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|
Realistic Art: The Art Galleries of Howard David Johnson (Contemporary Realistic
Art in Paintings,Photo-Realistic Drawings,Photographic Art & Realistic Digital Art by David Johnson)
A:hover {color: red; font-weight: bold}
Realistic Art in Paintings and Pictures:
Educational Realistic
Art Galleries in a wide variety of media dealing with Themes of Myth and
Legend, History, and
Natural Beauty... with lots of Fairy Tales and Fantasy
Art for the young at heart. Over 200 pieces of Late 20th and early 21st Century Old
Fashioned Traditional Realistic Art and today's experimental
and fantastic médias numériques...
exploring
the cultural and spiritual heritages of all mankind while pioneering new vistas for Art
and Technology through visual art, essay, and word paintings.
Admission Free Fantastic & Realistic Art
Galleries
Site Map
Deutsch
Dutch
Greek
Italiano
De Portugese
Espanol
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Japanese
Chinese
POSTER
ART ART
BOOKS
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ORIGINAL ART
ART INSTRUCTION
Howard David
Johnson has spent a lifetime creating his Super Realistic Art... Please be patient while
the images are loading...
 his is my
world. This is the
world I love. It is a world without limits. My world is what I choose to make it.
My world
is yesterday... or today... or tomorrow. My world is a world of dreams and realities.
It
is a world of Caesars and Christs... of monuments rising from dim memories of the past. It
is an angry sailing ship tossed about on a sea of adversity.
It is a world of knights and
ladies, of gods & monsters, of faerie princesses, femme fatales, and mythic creatures.
It is a world of beauty & virtue &
nobility.
It is a world with no boundaries save the limits of my imagination & my
conscience.
This is my world.
Conceived in my mind
& placed upon canvas with brush and paint & study & sweat & tears
& a great deal of love for my world. My world is the world of the illustrator.
I created this world for you, and for your
children, and for your children's, children's, children...
 "Athene,
goddess of Wisdom and Justice" (2008 oil on 20 x 16 canvas)
~Dedicated
to my Parents Howard and Louise
The Johnson
Galleries
Admission Free
Non-Profit
Virtual Realistic Art Museum
The Realistic Art Galleries of
Contemporary American Illustrator & Photographer Howard David Johnson
Celebrating our
12th Anniversary on the World Wide
Web 1996- 2008!
With
a background in traditional media including oils, pastels & colored
pencils, Howard David Johnson embraces leading edge digital media in the
creation of his depictions of fantasy, folklore, mythology, legend,
religion, and heroic history. He
works
in and mixes a wide variety of media * Oil paintings * Acrylic Paintings * Prismacolor
Paintings * Drawings * Chalk & Oil Pastel Paintings * Photography * Digital Artistry & Mixed Media *
Enter a world of Beauty
and Imagination...
Click on these
Fun Educational Realistic Art Gallery icons (above) for two-fisted tales of valor
& frontline combat featuring legendary warriors of history, Olympian gods
& monsters, mythic
unicorns, dragons, fairies, & romance...
King
Arthur
Greek Mythology
Celtic
Mythology
The
Great Religions
Norse Mythology
Fairy
Paintings
Surreal Fantasy Art
Symbolist Art
The
Seven Wonders
Art
of Res
Publica
Legends
of History
Spartan
Warriors
Digital
Techniques
Asian
Mythology
Commercial
Art
History of Dragons
More
Fantasy Art
Goddess
Art
Pin
up Art Gallery
About
Realistic Art
Studio
Photography
Art
Instruction
Frauen Mit Blumen
Realistic
Paintings
About
the Artist
Digital
Thumbelina
Pencil
Portraits I
Colored
Pencils II
Pre-Raphaelite Art
Art
Link Exchange
Art
of the Bible
Mermaid
Art
The
Art of War
Business
Center
Legendary
Women
Paintings
in Oils
Click on the Gallery
link Icons above to visit these Fun & Educational Art Galleries: These Art Galleries
and those they link to are suitable for General Audiences...
no explicit images!
The
Legends of History (below)- Educational multi-media art galleries
exploring the Myths & Legends of the ancient world & War
& Civilization; The Outline of History through realistic art, prose,
& essay...
The World's Great
Religions (below)- An educational multi-media art gallery embracing religious tolerance and
exploring the world's great religions and their impact on war and civilization through
realistic art, prose, and essay...
