Thread for the Fine Arts of painting, sculpture, and other interesting mediums!

[Copperfox]

Yes, Tiff, I beat you to it; and I am forced to express my deep disappointment with your slack handling of classroom discipline. I shall have to send a memo to the head of this department, a certain Professor Tiffany "QA48" Narvaez, and recommend to her that she call you before a review board--a board consisting of me and whoever else on TDL thinks highly of you--a board whose grim and solemn purpose will be to tell you that you are a terrific, delightful, gracious, talented, engaging, winsome, insightful, charming, versatile, erudite, lovely, knowledgeable, captivating, witty, diplomatic, memorable, clever, generous, tactful, admirable, stimulating and marvellous woman!

 

[QA48]

Yes, Tiff, I beat you to it; and I am forced to express my deep disappointment with your slack handling of classroom discipline. I shall have to send a memo to the head of this department, a certain Professor Tiffany "QA48" Narvaez, and recommend to her that she call you before a review board--a board consisting of me and whoever else on TDL thinks highly of you--a board whose grim and solemn purpose will be to tell you that you are a terrific, delightful, gracious, talented, engaging, winsome, insightful, charming, versatile, erudite, lovely, knowledgeable, captivating, witty, diplomatic, memorable, clever, generous, tactful, admirable, stimulating and marvellous woman!

It's hard not to smile while reading this

Oh I tracked down your post on the "What is Beauty" thread:

The loss of an agreed-upon concept of objectively visible--and thus _portrayable_--beauty, has done a little-understood kind of damage to the arts. Is it an accident that increased grotesqueness in the arts has accompanied the decline of a belief in universal moral laws? If art cannot portray the beautiful to an audience that understands, it is that much harder for art to portray what is noble and good. Franky Schaeffer, son of Dr. Francis Schaeffer, has written at least one book about the decay of the arts. If anyone can track it down, it may be worth reading.

I looked up a list of all the books Dr. Shaeffer had written (Than you, Amazon!) and the one pertaining to art is called "Art and the Bible: Two Essays." Needless to say, I will be treating myself to this book pretty soon.

 

[Copperfox]

Smiling in the classroom? Is _that_ the kind of example you, a faculty member, plan on setting for the student body? Suggesting _enjoyment_ of the fine arts, as opposed to a proper dry-as-dust, long-faced approach? This is worse than I thought! If you continue in this manner, Tiff, I predict that you'll be getting more of the same kind of reprimand you have already received.

 

[QA48]

Hopefully we can lure another artist into joining the thread.

*hint* Angela *hint*

So if any of you are reading this, please, come and post! Tell us about your influences and inspirations, techniques, medium you prefer to work with as well as subjects!

 

[Mrs. Pevensie]

I got the hint Tiff...

This is my most recent drawing...it's basic paper size drawing i did in my sketchbook of a Roman Soldier!

 

[QA48]

I got the hint Tiff...

This is my most recent drawing...it's basic paper size drawing i did in my sketchbook of a Roman Soldier!

Did you draw the looking at a picture or did you draw from your imagination. You do well with lighting and shading.

Have you studied light at all and the effects it has when hitting an object from different angles?

 

[Copperfox]

Mrs. Pevensie, I'll bet most beholders of your work won't comment about the soldier's ear; but I've done enough drawing of human subjects to know that it's challenging to draw the ear with realistic contours. You have succeeded.

Speaking of difficulties with anatomy: although I'm not able to post any art of mine on here directly, and I have no samples now of what I'm thinking about anyway, I think I can make you understand with words what one of my boyhood errors was.

Raise one of your hands in front of your face. If you were to close this hand around something like a baseball bat or a flagstaff, your thumb would come to rest against your index finger. But now, as you look at your hand, use your other hand to force the first hand's thumb down under the tip of your baby finger. Imagine trying to grasp and handle an object with your thumb in this unnatural position. Well, for God knows what reason, as a boy I would draw men's hands in just this position when I depicted them grasping objects with their hands. I think I was at least twelve years old before I finally figured out why grasping hands in my drawings looked wrong!

 

[Mrs. Pevensie]

Did you draw the looking at a picture or did you draw from your imagination. You do well with lighting and shading.

Have you studied light at all and the effects it has when hitting an object from different angles?

I drew it from a photo, but the picture was like 1/8 the size of my drawing!

All of my native American inspired drawings are all from straight out of my head!

I haven't taken any lessons in shading at all! That's why all my drawings are in grayscale...cuz it's easier to get the shading right than if I did it in color!

 

[Mrs. Pevensie]

Mrs. Pevensie, I'll bet most beholders of your work won't comment about the soldier's ear; but I've done enough drawing of human subjects to know that it's challenging to draw the ear with realistic contours. You have succeeded.

Speaking of difficulties with anatomy: although I'm not able to post any art of mine on here directly, and I have no samples now of what I'm thinking about anyway, I think I can make you understand with words what one of my boyhood errors was.

Raise one of your hands in front of your face. If you were to close this hand around something like a baseball bat or a flagstaff, your thumb would come to rest against your index finger. But now, as you look at your hand, use your other hand to force the first hand's thumb down under the tip of your baby finger. Imagine trying to grasp and handle an object with your thumb in this unnatural position. Well, for God knows what reason, as a boy I would draw men's hands in just this position when I depicted them grasping objects with their hands. I think I was at least twelve years old before I finally figured out why grasping hands in my drawings looked wrong!

You have amazing critiques and a way with words Copperfox! Thanks you so much, it is greatly appreciated that you would notice the ear! I see what you mean about your story as a boy. I remember when I was in the 8th grade my sister was in high school and she was doing a drawing of herself for a class. And I, with no drawing experience at all, was trying to tell her how to draw the hand because I could tell that it looked funny and I knew how to correct it...of course she didn't listen to me because I was only 12!

 

[QA48]

Mrs. Pevensie, I'll bet most beholders of your work won't comment about the soldier's ear; but I've done enough drawing of human subjects to know that it's challenging to draw the ear with realistic contours. You have succeeded.

Speaking of difficulties with anatomy: although I'm not able to post any art of mine on here directly, and I have no samples now of what I'm thinking about anyway, I think I can make you understand with words what one of my boyhood errors was.

Raise one of your hands in front of your face. If you were to close this hand around something like a baseball bat or a flagstaff, your thumb would come to rest against your index finger. But now, as you look at your hand, use your other hand to force the first hand's thumb down under the tip of your baby finger. Imagine trying to grasp and handle an object with your thumb in this unnatural position. Well, for God knows what reason, as a boy I would draw men's hands in just this position when I depicted them grasping objects with their hands. I think I was at least twelve years old before I finally figured out why grasping hands in my drawings looked wrong!

My art teacher talked about the same thing! That's why for our first project he made us draw our hand holding an object. He also made us practice drawing our hands while making different movements and how each finger reacts to a movement made by another finger. I'll see if I can take a pic of my final result of the assignment. But beware, I made no use of light at all because at the time I had not studied light and shading

 

[Mrs. Pevensie]

My art teacher talked about the same thing! That's why for our first project he made us draw our hand holding an object. He also made us practice drawing our hands while making different movements and how each finger reacts to a movement made by another finger. I'll see if I can take a pic of my final result of the assignment. But beware, I made no use of light at all because at the time I had not studied light and shading

haha, I just wing it sometimes...I add a lot of my own shading, if I want it to look a certain way! Just the right shading in a certain spot can change the entire picture! For instance (on the Frodo drawing I'm currently doing) I worked on his face for several hours just trying to get the shading just right, so that he would have a certain expression on his face! At first he looked mad, so I added some shading here, erased some there...so that he looked more like in dispair! The shading is everything to me!!!

 

[QA48]

Leonardo was one of the first to bring up the color of shading since Aristotle. They both believed that color changes according to the degree of light and shading hitting an object or surface. According to Aristotle, there is no such thing as an object or form with a true color because light and shade affects a color. I found this to be very interesting since I always thought that shadow produced the color black on an object or surface lol

 

[Mrs. Pevensie]

Leonardo was one of the first to bring up the color of shading since Aristotle they both believed that color changes according to the degree of light and shading hitting an object or surface. According to Aristotle, there is no such thing as an object or form with a true color because light and shade affects a color. I found this to be very interesting since I always thought that shadow produced the color black on an object or surface lol

oh, yes this is very true...colors don't really exist! what we see is the light reflecting off an object! Whatever rays of light the object doesn't absorb, creates the color and degree of shade and so forth!

 

[Copperfox]

There ARE colors, but WHAT colors are is frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, their very lowest frequencies (red end of the visible spectrum) still being higher than any frequency that is used as radio or radar. Material substances, then, have diverse pigmentation qualities according to which frequencies they absorb and which they reflect. For some reason, while red, blue and yellow are the primary colors with respect to pigmentation, the primary colors of visible light are considered to be red, blue and GREEN. That's why if you examine a projection television set, you'll find that it has red, blue and green light sources which do something-or-other.

 

[QA48]

Speaking of colors, you know what style I really liked but unfortunately there wasn't a big movement promoting it? Pointalism. Obviously, Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon..."comes to mind. He experimented with how colors reacted when placed next to another according to the human eye. The movement was called Neo-impressionism but instead of focusing the effects of light, they focused on the effect of colors.

I got to see the Seurat painting I mentioned above when I went to the Met in New York and was disapppointed to find out the painting wasn't as big as I thought it was going to be. Someone had told me the painting was monumental in size

 

[Mrs. Pevensie]

I got to see the Seurat painting I mentioned above when I went to the Met in New York and was disapppointed to find out the painting wasn't as big as I thought it was going to be. Someone had told me the painting was monumental in size

Beautiful painting, i've seen it before...funny how it is just the size of an ordinary wall-painting! If that's you in the picture...your very pretty Tiff!

 

[Copperfox]

Yes, Angela, that was Professor Tiff you saw. But I would not say she's pretty--ONLY gorgeous, enchanting, sexy, pulchritudinous, beautiful, svelte, entrancing, shapely, unforgettable, striking, lissome, cute, hot, nubile, appealing and an absolutely delicious head-turner. It would swell her head too much if I said she was pretty.

 

[Mrs. Pevensie]

Yes, Angela, that was Professor Tiff you saw. But I would not say she's pretty--ONLY gorgeous, enchanting, sexy, pulchritudinous, beautiful, svelte, entrancing, shapely, unforgettable, striking, lissome, cute, hot, nubile, appealing and an absolutely delicious head-turner. It would swell her head too much if I said she was pretty.

hahahah...yes most definitely!

 

[Solya]

That's another lovely piece, Solya. I believe you said acrylics? Do you ever work in oils or water color? When our girls were younger and spent more time with us, I used to get them all different stuff to try, but oils were not a success around here! All three of us found acrylics much easier to work with, at that time.

Mmm, I have never worked with oils before. I have some unused water color stuff here, though, so I might give that a go. The thing I like about acrylics, though, is that it just needs a bit of water and that it dries very rapidly. I usually work with layers in my paintings and acrylics are just wonderful where that's concerned.

And your views and techniques of creating a work, not to mention the colors, go along the lines of those who were part of the surrealist movement. I can see how someone like Salvador Dali has influenced you

Thanks. My whole viewpoint on life is slightly surrealistic and off-beat, so it's only natural that it comes forth in my paintings. I also like the work of M.C. Escher and Hieronymus Bosch a lot... coincidentally, those artists are from my country...

And oh, Mrs P, I love your drawing!

 

[inkspot]

Thanks, Solya -- I think that's why we found acrylics easier, too. They dry fast. Good selling point.

Mrs P, your drawing is beautiful!