Tuesday 24 May 2011

Dean Cornwell

Dean Cornwell (March 5, 1892 - December 4, 1960) was an American illustrator and muralist. His oil paintings were frequently featured in popular magazines and books as literary illustrations, advertisements, and posters promoting the war effort. Throughout the first half of the 20th century he was a dominant presence in American illustration. At the peak of his popularity he was nicknamed the "Dean of Illustrators".




Wednesday 18 May 2011

Polyvore to paperdoll

Would you like your Polyvore set made into a paperdoll?



This is my version of Kristen Stewart and the set in Polyvore that stood as sample.

The paperdoll is about 25 cm high (10 inches) and fits in A4 (American Letter) plastic pockets for safekeeping

This is my own Steampunk paperdoll, with an outfit made after my Polyvore set "Be A Woman"

As you can see, this doll isn't modeled after any existing woman. She is kind of my Steampunk alter ego ;-)

Now - if you would want one - or more - of your own, how much would you be prepared to pay for it?
Next question: would you like the gouache original or a print on glossier and stiffer paper?
Any other questions?

P.S: I will own the copyright, even if your paperdoll would be of a character from a book or movie, or a celebrity.Anyone may draw anything or anyone without permission, and as you can see of the Kristen Stewart doll, I won't be able to copy something perfectly. I won't be selling it as "Twilight doll", even if you can call it that, because THAT I do NOT own the copyright.

Monday 9 May 2011

Goddess art XI

Dark Goddess by Jedediah Dougherty

Demeter Lilla

Demeter by Eve Reid

Devi

Druantia by Deborah Holman

Goddess art X

Crow Woman and Lilith

Cupid kissing Psyche by François Gérard

Ostara by Cyn (Cynthia) Roux

Dakini

Dance of the Pleiades by Elihu Vedder

Danu of the Tu'atha de Da'naan by Howard David Johnson

Goddess art IX

Brigid - by unknown... I think it was a man who was more known for other illustrations than Pagan ones... can't remember.

The story is that once upon a time there was a site called Care2, and they had a new, fancy idea... image threads.
I made one, with Goddesses... I had page after page of images of Goddess...
Then one day Care2 decided that the service was no longer interesting, so they deleted everything.
It happened after I had been inactive for some while, I don't know if they warned the people of that their work would be deleted or not. I didn't know.
I had managed to hunt down the artist of a lot of Goddesses, among them this Triple Goddess as Mountain.
That information is gone now, as I didn't have a chance to save it.
Now it is too late to find out who made this... the original is long gone, you see, and as this is internet and people believe everything online is public domain, they don't even bother saying who painted the work.
*sigh*
Gone.

Brigid
This was the other one... I think it might be Pamela Matthews, but I don't know.
Another brilliant work, and very popular online. Not credited.

Calyope by Roza Goneva

Cerridwen by Anne Baird

Cloak of the Maternal Sky by Jonathon Earl Bowser

Crone by Heather Daylight

Goddess art VIII

Bharat Mata by Abanindranath Tagore

Blodeuwedd by Jen Delyth

Blodeuwedd by Miranda Gray

Blodeuwedd by unknown

Blodeuwedd by unknown... this one too is so... familiar. I know who made it, but can't remember.

Goddess art VII

Arabic Goddesses by Thalia Took
I love Thalia, both as an artist and as a person :-)

Also by Thalia, the Star tarot card

Artemis by Lori Koefoed

also by Lori,

Aurora by Richard Hescox

Baba Yaga by Ivan Bilibine


Sunday 8 May 2011

Ok, let's talk about...

Thomas Kinkade.

When I saw his paintings first, I was delighted. Pretty little cottages in fairyland setting with this sundown light washed all over it. Cute. But... after seeing one, you've practically seen all.

I haven't been analyzing why I don't like his work, but I don't, so much so that hearing his company got into trouble made me glad. (Yeah, I know, evil me. They'll be back up again at no time, you'll see. The world is full of people who can't get enough plastic goddesses, crying children and fairytale landscapes.)