Mystery, Babylon,
the Great -The Deesse et chimere Icon Links to
a Symbolist art gallery featuring an astonishing disclosure about the Beast (Chimera) from the book of Revelation and
and more Apocalyptic
Prophecies...
Classical
Mythology; Greek & Roman Myths: Realistic Illustrations & introductions to the legendary gods
of Olympus, The Greek Heroes, Homer's The Iliad, Helen of Troy & The Trojan Horse,
Jason & the Argonauts & much more...
David
Johnson - 2006 photo by son Erich
Howard David Johnson is a contemporary
realistic artist and photographer with
a background in the natural sciences and history. David
as he likes to be called, works in a wide variety of mixed media ranging from
oil on canvas
to digital media. After a lifetime of drawing and painting, David
Johnson's Traditional
Realistic Art was exhibited in the British Museum in London in 1996, ( 3 years
before he got his first computer ) as well as numerous American ones since, such as the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
David's realistic illustrations have made
appearances in every major bookstore and
game shop chain in America as well as magazines and educational texts around the
world. Some
of his more prestigious clients have included the National Geographic
Society, the University of Texas, the
University of Cambridge in England, Paramount Studios, Universal Studios, PBS TV, Enslow
Educational Publishers, Adobe Photoshop, Auto FX, Doubleday, the
History Book of the
Month Club, & J Walter Thompson Advertising, just to name a
few.
Working in a variety of
media David offers his customers a variety of options and more
than three decades of
experience. As a realistic illustrator he has not only used the computer but has been involved
in the development and marketing of software for Adobe Photoshop.
Digital art, Colored pencils, Pastels, Mixed media, & also Oil
Paintings can also be commissioned for select projects. David delivers these custom made copyright free illustrations
& old fashioned
customer service when
he does work-for-hire. To publish pieces of his realistic art,
David sells licenses starting at only $99.USD.
POSTER
ART ART
BOOKS PUBLISHING
LICENSES BUY
ORIGINAL ART ART INSTRUCTION
(All
Realistic Art and text copyright 2008 by the author, Howard David Johnson.
All Rights Reserved Worldwide)
Gorgeous Quality High
Resolution files for All kinds of Commercial Publishing!
Books
Cards Posters Magazines CDs DVDs Videos & more are available at very reasonable rates.
COMMERCIAL SIZE 20 x 16
inch 300 DPI
PRINTING MASTER FILES ARE AVAILABLE on CD or DVD ROM DISK FOR ALL HIS REALISTIC ART -
ANALOG OR DIGITAL COVER FORMATTING IS ALSO AVAILABLE
E-MAIL
FOR COURTEOUS & SPEEDY SERVICE
info@howarddavidjohnson.com
ON SALE NOW!
IN BOOKSTORES EVERYWHERE!
All these
pieces of realistic art and the text are legally copyrighted and were registered with the U.S.
Library of Congress Office of Copyright by the author, Howard David
Johnson All rights reserved worldwide. Permission for many academic or non-commercial
uses is freely and legally available by simply contacting the author via e-mail
and asking courteously or visiting www.howarddavidjohnson.com/permission.htm
This Art Gallery has been
honored by more than
22,000,000 Unique Visitors
Unique Visitors
from the
Four
Corners of the Earth
My
Friends from around the world thus far :
England, Canada, Scotland, Wales,
Ireland, Germany, France, Andorra,
Italy, Greece,
Cyprus, Turkey, Belgium,
Denmark, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Croatia, The Czech
Republic, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Luxembourg, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland,
Austria, Romania, Spain, Russia,
Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Malta,
Iceland, Finland, Norway, Netherlands,
Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, Israel,
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates,
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Jordan,
Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, The Republic of Congo,
Angola, Ghana, The Ivory Coast,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Namibia,
Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea, South Africa, Mauritius, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam,
Japan, South
Korea, China, Macau, Malaysia,
Taiwan,
Nuie, New Zealand, Australia, The
Heard and McDonald Islands, The
Philippines, Palau, Cocos Island, The Kingdom of
Tonga,
Malaysia, Brunei Darussalem, India, Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, The Republic of Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Chile, Argentina,
Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela,
Guyana, Aruba, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica,
Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama,
Ecuador, Belize, Nicaragua,
Cuba, Jamaica,
Puerto Rico, Cayman
Islands, Mexico, and my home, The United States of
America...
