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Enter a world of Beauty and Imagination...
The Realistic Art Galleries of
Contemporary American Illustrator Howard David Johnson
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Realistic
illustration in a wide variety of media:
Educational Realistic
Illustrations dealing with
Themes
of
History,
Mythology, Legend and Natural Beauty... with lots of
Fairy pictures
& Fantasy Illustrations for the
young at heart. Late 20th & early 21st Century Traditional
Realistic Illustration
& today's
experimental
médias numériques...
Exploring the cultural and
spiritual heritages of all mankind while pioneering new vistas for Art and Technology
through contemporary realistic illustration, essays, and word paintings.
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REALISTIC ART: "THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY" AND "ASSAULT ON PELELIU
ISLAND" [MMX MIXED MEDIA]
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| All Realistic Art
- paintings, pictures, & text (c) 1982- 2010 Howard David Johnson All
rights reserved |
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ART ART
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*****
ALL HALLOWS EVE is
a Prismacolor Painting & SLEEPING BEAUTY is an Oil Painting, Howard
David Johnson
works
in a wide variety of combined media * Oil paintings * Acrylic Paintings *
Prismacolor Paintings * Drawings * Chalk & Oil Pastel Paintings *
Photography * and last but certainly not least: Digital Artistry & Mixed
Media *
Click on these
Fun and Educational Realistic Illustration Gallery links for two-fisted tales of
legendary warriors, or Olympian gods and monsters... mythic
unicorns, dragons, fairies, classic heroes, adventure, mystery and romance...
Mythology, Fairy Tales
& The Legends of History - multi-media galleries exploring the Myths &
Legends of the ancient world & War & Civilization; The Outline of History
through realistic illustration, prose, & essay...
The World's Great
Religions - A multi-media illustrative art exhibit embracing religious tolerance &
exploring the world's great religions & their impact on war and civilization through
realistic illustration, prose, & essay...
Mystery, Babylon,
the Great -The Deesse et chimere
Icon Links to
a Symbolist art gallery featuring an astonishing
disclosure about the Beast
(Chimera) from the book of Revelation and
and more Apocalyptic
Prophecies...
Classical
Mythology; Greek & Roman Myths: Illustrations and introductions to the legendary gods
of Olympus, The Greek Heroes, Homer's The Iliad, Helen of Troy & The Trojan Horse,
Jason & the Argonauts and much more...
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Reprints, Posters, &
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Books
Cards Posters Magazines CDs DVDs Videos & more are available at
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PRINTING MASTER FILES ARE AVAILABLE FOR ALL HIS FAIRY PAINTINGS -
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ART ART
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& links are always welcome.
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ON SALE NOW
from BRANDYWINE PRESS!
These beautifully printed 11" x 8.5" 64 page hardcover and
trade paperback versions feature 48 full page interior plates in full color
starting at
only $14.99 USD. Less than the price of a single poster! Featuring Realistic Mythological and Fairy Art created in a style
inspired by Classic Illustrators by American Artist &
Photographer Howard David Johnson. And new for 2011 - our GIANT
sized 48 x 35 cm 12
month Angel Art Calendar!
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Howard David Johnson is a
contemporary illustrator and photographer with a background in the natural
sciences and history. H D Johnson, or David as he is called, works in a
wide variety of media ranging from traditional oils, pastels and
others to today's cutting edge digital media. After a lifetime of drawing
and painting, Johnson's Traditional Realistic Illustration 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 David's more prestigious clients have included the University of Texas,
the University of Cambridge in England, Paramount Studios, PBS TV, Adobe
Photoshop Auto FX, Doubleday, the Book of the Month Club, and J
Walter Thompson Advertising. Licenses to print his existing work are
available at surprisingly affordable prices. |
Realistic Oil Paintings, Colored pencils,
Pastels, Mixed media, and Digital art can also be commissioned for select illustration
projects -
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 an illustrator David has not only used the computer but has
been involved in the development of filter imaging software for Adobe Photoshop. 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 at
$100.00. Oil Paintings, Colored pencils,
Pastels, Mixed media, and Digital illustration can also be commissioned for select
projects. For A lesson in Math, Design, and Art Theory, The Johnson Galleries, more about
how the artist works and essays by the artist on "Realistic art yesterday and
today" and "digital art and it's relation to art history" keep scrolling
down... for his collected essays in low bandwidth
CLICK HERE ***** |
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HOW DO WE SORT OUT HISTORY
AND MYTHOLOGY?
