[ART] Amazing and breathtaking. Unbelievable you might say

Rockwell did sketch his pictures before painting them. He also did work from photographs, and even projected photography on his canvas to copy. Of course, some would also dismiss Rockwell as not a serious artist.

Artists have been using tricks like this for centuries. It's a tool of the craft. It still takes a hell of a lot of craftsmanship to render that image by hand in oil paint, no matter how much technological assistance he used. In craftsmanship, my hat's off to him.

Is it artistic? I'm not sure I get much in the end from a painting of the artist with paint on his face. But, I'll grant him this: his paintings made a deep enough impression on the OP that he started a thread on it. That's worth something. Maybe the logical half of your brain looks at it and says it doesn't mean anything, but the emotional side has a visceral reaction and says wow. That's the reaction artists want. It's not an article in the New Yorker. It might not mean anything. But, artists want to provoke a response in people who see their work, and I think he succeeds in that.

 

I understand you don't agree with his process to create a photorealistic painting. I understand you think it's akin to photocopying or a coloring book.

I also understand that I paint (more aptly have painted*) and could never come close to anything as photorealistic as he with the techniques he uses.

I find it interesting and I find it art!

 

Guess I missed that. My bad.

 

I don't think that is true. Sure there is some natural ability that comes into play with art but for the most part technique is really just about repetition and muscle memory. Since what he is doing is to reslly creative I think given enough time you absolutely could perfect this technique. Especially with the aid of photography, projection, etc.

Even great artists have to draw or paint or whatever every day because the technique will atrophy. If it was just innate then that would not be the case.

 

I consider this art, notice the use of color contrast by the artist.

 

Let me put to you this way. I admire the skill but I don't admire the idea.

It's like a good looking girl that's dumb as rocks. Salvador Dali was an amazing photorealistic painter but it wasn't what made his work special.

 

The use of angles, both contrasting and complimenting, is superb.