Trey Givens have given it a thought or two. I found his article very readable and enjoyable.
My BFF has a good test for whether or not he likes a work of art.  He asks himself, “Is this a world in which I would want to live?”  I like that test and I use it often.
I might want to live in Kinkade's painting... I would not want to live in Vanya Zouravliov's painting :-D I know which one I appreciate more :-D

Also, he's a hypocrite. He's selling these "Christian values" and stuff, but
- he was arrested for drunk driving. There are few things as despicable as that. More than one innocent people have been killed and maimed by drunk drivers, and everyone old enough to drive knows this, so everyone driving drunk is excusing this killing, and could have done the killing themselves. Just because they are lucky not to have any "accidents" personally, doesn't take the responsibility off them.
- he reportedly disturbs other artists' performance. Okay, so you're drunk and you're in a bar drinking more, and you have opinions on the show. Have the decency to leave and go to bed, or show the world that you are a pig.
- he reportedly is not housetrained. I assume he was drunk doing that too, but that's not an excuse. Everyone I know manage to go to toilet when they are drunk, why can't he? Some might need help, but they have the decency to ask for help, and they are not pigs.
- he thinks women are lesser beings created for men's pleasure

What's his excuse? "I was going through a bad period". I'm going through some very bad time right now, and I'm still decent and considerate. And I HAVE ASPERGER'S!!! So - no excuses. You're a pig.

The fact that he has nevertheless created this highly successful and marketable image as a right-wing, highly-jeezicised all-round squeaky clean bloke is probably the greatest example of the mass gullibility of society since Scientology. 
- Little Red Boat
Hmm, You must think you are an artist who in reality sucks. Really sucks to be you huh. Ever sold any of your crap? Probably to pay by the hour hotels who don’t know anything more than paint…
- a comment from an upset fan
Why do they always take other people's opinions personally? There's a lot of things I don't like, and it doesn't mean anything but that I don't like them... but obviously one must be living in the cellar and be a bad at what one's doing in order to dislike things. TK hates Walt Disney... what does that say about him? ;-)

"Kinkade's work, frankly, doesn't convince. The light is wrong, the colors are wrong, the angles are wrong, the depth of focus is wrong -- it doesn't look like anything. The more you look at it, the less real it seems. What kind of flowers are those? What time of year is it? Why is the sky that color when it's supposed to be night? Where is the vanishing point of the cottage?"
- Goth House Parlour
Okay, so let's compare Kinkade's and Turner's moonlight...

Thomas Kinkade: Moonlight Cottage
I wouldn't have guessed it's moonlight, unless it was spelled out to me. I thought it was rainy day.


Turner's Keelmen Heaving Coal by Moonlight.
Now THAT's light! This makes me want to see it in real life, so I knew the colors used... there are so many different versions online. Some are bluer, some yellower, some darker... but even in such a small format you can see it's moonlight. It can't be anything else :-)

Then the evil girl posts this:
Is that dinosaurs in moonlight? And, see, there's the cross Trey was talking about! Painted by Rich Penney. Dang, he should start painting fantasy cottages and goddesses and get rich and famous!

"He is a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci or Monet. There is no one in our generation who can paint like that."
- Karen de la Carriere

Oh, dear... you don't know much about painting, art or moder day painters, do you, Karen?

Painters of blight

I'll end with Simcha Fisher's All you need to know about Thomas Kinkade..

Goddess art VI

This is dedicated to Jonathon Earl Bowser...

1) His "goddesses" are very popular among the Pagan/Wiccan/witch community. Very pretty.

2) "Great Masterpieces of Jonathon Earl Bowser" is a site of Mr. Eloff and Eureka Publishing. He is a born-again Christian, and he has some... interesting ideas of Pagans, Jonathon's artwork and his place in Jonathon's life.

3) This caused Ariadne to start asking questions, and getting some rather unsatisfactory answers...  which made me very uncomfortable with the whole thing.

I really don't care that the offensive remarks have been cleared off the site. We know the site owner still thinks that way, and even though it's mr. Eloff and not Jonathon who hates Pagans, Wiccans and witches, but has no scruples in accepting their money... Uh. Nasty business.

Besides, the world is full of "artists" of that caliber.

What STILL irks me with that site is:

"While there is a modicum of tastefully disguised nudity amongst his work, most of the female figures in Jonathon's art are well-dressed... ...None of these women are anorexic, in fact, many are (certainly by today's standards) gorgeously chubby"

I wish I was chubby like that... 
but I think I am too prude to disguise my nudity tastefully. I think I'd prefer clothes.
On the other hand... when you are chubby like that, you don't much need clothes.

Saturday 7 May 2011

Goddess art V

Astarte Syriaca by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Athena and Hecate by Alex Fantalov

Aurora by Richard Hescox

Bast by unknown artist