A brief essay by the artist
.jpg)
As a professional Illustrator I am called upon to
illustrate Legends of History and Mythology, Fact and Fantasy, the Sacred and the Profane.
In as much as I have endeavored to sort them out accordingly, it has become one of the
more fascinating challenges I have ever faced. As I am ever mentioning, the advances of
science are constantly giving us a clearer view of the past even causing Mythology to
become History as in the case of the Trojan Wars, the legendary Helen of Troy, and the
Trojan Horse. The archaeological excavations of Troy may prove the existence of the city
of Troy and the Trojan War. They in no way make The Iliad a history book however, because
of the unprovable spiritual and religious occurrences
in the narrative. This
sorting out of myth and legend from history is no less difficult today because of their
intertwining influences on one another.
Consider as a more recent example of this problem, 20th century American President
Theodore Roosevelt. He lives in history because of his heroic charge up San Juan hill with
his legendary roughriders. When this story was printed in William Randolph Hearst's
newspapers it catapulted him to fame and ushered him into the White House as a glorious
American War Hero. Everyone has seen the paintings and statues of Teddy Roosevelt and his
roughriders dressed in khaki, mounted on horseback and charging fearlessly forward waving
their swords. In reality, it was a group of Heroic African American Buffalo Soldiers who
took San Juan Hill in spite of their heavy casualties. They did not wear khaki. They were
not mounted on horseback, but were foot soldiers in the same dark blue uniforms of the
U.S. cavalry as worn during the Indian Wars. Roosevelt's group actually took a nearby Hill
against light resistance but Hearst said that would not sell newspapers so he created an
American Myth. So as we see, here is something taught to children in schools as history is
just not true at all, but yet, this myth shaped the true history of the world in the
20th century and beyond.
If Teddy Roosevelt had not been elected president, neither would
his nephew, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who provided very real and crucial leadership
during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Neither would Theodore Roosevelt
have built the Panama Canal or established the conservation of our natural resources. So
here we see Modern Myth not only influencing, but creating History. In reality, I perceive
Theodore Roosevelt was a much greater president than history gives him credit for.
Although it is true his kindness created the "Teddy Bear", He really was also
fit and trim, vigorous and active, and a very tough president in his foreign policies. He
was instrumental in America's emergence as a world power. It is also true that he came
from the upper upper class - old money in New York with a background of great wealth and
limitless luxury and chose to be an outdoorsman, a cowboy, and soldier. When he was given
office, he embraced the concept of being a good Shepherd , of seeking justice for
all Americans - for this he was called a "traitor to his class".
Actually, he is the savior of his class. In my estimation, it is President Theodore
Roosevelt who is most responsible for the end of the then imminent threat of communist
revolution or takeover in America. Throughout the early 20th century Socialist Revolutions
were sweeping across the globe. Conditions for the workers in America were appalling.
Child Labor, dangerous working conditions, ungodly long hours, degradation, and shockingly
low pay. When Karl Marx wrote his "Communist Manifesto" he never dreamed of an
affluent MIDDLE class. A middle class that is comfortable and savoring, life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness is not going to rise up in murderous anger and "Storm the
Bastile". What Global Communism could not contend with was America's happy and
prosperous middle class. Theodore Roosevelt practically invented America's affluent middle
class and eliminated the threat of Communist revolution in America. Although he was
well loved, he was also hated and caught tremendous heat from the wealthy elite for
sharing a small portion of their wealth with the common man. He saved them from a Second
American Revolution by customizing capitalism to a kinder, gentler form than the horrors
of the late 19th century. Like General Winfield Scott, who won The American Civil War
before it started, he defeated his foes with an idea. If the Robber Barons had had their
way, their greed could well have caused America to fall to communism. Today, we have a new
generation of robber barons but no Teddy to stand up for the little guys. I feel the true
history about American President Theodore Roosevelt is more amazing than the myth, but
they are interwoven and inseparable, without the one, we would not have the other. He was
both a glorious and a tragic figure. As a leader and as a man I believe he is badly
underestimated. It was only when his beloved son, nicknamed "Quinnykins" died
fighting in World War One that he finally saw through all the myths and glamour to see the
awful truth about war face on. He never got over his guilt for glorifying war to his son.
