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e-mail and tell us where you're from...
*****
A
portrait of the artist in his painting studio as he
is today. This July
2006 photo was taken by his youngest son Erich. |
Howard David Johnson is a
realistic visual artist & photographer with
a background in the natural sciences & history. He works in a wide variety of
mixed media ranging from oil paintings on canvas
to digital media. After a lifetime of drawing and painting, His 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 realistic paintings have
made appearances in every major bookstore & game shop chain in America as well as magazines
& educational texts around the
world. Some
of his more prestigious clients include the University of Texas,
the University of Cambridge in England, Paramount Studios, PBS TV,
Enslow Educational Publishers, Adobe Photoshop, Auto FX, Tree-Free
Greeting Cards, Sound Choice, Verizon wireless, IPOD, Doubleday,
the Book of the Month Club, (Bookspan), & J Walter Thompson
Advertising, just to name a few.
As a
realistic illustrator he has not only used the computer to create
new forms of realistic painting, but has worked in the
development and marketing of software for Adobe Photoshop.
Digital art, Colored pencils, Pastels, Mixed media, and also Oil
Paintings can also be commissioned for select projects. He delivers the rights
to these custom made copyright free illustrations and old fashioned
customer service when
he does work-for-hire. Licenses
to print his realistic paintings are available starting
at only $100 U S D. Some originals are for sale as well.
|
|
Snobbism in the arts is
nothing new. Some people will tell you that oils are the only
valid medium for realistic paintings. That Acrylics,
Pastels, Watercolors, Colored Pencils, Digital, and other Media
for Realistic Paintings and Drawings are not valid for
"real" art. For more on this centuries old prejudice see
the essay section below... |
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 *
STYLE and TECHNIQUE
| 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.
The galleries linked to by the icons above show
examples of His Realistic Paintings, and are grouped by theme rather than media. Since
boyhood he has passionately copied the paintings of the old masters. He works in a wide variety of media ranging from traditional
oils, pastels and others to today's digital media. |
|
|
After a lifetime of creating
traditional drawings and paintings, Howard David Johnson's Realistic Art was exhibited in
the British Museum in London in 1996, (three 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 gameshop 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. 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 method 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 media for traditional realistic paintings and drawings. As this
happens, the finished work is substituted in the exhibit. He has built up an
enormous library of original source photos to use in his realistic paintings and
drawings. Recently he shot hundreds of aerial photos of clouds at marvelous angles
and perspectives & also looking down on the mighty mountains, rivers, & deserts of
the American west while flying from Texas to Oregon & back for dynamic source material
for realistic flying scenes in upcoming paintings, drawings, and pictures. For
decades he has sought out the most beautiful models & brought them in for sessions in
his photography studio. Using a strategy of J.W. Waterhouse, (The old master HDJ imitates
most), his wistful & graceful models cannot be underestimated in their contribution to
the stunning beauty & the potential for lasting appeal of his paintings. |
His favourite medium for realistic 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.
Nothing can compare though, with the quality of his oils. 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. Working in a realistic
style inspired by classic illustrators HDJ is deeply rooted and grounded in the
Greco-Roman artistic tradition, Feeling that with realistic art, 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 in 1999. Because of his passion for realistic painting and
photography he elected to embrace it and joyfully be a part of this historic era as a
twenty-first century realistic visual artist. |
 |
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 Paintings have
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 painting media such as colored
pencil, pastel paintings, acrylic paintings, gouache paintings, watercolor paintings, and
pencil drawings, and also featuring studio, field, & aerial
photography, realistic digital painting and photo-montage and all these media mixed
in an assortment of experimental combinations... In addition
to Realistic 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 realistic paintings and old
fashioned customer service when he does work-for-hire. On his existing works license
offers start as low as $100.00
*****
|
|
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."~ H D Johnson
"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 art 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 in 21st
century paintings and pictures. He later renders the best of these again on
paper and canvas 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...
this new
Art media 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 history of visual art since the Renaissance. In the words of Al Jolson
in the movie world's first talking picture" You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
What is YOUR definition
of ART?
Essay 1: On
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)
|
 Pastel, 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 combined |
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 abstract 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,
Michelangelo,
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.
~HDJ
*****
What is your definition of Art?
|
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.
|
Essay Two : The Rebirth
of Realism
More thoughts on realistic art
yesterday and today 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 paintings
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 realistic paintings 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. |
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 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, on certain
pages 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.
~ HDJ
***** |
