Author: cparker
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Robert Fawcett: The Illustrator’s Illustrator
Robert Fawcett, though quite successful and in demand, was not the most popular illustrator of his time or the highest paid. He was, however, probably the most respected (and perhaps envied), by his peers. Fawcett earned the appellation “the illustrator’s illustrator” from that admiration. Highly skilled, independently minded, and committed to quality and mastery in…
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Eric Drooker
It’s worth a visit to the website of illustrator, painter and graphic novel artist Eric Drooker for his beautifully realized, humorous and thought provoking New Yorker covers alone. You can add to this his expressive paintings and graphically powerful drawings, along with previews of some of his illustrated books, notably Howl (images above, 3rd from…
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“Watercolour” at the Tate Britain
Watercolor, or watercolour, with an added “u” if you learned your English in England (grin), has a long history, perhaps going back to cave paintings that predate most of recorded history. Watercolor involves the creation of paint by suspending pigment in a water soluble binder, for a long time animal hide glues or plant sugars,…
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Van Gogh’s yellows turning brown
Much has been made of the advances over the centuries, and particularly in the last century or two, in paint chemistry, allowing artists to work with an ever-broadening array of pigments, and often providing much needed replacements for older, plant-based pigments that were fugitive over time. Not all advances in paint technology are for the…
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Olga Antonenko and Arseny Gutov (update)
When I first wrote about Russian concept artists, matte painters and illustrators Olga Antonenko and Arseny Gutov back in 2006, I was disappointed that their shared website, CGpolis didn’t assign credits for individual pieces, so it was impossible to determine which works were by one artist or the other, or whether any or all were…
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Caravaggio in Rome
Michelangelo Merisi, AKA Caravaggio, was one of history’s great painters. Born in Milan, his later assigned name come from his father’s association with the town of Caravaggio. Caravaggio spent a good part of his checkered life in Rome, where an exhibition of his work goes went on display on the 20th of February and runs…