We could all learn a lot from his experiences.
War costs
money...trillions of dollars. War takes human lives...millions of them! War makes children
old, breaks parent's hearts, kills morale. War destroys cities, art treasures,
civilization! The first world war alone cost thirty million lives and 4 trillion
dollars when adjusted to the buying power of modern U.S. dollars. With the money at the
time we could have built a three bedroom two bath house furnished with fine hardwood
furniture on five acres of quality land for every family in The United States, Canada,
Australia, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and Russia. There
would have been enough left to build and stock a first class library and a proper
university in every town of 20,000 people or more. Out of the balance we could pay the
salaries for life of 125,000 teachers and 125,000 nurses. The remaining balance could have
bought 1919 Belgium and France and everything in them.
I see History as an endless waltz. Three beats over and over. War, Peace, and Revolution.
Three beats over and over in an endless cycle of death, destruction, and regeneration. An
Endless Waltz... and those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to dance
this deadly waltz and pay this Frightful price for War. As modern technology such as jet
aircraft and thermonuclear missles make the world smaller & more dangerous everyday,
tolerating each other's racial, social, & religious differences & living together
in peace has now become key to the continued survival of mankind through the 21st
century...
~H D Johnson 2003
*****
STYLE and
TECHNIQUE
"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 realistic illustrator and photographer with a background in |
| the natural sciences
and history. He works in a wide variety of realistic art media ranging from traditional |
| oils, pastels and
others to cutting edge digital media. He loves mixing media. This site features |
| examples of
his Realistic illustration including, photography, experimentalism, and fine art |
Pandora's Box-
rendered in
Prismacolor pencils is not at all what people think of when they hear the word 'drawing'
 |
The various galleries
linked to by the icons
above show many examples of David's Realistic Illustration, and are grouped by theme
rather than media. There are also samples of illustration from his upcoming books on
Celtic Myth and Legend and World Myth & Legend. Since boyhood David has studied
and copied the old masters.
To create his illustrations he begins with a concept followed by a realistic sketch,
researching and traveling to find scenes and locations. Working in his Analog Photography
Studio with live models from his sketches he follows with a digitally assembled photo
montage, combining original and old realistic elements to create a new work. As a
boy David dedicated his life to art in 1960. From 1965- 1999 he used xeroxes and tracings
to make his preliminary photo collages. This is patterned after the manner used by
Maxfield Parrish and other 19th century notables. Beginning with a tracing, David 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 traditional
realistic art media. As this happens, his finished work is substituted in the
exhibit. |
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David
has built up an enormous library of original source photos to use in his realistic
illustration. 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.
For decades David has sought out the most beautiful models and brought them in for
sessions in his analog photography studio. Using a strategy employed by J.W. Waterhouse,
the old master David imitates most - his wistful and graceful models cannot be
underestimated in their contribution to the stunning beauty and the potential for lasting
appeal of his work. (See the realistic paintings gallery above for more details.) Their
last names will be withheld for a few years to protect them from stalkers & other
internet predators. |
David's favourite medium for
traditional realistic illustration 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 most
recently, the highly controversial digital media. In commercial
illustration Johnson has not only used the computer to create art but has been involved in
the development and marketing of computer imaging software for Adobe Photoshop. Working in
a realistic style inspired by classic illustration David is deeply rooted and grounded in
the Greco-Roman artistic tradition, Feeling that especially with realistic illustration -
that the human form is the ultimate arena for artistic expression. David's lifelong
dream to become a master artist 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 realistic visual artist Howard David Johnson first
experimented with combining traditional and digital media in 1999. Because of his passion
for realistic illustration, photography, and art tradition, he elected to embrace it and
joyfully be a part of this historic era in the visual arts as a 21st century realistic
illustrator.
