Greek Mythology
Realistic illustration in a wide variety of media: Educational Realistic Illustrations dealing with Themes of History, Mythology, Legend and Natural Beauty... with lots of Fairy pictures & Fantasy Illustrations for the young at heart. Late 20th & early 21st Century Traditional Realistic Illustration & today's experimental médias numériques... Exploring the cultural and spiritual heritages of all mankind while pioneering new vistas for Art and Technology through contemporary realistic illustration, essays, and word paintings.
|
|
Enter a world of Beauty and Imagination... These are gallery links, not thumbnails. The artist has spent a lifetime creating Realistic Illustration, please be patient while the images load...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Home Page | Fairy Legends | Greek Mythology |
Legends of History | Art of King Arthur | Spartan Warriors |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| World's Religions | Symbolist Art | Celtic Mythology | The Seven Wonders | Res Publica | Women of Mythology |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Digital Illustration | Surreal Fantasy Art | Commercial Art | History of Dragons | More Fantasy Art | Norse Mythology |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 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 | Mermaid Art |
| All realistic illustration & text (C) 2008 Howard David Johnson & are Registered with the U.S. Office of Copyright | |||||
POSTER ART ART BOOKS PUBLISHING LICENSES BUY ORIGINAL ART ART INSTRUCTION
info@howarddavidjohnson.com
Thank you for Visiting... Your business, letters, & links are always welcome.
*****
ALL HALLOWS EVE is a Prismacolor Painting & SLEEPING BEAUTY is an Oil Painting, Howard David Johnson works in a wide variety of combined media * Oil paintings * Acrylic Paintings * Prismacolor Paintings * Drawings * Chalk & Oil Pastel Paintings * Photography * and last but certainly not least: Digital Artistry & Mixed Media *
Click on these Fun and Educational Realistic Illustration Gallery links for two-fisted tales of legendary warriors, or Olympian gods and monsters... mythic unicorns, dragons, fairies, classic heroes, adventure, mystery and romance...
Mythology, Fairy Tales & The Legends of History - multi-media galleries exploring the Myths & Legends of the ancient world & War & Civilization; The Outline of History through realistic illustration, prose, & essay...
The World's Great Religions - A multi-media illustrative art exhibit embracing religious tolerance & exploring the world's great religions & their impact on war and civilization through realistic illustration, prose, & 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: Illustrations and introductions to the legendary gods of Olympus, The Greek Heroes, Homer's The Iliad, Helen of Troy & The Trojan Horse, Jason & the Argonauts and much more...
|
Gorgeous Quality Reproductions for Publishing Licenses! Wholesale Collectible Fine Art Reprints, Posters, & for Commercial use in Books Cards Posters Magazines CDs DVDs Videos & more are available at reasonable rates. COMMERCIAL SIZE 300 DPI PRINTING MASTER FILES ARE AVAILABLE FOR ALL HIS FAIRY PAINTINGS - ANALOG OR DIGITAL COVER FORMATTING AVAILABLE E-MAIL FOR COURTEOUS & SPEEDY SERVICE
|
 |
This Website has been honored by more than 20,000,000 unique visitors
from the Four Corners Four Corners of the Earth:
My Friends from around the world thus far :
|
England, Canada, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Germany, France, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, 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, Qatar, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, The Republic of Congo, Angola, Ghana, The Ivory Coast, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Namibia, Uganda, South Africa, Mauritius, Japan, South Korea, China, Macau, Taiwan, Nuie, New Zealand, Australia, The Philippines, Palau, Cocos Island, |
"Brigit, Gaelic goddess of Poetry" (2007 mixed media) |
|
The Kingdom of Tonga, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalem, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan, Indonesia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Ecuador, Belize, Cuba, Puerto Rico, 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...
POSTER ART ART BOOKS PUBLISHING LICENSES BUY ORIGINAL ART ART INSTRUCTION
info@howarddavidjohnson.com
Thank you for Visiting... Your business, letters, & links are always welcome.
*****
|
ON SALE NOW from BRANDYWINE PRESS!
These beautifully printed 11" x 8.5" 64 page trade paperbacks feature 48 full page interior plates in full color for only $24.99 USD. Less than the price of a single poster! Featuring incredibly 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
|
Click F 11 for full screen mode or again to remove it... If your browser ever stops loading click refresh
|
|
Howard David Johnson is a contemporary illustrator and photographer with a background in the natural sciences and history. H D Johnson, or David as he is called, works in a wide variety of media ranging from traditional oils, pastels and others to today's cutting edge digital media. After a lifetime of drawing and painting, Johnson's Traditional Realistic Illustration 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. His illustrations have appeared in every major bookstore and game shop chain in America as well as magazines and educational texts around the world. Some of David's more prestigious clients have included the University of Texas, the University of Cambridge in England, Paramount Studios, PBS TV, Adobe Photoshop Auto FX, Doubleday, the Book of the Month Club, and J Walter Thompson Advertising. Licenses to print his existing work are available at surprisingly affordable prices. |
Realistic Oil Paintings, Colored pencils, Pastels, Mixed media, and Digital art can also be commissioned for select illustration projects - Working in a variety of traditional and cutting edge digital media he offers his customers a variety of options and more than thirty years of experience. As an illustrator David has not only used the computer but has been involved in the development of filter imaging software for Adobe Photoshop. He delivers the rights to these custom made copyright free illustrations and old fashioned customer service when he does work-for-hire. On his existing works license offers start at $100.00. Oil Paintings, Colored pencils, Pastels, Mixed media, and Digital illustration can also be commissioned for select projects. For A lesson in Math, Design, and Art Theory, The Johnson Galleries, more about how the artist works and essays by the artist on "Realistic art yesterday and today" and "digital art and it's relation to art history" keep scrolling down... for his collected essays in low bandwidth CLICK HERE ***** |
|
Click F 11 for full screen mode or again to remove it... If your browser ever stops loading click refresh
HOW DO WE SORT OUT HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY?
