INTRODUCING
A NEW KIND OF ARTIST FOR THE 21st CENTURY:
Contemporary
Japanese Master Digital Artist SATOSHI MATSUYAMA
"My
greatest desire is to offer my whole heart, soul, mind and strength
to honor and worship God and to be mightily used to declare his glory
through my paintings." Satoshi
Matsuyama
The Realistic Art Galleries of
Contemporary American Illustrator & Photographer Howard David Johnson
Click on the
Icons to visit the Fun & Educational Art Galleries :
Including Realistic Art of Greek Mythology, Mythic art of Rome, Asia, The
Celts, The Norsemen, and more ...Fairy and Dragon legends,
The King Arthur Legends, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,
Paintings of Ancient Egypt and Babylon, Illustrations of
Ancient Mystic Religious texts, War and Civilization from
The Ancient Spartans and the Trojan Horse to World
War Two, The World's Great Religions, free lessons in Realistic Art Technique and Essays
on Realistic Art and Technology.
Welcome! Click F
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These Realistic Art Galleries and those they link to are suitable for General Audiences...
Enter a world of Beauty
and Imagination...
Fairy
Paintings
Greek Mythology
Celtic
Mythology
World's
Religions
Norse Mythology
Surreal
Fantasy Art
Asian Mythology
Symbolist Art
The
Seven Wonders
Res
Publica
Legends
of History
Spartan
Warriors
Art Numérique
Art
Commissions
Commercial Art
History of Dragons
More Fantasy Art
Mythic
Women Art
Pin
up Art Gallery
Basic
Art Technique
Studio
Photography
Art
Instruction
Frauen Mit Blumen
Realistic
Paintings
About
the Artist
Thumbelina
full size
Pencil
Portraits I
Colored
Pencils II
Fairy
Wallpapers
Pre-Raphaelite Art
All Realistic Art
- paintings, pictures, & text (c) 1982- 2005 Howard David Johnson All
rights reserved
Thank
you for Visiting... Your business, letters,
& links are always welcome.
*****
Howard David Johnson
is a contemporary visual artist and photographer with a background in the natural sciences
and history. He works in a wide variety of media ranging from traditional oils,
pastels and others to cutting edge digital media. After a lifetime of drawing and
painting, Howard David Johnson's Traditional Realistic Art was exhibited in the British
Museum in London in 1996, ( 3 years before he got his first computer ) as well as numerous
American ones since, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His illustrations have
appeared in every major bookstore and game shop chain in America as well as magazines and
educational texts around the world. Some of his more
prestigious clients have included the University of Texas, the Book of the Month Club,
Paramount Studios, PBS TV, Adobe Photoshop Auto FX, and J Walter Thompson Advertising.
Licenses to print his existing work are available at surprisingly affordable prices. Oil
Paintings, Colored pencils, Pastels, Mixed media, and Digital art can also be commissioned
for select projects - Click on commission new art below... Working in a variety of
traditional and cutting edge digital media he offers his customers a variety of options
and more than thirty years of experience. As a commercial illustrator HDJ has not only
used the computer but has been involved in the development of imaging software. He
delivers the rights to these custom made copyright free illustrations and old fashioned
customer service when he does work-for-hire. On his existing works license offers start as
low as $100.00
This Art Gallery has been honored by
more than 20,000,000 Unique Visitors
fromthe Four
Corners of the Earth:
My Friends
from around the world thus far :
England,
Scotland, Wales,
Ireland, Germany, France, Greece, Cyprus,
Turkey, Italy, Belgium, Denmark,
Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Croatia, The Czech Republic,
Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Luxembourg, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Austria,
Romania, Spain, Russia,
Ukraine, Moldova, Malta,
Iceland, Finland, Norway, Netherlands,
Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, Israel,
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, The United Arab
Emirates, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon,
Jordan,
Morocco, The Republic of Congo, The Ivory Coast, Angola,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Namibia,
South Africa, Mauritius, Japan, South
Korea, China, Macau, Viet Nam, Taiwan,
Nuie, New Zealand, Australia, The
Philippines, Palau, Cocos Island, The Kingdom of
Tonga, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalem,
Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, Indonesia, Chile,
Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru,
Venezuela, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala,
Costa Rica, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago,
Panama, Ecuador, Belize, Puerto
Rico, Mexico, Canada,
and my home,
The United States of America ...
If your home is not listed here please
e-mail and let us know where you're from...
"Those who are enamoured of
practice without science are like a pilot who goes into a ship without rudder or compass
and never has any certainty where he is going. Practice should always be based upon a
sound knowledge of theory, of which perspective is the guide and gateway, and without it
nothing can be done well in any kind of painting."
