Month: June 2008
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Americans Abroad: J.C. Leyendecker and the European Academic Influence on American Illustration
Joseph Christian Leyendecker and his brother Frank X. Leyendecker, both among the absolute best illustrators ever, acquired some of their marvelous technique, finesse and painting skill in the course of classical art training in Europe. It was common in the late 19th Century for American artists to make the pilgrimage to Paris, the bright jewel…
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William Dyce
It has long been a tradition for artists to learn by studying and copying the works of masters who came before them. In the middle of the 19th Century, it also became common practice to paint scenes from the lives of great artists, along with composers, poets, writers and other historical figures. Here we have…
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Gobelins Students’ Animations at Annecy Animated Film Festival 2008
If, like me, you have grown just a little weary of super-slick and oh-so-kinetic CGI animated movies, and long occasionally for the simpler pleasures of hand-drawn animated films, here’s a site to make your day. Every year the graduating students at the Gobelins school in Paris, where they apparently have some incredibly effective instructors and/or…
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Keith Thompson
Keith Thompson specializes in the grotesque. Whether desiccated, corpse like figures wandering across bleak landscapes; alarmingly emaciated creatures, teeth and fangs protruding from folds of hide; strangely organic robots, scratched and worn and suggestive of some sinister purpose; or bizarrely armored warriors of some arcane and forgotten civilization; his drawings and paintings seem to find…
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Shitao
Shitao (Yuanji Shih T’ao, original name Zhu Rueji) was a Chinese painter of the early Quing period, active in the late 1600’s. Shitao was a member of Ming royalty, and survived the fall of that house to invaders from Manchuria, changed his name and became a Buddhist monk. He is classed as an “individualist” painter.…
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Impressionist Giverny: American Painters in France, 1885-1915
Contrary to to the dreary picture that Hollywood and popular culture sometimes like to paint of tortured, misunderstood loners living lives of desperation “for the sake of their art”, artists are usually quite social, and often like to congregate with other artists, particularly those who share their viewpoints on artistic direction. This seems to have…