In the spirit of next week’s NY ComicCon, I have decide to choose a piece of art from one of my favorite comic artists for nearly 20 years now, Jim Lee. I think that I first saw Mr. Lee’s work in Marvel X-Men during the early 1990’s and one if his more recent works “Hush” is perhaps one of my favorite graphic novels. I chose this piece because I quickly noticed a classic compositional form in how Mr. Lee has arranged his figures. He has chosen a triangular arragnement having the top of Superman’s head, the point of Batman’s sword and the edge of Wonder Woman’s shield being the peaks of the triangle. I triangular composition exudes strength and stability and I believe that Mr. Lee chose this arrangement to reinforce the heroic quality of the figures. The brightest, most saturated colors lie within this triangle and fade out to lighter or less saturated areas outside this area. This composition which can be viewed as far back as Da Vinci and his Madonna oof the Rocks (and farther back I am sure) shows Mr. Lee’s knowledge of classic art history.

I will attempt to recognize and utilize these types of composition geometries when I create new pieces.

I do apologize if my last post was a little sparce. The point of this exercise was for me to try to learn something about the paintings I like so that I may be able to use those characteristics to make my own work better. I simply statement that a painting has a characteristic isn’t as useful as it could be. So, for today’s work, I will be reviewing “Villa Torre Galli The Loggia”. I believe that the first time I saw this piece was in Washington DC (I could be wrong). What catch me attention was the warm “airy” feeling that this painting conveyed. So it made me wonder why that feeling was being expressed so powerfully. Upon further review, I have noticed that Sargent decided to use a warm light, warm shadow approach to this piece. Even though there are areas in shadow, those shadows tend to be hints of burnt umber and burnt siennas as well as yellow ochres and warm purples. These color choices project a feeling as though sunlight is illuminating even the shadowy corners and depths that might be located in this view. Using only small bits of cooler greens and browns strategically, Sargent has provided a warm, inviting view of this relaxing courtyard scene.

I will need to think in the future about the feeling I wish to convey and whether color temperature of lights AND shadows can help me achieve it.

Sorry that I missed the posting for yesterday. School had my whole day taken up. But regardless, today’s pciture will be The Rokeby Venus. I really love this painting, the pose of the reclining female, the relaxed, almost uninterested facial expression in the mirror and the lovely skin tones. But I sat back and really looked at this painting and wondered what the one thing that really stuck out to me about this image. The thing I came up with is the fabrics. It reminded me of something Rebecca Guay (professional fantasy illustrator) told while while studying with her. When critiquing one of my personal pieces, she stressed the importance of fabric. Fabric needs to look like fabric. Fabric needs to show folds and creases and all the characteristics of fabric. Looking at the fabric in this piece, it almost has a life of its own. The sheen on the folds and the combination of subtle colors gradients and unsaturated light areas really show a great understanding of how light renders material. In addition, the ribbon on the mirror (another material), as it sits draped over the cherub’s wrists and mirror frame reflect the colors of the curtain in one area and the woman’s skintones in others. One thing to note is that is shows no reflection in the mirror (just an observation).

So, ultimately, in addition to the overall draw of the imagery in the piece, it has shown me how much attention needs to be paid to fabric.