Sunday, October 12, 2008

Side by Side

Here are two paintings by two friends, painting side by side from the same motif.

On the left is Arthur Streeton and on the right is Charles Conder, two Australian impressionists who painted together during the magical summer of 1890 in Heidelberg, Australia.

They chose a motif in full daylight, with the sun at their backs, and they both kept everything high-key, with the only dark accents under the log in the foreground.
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Images courtesy Art Renewal and Wikipedia

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Daumier's Caricature Busts

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) had a gift for the devastating type of caricature that lays bare the pompous and foolish.

He made a series of small busts or maquettes of "Les Célébrités du Juste milieu" to use as reference for his incisive and irreverent drawings. One polychromed set can be seen in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Another casting of the set, without color, is on display in the basement of the National Gallery in Washington.

When I sketched some of them, I was struck by Daumier's approach to caricature not as an assortment of distorted features, but rather as a foundation in the construction of the skull underneath. If you go for the structure of the skull, both the likeness and the expression comes off more powerfully.

Here's one of his finished lithographs made with the benefit of the maquette.
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Daumier on Wikipedia, link.
The Orsay collection, link

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Postcards from Paris

Dinotopia: Un Voyage a Chandara, published by Editions Fleurus, was spotlighted by Jean-Philippe Lefèvre for the program called "Un Monde de Bulles," on the Public Senat channel. The makeup lady had to do a lot of work to cut down on the glare from my head.

The program was about fully illustrated fantasy stories in the context of "bande dessinees," the uniquely French version of comics, usually presented in oversize, full-color books. They're a huge market here, and hard to find in America. The program will air in November or December.

The program is hosted inside the magnificent Senate building, next to the Luxembourg gardens. Imagine an American national TV program on comics originating from inside the U.S. Capitol! Afterward Mr. Lefèvre toured us through the Senate chambers, including the inner sanctum where laws are made, surrounded by ornate sculpture and decoration.

We visited the purveyor of comics and fantasy art Galerie Daniel Maghen with our friend Olivier Souille, who works there. Olivier and his brother Laurent are also the authors of the recently published L' Univers of Dragons.

Two more average tourists on the Ponte des Arts.

We met Marc Bourgne creator and illustrator of Frank Lincoln, Voyageur, and Barbe Rouge.

I had fun at a booksigning at the science fiction specialty bookshop Labyrinthes in Rambouillet, outside of Paris. I also signed at the FNAC Les Halles. The French edition will be officially available on 10 October.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Republique

Here's a sketch of the Place de la Republique, drawn while huddled under the eaves of a furniture store, as the rain came in and dusk settled over Paris. Our spot was also a pick-up place for male prostitutes, it turned out, but Jeanette protected me.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Train Sketching

A fun way to pass the time while riding in a train is to do very quick sketches of the changing landscapes.

These are tiny watercolor sketches, only an inch and a half by ¾ of an inch, about the size of a postage stamp. Since the landscape disappears as quickly as it appears, you’re forced to form a mental image of the characteristic landscape.

As you transition from one region to the other you can easily see how the big planes of color gradually change.

Working quickly from a combination of observation and memory builds your skills for seeing stationary but complex scenes in simple terms. like this train station.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Maison d'Ailleur's Opening Fête

The tall shaggy creatures of Yuocland arrived from their high pastures to attend the opening of the Verne/Dinotopia exhibition.

Also there were performances by the eccentric troupe Gramoulinophone.

A few regular visitor/commentators to Gurney Journey made the trip. At left: Jeanette, me, "Dragonladych," "cegebe," Dragonlady's mom, and Jerome. Later I met John Howe for the first time, and I greatly admire his work.

The new passageway between the two museum spaces was opened with speeches and giant balloons, which were kept aloft by many hands until they popped with dull booms.

Inside Maison d'Ailleurs was the exhibition "Retour à Dinotopia," with 53 new paintings from Journey to Chandara. (Photo above by Olivier Allenspach). The exhibit filled three floors of the museum, with maps blown up to gigantic size on the floors, and with films, miniatures, and behind-the-scenes panels. The show will be on view until March 8, 2009.

