扬州八怪

http://baike.baidu.com/subview/2326/4987555.htm

One of the most creative group of artists, loosely connected, but all of the Qing Dynasty. Including Luo Ping who claimed to have seen the ghouls and ghosts he drew. This picture below depicted all of them together, which is also a figment of the artist's imagination and a forced connection that was made. For the 8 artists never conferred together like that.

Laura Carlin, Iron Giant

Work by another illustrator, Laura Carlin.

The image is made up for simple, childlike likes, but it's very visually interesting. why?
repetition of patterns, lines, shapes, what else??

from her work on The Iron Giant.

Da Vinci master copy

My friends suggested master copy to improve my drawings.
I'll do that if I had more time. Too much homework.
http://comfortpit.com/drawing-exercises-leonardo-da-vinci/

I wonder how would the below look like in chinese ink.

Quentin Blake

Quentin Blake is still my favourite illustrator.

Leonora Carrington - English-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonora_Carrington
using a cat - prop.

Louise Bourgeois - French-American artist and sculptor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bourgeois

 

   her work

Marlene Dumas - Artist/writer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlene_Dumas
http://www.marlenedumas.nl/



self portrait

her work

It was not easy to access the image of this artist. To put in crudely, it seems like images of her works travel faster and further than the images of the artist itself.

Rowena Reed Kostellow

Why isn't there a wikipedia page for rowena reed kostellow? Hello, internet? Anybody home?

Planes in space and repetition

Alexander Mcqueen, I think.

guess who?

Who is this couple? Look at their countenance carefully.



 
It's the last emperor of China Puyi and the last empress Wanrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyi#/media/File:%E6%BA%A5%E4%BB%AA%E5%92%8C%E5%A9%89%E5%AE%B9.jpg

Alexander Mcqueen

Images of Karl Lagerfeld

Rock and Two Fish by Ba Da Shan Ren

Another painting by Zhu Da. At first glance, my favourite stroke is the one in the centre, defining the left and underside of the rock, and I shall only look at the stroke for now.
Perhaps, if I shift my eye, my favourite stroke may change in the next instant.
 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bada_Shanren#/media/File:Zhu_Da.JPG

Consort Zhen

Was reading up on the Last Emperor, for the visual arts presentation project.
Came across this photo of the Consort Zhen, of Emperor Guangxu.

Enigmatic I think.
What kind of lady was she? what was she feeling when she was flogged by Empress Dowager Ci Xi?

I think it might be a good practice for to draw this picture for Drawing fundamental class - pastel on black paper, perhaps?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E5%85%89%E7%BB%AA%E7%8F%8D%E5%A6%83.jpg

Even though she was just a consort - in the long, long history of China.

Hand-drawn illustrations: Black/white tiger

http://abduzeedo.com/stunning-hand-drawn-illustrations
There was a time when all illustrations were hand-drawn. so hand-drawn stuff were not marvelous just for being hand-drawn. now they are.

Breaking rules 5: Picasso

 “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” ― Pablo Picasso

 

What he said.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

Guernica by Pablo Picasso. 1937. Oil on canvas. 349 cm × 776 cm.

Breaking rules 4: 八大山人 Bada Shanren

八大山人 简笔写意花鸟画

https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-sg/%E5%85%AB%E5%A4%A7%E5%B1%B1%E4%BA%BA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bada_Shanren

Bada Shanren (1626—1705) was a Chinese painter with one of the most fundamental impact on modern day Chinese ink painting and art. His noble background and recluse lifestyle is quite interesting, but putting that aside, let's consider his art and how he broke rules.

Differing from the classical and precise paintings that's more typical of traditional Chinese ink painting, Bada Shanren's simplified and cartoon-like animals embody a lot of character and symbolism, and brings them from just being 2-D representational depictions to becoming conceptual symbolic art in our world.

To me, I find the almost careless expressions worn on the visages of the characters and the carelessness expressed in the brush strokes particularly noteworthy.



Recently viewed a lecture discussing his art - he said that BadaShanren didn't used to be exceptionally skilled in his drawings - so that's quite encouraging.