I was always drawing dragons, girls and guys with swords, wizards, elves and other such stuff. I fancied that I was pretty good. When I got to high school and started taking tons of art classes, my view began to change. I became much less impressed with the book covers I used to admire, and soon developed what you might call a more refined taste in art.
True, I still fancied myself as a fantasy artist for a time. But as I attended art competitions with surrounding high schools, I found that I excelled at still lifes and landscapes. There was a yearly fantasy art contest too, but I never won a prize there until my senior year...and it was only a second place prize at that.
Now a days, I must admit I view most book cover art with distain..I suppose that is the price you pay for an education in art. And while previous posts have shown that I still dabble in fantasy-esque illustration, I have to say that I am the most proud of my pieces that stray far from that genre of art work.
For instance, while I was still single living in Seattle, I did a fun piece portraying our kitchen chairs. They were set up in the living room for a party my roommates and I were going to have, and the light hitting them from the nearby window struck me as quite beautiful.
Now, I had a hard time trying to get a good photo of this drawing (its too big for my scanner) so I will post the two best photos so you get a better idea of what it looks like:
What I like about this picture: the chairs of course! my favorites are the short chair in the center (the colors turned out really nice) and the seat just a bit closer to the viewer. I also admired the green backs of the taller chairs. Incidentally, when I got married someone gave us this same set for our kitchen.
What I don't like about this picture: the background, the green back of the closest metal frame, and the carpet. I didn't plan it out well, and hurried through it too fast. Things are spaced out poorly, the window looks really fake, and because its the brightest thing in the drawing, it draws all the attention to its imperfections. In the original setting, there was a couch in front of the window, but I took it out for aesthetic reasons.
We had stucco walls, and I didn't have the patience to figure out how to portray that on this texture of paper. I didn't like the pictures that were on the walls so I drew different ones, and its painfully obvious that they aren't real. If I were to somehow to re-do the background, this would be a fine piece.
Anyways, these are the kind of still lifes I like: portrayals of everyday things in a beautiful way. Oh yeah, paintings of industrial stuff ( gears, pipes, train yards) have a soft spot in my heart as well.
See... these were two of my favorite pieces in the last competition they had in my artist magazine:
Mickie Acierno: Number Thirty-five
Antonio Masi: Willie B.I like these on so many levels. The first one: obviously the portrayal of light and the realism is awesome. But then there are the glowing colors, the use of repetition (notice how the orange peel is curling in the same shape as the number below it), use of the golden mein, and the overall composition. And lets face it, I'm a sucker for the color orange. However, there was another portrayal of oranges in the same issue, and I wasn't interested in that one much at all.
The second one: industrial landscapes are just...cool. Some people find them ugly, but I could stare at stuff like this for hours. There is a sense of mystery, foreboding, adventure. The composition is very nice too; excellent use of the golden mein.
If you want to see more of the stuff from this competition, head over to the Artists Magazine.
And I guess that is our art lesson for today!
And I guess that is our art lesson for today!
14 comments:
I love how you portrayed your chairs! It's amazing how you can take sometime so simple as how the chairs are lined up in your dining room, and turn it into art! You are very talented Tearese!
I really like that piece of the orange... very creative... I wouldn't mind hanging that in my home somewhere. Have any of your pieces ever been featured in The Artist's Magazine?
haha, I wish! I think the stuff in that magazine is at a much higher level than I'm at. Although I've considered entering the student competition (you can be considered a student if you don't consider yourself a professional, or you have painted for less than two years.)
Thanks for the compliment though.
So, I just found the artists website, for that orange piece (http://www.whiterockgallery.com/Mickie_Acierno.htm)
and she sold that piece for $2900, unframed. Nice.
I like the orange one, it's pretty. The other one is cool 'cuz it's all misty and stuff. :)
I love these posts.
I like the chairs too! :) I used to draw all the time and often wish I had developed my talent. I wouldn't be able to do anything as good as your chairs!
I also really like the orange. The other one is interesting too.
Forgive my ignorance, but what is "golden mein"?
Kara, thank you! I was going to ask that, too! Tearese, please continue the art lesson!
I second (or fifth?) the motion that the orange is awesome! Someday I'd like to be able to buy selected works of art that I think are special, even if they cost $2900 or more. Someday.
I love your art posts, especially when you post your own art. I also liked that you critique your work and tell us things like the pictures in the background being "fake". Awesome!
Well...you learn about it in art, interior design, photography, and other visual arts. Its really complicated to explain (I'll enclose an actual definition after this) but its basically deviding the picture plain into perfect thirds...sort of. You can train your eye to see it, but here's the technical explanation :
In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. The golden ratio is approximately 1.6180339887 (from the quadratic formula[1]).
At least since the Renaissance, many artists and architects have proportioned their works to approximate the golden ratio—especially in the form of the golden rectangle, in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter is the golden ratio—believing this proportion to be aesthetically pleasing. Mathematicians have studied the golden ratio because of its unique and interesting properties.
The golden ratio can be expressed as a mathematical constant, usually denoted by the Greek letter \varphi (phi). The figure of a golden section illustrates the geometric relationship that defines this constant. Expressed algebraically:
\frac{a+b}{a} = \frac{a}{b} = \varphi\,.
This equation has as its unique positive solution the algebraic irrational number
\varphi = \frac{1 + \sqrt{5}}{2}\approx 1.61803\,39887\,... [1]
Other names frequently used for or closely related to the golden ratio are golden section (Latin: sectio aurea), golden mean, golden number, and the Greek letter phi Other terms encountered include extreme and mean ratio, medial section, divine proportion (Italian: proporzione divina), divine section (Latin: sectio divina), golden proportion, golden cut.
Wow... I looked at the site that you linked to with the painting of the orange... I love that artist's work!
How does an artist determine the price of a piece? Do they charge so many dollars per hour that they put into painting it? Or do they just base it off the way it looks?
I would love to be a painter... but I find myself intimidated by the many great paintings that I see... it would probably take me a very long time to paint something wonderful...
Some artists take a year to complete a piece, while others can do one in a day, so per-hour is a very inefficent way to price artwork.
Price can be based on the size of the piece, how long you have been an artist(so how well-known and professional you are), and where you're selling it. Like you price higher for a gallery than you would say a street fair. When you become more well known, its expected that you raise your prices, but you should never lower your prices again as this is considered dishonest. You also gauge by the other artwork your piece is being shown with; you don't want to price too low and undervalue the work of the other artists around you.
The one painting I sold was for $300, and they bought the frame for $200...but in a professional atmosphere, it was big enough that a higher price would have been reasonable.
But then I've done really nice drawings for friends and asked for $25, and they act like I'm really putting them out...which is really annoying, as this is extremely cheap for a professional piece of art!
Wow, that's some definition! I think I remember talking about this in math. It's interesting how two subjects that seem so different can overlap.
My brother paints. He gets $25 on most of the paintings he put's in the county fair-and they never pay the value of the painting. Of course, they also don't keep it. He sold one painting for $600. It was a large framed piece made with they buyer in mind. I think she was a bit generous since she new him and knew he needed money for school. But she obviously also reconized the value of his talent. Good art is expensive.
I like how picky you are about your art, that is what it takes to do great things, to see the flaws so you can perfect it. Many artist do no have that good eye about their own work. Good for you.
Wow... so crazy that price is so subjective with painting! I don't think I would ever know what to charge!
I love paintings of common everyday objects, too. And I love to read your analysis of paintings. You help me see things I wouldn't have on my own. Although, I think you are much too critical of your work!
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