Posts Tagged ‘painting’

The History Of Caricatures

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

A caricature is a portrait, painting or cartoon that exaggerates or distorts certain features of a person or item to generate an easily identifiable visual similarity.

Caricatures can be discourteous or complimentary and can serve a political point or be drawn solely for entertainment. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in editorial cartoons, whereas caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines.

The term is derived from the Italian caricare- to charge or load. So, the word “caricature” essentially says a “loaded portrait”. Strictly speaking , the term refers only to depictions of real-life people, and not to cartoon fabrications of fictional characters.

However the world-famous animator Walt Disney claimed that his animation work could be likened to caricature, saying the hardest thing to do was find the caricature of an animal that worked best as a human-like character.

One of the earliest examples of a caricature has been discovered in the ruins of Pompeii where a graffiti caricature of a politician had been etched on a wall.

Moving forward nearly 1500 years but staying in Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was an dynamic exponent of the art. He actually sought out people with some kind of deformity to use as models.

The purpose of a caricature was to offer an impression of the original which was more striking than a portrait. Diodemmar Casem, one of the best early exponents, claimed to be able to sum up a person in ? three or four strokes of the pen?.

Caricature experienced its first successes in the closed aristocratic circles of France and Italy, where such portraits would be passed around for mutual enjoyment.

Mary Darley was one of the first professional caricaturists in England and about 1762 published the first book of caricature drawing in England – A Book of Caricaturas

However, the two greatest exponents of the art of the caricature in the 18th century were Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray. Their styles of output were in great contrast. Rowlandson was the more artistic of the two and took his inspiration from the public at large.

Gillray, on the other hand, was more interested in the political arena and used his art to satirize political life. Being contemporaries they became big friends and used to spend a lot of time getting drunk in the pubs of London.

In drawing a caricature the caricaturist can select to either gently mock or cruelly wound his topic. Drawing caricatures can simply be a form of entertainment and amusement ? in which case gentle mockery is in order ? or the art can be employed to make a significant social or political objective.

A caricaturist draws on (1) the natural characteristics of the subject (the big ears, long nose, etc.); (2) the acquired individuality (stoop, scars, facial lines etc.); and (3) the vanities (choice of hair style, spectacles, clothes, expressions and mannerisms).

Although caricaturists like Gillray raised a great deal of debate in the 18th century by their portrayal of the Royal family and especially George III, it was nothing compared to the present day pandemonium in the Muslim world brought about by cartoons caricaturing the prophet Mohammed. So the modern day caricaturist continues in the satirical mode of his illustrious predecessors.

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Celebrated British Caricaturists – Part One

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

This list includes both British born artists and those who were born elsewhere but did the majority of their most important work in the U.K. The selection is listed in chronological order by date of birth.

William Hogarth (1697 – 1764)

He was born in London and apprenticed to an engraver where he learned his trade. He became a painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist and has been credited with pioneering sequential art or the cartoon strip.

His output ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures known as “modern moral subjects”. His most famous works are no doubt ? The Harlot?s Progress and ?The Rake?s Progress?.

Isaac Cruickshank ( 1756 – 1811)

Cruickshank was a Scottish painter and caricaturist who was born in Edinburgh. Cruikshank’s first known publications were etchings of Edinburgh “types”, from 1784.

His water colours were exhibited, but in order to make a living wage it was found that it was more profitable to produce prints and caricatures. He was responsible in part for developing the figure of John Bull, the nationalistic representation of a solid British yeoman.

Isaac Cruikshank was a contemporary of James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, and he was part of what has been known as “the Golden Age of British Caricature.

Thomas Rowlandson ( 1756 – 1827)

Thomas Rowlandson was an English painter and caricaturist. He was born in London and after he left school he studied at the Royal Academy. He was thought of as a promising student and if he had continued his early application he would have made his mark as a painter.

But he inherited ?7,000 from a French aunt and dived into the distractions of the town (he was known to sit at the gambling-table for 36 hours at a time).

He soon squandered his inheritance but the comradeship and examples of James Gillray and Henry William Bunbury seem to have recommended caricature as a way of filling his stomach and purse.