Howard David
Johnson is a contemporary visual artist and photographer with a background in
the natural
sciences and history. He works in a wide variety of media ranging from traditional
oils,
pastels and others to cutting edge digital media. He loves mixing media. This site
features
examples of
his Realistic Art, including illustration, photography, experimentalism, and fine art
( A variation on themes by
Bouguereau, Leighton and Moreau )
The various galleries linked to by the icons
above show many examples of His Contemporary Art, and are grouped by theme rather than
media. There are also sample illustrations from his upcoming books on Celtic Myth
and Legend and World Myth & Legend. Since boyhood he has passionately copied the
old masters. To create his work, he usually starts with a thematic concept followed
by a rough realistic pencil sketch, then followed by his photography, often traveling to
find suitable scenes and locations and then working in his Photography studio with live
models from his sketches. He then assembles a variety of elements which are realistic and
original. As a boy he dedicated his life to art in 1960. From 1965- 1999 he used
xeroxes and tracings to make his preliminary photo montages. This is patterned after
the manner used by Maxfield Parrish and other 19th century notables. Beginning with a
tracing, he then draws or paints from these complex original Computer Photo Montages. Many
of these are on display on this web and slated for future completion in a variety of
realistic traditional art media. As this happens, the finished work is substituted in the
exhibit. Recently he shot hundreds of aerial photos of clouds at marvelous angles and
perspectives and also looking down on the mighty mountains, rivers, and deserts of the
American west while flying from Texas to Oregon and back for dynamic source material for
realistic flying scenes in upcoming paintings , drawings, and pictures.
His favourite medium for his contemporary art is colored pencil because
of the high speed and low expense, and people began expressing difficulty in telling his
colored pencil drawing from photographs in the early 1980's. In the last 35 plus
years he has also mastered Oils, Pastels, Acrylics, Watercolors, Inks, Scratchboard,
Gouache, Photography, and the highly controversial digital media ( Art
Numérica
) . As a commercial illustrator Johnson has
not only used the computer to create art but has been involved in the development of
computer imaging software for Adobe Photoshop. Working in a realistic style inspired by
classic illustrators HDJ is deeply rooted and grounded in the Greco-Roman artistic
tradition, Feeling that especially with realistic art - that the human form is the
ultimate arena for artistic expression. His lifelong dream came true when his Traditional
Realistic Art was exhibited in the British Museum in London England in 1996. His mixed
media has also been displayed in numerous other ones since such as the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Having achieved international acclaim as a traditional visual artist he
discovered digital media ( Art Numérica ) in
1999. Because of his passion for realistic art and photography he elected to embrace it
and joyfully be a part of this historic era in the visual arts as a 21st century
contemporary visual artist.
( UnblendedSpectracolor pencils
on Bristol board )
Since
1972 when he began his career as a scientific illustrator for the University of Texas he
has earned his living illustrating all kinds of books, magazines, CD covers, and all sorts
of games, greeting cards, calendars, portraits, murals and the like with his contemporary
realistic art...HDJ's Realistic Art has appeared in every major
bookstore chain and fantasy gaming shop in The United States and has been used in
educational texts and magazines all over the world. This site features realistic paintings
& pictures for the twenty-first Century including some oil paintings, as
well as lots of other exciting realistic art media such as colored pencil drawings, pastel
paintings, acrylic paintings, gouache paintings, watercolor paintings, and pencil
drawings, and also featuring studio, field, & aerial photography, digital
painting and photo-montage and all these media mixed in an assortment of experimental
combinations...Working in a wide variety of media to create his contemporary art he
offers his customers a host of payment and product options. He delivers the rights to
these custom made copyright free realistic illustrations and old fashioned customer
service when he does work-for-hire. He loves to paint custom oil paintings and accepts
commissions with down payments starting at five thousand dollars. On his existing
realistic art works his low cost license offers start at only 100 dollars.
*****
All paintings, pictures,
& text (c) 1993- 2008 Howard David Johnson All rights reserved
Thank you for visiting the contemporary
art links page of Howard David Johnson...
*****
Bonus Section:
Personal Opinion Essays on Realistic Art
yesterday and today by the artist.
In addition to his mastery of
traditional media, Howard David Johnson now combines drawing, painting,
photography, and digital media with more than thirty years of experience in these fields
to create his Realistic Art Numérica in 21st century paintings and
pictures.
Did you know the Greek word
"Photography" means "Painting with Light"? Today with the advent of
computers it truly lives up to it's name. Due to developments in Art and Technology, a
broader definition of painting is needed than that which is found in common usage.
Announcing Art
Numérica-an exciting merger of traditional visual art and cutting edge
technology... a new art form for the twenty- first century... Art Numérica is not
limited to realistic art but also offers limitless horizons for everything from cartoons
to abstractions.
It is the most dramatic
development in the visual arts since the Renaissance. In the words of Al Jolson in the
movie world's first talking picture" You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
Essay One:
Realistic Art:THE
MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME...
