Realism, inspired drawing, Sketchbook

Purpose: To gain a basic understanding about the Realism Art Movement and to identify Artists who work(ed) in this style.

I think I learned a lot about different techniques and styles in doing this assignment. I learned how to blend colored pencils well and use them to make opaque values and richer colors. This particular painting helped me to focus a lot on blending and motion in the picture. The bun in the hair as well as the folds in the shirt give the portrait a motion that I had to work to capture. I had to focus on larger areas without getting hung up on details as well, which is a skill I think i really benefitted in learning. All in all I was exteremly pleased with the things I learned doing this project.

Realism was a movement that took place, primarily, in the late 19th century. Artists in this movement would draw or paint scenes exactly as they were. This included scenes that were ugly or shocking. Most of them were made to prove some sort of point or show a picture of the world as it was. It moved away from romanticism and making everything pretty. It was making art that was “real” in a sense, and showed everything as it was.

Horse Ploughing at the Nivernais

Marie-Rosa Bonheur

Ballerine

Marina Dieul

This painting is similar to Marie-Rosa Bonheur’s in that it has a general softness and motion to it. The girl’s hair and clothes have very smooth folds and a soft lighting to them. In Horse Ploughing at Nivernais the cows movement is very smooth, and the light on their fur is very softened. Both poses are very realistic and have a regular motion to them. Ballerine is different, however, in that it has no complex or hyper-realistic background. In Ballerine the girl is against a mostly solid blue background, while in Horse Ploughing at Nivernais there is very true-to-life and complicated background of mountains and trees and field. It has more of a fore, middle, and background, while Ballerine has one subject and that’s it. I like them both for different reasons. I like the master’s painting because the pose and color scheme helped give it feeling and mood, and the solid background drew more focus to the details on the girl. But I also liked that the master payed attention to the little detail in the background because it made all aspects of the piece important.