He also created a collection of erotic prints and woodcuts, lots of which would nowadays be considered pornographic .

James Gillray (1757 – 1815)

James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker who achieved immense fame for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810.

Some of his best known caricatures were directed at the Royal Family and George III in particular. He is also responsible for probably the most famous political cartoon of all time.

It was entitled ?The Plum Pudding in Danger? . It was printed in 1805 and depicts Pitt and Napoleon carving up the plum pudding of Europe.

By 1811, madness, no doubt made worse by his excessive life-style, was overtaking him and he died in 1815.

George Cruickshank ( 1792 – 1878)

George Cruickshank was born in London, the son of the famous caricaturist Isaac Cruickshank and started his working career as apprentice to his father.

He later started out as a caricaturist in his own right and was even paid ?100 in return for a promise not to satirize George IV In later life he turned to book illustrating and illustrated ?Sketches by Boz? and ?Oliver Twist? for Charles Dickens.

After developing palsy he died in 1878. Punch in his obituary said ?There never was a purer, simpler, more straightforward or altogether more blameless man. His nature had something childlike in its transparency.”

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Giles The Newspaper Cartoonist

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Ronald ‘Carl’ Giles was one of the most well-known British post war cartoonists whose output appeared in the British newspapers The Daily Express and its sister paper The Sunday Convey between the dates of 1943 and 1991.

He was born Ronald Giles in Islington, London in 1916. His school-friends nicknamed him ?Karlo? after the actor Boris Karloff to whom they believed he bore a resemblance. This was later shortened to Carl and it remained with him for the remainder of his life.

He left school when he was 14 years old and started effort as an office boy for a Wardour Street film firm where he was later promoted to an animator for cartoon films. This led in 1935 to his working for the famous producer and director Alexander Korda on the first full-length British sound-tracked colour cartoon film, The Fox Hunt.

After a brief time working in Ipswich, he joined Fleet Street in 1937. He worked as a cartoonist on the weekly newspaper Reynolds News where his work came to the attention of the editor of the Sunday Express and he was offered a job working for both the Daily Express and Sunday Express at the not inconsiderable salary of 20 guineas per week. His first cartoon for his new employers appeared in the Sunday Express in October 1943.

The 20 guineas a week proved a portent of greater fortunes to come as by 1955 he was being paid no less than 8,060 GBP a week for an output of three cartoons. He was now a wealthy man.

In 1959 he was given the OBE and among his greatest admirers and fans were members of the Royal family who frequently received originals of his work.

His most well-known character creations were The Giles Family who first appeared in August 1945. They were a family from the more affluent side of the British working class living in a suburban semi-detached house. The head of the family was Grandma a real battle axe of a woman who anyone crossed at their peril. She is now immortalised as a bronze statue standing in Queen St Ipswich looking up at the office where Giles used to work.

They were used by Giles to comment on a topical event in the news of the day and proved to be highly patriotic although cautious of authority. One amazing attribute of the family was that although their homes, pastimes and clothes reflected the changing values of the day, their ages remained unchanged although the cartoons ran for 46 years.

Today any middle-aged, middle class Englishman ( or woman) will have fond memories of the Giles Annual. This was a very welcome addition to the Christmas stocking and contained a selection of Gile’s work for the previous year. For many years this collection was selected by Giles himself.

Carl Giles died in 1995 and in 2000 he was voted ‘Britain’s Favourite Cartoonist of the 20th Century’.

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A Brief History Of Animated Cartoons

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn (or created with computers to look similar to something hand-drawn) film for the cinema, tv or computer screen, featuring some sort of story or plot (even if it is a very short one).

Animation itself can be described as the rapid showing of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of methods.

It is difficult to believe but the very earliest instances of attempts to capture the impression of motion by drawing can be found in Paleolithic cave paintings. Here animals are shown with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly trying to convey the perception of motion.

Further instances can be seen on an earthenware bowl more than 5,000 years old from Persia and an Egyptian mural of wrestlers in action, which is about 4,000 years old.