A brief essay by the artist
As a professional Illustrator I am called upon to illustrate Legends of History and Mythology, Fact and Fantasy, the Sacred and the Profane. In as much as I have endeavored to sort them out accordingly, it has become one of the more fascinating challenges I have ever faced. As I am ever mentioning, the advances of science are constantly giving us a clearer view of the past even causing Mythology to become History as in the case of the Trojan Wars, the legendary Helen of Troy, and the Trojan Horse. The archaeological excavations of Troy may prove the existence of the city of Troy and the Trojan War. They in no way make The Iliad a history book however, because of the unprovable spiritual and religious occurrences in the narrative. This sorting out of myth and legend from history is no less difficult today because of their intertwining influences on one another.
Consider as a more recent example of this problem, 20th century American President Theodore Roosevelt. He lives in history because of his heroic charge up San Juan hill with his legendary roughriders. When this story was printed in William Randolph Hearst's newspapers it catapulted him to fame and ushered him into the White House as a glorious American War Hero. Everyone has seen the paintings and statues of Teddy Roosevelt and his roughriders dressed in khaki, mounted on horseback and charging fearlessly forward waving their swords. In reality, it was a group of Heroic African American Buffalo Soldiers who took San Juan Hill in spite of their heavy casualties. They did not wear khaki. They were not mounted on horseback, but were foot soldiers in the same dark blue uniforms of the U.S. cavalry as worn during the Indian Wars. Roosevelt's group actually took a nearby Hill against light resistance but Hearst said that would not sell newspapers so he created an American Myth. So as we see, here is something taught to children in schools as history is just not true at all, but yet, this myth shaped the true history of the world in the 20th century and beyond.
If Teddy Roosevelt had not been elected president, neither would his nephew, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who provided very real and crucial leadership during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Neither would Theodore Roosevelt have built the Panama Canal or established the conservation of our natural resources. So here we see Modern Myth not only influencing, but creating History. In reality, I perceive Theodore Roosevelt was a much greater president than history gives him credit for. Although it is true his kindness created the "Teddy Bear", He really was also fit and trim, vigorous and active, and a very tough president in his foreign policies. He was instrumental in America's emergence as a world power. It is also true that he came from the upper upper class - old money in New York with a background of great wealth and limitless luxury and chose to be an outdoorsman, a cowboy, and soldier. When he was given office, he embraced the concept of being a good Shepherd , of seeking justice for all Americans - for this he was called a "traitor to his class".
Actually, he is the savior of his class. In my estimation, it is President Theodore Roosevelt who is most responsible for the end of the then imminent threat of communist revolution or takeover in America. Throughout the early 20th century Socialist Revolutions were sweeping across the globe. Conditions for the workers in America were appalling. Child Labor, dangerous working conditions, ungodly long hours, degradation, and shockingly low pay. When Karl Marx wrote his "Communist Manifesto" he never dreamed of an affluent MIDDLE class. A middle class that is comfortable and savoring, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not going to rise up in murderous anger and "Storm the Bastile". What Global Communism could not contend with was America's happy and prosperous middle class. Theodore Roosevelt practically invented America's affluent middle class and eliminated the threat of Communist revolution in America. Although he was well loved, he was also hated and caught tremendous heat from the wealthy elite for sharing a small portion of their wealth with the common man. He saved them from a Second American Revolution by customizing capitalism to a kinder, gentler form than the horrors of the late 19th century. Like General Winfield Scott, who won The American Civil War before it started, he defeated his foes with an idea. If the Robber Barons had had their way, their greed could well have caused America to fall to communism. Today, we have a new generation of robber barons but no Teddy to stand up for the little guys. I feel the true history about American President Theodore Roosevelt is more amazing than the myth, but they are interwoven and inseparable, without the one, we would not have the other. He was both a glorious and a tragic figure. As a leader and as a man I believe he is badly underestimated. It was only when his beloved son, nicknamed "Quinnykins" died fighting in World War One that he finally saw through all the myths and glamour to see the awful truth about war face on. He never got over his guilt for glorifying war to his son. We could all learn a lot from his experiences.