If your home is not listed here please
e-mail and tell us where you're from...
info@howarddavidjohnson.com
We love hearing from you! Your business, letters & links are
always welcome. E-mail for courteous service...
POSTER
ART
ART
BOOKS PUBLISHING
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ORIGINAL ART ART INSTRUCTION
STYLE and
TECHNIQUE
"Those who are
enamored of
practice without science are like a pilot who goes into a ship without rudder or compass
and never has any certainty where he is going. Practice should always be based upon a
sound knowledge of theory, of which perspective is the guide and gateway, and without it
nothing can be done well in any kind of painting."
Howard
David Johnson is a contemporary realistic visual artist and photographer
with a background in
the
natural sciences and history. He works in a wide variety of realistic art
media ranging from traditional
oils,
pastels and others to cutting edge digital media. He loves mixing media.
This site features
examples
of his Realistic Art, including illustration, photography,
experimentalism, and fine art
Pandora's Box- rendered in
Prismacolor pencils ( below left) is not at all what people think of when they hear the word 'drawing'
 Finding and training the right
models is the hard part, then Photography, Mathematical Design
and Digital Composition all come before the image is transferred to paper or canvas and
rendered in mixed media ( including prismacolor pencils, oils,
acrylics, and or many other traditional art media).
The various galleries
linked to by the icons
above show many examples of David's Realistic Art, and are grouped by theme rather
than media. There are also sample illustrations from his new books on
Fairy Art and Mythology. Since boyhood David has studied and
copied the old masters.
To create his art works David begins with a concept followed by a realistic sketch,
researching and traveling to find scenes and locations. Photography comes
next. Working in his Analog Photography
Studio with live models he follows up with a digitally assembled photo
montage in the computer, combining original and old realistic elements to create a new work.
As a
boy David dedicated his life to art in 1960. From 1965- 1999 he used xeroxes and tracings
to make his preliminary montages. This is patterned after the manner used by
Maxfield Parrish and other 19th century notables. Beginning with a tracing, David then
draws or paints from these complex original Computer Photo Montages.
Many of these are on
display on this web and slated for future completion in a variety of traditional
realistic art media. As this happens, his finished work is substituted in the
exhibit. (See
the about the artist gallery link above for more details.)
David
has built up an enormous library of original source photos to use in his realistic
art. For decades
David has sought out the most beautiful models and brought them in for sessions in his
analog photography studio.
Using a strategy employed by J. W. Waterhouse, the
realistic artist David imitates most - his wistful and graceful models cannot be underestimated in their
contribution to the stunning beauty and the potential for lasting appeal of his work.
David's
favorite medium for
traditional realistic art is colored pencil because of the high speed and low expense, and
people began expressing difficulty in telling his colored pencil drawing from photographs
in the early 1980's to which he said: "There is NO GREATER
COMPLIMENT to the photo-realist than disbelief."
In the last 35 plus years David has also mastered Oils, Pastels,
Acrylics, Watercolors, Inks, Scratchboard, Gouache, Photography, and most recently,
even the highly
controversial digital media. As a commercial illustrator
David has
not only used the computer to create realistic art but has been involved in the development and
marketing of computer imaging software for Adobe Photoshop. Working in a realistic style
inspired by classic illustrators David is deeply rooted and grounded in the Greco-Roman
artistic tradition, Feeling that especially with realistic art - that the human
form is the ultimate arena for artistic expression. David's lifelong dream to become a
master artist came true when his Traditional Realistic Art was exhibited in the British
Museum in London England in 1996. His mixed media has also been displayed in numerous
other ones since such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having achieved
international acclaim as a traditional realistic visual artist Howard David Johnson first
experimented with combining traditional and digital media in 1999. Because of his passion
for realistic art, photography, and art tradition, David elected to embrace it and joyfully
be a part of this era in the visual arts as a 21st century realistic artist.
Computers have not
diminished David's passion for working in traditional art media. He still loves to draw
portraits from his own photographs as well as using them to create
realistic story-telling illustrations in
various media. Click on the 'realistic paintings gallery' link above for more on his
other public domain sources & influences he uses to combine with his photography to
create his new and original traditional realistic art.
Pencil Art-
rendered in Prismacolor and
Spectracolor colored pencils with Ebony pencil lowlights
on Windsor & Newton Cotman 140 lb. Water Color Paper . Background
heightened with Rembrandt Soft pastels. Even with nothing but pencil
& paper the use of original photography as a source makes this mixed
media.
Art
tradition and etiquette suggest the artists who have been most
influential should be mentioned at
exhibits; these original new pieces shown in this exhibit take their
inspiration in part from the paintings of Waterhouse, Alma-Tadema,
Church, Godward, Moreau, Bouguereau,
Leighton, Ingres, Moore, Parrish, Rackham and others. Most
of my sources are changed so much they are impossible to detect, but
sometimes I make it obvious to pay homage. Where
would Walt Disney be without the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian
Anderson, Victor Hugo and so many others? Where would Aaron Copeland
have been without American folk music? Thomas Nast's Santa Claus
without traditional images of Father Christmas? Picasso without
African art? These are artists who made names and fortunes
through Public Domain appropriation, one and all. Beethoven did
"variations on a theme" with the works of Mozart for the
same reasons I have done mine with Waterhouse and others- to learn and
give homage to the artists who most inspired me.
Pandora's
box : First a sketch, then a photo, then a collage, then a Prismacolor
Painting, Then finally rendered as an oil painting. (above) Painting
dozens of layers of Transparent glazes of Oil on Canvas
Since
1974 when David began his art career doing dinosaur reconstructions and
artifact records as a scientific illustrator for the University of Texas
David has earned his living in a variety of ways including illustrating all kinds of books, magazines, CD covers, and all sorts
of games, greeting cards, calendars, portraits, murals and the like with his contemporary
realistic art... David's Realistic Art has appeared in every major bookstore chain
and fantasy gaming shop in The United States and has been used in educational texts and
magazines all over the world. This site features realistic paintings & pictures for
the twenty-first Century including oil paintings and lots of
other exciting realistic art media such as colored pencil drawings, pastel paintings,
acrylic paintings, gouache paintings, water color paintings, and pencil drawings, and also
featuring studio, field, & aerial photography, digital painting and
photo-montage and all these media mixed in an assortment of experimental
combinations. Working in a wide variety of media to create his realistic art
David offers
his customers a host of payment and product options. He delivers these
custom made copyright free realistic illustrations and old fashioned customer service when
he does work-for-hire.Howard David Johnson, or David as he is called, accepts select commissions to paint custom
oil paintings with down payments starting at only one thousand dollars. Other media, like
colored pencils or digital are of course far less expensive. He grants permission
to use his 72 dpi images for most
educational purposes simply for asking courteously. Visit his Permission
page for complete info. To use his existing realistic art
commercially, David offers licenses for publishing starting as low as
only $99. USD.
We
love hearing from you! Use the e-mail
link
to contact him...
info@howarddavidjohnson.com
Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( 1840-
1893) - "Swan Lake"
All realistic art -
paintings, pictures, & text (c) 2008 Howard David Johnson All rights reserved
Realistic Art: The Fantastical
and Surrealist Art Galleries of Howard David Johnson
*****
ON SALE NOW
from BRANDYWINE PRESS!
These beautifully printed 11" x 8.5" 64 page hardcover and
trade paperback versions feature 48 full page interior plates in full color for
only $24.99 USD. Less than the price of a single poster! Featuring Realistic Mythological and Fairy Art created in a style
inspired by Classic Illustrators by American Artist &
Photographer Howard David Johnson.
Click on the
covers to order the books from Lulu.com
ALSO: Click on
the CREDIT CARD logo below to
VISIT POD
PUBLISHING FOR BEAUTIFUL POSTER SIZE REPRINTS
AND A VARIETY OF
PAYMENT OPTIONS, SIZES, PAPERS, AND PRICES
Essay Section:
Philosophy, Art, & Art
Philosophy
Personal Opinion Essays on
Realistic Art yesterday and today by the artist.
Howard David Johnson
is an outspoken proponent of mechanical aids to visual art. Unlike the opponents
of mechanical aids, David's mission is not to prove his talent but to help preserve
our vanishing Western cultural heritage. In addition to his mastery of the
traditional media, now combines drawing, painting,
photography, and digital media with more than thirty years of experience in these fields
to create his Realistic Art Numerica in 21st century paintings and
pictures. Did you know the Greek word
"Photography" means "Painting with Light"? Today with the advent of
computers it truly lives up to it's name. Due to developments in Art and Technology, a
broader definition of painting is needed than that which is found in common usage.