However these examples cannot really be described as animation as there was no means of making the objects actually move.

The first mechanical devices designed to provide the illusion of movement were developed for children?s amusement or as entertainment at private parties. These included the zoetrope, magic lantern, praxinoscope, thaumatrope, phenakistoscope, and flip book.

Charles-Emile Reynaud created the first animated film in 1892 when he exhibited an animated film consisting of loops of around 500 frames. This film is also outstanding as the first known example of film perforations being used. His films were not photographed, but drawn directly onto the transparent strip.

But the first film which can truly be called an animated cartoon was ‘Humorous Phases of Funny Faces’ fashioned by J. Stuart Blackton in 1906. It features a cartoonist drawing faces on a chalkboard, and the faces apparently coming to life.

One of the very first successful animated cartoons was “Gertie the Dinosaur” (1914) by Winsor McCay. It is thought of as the first example of real character animation.

All the major movie studios used animated cartoons of 5 to 10 minute lengths as ?fillers? before the main film was shown during the period of the 1930s to the 1960s.Theatrical cartoons were in colossal numbers and MGM, Disney, Paramount and Warner Brothers were the greatest studios producing these 5 to 10-minute “shorts”.

However the ever increasing popularity of TV and the subsequent waning in cinema going has meant that today most animated cartoons are produced for EV.

The most well-known animated cartoon character of all is no doubt Mickey Mouse who was introduced to the world by Walt Disney in May 1928 in Plane Crazy but also starred some six months later in the first animated cartoon with sound – ‘Steamboat Willie’.

By the way, Mickey was originally christened Mortimer Mouse until Walt Disney?s wife persuaded him to make the change.

Mickey Mouse, predated by another cartoon animal called Felix The Cat, made his debut in 1919. However another all time favourite cartoon series Tom and Jerry had to wait until 1931 to put in an appearance.

All these characters and many more have long since made the transition from movies to TV where, no doubt, they will be seen for numerous years to come.

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Faux Finishes – Home Decorating with Customized Color

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Textured paint and also imitation wall coatings have grown to be so much more common recently than at almost every other time in modern record. Stores like to present instructional classes on Do-it-yourself textured ideas for painting, so that the idea will allow them to sell more expensive paints, however the fact remains that it requires a specialist to try and do an whole room properly. I wouldn’t advocate undertaking the project on your own.

surface finishes may very well be utilized to produce the optical illusion of everything from plaster or large rock to leather and a number of amazing materials in between. People which are qualified at utilizing faux surface finishes are in great demand for his or her creative abilities even though the majority of home owners could carry out a decent job if these people are generally eager to take whatever time recommended to accurately understand the strategy. Actually stone can easily be copied making use of the correct painting procedures.

Some committed home owners choose to take this style of painting in every room in the house. Even though this might seem to be a fantastic notion in principle there are a few drawbacks to using this method too.

Faux finishes are usually dependent on taste, plus some house plans go much better with more of it included throughout the home.

Some homes are simply meant to be blanketed with a faux finish from one end of the home to the other. No matter what you do to home like this, it’s going to look great.

Yet when you look at some homes, the styling of the houses not fit very well with faux finishes. However when you look at some homes, they are so bland that they need a little texture in the paint to set off the right areas.

Just step back and take a look at your home. It will tell you exactly what you need to do if you open your mind up to these types of creative elements. It is significant to think in terms of blending in addition to contrast when thinking about how it all fits together into the artistic scheme of things when doing interior decoration implementing faux paint jobs.

There are a lot of resources on the internet about how to achieve different styles of faux paint finishes in your home. However, I was just suggest that you practice first on a small board. To be sure that it is done right, however, it is best to get a professional painter who’s trained to do this type of work.

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Interior Painting Ideas

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Redecorating or renovating your home is never easy and it just gets much harder and more tedious when you need to paint as well. Sloshing on one coat of paint after another can be draining if you’re doing it alone and still have the whole house to think about.

