More Inspiration

A few more pieces that are inspiring me these days. First up are couple from a new discovery of mine, although you have probably known about him for years. Rene Hausman, A Belgian cartoonist, illustrator and graphic novel creator. I just found him on Pinterest a couple of days ago and he is my new favourite. I like his exaggerated cartoon style and the subtle watercolour work. I just love discovering new artists.

Next is an artist I have loved for many years now - Myles Bircket Foster. He is one of the Victorian cottage painters operating in Britain at the beginning of the last century. He is primarily a watercolourist but he likes to get in there with the Chinese White and do some opaque rendering as well. This one is just terrific. I love the way he takes the time to carefully work every inch of the painting. I feel like I could stroll into that picture and explore it all afternoon. The stone steps and little wooden railing are just terrific.

 Next is another Victorian cottage painter named Helen Allingham. She is also a watercolourist but I don't think she went in for the Chinese White the way Bircket Foster did. She was more for scratching out and colour lifting to obtain light effects or to place small flowers in front of large dark areas like hedges or earthen banks. She is also very detail oriented. Every part of the picture is important.

This last one is something I found on Pinterest. I don't know who did this but I think it is just brilliant.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by. More soon.

Okay, one more Hausman piece, just because those little birds are so cleverly designed. Look at the way he did their feet.

Inspiration

I have been feeling somewhat guilty because I have not been able to share anything with you for a while. I was sick over the Christmas break and lost a couple of weeks there and then I'm right back into a project which is NDA protected - meaning it's all hush hush until it gets published.

So I think what I will do instead is share some of the art that really inspires me. The first piece is by Alan Lee. This illustration is for me the very essence of Middle Earth. For my money there is more Tolkien in this one painting than all five of the movies - the moody sky, the endless landscape, the old bridge and the feeling that you are in a charming yet dangerous wilderness, all pure Tolkien.

The next piece is by Alan Lee's old room mate Brian Froud. I love this picture for so many reasons, but mostly because it just says Faerie Tale. It has the gloom and the grit and the spookiness of the very best Faerie Tales. I love the girls hair and the patches on her dress - fabulous !

The next piece is my all time favourite John Bauer piece. This is another spectacular example of creating a Faerie Tale world or "secondary world" as Tolkien called it. The seemingly perfect nature of the symmetrical composition is beautifully enhanced by the writhing snake like roots that are leading toward the girl from both sides of the picture. And the two birds at the upper right are lovely little touch.

This next picture is from a Russian illustrator named Pavel Tatarnikov. This one is such a brilliant display of character rendering, not to mention the nearly impossible task of painting chain mail. I don't know how he gets his watercolour to do that but it is just stunning. I'm pretty sure he is using gouache to get some of those textures. The metal work and armour is fabulous too.

Here's another one by Tatarnikov - just for fun. And just look at all the work in those trees. I had a couple more I wanted to add to this post but it looks like Blogger wants me to stop here. More soon.