienced this especially when they began taking up drawing as a hobby. Even the seasoned experts may have gone through the same phase until they finally mastered the principles of proportion. All too often, drawing beginners end up having the heads either too big or too unshapely. It is important to know the rules of proportion in order to be able to draw the head correctly. The best way for one to learn how to draw the head proportionately is by first drawing a ball. Then draw a line from the top of the ball down to the to bottom. Then draw another line from one side of the ball to the other side in order to give you a cross section outline. This will become your markers later on. Extend the top and bottom line of the ball to about a third of the distance and then draw the end to become the chin and jaw. The horizontal line of your ball should mark where the upper bridge of the nose should start. The nose should end somewhere at the curved bottom of the ball. From this, you can then indicate the mouth eyes as well as the ears in their places more proportionately than by doing it free-hand style.
June 15th, 2007
Drawing is a skill that must be practiced in order to master. It is not simply a talent that will work itself out. It takes years of practice sometimes just to learn and understand the fundamentals and apply it in what you are working on. The basics will take you to where you wish to go and the practice and the experience that you gain will help you complete your journey towards mastering your drawings.Along the basics that you have to learn is how to make use of light in your drawings. Light can bring any picture to life. The way you make use of it in your drawings can help provide a better perspective to what you wish to express in your drawings. The type of lighting techniques that you use can influence the type of mood that you wish to convey. Drawing “light” on paper may a while to master. But once you get the hang of it and understand the techniques used on how to put light into paper, then that alone can make you into a better artist than before.
There are four main types of lighting that can be used in your drawings. This will depend on where the supposed light is being sourced from. Here are examples of lighting techniques and how you can put them into paper:
Front Lighting. This is probably the simplest and easiest lighting technique to use on drawings. But it may also be the most unappealing visually. Front lighting can just make your drawings seem elementary. Front lighting eliminates or hides shadows that can otherwise give some bit of depth and perspective on your drawings. Your drawings using front light would look flat, no evidence of using some three dimensional form on them.
Side Lighting. Drawing with the effect of side lighting can put emphasis to the darker and lighter sides of your drawings. But using side lighting may be trickier to do at times. With using a side light, you should be careful of where you might be casting your shadows. These shadows on drawings can actually put some variety as well as add balance into your drawn scenes. With side lights you can draw a tree with its trunk in lighter and darker parts. The darker areas are those not bathed in light. This helps add some depth into your drawings especially if the shadows cast are done just right.
Back Lighting. Backlighting allows you to draw silhouettes. It would not necessarily ruin your drawings if you make use of back lighting that might try to hide most of the details of your scenes. You can make use of back lighting and still come up with great drawings by varying the intensity of darkness on the shadow areas. It will all depend on the creative composition of your drawings that will be able to make the best use of back lighting.
Top Lighting. Drawing that make use of this light source usually create drawings with the light sourced form the top, as what “high noon” scenes can provide. The tops of the objects are usually drawn light and they began to darken going to the bottom.
There are other types of lighting that can be used which can be a variation of any of the above light sources. Mastering how you use them can allow you to come up with more dramatic and more captivating drawings. It would take some time to master, but you would surely appreciate it once you have been able to come up with the finished product.
June 7th, 2007
Art can be an interesting endeavor and it has been for many, many years. Artists throughout the years have made a name for themselves and left lasting legacies that allowed many art lovers today to thank for. And art, in whatever form it takes, has many stories to tell. And art history is here to tell us about such stories, of artists and the interesting stories behind some of the world’s famous art pieces. Here are just some for you to enjoy and think about.
Of Color
Although people have been painting things as a creative expression for the past 20,000 years, it wasn’t until 1880 that people are able to buy ready mixed paints. People before that have to exhaustively create their own colors through a variety of means. Along the subject of colors, during ancient times, there was a belief that certain colors could effectively fight off evil spirits that seem to stay around nurseries. In order to combat them baby boys were made to wear clothes in the color blue since it was associated with the color of heaven. And since the baby boys were considered as most precious to parents most boys started to wear that color. Surprisingly, the parents of girls did not seem to have the same fear. That is why baby girls during those times did not have a certain color associated with them like the baby boys. They ended up wearing mostly black colored clothes. The color pink started becoming the color of choice for baby girls only during the Middle Ages.
Of Artists
There are many stories that abound about certain famous artists and their works. Such an example can come from Leonardo da Vinci. Although many may have heard about the Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous artwork, the Mona Lisa, only a few may have known that it took the renowned artist 12 years just to ponder about, paint and perfect Mona Lisa’s lips. No wonder people still try to mull over her mystical smile. During the time when the famous artwork was stolen from the Louvre in 1912, there were known to be six replicas that were sold as originals, each at a very handsome price. This was done for a good three years until the original painting was finally recovered. Another thing of note about Leonardo da Vinci is that he wrote all his personal notes in reverse, requiring others to use a mirror in order to read them.
There are also interesting stories that surround other famous artists throughout history. For example, despite Vincent Van Gogh’s fame today, he was only able to sell one and only one painting during his lifetime- his Red Vineyard at Arles. On December 3, 1961 Henri Matisse’s painting Le Bateau was finally put the right way up after found to be hanging upside-down for 46 days without anyone noticing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, America. The famous artist Picasso learned how to draw before he can walk. His first word was the Spanish word for pencil. In every painting made by the famous Salvador Dali, one would be able to find a self-portrait if one looks hard enough. One could see, at the very least, the artist’s silhouette in some of them.
And another interesting thought for art lovers out there. A camel hair brush isn’t actually made from real camel hair. The brush can be made of horse, bear, sheep or even squirrel hair, but surely no camel.
June 1st, 2007