War costs money...trillions of dollars. War takes human lives...millions of them! War makes children old, breaks parent's hearts, kills morale. War destroys cities, art treasures, civilization! The first world war alone cost thirty million lives and 4 trillion dollars when adjusted to the buying power of modern U.S. dollars. With the money at the time we could have built a three bedroom two bath house furnished with fine hardwood furniture on five acres of quality land for every family in The United States, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and Russia. There would have been enough left to build and stock a first class library and a proper university in every town of 20,000 people or more. Out of the balance we could pay the salaries for life of 125,000 teachers and 125,000 nurses. The remaining balance could have bought 1919 Belgium and France and everything in them.
I see History as an endless waltz. Three beats over and over. War, Peace, and Revolution. Three beats over and over in an endless cycle of death, destruction, and regeneration. An Endless Waltz... and those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to dance this deadly waltz and pay this Frightful price for War. As modern technology such as jet aircraft and thermonuclear missles make the world smaller & more dangerous everyday, tolerating each other's racial, social, & religious differences & living together in peace has now become key to the continued survival of mankind through the 21st century...
~H D Johnson 2003
*****
STYLE and TECHNIQUE
"Those who are enamoured 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 illustrator 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 illustration including, photography, experimentalism, and fine art |
Pandora's Box- rendered in Prismacolor pencils is not at all what people think of when they hear the word 'drawing'
|
The various galleries linked to by the icons above show many examples of David's Realistic Illustration, and are grouped by theme rather than media. There are also samples of illustration from his upcoming books on Celtic Myth and Legend and World Myth & Legend. Since boyhood David has studied and copied the old masters. To create his illustrations he begins with a concept followed by a realistic sketch, researching and traveling to find scenes and locations. Working in his Analog Photography Studio with live models from his sketches he follows with a digitally assembled photo montage, 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 photo collages. 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. |
||||||||
| David has built up an enormous library of original source photos to use in his realistic illustration. Recently he shot hundreds of aerial photos of clouds at marvelous angles and perspectives and also looking down on the mighty mountains, rivers, and deserts of the American west while flying from Texas to Oregon and back for dynamic source material for realistic flying scenes in upcoming paintings, drawings, and pictures. 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 old master 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. (See the realistic paintings gallery above for more details.) Their last names will be withheld for a few years to protect them from stalkers & other internet predators. | |||||||||
*****
Click F 11 for full screen mode or again to remove it... If your browser ever stops loading click refresh All realistic illustration - paintings, pictures, & text (c) 2008 Howard David Johnson All rights reserved Realistic Illustration: The Fantastical Art Galleries of Howard David Johnson ***** |
|||||||||
Bonus Section: Click Here for a Low Bandwidth Page with ALL Seven Essays by the Artist REALISTIC ART: Personal Opinion Essays on Realistic Art yesterday and today by the artist. "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 combined with a general lack of public education, I contend that a more complete definition of the word "painting" is needed than that which is found in common usage."~HDJ "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 |
In addition to his mastery of traditional realistic illustration, Howard David Johnson now combines drawing, painting, photography, and digital media with more than thirty years of experience in these fields to create his Realistic Art Numérica in 21st century illustrations. He later renders the best of these again in traditional media.
Announcing Art Numérica -an exciting merger of traditional visual art and cutting edge technology... a new art form for the twenty- first century... Art Numérica is not limited to realistic illustration but also offers limitless horizons for everything from cartoons to abstractions.
It is the most dramatic development in the visual arts since the Renaissance. In the words of Al Jolson in the movie world's first talking picture" You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
REALISTIC ART AND TECHNOLOGY: SOME LESSONS FROM THE HISTORY OF REALISTIC ART Essay one: 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)
|
 Soft Pastels, Acrylics, and Colored Pencils combined |
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. 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 combine |
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 absrtact 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, Michaelangelo, 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. There is no precedent for this kind of sale. |
|
| But how do all these new 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 artists working in all styles and mediums, even including digital media. To them I say: Bravo! If only our world leaders could learn from the mistakes of the past as you have.
|
Click F 11 for full screen mode or again to remove it... If your browser ever stops loading click refresh
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 Numérique, 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.
Photography, Drawing, Painting and Digital Artistry combined |
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 Pharoahs 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. 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 & paid private instruction. For more information, click on the link above ( an oil pastel rendering of Mary Shelly's Bride of Frankenstien )
|
Gorgeous Professional Quality Poster-Size Single Collectible Reprints of H D Johnson's Realistic Illustration Dealers- Ask about our GREAT bulk order discount pricing or licensing! Bulk Customers- Ask for our credit application HIGHEST PROFESSIONAL QUALITY GUARANTEED! for Single Reprints & simple mail order instructions or just more info...
|
 |
POSTER ART ART BOOKS PUBLISHING LICENSES BUY ORIGINAL ART ART INSTRUCTION
info@howarddavidjohnson.com
Thank you for Visiting... Your business, letters, & links are always welcome.
*****
All realistic illustrations and text are legally copyrighted & were registered with the U.S. Library of Congress Office of Copyright in 2004 by the author, Howard David Johnson All rights reserved worldwide. Permission for legal use is available for many applications by simply contacting the author...
*****
Thank You for Visiting the Realistic Illustration Exhibit of Howard David Johnson...
*****