Introducing Art Numerica-
an exciting merger of traditional visual art and cutting edge
technology... a new art form for the twenty- first century... Art Numerica is not
limited to realistic art but also offers limitless horizons for everything from cartoons
to abstractions.
It is the most dramatic
development in the visual arts since the Renaissance.
Acrylics
lend depth and dimension when working in mixed media.
Click
Here for a Low Bandwidth Page with ALL Seven Essays by the Artist
ON REALISTIC ART:
Personal Opinion Essays on
Realistic Art yesterday and today by the artist.
"Painting, in art,
the
action of laying colour on a surface, or the representation of objects by this means.
Considered one of the fine arts" ~Encyclopaedia Britannica.
"Painting. noun. 1.) The
act or employment of laying on colors or paints. 2.) The art of forming figures or objects
in colors on canvas or any other surface, or the art of representing to the eye by means
of figures and colors any object; the work of an illustrator or painter. 3.) A picture; a
likeness or resemblance in shape or colors. 4.) Colors laid on. 5.) Delineation that
raises a vivid image in the mind; as in word painting.
~ Webster's Unabridged Dictionary of the
English Language
What is YOUR definition
of ART?
Essay one: On
Realistic Art: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME...
( A Brief essay dealing with
attitudes toward Realistic Art and prior developments in technology in history)
David working in Oil
painting Pandora's Box- See
Art Instruction or About The artist in the links for more about how he
creates his illustrations and portraits.
Snobbism in the arts is nothing new. Some people will
tell you that oils are the only valid medium for realistic paintings. That Colored Pencil,
Digital, and other Realistic Painting and Drawing Media are not valid for
"real" art. Young artists, Don't let them bother you. Their forerunners used to
condemn Pastels before they gained acceptance and called them "crayons" when
Johann Alexander Thiele (1685-1752) invented them. Mercilessly disrespectful
art critics of the time could not stop the Experimentalists no matter how viciously they
attacked and derided them. "Crayon-painting" as it was called in England was
practiced early on by persecuted pioneers in Switzerland and many other nations. What a
debt we owe to these master artists who refused to knuckle under to the pressure of those
short-sighted critics during those historic and experimental times. It took until 1870
with the founding of the "Societe` Des Pastellistes" in France that respect
came at last to these heroic & immortal visual artists.
In
England the liberation of the Pastellists from slight regard and undeserved disrespect
came with the first exhibition of "The Pastel Society" at the Grosvenor Gallery
in 1880. Pastel Painters like Mary Cassat and others from America and other nations
forever silenced the snobs with their masterworks and gained recognition at long
last for Thiele's invention as a valid art medium. I am persuaded that history will repeat
itself. Like Pastels, I believe these wonderful new colored pencils and even Digital
Realistic Art Media will one day receive the recognition they deserve as powerful mediums
of artistic expression just as pastel paintings did. What is your definition of
art? Have you thought about it?
Mine is: "anything that
makes you feel or think."
Consider dancing... it can be a little skip in the step or rise to the level of
the incomparable Russian Ballet. Did you know that just the materials alone for a single
oil painting cost up to a thousand dollars these days? Even paying the artist less than
minimum wage no one but the super rich can afford them anymore. Something's got to give.
Realistic paintings in oil have been highly prized for centuries and the appeal and
following of realistic art is undiminished to this day. Oil paintings featuring Abstract
Art and Realistic Art are generally the most treasured form of all the visual art media
and with good reason. But snobbish art critics favoring abstract art have
declared that realistic paintings, or illustrations are not art for a century.
 Soft Pastels, Acrylics, and Colored Pencils
combined
With
so many representationalist paintings by so many immortal master artists hanging in
the Louvre, the Hermitage, and the British Museum and others I think the disrespect for
realistic illustrators that dominated the 20th century is academically ridiculous as well
as vain and intolerant, insisting theirs is the only valid opinion. What is your
definition of Art? I believe almost any form of human expression can be raised to the
level of "high art" especially visual art and Realistic illustration...