(A Brief essay
dealing with attitudes toward Traditional Realistic Paintings, Pastels, Colored Pencils
and Contemporary Art )
"Painting, in art, the
action of laying colour on a surface, or the representation of objects by this means.
Considered one of the fine arts"
~Encyclopaedia Britannica.
"Painting. noun. 1.) The act
or employment of laying on colors or paints. 2.) The art of forming figures or objects in
colors on canvas or any other surface, or the art of representing to the eye by means of
figures and colors any object; the work of an illustrator or painter. 3.) A picture; a
likeness or resemblance in shape or colors. 4.) Colors laid on. 5.) Delineation that
raises a vivid image in the mind; as in word painting.
~ Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
of the English Language
Soft Pastels, Acrylics, and Colored Pencils combined
Snobbism in the arts is nothing new. Some people will tell
you that oils are the only valid medium for realistic paintings. That Colored Pencil,
Digital, and other Realistic Painting and Drawing Media are not valid for
"real" art. Young artists, Don't let them bother you. Their forerunners used to
condemn Pastels before they gained acceptance and called them "crayons" when
Johann Alexander Thiele (1685-1752) invented them. Mercilessly disrespectful
art critics of the time could not stop the Experimentalists no matter how viciously
they
attacked and derided them. "Crayon-painting" as it was called in England was
practiced early on by persecuted pioneers in Switzerland and many other nations. What a
debt we owe to these master artists who refused to knuckle under to the pressure of those
short-sighted critics during those historic and experimental times. It took until 1870
with the founding of the "Societe` Des Pastellistes" in France that respect
came at last to these heroic & immortal visual artists.
In
England the liberation of the Pastellists from slight regard and undeserved disrespect
came with the first exhibition of "The Pastel Society" at the Grosvenor Gallery
in 1880. Pastel Painters like Mary Cassat and others from America and other nations
forever silenced the snobs with their masterworks and gained recognition at long
last for Thiele's invention as a valid art medium. I am persuaded that history will repeat
itself. Like Pastels, I believe these wonderful new colored pencils and even Digital
Realistic Art Media will one day receive the recognition they deserve as powerful mediums
of artistic expression just as pastel paintings did. What is your definition of
art? Have you thought about it?
Mine is: "anything that
makes you feel or think."
Consider
dancing... it can be a little skip in the step or rise to the level of the incomparable
Russian Ballet. Did you know that just the materials alone for a single oil painting cost
up to a thousand dollars these days? Did you know that they are toxic? Even paying the
artist less than minimum wage no one but the super rich can afford them anymore.
Something's got to give. Realistic paintings in oil have been highly prized for centuries
and the appeal and following of realistic art is undiminished to this day. Oil paintings
featuring Abstract Art and Realistic Art are generally the most treasured form of all the
visual art media and with good reason. But snobbish art critics favoring abstract
art have declared that realistic paintings, or illustrations are not art for a
century. With so many representationalist paintings by so many immortal master
artists hanging in the Louvre, the Hermitage, and the British Museum and others I think
the disrespect for realistic illustrators that dominated the 20th century is academically
ridiculous as well as vain and intolerant, insisting theirs is the only valid
opinion. What is your definition of Art? I believe almost any form of human
expression can be raised to the level of "high art" especially visual art
and Realistic illustration...
The detail reveals Realistic
art and abstract art combined
By my own definition of art, which is: "anything that makes you feel or
think" most abstract paintings are not "real art" tome personally,
because abstract paintings usually neither make me feel or think, generally focusing
obsessively on technique and avoiding any coherent content. I usually draw a complete
blank mentally and emotionally when I look at them. In 1979 the Houston Metropolitan
Museum of Art displayed a triptych of 3 giant paintings they paid fifty thousand
dollars for- three blank white canvasses entitled "untitled". Then there
was "The incredible new artistic Genius "with an I.Q. of 62 ...Coco the chimpanzee
with his gala New York art exhibition...an elaborate prank played on the Snobbish American
Art critics about a generation ago by research scientists in the field of primatology.
Imagine how upset they were when he created one of his "ingenious masterpieces"
right before their eyes.
( My Source for this is the Time Life
Science Library volume entitled "The Primates". )
Art education has
been almost completely removed from American Schools as a result of generations of this
kind of fabulous nonsense contributing to America's cultural illiteracy crisis. Now,
the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and other notables are being removed from
school libraries. After generations of this, most American college graduates today
cannot name even one contemporary visual artist, abstract or realistic.
There is no way that mandating
more math, requiring more reading, or scheduling more science will replace what we have
lost as a culture.
What is your definition of Art?