And let’s not even start talking about those ceilings! But even though you may stick to the same old staid exterior paint job, it doesn’t have to be the same for the interior – you could always try some outlandish but wonderful interior painting ideas. If nothing else you’ll be guaranteeing a reaction from all those who enter your house.

By keeping the exterior painting to the necessary minimum, you can spend more time and more creativity inside. You can let your imagination run riot with all those interior painting ideas you always wanted to implement but never got around to. There’s no time like the present, and really, when are you going to get around to painting your house again?

Don’t become alarmed though, when I’m talking about out of this world interior painting ideas I’m not saying that you should do something that resembles a Picasso painting. I’m talking about something more along the lines of a paint job that will reflect back who you are.

Your interior painting ideas do not have to be anything more than a streak of strident colour on one wall, surrounded by soothing colours on the other walls. This works very well in any room and the vibrant colour that you pick can be either soothing or primal, depending on what you want to reveal about yourself. You could, of course, always go to extremes and emulsion all the walls a bright vibrant colour or even blend different colours on different walls.

If you’re going to do this, then you may want to think about the effect you’ll create and whether you can actually bear to live with the colour scheme for very long. Outlandish yet inspired interior painting ideas are all very well and good, but you should always take into account whether you’re going to be able to bear the sight of your newly panted walls or not after a month or so. If you are going to have to repaint everything again, it kind of defeats the object, doesn’t it?.

This doesn’t mean that you should restrain your creative urges or stifle your interior painting ideas. All it means is that some of your bolder ideas, should perhaps be the subject of a small trial-run somewhere else.

Don’t think of painting your house as something that you have to do. If you want to, you could always think of yourself as Michelangelo or Da Vinci or any of those great artists and paint a stunning mural. The only necessity is that you let your great interior painting ideas become reality and that you have loads of fun while you’re doing it.

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Strategies On How To Stay Eco Friendly In Your House

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Going green is important for earth and for your health. When you house is environmentally sound, your health as state of mind also improves. Here are 6 tips to help you make a greener home lifestyle.

1. Environmental Home Remodeling – Remodeling your home and being green can be a tricky task at hand. Be sure to use natural products for curtains and for furniture if possible when remodeling your home.

Hire local contractors that buy local products. The less the goods travel the more you save and the less gas and it takes to receive the goods. If you hire a painter make sure he buys from a local paint company. If you live in a cooler climate use dark colors and lighter colors in warmer areas.

It is hard to find untreated wood now but if you are lucky can find untreated timber close to home. Look for old houses and barns some people even tear them down and store the wood in the backyard. You might get lucky and find some beautiful naturally aged wood.

2. Weatherize Make sure there are no large cracks where air can get in or out in any opening such as windows and doors in your house.

A good way to test for cracks is using a flashlight at night and shining through the seals to see if you see any light. You can also apply sealant around window cracks and doors.

3. Cleaning – It is a good practice cleaning your deck once a year of mold and mildew. A scummy deck can be dangerous and cause rotting and bowing in your wood.

Save old socks and shirts for cleaning and for task like cleaning up your car.

4. Shopping – When you go shopping, buying fresh fruit & vegetables, it is wonderful for your body as well as saves from throwing away packaging. Start a garden and grow your own fresh food instead of buying as much grocery store food!

Instead of buying sodas make tea or just drink water. Bags can be great package material for shipping.

Buying and selling from auction sites is another great way to recycle.

5. Reuse & Recycle – Choose not to have bills sent to you mail and have them sent through e-mail.

Instead of using paper napkins use cloth napkins. Build a mini recycling center in your home to separate your garbage.

6. Energy Conservation – Always turn the lights out when you’re no longer in the room as well as turn off exterior lighting whenever you do not need them.

Going with wind and solar power has great benefits for new and existing homes and has become more affordable.

Make sure you have no leaking faucets. A steady leaking faucet can add up to over 10 gallons a week.

Going green is a healthy lifestyle that is good for your soul and spirit. It often is passed on to others and easier to do than you think.