The detail reveals Realistic
art and abstract art combined
By my own definition of art, which is: "anything that makes you feel or think"
most abstract paintings are not "real art" to me personally,
because abstract paintings usually neither make me feel or think, usually focusing
obsessively on technique and avoiding any coherent content. I usually draw a complete
blank mentally and emotionally when I look at them. In 1979 the Houston Metropolitan
Museum of Art displayed a triptych of 3 giant paintings they paid fifty thousand
dollars for- three blank white canvasses entitled "untitled". Then there
was "The incredible new artistic Genius" with an I.Q. of 62
...Congo the
chimpanzee with his gala New York art exhibition...an elaborate prank played on the
Snobbish American Art critics about a generation ago by research scientists in the field
of primatology. Imagine how upset they were when he created one of his "ingenious
masterpieces" right before their eyes. \( My Source for this is the Time Life
Science Library volume entitled "The Primates". )
Art
education has been almost completely removed from American Schools as a result of
generations of this kind of fabulous nonsense contributing to America's cultural
illiteracy crisis. Now, the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and other notables
are being removed from school libraries. After generations of this, most American
college graduates today cannot name even one living visual artist, abstract or realistic.
There is no way that mandating
more math, requiring more reading, or scheduling more science will replace what we have
lost as a culture.
What is your definition of Art?
~HDJ
*****
Note: Abstract Paintings by Congo the
Chimpanzee outsold Warhol and Renoir by over 25,000 dollars in June 2005 at
a London art auction. Born in 1954, Congo created more than 400 drawings and
paintings between the ages of two and four. He died in 1964 of tuberculosis.
But how do
all these new Realistic Art media fit in with formal definitions of Art?
Art ( noun ) [ Middle English, from Old French, from Latin ars
(stem art-). ] 1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of
nature. 2. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or
other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty; specifically, the production
of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium. 3. The product of these activities; human
works of beauty, collectively. 4. High quality of conception or execution, as found in
works of beauty; aesthetic value. 5. Any field or category of art, such as painting,
music, ballet, or literature. 6. A non-scientific branch of learning; one of the liberal
arts. 7. a. A system of principles and methods employed in the performances of a set of
activities: the art of building. b. A trade or craft that applies such a system of
principles and methods: pursuing the baker's art. 8. A specific skill in adept
performance, conceived as requiring the exercise of intuitive faculties that cannot be
learned solely by study: the art of writing letters. 9. a. Usually plural. Artful
devices; stratagems; tricks. b. Artfulness; contrivance; cunning. 10. In printing:
Illustrative material as distinguished from text.
~ The American Heritage College
Dictionary of the English Language
*****
Special note: 21st
century professional art critics are not repeating these mistakes of history and
are blessing and encouraging artistic excellence in all styles and mediums, even including
today's digital media. To them I say: Bravo! If only our world leaders could learn from the
mistakes of the past as you have.
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Essay Two
Realistic Art : The
Rebirth of Realism in the 21st Century
More thoughts on realistic art yesterday
and today by the artist
Art History
has entered a new era with the birth of Art Numérica, or digital
art media in the 21st century. Artists never stop exploring with mediums. Artists have
been developing techniques, experimenting with different tools since at least twenty- five
thousand years ago, when the first artist picked up a charred stick and scratched a
picture out on the wall of his cave. You'd think everything would have been tried by now,
but it hasn't. Exploring new mediums this very day is just as exciting, just as full of
freshness and newness as it ever was.
"Brigit, Gaelic
goddess of Poetry" (2007 mixed media) features his new model Shaina.
Brigit was the Gaelic goddess of poetry which the Gaels deemed an
immaterial, supersensual form of flame.
The
creation of Realistic art has been the goal of most artists since the dawn of
civilization. Realistic art was the pride of ancient Greece. The world's greatest museums
are full of realistic art. Realistic art WAS art until the advent of the abstract
expressionist movement in the twentieth century. The coming of the camera in the
nineteenth century changed realistic art forever. Suddenly, realistic art was not the only
way to create realism in portraits and historical records. The work of the realistic
artist was suddenly made into an expensive luxury. The political power of the realistic
artist was broken and they were no longer an indispensable member of society. Hostility
to the creators of realistic art goes back to ancient times and the jealousy of advisers
to the Pharaohs and others who were not able to spend as much time with their rulers as
their portraitists. Although with the aid of photographs, realistic art achieved
levels of excellence undreamed of, the realistic art movement of the late nineteenth
century was short.
