Lines and Colors art blog
  • The Undraped Artist Podcast

    The Undraped Artist Podcast
    The Undraped Artist Podcast

    Years ago, when Apple’s popular stand-alone music player was called the “iPod”, programs, independently produced on a low budget, usually interviews and primarily audio only, came to be called “podcasts”. These days, the format is often meant to be enjoyed either in audio or with accompanying video, and the YouTube landscape is full of them.

    One of the most notable of these for those interested in art is Jeff Hein’s The Undraped Podcast, in which Hein, a highly accomplished portrait artist, interviews a range of some of the best known and well regarded artists working today.

    In keeping with the title of the show, these are often revealing and dig deep into the artists’ techniques, philosophies and career path. I’ve only scratched the surface of the available titles, but some of my favorite contemporary artists are featured, and Hein’s interaction with them is well informed and often insightful.

    The artist interviews are offset by what at first glance appear to be interviews with long dead artists. These are actually conversations on the subject Hein has with noted art scholar and historian Dr. Micah Christensen (see the mention in my post on Théo van Rysselberghe).

    In general, these are some of the most rewarding of the artist oriented podcasts I’ve come across. I recommend them highly.



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  • Théo van Rysselberghe

    Theo van Rysselberghe
    Theo van Rysselberghe

    Théo van Rysselberghe was a Belgian painter active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is generally considered a Neo-Impressionist or Post-Impressionist. He was classically trained and throughout his career explored a variety of styles and influences but focused primarily on Divisionism (AKA Pointillism).

    Divisionism is a style associated with the French painter Georges Seurat who is credited with its inception. It involves complex surfaces of color in the form of small dots, meant to blend in the eye (which seems to me the broken color and optical blending effects of Monet taken to their extreme).

    Van Rysselberghe took the influence of Seurat and Signac and ran with it, but in a different direction. Instead of dissolving his figures, interiors and landscapes into a haze of broken color, he applies that technique to a more traditional, academic structure and refinement resulting in a different level of visual effect.

    In the process of researching Van Rysselberghe, I came across this episode of The Undraped Artist Podcast with Jeff Hein and Micah Christensen. Their insightful discussion, and particularly Christensen’s admiration for Van Rysselberghe, increased my appreciation for his skill and accomplishments.



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  • Eye Candy for Today: Auguste Lepere etching

    Old Housea at Amiens, Auguste Lepere, etching
    Old Housea at Amiens, Auguste Lepere, etching

    Old Housea at Amiens, Auguste Lepère, etching. This is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in DC, which has a high resolution downloadable and zoomable image file. For some reason, they don’t list the etching’s physical size. My guess from the size of the needle marks would be around 5×7″ (13 x 18 cm) or so.

    Louis-Auguste Lepère, a French paintinter and printmaker active in the late 19th and early 20the century, was a prolific printmaker, producing etchings, wood engravings and lithographs.

    For me this etching just radiates visual charm. At first glance, it looks straightforward enough, but when we look closer, almost every line is wavering or curved. Look at how delightfully loose and casual his hatching is.

    Interestingly, his light lines on the cathedral in the distance — used to indicate atmospheric perspective — are straighter than their darker foreground counterparts. Even the vertical lines used to make tone on the cathedral are straighter than those in the set-back house in the middle ground (images above, second from the bottom).

    The proportions, structural components and perspective are all solid, but the free spplication of his line gives the print the feeling of a casual sketch.



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  • Eye Candy for today: Jean-Etienne Liotard pastel portrait

    Portrait of Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone at Seven Years of Age, pastel by Jean-Etienne Liotard
    Portrait of Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone at Seven Years of Age, pastel by Jean-Etienne Liotard (details)

    Portrait of Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone at Seven Years of Age, Jean-Étienne Liotard, pastel on vellum, 22 x 18 in. (55 x 45 cm), in the collection of the Getty.

    18th century Swiss artist Jean-Étienne Liotard gives a beautiful demonstration of the sensitivity and finess possible in pastel.

    There is a subtle teture throughout, likely from the nature of the surface, which is natural vellum (a parchment made from calf skin, as contrasted with the modern use of the term to simply indicate a mild texture of paper or board).



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  • Serge Pelle

    Serge Pelle, from the French science fiction comics series Orbital
    Serge Pelle, from the French science fiction comics series Orbital

    Serge Pellé is a French comics artist known best for his work on the science fiction series Orbital (Amazon link), along with writer Sylvain Runberg.

    Pellé’s dramatic scenes of futuristic structures, often in deep perspective and extensive detail, are set off by imaginative spacecraft designs intense lighting and otherworldly creatures.

    It’s an entertaining series available in the US in an English translation ,published by Cinebook. I think there are eight volumes in total.

    Pellé doesn’t appear to have a dedicated website, but there is an extensive selectin of his work on the Character Design References website.



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  • Eye Candy for Today: Egyptian encaustic portrait

    Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, Egypt, Roman Period, encaustic on wood panel
    Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, Egypt, Roman Period, encaustic on wood panel

    Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, Egypt, Roman Period, encaustic on wood panel, 15 x 8 in. (38 x 19 cm), in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    What appears at first glance to be a sophisticated contemporary oil portrait, is, in fact, an encaustic painting that is roughly 2,000 years old.

    Painted in Egypt during the time of Roman occupation, around 100 -150 C.E., this is a beautiful example of the durable and non-yellowing medium of encaustic. Pigment is suspended in hot wax, often augmented with linseed oil, cold wax, egg yolk or resins, and applied to a wood panel.

    We know the boy’s name because of the inscription at the collar of his tunic.



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Vasari Handcraftes artist's oil colors Image Image Image

Charley’s Picks
Bookshop.org

(Bookshop.org affilliate links; sales benefit independent bookshop owners; I get a small percentage to help support my work on Lines and Colors)

John Singer Sargent: Watercolors
John Singer Sargent: Watercolors

Sorolla the masterworks
Sorolla: the masterworks

The Art Spirit
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Rendering in Pen and Ink
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Urban Sketching: Understanding Perspective
Urban Sketching: Understanding Perspective

World of Urban Sketching
World of Urban Sketching

Daily Painting
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Drawing on the right side of the brain
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Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics

Charley’s Picks
Amazon

(Amazon.com affiliate links; sales go to a larger yacht for Jeff Bezos; but I get a small percentage to help support my work on Lines and Colors)

John Singer Sargent: Watercolors
John Singer Sargent: Watercolors

Sorolla the masterworks
Sorolla: the masterworks

The Art Spirit
The Art Spirit

Rendering in Pen and Ink
Rendering in Pen and Ink

Urban Sketching: Understanding Perspective
Urban Sketching: Understanding Perspective

World of Urban Sketching
World of Urban Sketching

Daily Painting
Daily Painting

Drawing on the right side of the brain
Drawing on the right side of the brain

Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics