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.

     Welcome to the Virtual World of

      Realistic Art for the Twenty-First Century...

Admission Free Fantastic & Realistic Art Galleries

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 & 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...  

 "Fairy Tales" completed in 2008 in mixed media features model Shaina Tackett 

~Dedicated to my Parents Howard and Louise 

  

The Johnson Galleries Admission Free Non-Profit Virtual Realistic Art Museum Site Map          Deutsch          Dutch          Greek         Italiano          De Portugese         Espanol          Francais         Japanese         Chinese     The Realistic Art Galleries of Contemporary American Illustrator & Photographer Howard David Johnson Celebrating our 12th Anniversary on the World Wide Web 1996- 2008! ( These Art Galleries and those they link to are suitable for General Audiences... no explicit images!)  With a background in traditional media including oils, pastels and 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 the Icons below to visit the  Fun & Educational Art Galleries : Including Realistic Art of Greek Mythology, Mythic art of Rome, Asia, The Celts, The Norsemen, and more ...Fairy and Dragon legends, The King Arthur Legends, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Paintings of Ancient Egypt and Babylon, Illustrations of Ancient Mystic Religious texts, War and Civilization from The Ancient Spartans and the Trojan Horse to World War Two...

Greek Mythology

Surreal Fantasy Art

Symbolist Art

Digital Techniques

Commercial Art

History of Dragons

More Fantasy Art

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

     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. 

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Gorgeous Quality Reproductions for

Publishing Licenses!

Wholesale  Collectible Fine Art Reprints, Posters, & Licenses

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 REALISTIC ART - ANALOG OR DIGITAL COVER FORMATTING AVAILABLE AT NO EXTRA CHARGE

E-MAIL FOR COURTEOUS &  SPEEDY SERVICE

This Art Gallery has been honored by more than 20,000,000 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

Your business, letters & links are always welcome. E-mail for courteous service...

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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."

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.)

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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

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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.

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?

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

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      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

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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

"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 Lady Kriemhilde' rendered in Prismacolor pencils )

~ Howard David Johnson MMII

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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  )