|
(Unburnished
Spectracolor
pencils on # 400 Strathmore Bristol board ) |
|
Computers have not
diminished David's passion for working in traditional media. He still loves to draw
portraits from his own photographs as well as using them to create illustrations in
various media. Click on the 'realistic paintings gallery' link above for more on his
other public domain sources & influences he uses to combine with his photography to
create his new and original traditional realistic illustration. |
Miss Ann -
rendered in Prismacolor Colored Pencils |
Since
1972 when he began his career as a scientific illustrator for the University of Texas he
has earned his living providing illustration for 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... Johnson's Realistic Illustration 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, water color 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 realistic art he offers
his customers a host of payment and product options. He delivers the rights to his custom
made copyright free realistic illustration and old fashioned customer service when he does
work-for-hire. |
Howard David Johnson, or David as he is called, accepts select commissions to paint custom
oil paintings with down payments starting at only one thousand dollars. Other media, like
colored pencils or digital are of course far less expensive. He grants permission for most
educational purposes simply for asking courteously. To use his existing realistic
illustrations he offers licenses for publishing starting as low as $100.00 USD.
Use the e-mail links above or below
to contact him... |
*****
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All realistic illustration - paintings, pictures, &
text (c) 2010 Howard David Johnson All rights reserved
Realistic Illustration: The
Fantastical Art Galleries of Howard David Johnson
***** |
|
Bonus
Section:
Click
Here for a Low Bandwidth Page with ALL Seven Essays by the Artist
REALISTIC ART: Personal Opinion Essays on
Realistic Art yesterday and today by the artist.
"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 combined with a general lack of public education, I contend that a more
complete definition of the word "painting" is needed than that which is found in
common usage."~HDJ
"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 |
In addition to his
mastery of traditional realistic illustration, 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 illustrations. He later renders the best of these again in traditional media.
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 illustration 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!"
REALISTIC ART AND
TECHNOLOGY: SOME LESSONS FROM THE HISTORY OF REALISTIC ART
Essay one: Realistic Art:
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE
SAME...
( A Brief essay dealing with
attitudes toward Realistic Art and prior developments in technology in history)
|
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? 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 combine |
By my own definition of art, which is: "anything that makes you feel or think"
most abstract paintings are not "real art" to me personally,
because absrtact paintings usually neither make me feel or think, usually 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
...Congo 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 living 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
*****
Note:
Abstract Paintings by Congo the Chimpanzee outsold Warhol and Renoir by over
25,000 dollars in June 2005 at a London art auction. Born in 1954, Congo
created more than 400 drawings and paintings between the ages of two and
four. He died in 1964 of tuberculosis. There is no precedent for this kind
of sale. |
|
But how do
all these new Art media fit in with formal definitions of Art?
|
Art ( noun ) [ Middle English, from Old French, from Latin ars
(stem art-). ] 1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of
nature. 2. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or
other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty; specifically, the production
of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium. 3. The product of these activities; human
works of beauty, collectively. 4. High quality of conception or execution, as found in
works of beauty; aesthetic value. 5. Any field or category of art, such as painting,
music, ballet, or literature. 6. A non-scientific branch of learning; one of the liberal
arts. 7. a. A system of principles and methods employed in the performances of a set of
activities: the art of building. b. A trade or craft that applies such a system of
principles and methods: pursuing the baker's art. 8. A specific skill in adept
performance, conceived as requiring the exercise of intuitive faculties that cannot be
learned solely by study: the art of writing letters. 9. a. Usually plural. Artful
devices; stratagems; tricks. b. Artfulness; contrivance; cunning. 10. In printing:
Illustrative material as distinguished from text.
~ The American Heritage College
Dictionary of the English Language
*****
Special note: 21st
century professional art critics are not repeating these mistakes of history and
are blessing and encouraging artists working in all styles and mediums, even including
digital media. To them I say: Bravo! If only our world leaders could learn from the
mistakes of the past as you have.
|
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Essay Two
Realistic Art :
The
Rebirth of Realism in the 21st Century
More thoughts on realistic art yesterday
and today by the artist |
Art History
has entered a new era with the birth of Art Numérique, 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 Digital Artistry
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 Pharoahs 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 Picasso 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 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. |
(
'The Lady Kriemhilde' 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 David 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 paintings. 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, an 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 for example, combines music, prose, poetry, photography
and traditional realistic art media to create an experience beyond merely looking at
realistic paintings. |
|
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 artist in the 21st century it does not mean the end of our time honored art
traditions. Instead, it offers additional ways to keep these traditions and schools of
thought fresh and alive.
~
Howard David Johnson MMII
***** |
David 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 )
|
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