~HDJ
*****
Essay Two
Realistic Art :The
Rebirth of Realism in the 21st Century
More thoughts on Contemporary Art by the
artist
Art History
has entered a new era with the birth of Art Numérica, or digital
art media in the 21st century. Artists never stop exploring with mediums. Artists have
been developing techniques, experimenting with different tools since at least twenty- five
thousand years ago, when the first artist picked up a charred stick and scratched a
picture out on the wall of his cave. You'd think everything would have been tried by now,
but it hasn't. Exploring new mediums this very day is just as exciting, just as full of
freshness and newness as it ever was.
Photography, Drawing, Painting and Art
Numérica
combined
The creation
of Realistic art has been the goal of most artists since the dawn of civilization.
Realistic art was the pride of ancient Greece. The world's greatest museums are full of
realistic art. Realistic art WAS art until the advent of the abstract expressionist
movement in the twentieth century. The coming of the camera in the nineteenth century
changed realistic art forever. Suddenly, realistic art was not the only way to create
realism in portraits and historical records. The work of the realistic artist was suddenly
made into an expensive luxury. The political power of the realistic artist was broken and
they were no longer an indispensable member of society. Hostility to the
creators of realistic art goes back to ancient times and the jealousy of advisers to the
Pharaohs and others who were not able to spend as much time with their rulers as their
portraitists. Although with the aid of photographs, realistic art achieved levels of
excellence undreamed of, the realistic art movement of the late nineteenth century was
short.
None
of these people earning their living creating realistic art could compete with the speed
and low cost of photographic portraiture. Determined to survive, great realistic
artists like Pablo Piccaso ingeniously turned inward and began to explore things that could
not be photographed in a new school of art, abstract expressionism. The day of the fine
art superstars had arrived. It was now largely just a hobby to abstract and realistic
artists alike. Illustration, because of advances in printing technology
enabled an elite
few to earn a living with their realistic art. These illustrators working in realistic art
media were condemned and ridiculed in much the same way Europe's great symphonic
composers were condemned for working in motion pictures after fleeing the nazis during
World War Two. The rift between realistic and abstract art grew wider and wider. The
universities and key media usually sided with the abstract camp and derided anyone working
in any realistic art media declaring boldly that realistic art was not "real"
art. Immortal giants of realistic art such as Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth were
mistreated their entire lives. They were accused of selling out for creating beautiful
pieces of realistic fine art to earn a living. The attitude that the true artist must
suffer and starve and die in poverty became a rule. There were the Abstract art
superstars, the professional realistic illustrators, and the hobbyists who, although cut
off from gainful employment and social influence still recognized their artistic gifts as
a calling rather than a profession.
( Pandora's Box- rendered in Prismacolor
pencils )
Early
abstract art masters proved themselves as realistic artists before delving into
realms of the intangible. They had to do this at that time to prove themselves because of
the challenges they faced from the establishment for going against the status quo. In the
latter part of the 20th century, realistic artists like HDJ were challenged to do abstract
art to prove themselves as shown in the example above (Deirdre of the sorrows). Later
realistic art training was abandoned in most schools and things like splattering paint in
fits of rage were deemed more than enough. By the end of the 20th century something
as destructive and ridiculous as nailing a pack of cigarettes to a shoe was considered
fine art but NOT realistic art or realistic paintings which were referred to as "Mere
illustrations". Fashions in art have often been as silly as fashions in ladies
hats. As the century drew to a close, many people had had enough.
The realistic revolt was at hand.
The rebirth of realism was fueled by the advent of the digital era. Now, for
the first time in almost two centuries, a realistic artist or illustrator could earn a
decent living again with his realistic art. This is historic. Realistic art is not going
to go away, especially now that photography has truly merged with traditional realistic
visual art. Photography comes from the Greek words meaning "painting with
light". Now with the advent of digital media the capability of realistic art has
become almost limitless, truly, "painting with light". The merger of all the
world's art forms to realize the potential of motion pictures has come now to still
realistic art media. This website has many examples of combining music, prose, &
poetry with photography and traditional realistic art media to create an experience beyond
merely looking at realistic paintings. ( see Pandora's Box )
The
twenty- first century is already seeing a new renaissance
in the arts because of the world
wide web. There has never been anything like it. Abstract art, computer art, photographic
art, and realistic art are continuing to be separate schools of art but are also blending
to create exciting new horizons. Although Digital art does offer completely new horizons
to the realistic artist and the abstract artist in the 21st century it does not mean the
end of our time honored art traditions. Instead, it offers contemporary artists additional
ways to keep these traditions and schools of thought fresh and alive.
~ HDJ
*****
HDJ has four pages of free art lessons
& paid private instruction. For more information, click on the link above ( an oil
pastel rendering of Mary Shelly's Bride of Frankenstien )
Thank you for visiting the contemporary
art links page of Howard David Johnson...
