WHAT'S YOUR COLOR?

          No style, no art. I could almost faintly imagine how I'd be able start an artwork if I didn't have my own style. I'm guessing it'd be horrible, an awful lot of misconception would go on. It would be rotten food for the eyes. Having your own style is important, as much as having skills and passion. As long as we're talking about artworks, we wouldn't wanna miss counting styles in. Everybody likes to add a little spice to everything. From shoes to clothes, hairs to accessories, even in mugs and furniture. We even like to decorate food! Finding out what our signature style is can help us mix beautifully our personalities into our artworks and can help people tell our works apart from the rest.

          I'd like to think of my own style as a mixture of quirky, semi-realistic-semi-surrealistic (as if such a word exists), colorful, mystical and grim. I'm most interested in having people as the subject of my artwork. I know, it's such a weird combination, I mean like, how can colorful and grim be combined? I don't even know myself, I just know that that's what my style's all about. I like creating artworks that give off an enchanting or mystical feeling. The reason behind this is because I'm in love with fantasy and I treasure every dream I get if it's fantasy related (which I rarely get anyways). I also like my artworks giving off a weird feeling as how surrealism does, but I don't linger in it too much hence the mixture between surrealism and realism. I'm kind of more into pop surrealism rather than the classical ones. The last element that I prefer my artworks having is the essence of grim. It would be something along the paper graphics (sorry I don't even know what you call them) in the video game Alice: Madness Returns.

I prefer having people or their faces as my subject because I see beauty in them, I rarely develop the want to use other elements as my subject. 

         Though I'm still an amateur when it comes to art, I have the will and passion to improve and create many artworks that would greatly satisfy me and impress other people. The artworks I've created are countable with one hand (talk about embarrassing). Of course it really isn't my forte, but what lead me to having this passion for the arts is crafting. I started off from crafting (because I like assembling) and realized that I wanted to try and do actual art. For me, the best part of it is getting to color your own work - traditionally of course. I still have a long way to go though. I'm still working on improving my skills and techniques. I'm getting tired and lazy from erasing every second and having to choose for hours just to pick a suitable color for whatever I'm coloring. I must say I'm quite looking forward to what kind of artwork I'll be able to produce someday. I'm happy because I can already feel small changes and improvement as early as now.  

          Here are my favorite artists and some of their artworks. I get my motivation from them.

Ilya Kuvshinov

http://kr0npr1nz.deviantart.com/

psylett

http://audstin.deviantart.com/

                 

ZombieSandwich

http://zombiesandwich.deviantart.com/

Sabelle Rena
http://sabellerena.tumblr.com/

   









Tati Ferrigno
http://www.tatiferrigno.com/

Dawnmemories

http://dawnmemories.tumblr.com/

THE DEAL WITH ILLUSIONAL SMILES AND TURBULENT SWIRLS

          There's something about smiles and swirls that makes them classic. The elegance they ooze out is just oh, so fantastic! No wonder these are the distinctive features of Mona Lisa and The Starry Night by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh, respectively. But what about them? What's the big deal and what about their fame? These brilliant paintings have been both admired and questioned since then. They have been garnering attention for their mysteriousness and real origins. Speculations have arisen as well over the years of their existence. It's no surprise that such things have occurred since the two paintings are among the famous artworks in history, if not, the most. So, what IS the real deal with all the issues surrounding it and what not? Among the fishes in sea, what makes them unique? What sets them apart from the others?

That's one creepy smile don't 'ya think?

First stop, Mona Lisa. Leonardo's ever-so-mysterious lady in a panel is just one of the things that makes the world go crazy. The most famous smile in the whole world, literally, belongs to the painting of Lisa Gherardini created by the one and only Leonardo da Vinci. This smile is the same reason for the painting's fame. This prominent feature wasn't clearly detailed but was made so that an illusion existed. At first glance we perceive what seems to be a smile, but then it gradually disappears the longer you look at it. The eyes were also painted in such a way that the mouth was captured within the vision. For this painting he used the "Sfumato" technique he invented, meaning 'without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke', which also explains the mystery of Mona Lisa's facial expression. There were many other unique characteristics in the Mona Lisa that intrigued the art community and the viewers like the landscape in the background, considering that portraits were commonly drawn with the background being an open sky, monotone-colored or a room. This proves what brilliant skills Leonardo has.