But the really big event was the opening of the new Espace Jules Verne, the preeminent museum collection of Verniana. When you cross the new passageway, you enter the adjoining building in what looks like a large library, with thousands of rare editions of Jules Verne and his followers, as well as American pulp magazines and posters.

Museum director Patrick Gyger shows me one of the glass cases of model vehicles from the various Verne novels.

The collection was generously donated by the Jean-Michel Margot, originally from Switzerland, and now living in North Carolina. I had the privilege of sitting with him for a supper of stag stew, and did this quick portrait.

I also made this on-the-spot sketch in the style of an old poster of Maison d'Ailleurs, the world's most wonderful departure point for extraordinary journeys.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Early Color Photos

Usually we think of the first color photos appearing in the period of the 1930s.

But there were at least two cases of true color photography from more than two decades before color film was developed. Here, for example, are some Russian children on a hillside in 1909.

These are not hand-tinted black and white photographs, but true color image captures. The image above shows hay storage in winter. Note the chromatic aberrations from the moving smoke.

The technique, developed by a Russian photographer, used three separate cameras in rapid succession. One plate was filtered for blue, another for red, and another for green light, and they were later composited.

This panoramic view shows the city of Tiflis (now Tblisi) in the Republic of Georgia in 1910.

Around the same time, the Lumière brothers in France developed a workable color film using dyed potato flakes. Here is an example of a photo of a horsemeat butcher shop using that process from around WW1, link:

Russian images courtesy Library of Congress. More information here.
Thanks, Chris!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Tunnel and Sabot

Here are two last sketches from Boucoiran, France. The image that really stuck with me as I explored the town was the way the train tunnel was cut directly beneath the old medieval village.

The problem was that there was no place to really see the view that was in the mind's eye. You'd have to sit directly on the tracks—not a good idea with 100-mile-per-hour trains whizzing through every hour or so. I was able to find a spot in a park off to the left, and had to imagine the view from this angle.

This idea of sketching from an angle that's different from what you actually see is an interesting challenge for a figure sketch group. We had a teacher at Art Center who had us look at a model and draw her from 90 degrees to the side.

Finally, here's a quick study of a sabot with the old colored pencil technique. Tomorrow: back to Switzerland.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Kitchen Table Portraits

One of the first people I met in Boucoiran was Diego, a neighbor who helps to fix things around the house for our host Eliane. When he came in and sat at the kitchen table, I was so struck by his interesting sun-weathered face, that I asked his permission draw his portrait.

I knew I only had about 15 minutes to work with, and I asked him just to keep talking, not to pose. In a situation like this you don’t want to haul out a lot of oil paints or watercolor equipment, so it’s convenient to have a set of watercolor pencils and a water brush. I used the Caran d’Ache Supracolor II pencils because they work nicely both with and without water.

The four colors you need for portraits are umber, russet, black and brown. I use two water brushes, one with plain water and one with a pre-mixed sepia color.

The paper is a Derwent sketchbook, like a Moleskine drawing book, with thick, smooth paper. It’s not really made for water, but it holds up OK.

Here’s another portrait, drawn the next day from a gentleman named Bluc Fouchaud, while he and his wife prepared supper for us.

You have to practice a lot with these pencils first to get used to what happens when you run water over your pencil work. Normally you’ll want to get the portrait half finished first to establish some tone before starting in with the water.

If you brush water over a full-toned drawing, it will get too dark right away. In the portrait of Mr Fouchaud, I established the light skin tone across the face quite early, and saved small details and accents for last.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Boucoiran, France

Of course, real life is always more fantastic than what we imagine. We started our trip in a small town called Boucoiran in southern France. We're staying with a descendant of one of its former mayors, Ulysse Laporte. Here is a portrait of him, made from old photos.

One of his books showed diagrams of spinning and weaving machines, as well as illustrations of art objects from the Louvre. At one time, art and industry were really seen as brother pursuits.

This watercolor shows the view from the third floor balcony of his stone house near the center of the village, with the grape arbor in the foreground, and the train station in the distance.