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Manelle Oliphant Illustration - Illustrator and Writer

Last week I had a chance to go see the Norman Rockwell Exhibit at the BYU museum of art. I went with friends from my critique group. It’s so much fun to go to things like this with other artists. We had a great time analyzing the paintings together. This post is about some of the things I learned by staring at the awesome art.

1. Norman Rockwell was great at using lost edges.

   

   Triple Self-Portrait

   For example if you look at this painting called Triple Self-Portrait you can see how the man’s trousers are the same color as the canvas. In the original painting there isn’t a line to distinguish the two elements. Your brain fills that line in all on it’s own. Pretty cool.

2. Norman Rockwell used color grouping. (and you can paint a white dress against a white background too.)

   

   Christmas Homecoming

   See in that image how the three jackets are all the same color. Tan, tan, and tan. They are three separate elements but since the value/tone and color are similar your brain can read them as one. This is a busy picture full of lots of people and things. The color grouping really helps lead your eye through the image.

   Here is another example of color grouping.

   

   After The Prom

   Another thing Norman Rockwell did all the time is harder for me to explain, but this image illustrates it very well.

   

   Brass Merchant

   See how that lady has a white dress on. See how the background is white. If I was painting this painting I probably would have made her dress purple or blue. White would have been out of the question. I would have been too afraid of her blending into the background and the image being out of balance. But Norman did it here and I think it’s working. I’m excited to start trying to do more of this type of thing in my paintings.

3. Norman Rockwell painted a ridiculous amount of studies and took tons of photos.

   

   Soda Jerk

   To see more of his photos into paintings you can check out this blog post.

   But it wasn’t just that he took a lot of photos. He did drawings and color studies and more drawings and more color studies until he got what he needed.

4. Norman Rockwell Painted big paintings.

   

   Checkers

   This is one of my all time Norman Rockwell Favorites. It is 35×39″, and is typical of many of the paintings I saw at the museum. It’s not a mural by any means but it’s much bigger than the sizes I usually work at. He was able to get a lot of detail into the art at this size. I’ve been working the size of my scanner. I think I’m going to try some larger stuff so I can get more of the effects that I want.

The post What I Learned from Norman Rockwell appeared first on Manelle Oliphant Illustration.

By Chloe

Laura Manfre is a self-taught illustrator from France. Her work has a beautiful traditional quality to it but still remains relevant and appealing. It’s difficult not to feel hungry when looking at Laura Manfre’s work due to one of her main subjects being indulgent treats and tasty snacks. She is equally talented though at depicting other subjects such as animals and people.

If you’d like to see more of Laura’s work, please visit her portfolio.

Summary: I share some of my process creating a faux Rolling Stone magazine cover of the Ramones. Giclee prints of the image are also made available! One of the assignments for my MFA program is that we are asked to create an illustration by look back into illustration history and finding an artist whom we admire, then we […]

via Studio Bowes Art Blog at http://ift.tt/1XgS0ut

Post by Chloe

Daniel Arriaga is an illustrator based in the USA whose work often tells a narrative, depicting fun characters. He has worked in various departments at Pixar, and also Disney. He has helped to produce films such as Wall-E, Up!, and Wreck-It-Ralph. Arriaga combines digital art with a subtle painterly style to bring his work to life, and his clever colour palettes create a nice ambiance in all his work.

If you’d like to see more illustrations by Daniel Arriaga, please visit his portfolio.

Johannes Kepler, the astronomer who famously discovered that planets move in ellipses, presents an exceptional case we can reconstruct. Kepler got his assistant to paint an image of himself for a friend. This was just before Kepler stored up all his belongings to move his family back from Austria to Germany. His aged mother had been accused of witchcraft.

The post Thinking of Kepler on the beach appeared first on OUPblog.

Post by Jeanine

Matte Stephens, an illustrator and painter from New England, creates wonderful, whimsical cityscapes and anthropomorphized animal scenes. The influence of Mid-Century artists like Alexander Girard, Charles & Ray Eames, Ben Shahn and Paul Klee are clear in his vintage style. His impressive client list includes Tiffany & CO, American Express and Jonathan Adler, and Chronicle Books.

See more of Matte’s fantastic work here: Website | Etsy Shop

Post by Chloe

Sarah McMenemy is an illustrator based in London who began by illustrating many of the beautiful houses in the city. Her portfolio now contains an abundance of painterly work depicting stunning architectural works around the world. Sarah McMenemy’s work has appeared in a range of magazines which have covered finance, beauty, architecture and home decor. If you would like to see more of Sarah McMenemy’s sophisticated colour palettes and characterful illustrations, please visit her portfolio.

Manelle Oliphant Illustration - Illustrator and Writer

This interview on one fantastic week with J.A.W. Cooper was really inspiring to me, and from what I’ve seen on the facebook group I wasn’t the only person inspired. They talked about being deliberate about choosing your influences. Even to the point of keeping a written record of who they are and why. I have many artists whose work I admire, and many who I choose to inspire my work but I’ve never thought about making deliberate choices about this.

Joseph Zbukvic

Lately I’ve been paying closer attention to how I draw hands and feet because Wylie Beckert does such an amazing job with this, and I’ve been trying to keep my watercolor looser like Joseph Zbukvic. I know I am doing this but I haven’t thought about where allowing these influence in would take me, and if I want to go there.

I think it’s time to focus on this a little bit more.

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