None
of these people earning their living creating realistic art could compete with the speed
and low cost of photographic portraiture. Determined to survive, great realistic
artists like Pablo Picasso ingeniously turned inward and began to explore things that
could not be photographed in a new school of art, abstract expressionism. The day of the
fine art superstars had arrived. It was now largely just a hobby to abstract and realistic
artists alike. Illustration, because of advances in printing technology enabled an elite
few to earn a living with their realistic art. These illustrators working in realistic art
media were condemned and ridiculed in much the same way Europe's great symphonic
composers were condemned for working in motion pictures after fleeing the nazis during
World War Two. The rift between realistic and abstract art grew wider and wider. The
universities and key media usually sided with the abstract camp and derided anyone working
in any realistic art media declaring boldly that realistic art was not "real"
art. Immortal giants of realistic art such as Maxfield Parrish were mistreated their
entire lives. They were accused of selling out for creating beautiful pieces of realistic
fine art to earn a living. The attitude that the true artist must suffer and starve and
die in poverty became a rule. There were the Abstract art superstars, the professional
realistic illustrators, and the hobbyists who, although cut off from gainful employment
and social influence still recognized their artistic gifts as a calling rather than a
profession.
 (
'The Lady Kriemhilde' rendered in Prismacolor
pencils )
Early
abstract art masters proved themselves as realistic artists before delving into
realms of the intangible. They had to do this at that time to prove themselves because of
the challenges they faced from the establishment for going against the status quo.
In the latter part of the 20th century, realistic artists like David were challenged to do
abstract art to prove themselves as shown in the example above (Deirdre of the sorrows).
Later realistic art training was abandoned in most schools and things like splattering
paint in fits of rage were deemed more than enough. By the end of the 20th century
something as destructive and ridiculous as nailing a pack of cigarettes to a shoe was
considered fine art but not realistic paintings. Fashions in art have often been as silly
as fashions in ladies hats. As the century drew to a close, many people had had
enough. The realistic revolt was at hand.
The rebirth of realism was fueled by the advent of the digital
era. Now, for the first time in almost two centuries, an artist or illustrator could earn
a decent living again with his realistic art. This is historic. Realistic art is not going
to go away, especially now that photography has truly merged with traditional realistic
visual art. Photography comes from the Greek words meaning "painting with
light". Now with the advent of digital media the capability of realistic art has
become almost limitless, truly, "painting with light". The merger of all the
world's art forms to realize the potential of motion pictures has come now to still
realistic art media. This website for example, combines music, prose, poetry, photography
and traditional realistic art media to create an experience beyond merely looking at
realistic paintings.
The
twenty- first century is already seeing a new renaissance in the arts because of the world
wide web. There has never been anything like it. Abstract art, computer art, photographic
art, and realistic art are continuing to be separate schools of art but are also blending
to create exciting new horizons (Art Numérica). Although Digital art does offer completely new horizons
to the artist in the 21st century it does not mean the end of our time honored art
traditions. Instead, it offers additional ways to keep these traditions and schools of
thought fresh and alive.~
Howard David Johnson MMII
*****
 David has four pages of free art
lessons & offers paid private instruction too. For more information, click on the link above ( an
oil pastel rendering of Mary Shelly's Bride of Frankenstien )
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you! Your business, letters & links are
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All these pieces of
realistic art and the text are legally copyrighted and were registered with the U.S.
Library of Congress Office of Copyright by the author, Howard David
Johnson All rights reserved worldwide. Permission for many legal non-commercial
uses is freely available by simply contacting the author or visiting www.howarddavidjohnson.com/permission.htm
Acknowledgements:
Wallace
Wood, Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Ray
Harryhausen, Howard Pyle, Arthur Rackham,
William Bouguereau,
John William
Waterhouse, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, H.G. Wells, Gustave
Moreau, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, William Morris,
Henry David Thoreau, Will Durant, The Pre-
Raphaelites, & The Symbolists.
Thank You for Visiting the
Realistic Art Galleries of Howard David Johnson...
You may also want to
visit his 100% kid-safe educational Gallery...
The
Johnson Archives
Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( 1840-
1893) - "Swan Lake"
All
Realistic Art and text copyright 2008 by the author, Howard David Johnson.
All Rights Reserved Worldwide
*****
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