Such a dreamy place, isn't it?

Up next is Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night. This is personally my favorite artwork in all of history for one simple reason: It is surreal and makes me feel like I'm in a utopia whenever I look at it. Vincent was believed to have suffered from some sort of seizures or crises and one particular incident had himself cut his own ear and be sent to a mental health asylum where his room only had a small window to peek at. The view from his window is the said origin of the Starry night. The Starry night is a post-impressionist art, like all of his other works, which consists of vivid colors, thick application of paint, real-life subject matter, emphasis of geometric forms and the use of unusual or arbitrary colors. Van Gogh suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy and was thought to have been treated by Dr. Gachet with a drug called digitalis which can cause one to see in yellow or see yellow spots which explain his consistent use of it. It is also thought that Van Gogh suffered from lead poisoning from all of the lead-based paints that he used and one of the symptoms was swelling of the retinas which can cause one to see light in circles like halos around objects. These factors may have influenced the painter's vision, and proceeded with painting what he actually saw, hence the stars in the painting looking like they were actually shining. The night sky depicted in the painting is brimming with whirling clouds, shining stars, and a bright crescent moon. These features were painted in such a way that the viewer's eye around the painting. Van Gogh's use of color, light, mood, tone, emotion and brush strokes add up to the amazing existence of the brilliant painting. 

The explanation behind the turbulent swirls:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMerSm2ToFY    

Here are some renditions of the artworks:

*Images and videos respectively taken from Google and Youtube. 

A peek into the small world of Art and History

          Art and history both play very well-known roles to the society. One does not grow up to be ignorant of these two things. While one simply portrays beauty in the world, the other yields important information as to what has happened over the years. Art goes way back with history. They share a deep connection with each
other. This connection lets us understand what made Rome great, how
Islamic mosaics evolved, why the Renaissance occurred and about the

art being produced today around the world. We also understand the history of humanity through art. An example of this is the early cave paintings from around 40,000 years ago, some of which portray how the early people hunted down animals for food. Art reflects its time period. It has evolved in accordance to time, which is also one of the factors connecting art to history. In addition to this, earlier art may reflect the influence of war, famine and the like.

      "Life imitates art more than art imitates life" - Oscar Wilde

          From the famous notation of Oscar Wilde, we could say that culture is also one of the products between the cross of arts and history. From this we can understand art from different times and places. A very specific example of this is that of the Philippines. Filipinos are known to be very hardworking, hospitable, helpful, generous and lively. Here are a few paintings that depict the mentioned common traits of Filipinos 

These paintings all have something in 
common, they're all filled with much 
color just like the lively Filipinos.

Some more examples of art in the Philippines are dancing and architecture. The Philippine folk dances are often accentuated with graceful and gentle moves. Some of these are Carinosa, which portrays courtship; and Tinikling, which is well-known for the use of two Bamboo poles. Philippine architecture on the other hand, is notable because of the Nipa Huts. It is characterized by the use of simple materials such as Bamboo and Coconut. 

          History and art are also linked in terms of form and genre. Technological developments, for instance, can lead to changes or evolution in the art world. Film is a modern example of this. It started out as a form of technological curiosity and soon developed into an art form. Over the course, televisions had changed formats (old to modern). Due to this change, films had to adapt in order to cope up with the audience. From old film strips, film forms became

DVDs and the latest, which are files which can be transferred

to flash drives. You could say that evolution won't be at bay, at least. This goes too for art and history; and how they're connected. Who knows? Maybe the constant changes of the society may soon present us new art forms beyond comprehension.I hope not.