Learning from the Masters

I promised this post in December and, finally, here it is. When I went to Paris I took the picture shown below. Here, a student imitates a painting created by a master. This is a common and useful method of learning to draw or paint because it allows a student to practice many artistic techniques and to learn different styles.

In 1784, all the schools of drawing in Italy were combined to create the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. At the Accademia, works by great masters of art were (and still are) kept so that students could draw them. These works included sculptures by Michelangelo. Today his famous David is on display in the gallery. This is an excellent example of student learning from the work of the masters.

You can use this method to learn to draw, too. Find a book with illustrations you admire. Try to keep it simple at first. Maybe choose a book about snakes and focus on making your drawing realistic. Then move on to a book about dogs. Choose more difficult images as you gain practice, confidence, and skill. Don’t forget to color in your pictures.

When you want an even bigger challenge, create paintings instead of drawing.

I have posted before on another method of learning art, learning through apprenticeships. Artist who learned through apprenticeships probably would have imitated the paintings of masters also. If you’re interested, The Young Artist, by Thomas Locker, is a good picture book about a young artist who becomes an apprentice.

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Links!!

I kind of hate when people put up entire posts based on links to other sites but that is what’s in store for you today. I’m working on something really cool (at least I think so) that will be a series of posts beginning on Monday. I’m excited about it and I hope you’ll enjoy the series as much as I’m enjoying researching and writing it!

Also, you'll notice the new blog layout. It may change again in the next few days but I thought it was time to rearrange things. I rearrange my apartment routinely and it always make me feel better, so there you go.

Anyhow, Happy Valentine’s Day! There are tons of Valentine craft projects on the web. You won’t find any on my site, but I’ll point you in the right direction if you’re interested. The first is an art project on one of my favorite art project sites (which you can also find in the sidebar under Art Projects for Kids). Here you will find a Valentine based on the art of Jim Dine, an American pop artist. It’s a fun project and you will end up with a beautiful Shiny Valentine.

Another fun Valentine’s Day craft: create a bouquet of tissue paper roses. The directions at Kinderart are pretty good but I would amend them a little. Their instruction say to use masking tape to connect the stem to the flower, then paint the tape to match the stem. It would be much easier (and less messy) to use tape that is already green. You can buy painters’ tape and electrical tape in green and I suggest you use one of those instead of painting masking tape. In any event, a bouquet of tissue paper roses in an assortment of colors can brighten the recipient's dining table for weeks.

And finally, a site unrelated to Valentine’s Day, and the inspiration for this links post: Teaching Drawing Skills. This page is meant as a resource for teachers and homeschoolers. Carolyn provides simple instructions for drawing objects like a box, coffee mug and saucer, and even a sneaker. Her page helps explain how an artist sees an object and then simplifies it into the lines and shading that form a drawing. It’s a very valuable site for students who want to improve their drawing skills.

I hope you’ve found something useful and I promise tomorrow’s post will be more interesting!

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Perspective and Gustave Caillebotte

It’s difficult to show a 3D image on a flat sheet of paper but that is just what many artists do. One technique for creating the illusion of 3D is perspective. Many of you have explored perspective in art already. One popular art project is to draw a street with buildings lining both sides. The street narrows and buildings become smaller to show distance. If you have not yet tried this project you should do so. It will be usual for comparing to the project I have written below. Check out the video clip and the clear directions on this site to get you started.

Yesterday you read about how Gustave Caillebotte used perspective in an uncommon way. He made the image look like it was tilted toward the eye. Today, I’ll show you how he did this so you can try it yourself.

Caillebotte uses a few techniques to create his strange perspective. Firstly, you’ll notice that the foreground is not boxed in on the edges by the sides of bulky buildings. Secondly, the objects in the background are slightly smaller than they ought to be. This makes the foreground subjects look larger than they are, and it makes the background look farther away. Because of this, the street (or river, or floor, or whatever) doesn’t need to taper off into nothingness to show distance (like in your original perspective project).

