Comparing Artist's Work

Over the past few days I have been researching into a range of human portraiture artists and animal artists, within this range I have tried to find not only 1500 - 1800 artists but also contemporary artists and I have been surprised to find a lot of similarities between them and how even some of the contemporary artists strive to still create an effect similar to the old masters and others seem to shock or create statements, concepts or even make the viewer question their work. All of these are interesting factors and I find it really exciting bringing it altogether!!

From the Book Degas' Drawings I came across this image A. Portrait of a girl. Ca. 1863-65, I found this image has so many exciting elements, firstly the browned background also what I want to portray my figure on when painting my portrait. I am also interested about the  detail  on the face  which slowly decreases down the body to the shoes to finish with a simplistic inked line drawing. I found this effect to be a similar effect to Michael Borreman's 'Girl with Feathers', however Borreman's piece is more simplistic with less detail and background unlike Degas' which has a busier composition

Again I came across another similarity in Degas and Borreman's art work with their sleeping images. This time it wasn't the use of line that made me realise a similarity but it was the detail of the face where the two artists have worked into and leaving the detail of the body to become unimportant. I have been really inspired by the simplicity of their pieces of art work as I have come to realise that a fully painted image may not always be the more effective and simplicity can sometimes become a more powerful image overall.

                               

The image below is from the book, Jean Clouet Complete Edition of Drawings Minatures and Paintings By Peter Mullin, it was interesting to learn that Clouet learned some of his drawing technique from the Italians and was one of the first artists in France to understand the Italian High Renaissance. These images are by different artists who began to have a similar style to Clouet. 

The top two images were drawn by Hans Holbein using chalk on paper, it is thought that Jean Clouet and Holbein crossed paths when Holbein was travelling and this may be where Holbein got his technique from, however I find Holbein's drawings to be more simplistic with very little shading and more lines. 

The bottom right image was drawn by Francois Clouet, which has more detail in his chalk drawing but the face is drawn very delicately and his mark making is very subtle alike the painting 'Portrait of a Young Girl' by Petrus Chistus 1470, what I find amazing about this piece is how delicately the girls face is painted, with little amount of colour and the used colour is very pale and light.  

Below are two images which I have interperated to be battling with oneself, I want to compare two contemporary artists, on the left is one painting from 10 called Batteling Inner Demons by Emanuele Ronco and on the right is The Case by Michael Borreman. Firstly the naming of the paintings are completely opposite in the way that Ronco's is very littoral to what his painting is about where as Borreman's is unlittoral in the way that the image does not resemble the exact title and is more questionable to the viewer. Within the images themselves, Ronco's is very bold, upfront and the portrait of the man seems to float within them image as his features stand out from the black background, also his intended meaning for the image is very littoral and obvious of what the painting is about so the viewer has to do very little questioning on what the image is about. Where as Borreman's painting 'The Case' is subtlety painted with complimentary colours to each other, the image compositionally works well as there is no floating portrait and the image itself is well balanced with its layout. Borreman has not painted his image as litterol as Ronco's and has used suggestive lines with his paintwork and is a bit more sided towards impressionism.

Below are two art pieces, on the left is Jean Baptiste-Oudry with a piece called 'Nature morte avec oiseux et cerises' and on the right is a painting by Michael Borreman, I have chosen these paintings to study as I will be painting birds within my portraiture and I wanted to find some artists that have painted birds. I wanted to see how powerful an image of an animal can become and is it only a portrait or can it have a meaning?

On left Jean Baptiste-Oudry represents two dead birds, he achieves a sense of depth within the shallow space, he creates a busy composition forcing the viewers eye to move around look to understand what is happening within the image. After seeing two different positions of how a dead bird can be demonstraited I think that there is something more monsteroutive and cruel by hanging the bird up by its leg, and I think this creates the image to become more powerful and represent a larger statement.

On the right Michael Borreman has painted two portraits of two singular birds, even though these birds are well painted animals, I find after looking at Oudry's work that these portraits seem quite boring to look at as there isn't much going on within the composition of the image and I question a bit more why Borreman has painted them unless they were  to be a study?

These paintings have helped me realise how I want to be able to compose my paintings not only to make them compositionally interesting but also how to make the paint work and ideas behind my paintings to become visually exciting, I have become tired of creating work what seems to be pointless and paintings without any meaning

                   


The painting below by Hans Holbein and the image of the bird within the portrait has been painted within a different concept compared to Borreman and Oudry, the bird within Holbein's painting is representational of the family name of the woman. I am really excited about the idea of having the animals along side people within a portrait and the animal becoming representational towards the person, this is an idea I will be keeping in mind within my paintings.



Below are two paintings, starting from the left is Hans Memling a 1400's painted and on the right is a contemporary German artist Dawn Mellor. It is easy to see that these is a massive contrast within their work,   the difference in realism as well as the concept behind them. Memling mainly painted religious paintings or realistic portraits, his paintings were mainly at that period of time a way to record images of people as unlike contemporary artists they didn't have the technology to have  a camera. Memling uses a range of naturalistic colours that subtly blend together creating a realistic and beautifully painted portrait. Where as Mellor's painting style is completely different, she uses harsh lines and brighter colours, her work is less realistic but it demonstrates a statement within her work as is quite obvious at times with writing in text. Her work comes across to be very shocking and garish and creates a very strong statement, but I think when viewing quite a few other artists that by painting so littoral isn't always the most successful within my eyes, I do like how you have to look into Mellors work after finding that the image is confusing to have to look in depth to understand it, however I find that the imagery can be too obvious and unlike Michael Borreman who is also a contemporary artist, I find his work much more pleasing to look at and also more questionable and beautifully painted with more of an element of skill which is something I am interested within paint work.