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Home Decorating

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
by Michael James

If you’re keen on renovating or redecorating your home, you’ll need some great home decorating ideas. These aren’t all that hard to obtain and if you’re quite an artistic person with an eye for what looks good, then you shouldn’t have any problem getting great home decorating ideas for yourself. Most people however are probably like me and don’t have a clue where to start and what to change to make their homes a brighter place to live.

The first time I started a home decorating project, I was completely clueless and didn’t know what to do first. Should I strip the wallpaper first or take out the carpet? Should I fit those new double-glazed windows or should I buy a sanding machine to clean off all those wooden bits around the room. The list, as you may have guessed, is endless and I could go on forever but in the interests of your valuable time, I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.

Home decorating ideas are all well and good, but if you’re expecting to do major renovation work, then you should almost definitely call in professional renovators – people who can take on the job properly for you. If you’re taking this route, then make sure that the renovators you go with are willing to adhere to the home decorating ideas that you give them, and won’t go off at a tangent of their own.

Alternately, you can just choose to overlook the hideous wallpaper that’s been surrounding you for some time now, but go ahead with some of the smaller items on your list of home decorating ideas. This will have a two-fold benefit for you.

The first one is that you’ll have full control of the situation and you’ll be able to oversee every step in detail if you wish. The second benefit is that by starting off small, you can see if you actually want to continue renovating your home and progress to the bigger home decorating ideas that you have on your list.

Whichever method you decide on, you must first be aware that once you start to redecorate your home, money will pour out of your pockets like water out of a tap and won’t stop until you actually stop. So, if you’re going to take on this whole renovating project, be prepared to find yourself skint until you finish.

So, although home decorating ideas are a great way to do up your home, keep a tight grip on your wallet and keep an even tighter one on yourself, as you’ll want to use any and every good idea you come across if you think will look great in your home.

Once you get started you’ll be virtually unstoppable – a force to be reckoned with and your home will look just the way you’ve been imagining it ever since you bought it.

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Interior Painting Ideas

Friday, October 2nd, 2009
by Michael James

Redecorating or renovating your house is not easy and it just gets especially harder and more tedious when you need to paint it as well. Slapping on one coat of paint after another can be draining if you’re doing it on your own and still have the whole house to think about.

And let’s not even start thinking about those ceilings! However, even though you may have to stick to the same old traditional exterior paint job, it doesn’t have to be the same for the interior – you could always try out some outlandish but pleasing interior painting ideas. If nothing else you’ll be guaranteeing yourself comments from all those who come into your home.

By reducing the exterior painting plans to the necessary minimum, you can devote more time and creativity to the interior. You can allow your imagination run wild with all those interior painting ideas you always wanted to implement but never got around to. And, as they say, there’s no time like the present, and be honest, when are you going to get round to redecorating your house again?

However, don’t be alarmed! When I’m talking about outlandish interior painting ideas, I’m not saying that you should go with something that resembles modern art paintings, no, I’m talking about something more along the lines of a paint job that reflects your personality.

So your interior painting ideas need not be anything bolder than a streak of vibrant colour on one wall, surrounded by soothing colours on the other walls. This works very well in any house and the vibrant colour that you pick out can be either soothing or primal, depending on what you want to show of yourself. You could, of course, always go to extremes and emulsion all the walls a bright vibrant shade or even mix and match different shades on different walls.

If you’re doing this, then you may want to think about the effect you’ll create and whether you can actually live with the colour scheme for very long. Crazy and inspired interior painting ideas are all very well and good, but you should always think about whether you’re going to be able to bear the sight of your newly panted walls or not after a month or so. If you are going to have to repaint everything again, it sort of defeats the purpose.

I don’t mean that you should try to restrain your creative urges or stifle your interior painting ideas. All I mean is that some of your bolder ideas, should maybe be made the subject of a trial-run elsewhere first.

Don’t think of painting your home as a chore. And, if you want to, you could always think of yourself as Michelangelo or Da Vinci or any of those great artists and paint a stunning picture on your walls. The only requirement is that you turn your great interior painting ideas into reality and that you have lots of fun while you’re doing it.

About the Author:
If you are looking for modern interior painting ideas, then you really ought to go along to our website for more free ideas on Stylish Home Decor and more.

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