Check out the video clip on this site to get you started on your project.

Supplies Needed

Pencil
Colored pencils, crayons, or pastels
Paper

Begin by drawing your street. This time, don’t start the street at the corners of your paper. Set your outside lines slightly above the bottom corners. Let your road narrow more quickly than in your original drawing but don’t bring the end of the road to a point.

Line the road with simple square buildings. You can, of course, get as creative as you want with your buildings but simple buildings will demonstrate perspective just as well. Your buildings should shorter more quickly than in your first drawing.

Now decorate and color. If you want to really Caillebotte’s brand of perspective, try drawing some cars driving into the distance. Be sure to make foreground cars much larger than background cars.

Compare your two drawings and notice the differences between the two. How do the slight changes in method create large differences in the final picture?

Gustave Caillebotte, Part 2

Yesterday you read about Gustave Caillebotte’s life. Today, his art.

Besides contributing money and time to develop Impressionism in France, Caillebotte became respected as a painter in his own right. Actually, he is among my favorites. I love The Floor Scrapers, shown above, and Paris Street, Rainy Day, shown below. The Floor Scrapers is part of the permanent collection of the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. (This is where I saw it and fell in love.) Paris Street, Rainy Day is part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection (free admission in February!)
Influenced by photography, a new technology in the late-1800s, Caillebotte’s paintings are markedly realistic. Because a photo was a frozen moment that could be studied, photography allowed painters to see the way light fell and the way it affected subjects. Look at the way the pools of rain between the cobblestones shine in Paris Street, Rainy Day. Notice, also, that the bleached sky reflects on the slick stones themselves.

One other aspect of Caillebotte’s work that you should notice is the way the scenes often look tiled downward toward the viewer. Look again at Paris Street, Rainy Day and notice that the street seems to curve up. Look also at The Floor Scrapers for another example. Most of Caillebotte’s work is like this. Below is a third example of tilted perspective, Sculls.

EDITED: I have corrected the main text of this post. The Floor Scrapers is not on display at the Phillips Collection. I was mistaken. They are showing Small Branch of the Seine at Argenteuil which is also a great painting by Caillebotte and a fantastic example of the way he painted the effects of light. I still recommend checking out the exhibit, Degas to Diebenkorn!

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Gustave Caillebotte

Gustave Caillebotte’s story is different than many of the other Impressionists you’ve read about here. He was not a struggling artist. In fact, his family was wealthy enough to own a house in Paris as well as property just outside of the city on the Yerres River where they spent summers. They made their fortunes in textiles and then, as Haussmann rebuilt Paris, in real estate. When his parents died, Caillebotte inherited a large sum of money. During his life, he was better known for the money he pumped into the Impressionist movement than for his paintings.

Caillebotte was born in 1848. He began to paint around the time when his family bought the property on the Yerres River in 1860. Caillebotte went away to fight in the Franco-Prussian War and when he returned he began to really study painting. He met a collection of young painters, including Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Auguste Renoir, and became interested in Impressionism.

After his father died in 1874 and then in mother in 1878, Caillebotte funded exhibitions for each of these artists. He also purchased their paintings and by the time he died he had an impressive collection of Impressionist works. He tried to leave the collection to the French government if only it would hang the paintings in the Luxembourg Palace but it refused most of the art. Impressionism was still not the prominent and accepted artistic style in 1894. When in the late-1920s the French government changed its mind, it was too late; the widow of Caillebotte’s son said no.

He also helped fund four of the Impressionist exhibitions. It was at the second Impressionist exhibition (not one to which he contributed money) that Caillebotte’s art was first shown.

Unfortunately, this article is too long already. You have just read a short biography on Caillebotte and tomorrow I’ll post the second half which is all about his art. And to tide you over until then, Paris Street, Rainy Day:

EDITED TO ADD: Gustave Caillebotte, Part 2

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