Saturday, November 8, 2008

how to draw like raphael---by gardega


Here is a quick drawing I made tonight (again after Raphael) to show that he used his lines not only for shading/shadows but to show form. His lines follow the form and curves of the figure. I should have exaggerated this a bit to make clear but I did not. His line shave an elegance unsurpassed in art even by Leonardo. I used to be able to copy him more precise but I became myself and now it is harder. No matter how much you try to be another you will fail and end up as yourself.

how to paint like Raphael--by gardega

If you want to paint like Raphael you must learn to draw like Raphael. This takes many years of copying the master and still you will not draw like Raphael. To be able to copy Raphael's line better than anyone else is something to strive for before you become yourself.
someone from Iran reading about Dali on my website leads me to believe the universe is as strange as one would hope.

gardega explains the atom and reality

There is something in physics called "the measurement problem." If you want an insight to the strangeness of reality-- I will explain this to you.

Here it is:

an atom ONLY appears in a particular place if you measure it. In other words, an atom is spread out infinitely until a conscious observer decides to look at it.

so the act of observation (or measurement) creates the entire the universe. This is an insane idea but it is true idea.

if you would like to learn more about this you can read about shrodengir's cat..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat

alex explains the atom

they are very small things

How to paint like Raphael--by gardega

The thing that makes a Raphael sing is the subtleness of tones. These tones are a bit contrasting because it is the under painting. You must be patient and have faith in your work. I paint using the Gardega method which means 30% chaos 60 % stubborn passion and 10% faith in the gods of art. Plato and Aristotle are not allowed to be sloppy and ill painted they must be God like and impressive.

The Geometry of Raphael discovered by gardega


Today I stumbled upon a great discovery. Using my "Flower of Life Overlay" I was able to see into the geometry and mind of the great Raphael. I have never seen this approach before and I will explore it further. This was just a rough test but I am confident there is something here.

How to paint like Raphael--by gardega




If you want to paint the like the Old Masters (which is infinitely wiser than desiring to paint like a new master) You must understand sacred geometry. If you think the Old Masters painted without a deep understanding of Geometry you are gravely mistaken and are forgiven as well because you are no longer in the dark about the matter. If you think the modernists paint without a firm understanding of geometry then you are gravely correct. Today I invented the "flower of Life viewer" which is perfectly suited for checking composition and for discovery of ancient secrets. this is patent number "my lawyers will sue you into the stone age for stealing this idea number 76" By projecting the light of the "flower of life" onto paintings and drawings you can look for harmonies and notice defects you would never see--not unlike a detective using ultraviolet light to search for blood and other such things at crime scenes. I have also invented the transparent FOL overlay which serves the same purposes.

quote of the day

I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth--the who

How to paint like Raphael--by gardega


I am painting an exact copy of the School of Athens by Raphael and I will show the progress as I go along so you can learn about the master. If you want to learn how to paint first you should visit the Museum of Modern art in NYC and the realize you are in the wrong museum and take a taxi up to THE MET and look at the old masters like titian and Rubens etc. There is nothing to be learned from the modernists except how not to paint and that (in a sense) is half the battle! First you must have a good drawing as a foundation and establish your structure. There are many ways to skin a cat and what ever gets a great end result is fine. Some methods are nothing more than ways to beat the life out a piece of art so be careful about too closely aping someone else or following mechanical methods. Painting is nothing if it does not have life and soul regardless of how well it is labored. On the other extreme is the jasper johns effect of slipshod craftsmanship which will not skin your artistic cat anymore than milk will get you drunk. Drawing is key and there has never been a better master of line than Raphael. I had to cover my flash up for this picture so the photo is a bit weak. Here is my under painting and basic structure of one of the central figures in the work. Paint what you see and not what you think you see when you are copying or painting from life. A lazy artist likes to let his pencil move faster than his brain. I f you have a good structure then you can proceed to think about color and details.

book cover


I have surfed many times--- my favorite place to surf is the sea of "I'll worry about it later."

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

barter

If someone sends me these canvas (my favorite)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Winsor-&-Newton--Artists-Canvas-18-x-24-Lot-of-8_W0QQitemZ120327427754QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20081102?IMSfp=TL081102108006r20136

I will paint one of the canvas and send it back to you in trade. The subject matter is up to me but I am on a roll so it will be a good picture. I love being in an art store I hate going to the art store because it means I have to leave my apt.. One day I am going to buy my own art store and put it on my property.

the spirit of the park


I sat down tonight and painted this in a few hours. I had very little to do with the process it kind of came out of me without conscious interference. I have my theories on the lady in the piece but that is too strange a tale to tell. The piece is nicer than the snapshot.

oil on canvas 18 x 24

the government

alex explains the government.

red puppet
blue puppet


Dali's Presidential Scceptance Speech


Dear America,

eet is with great excitement that Dali stand before you to accept the bootiful presidency! Zee first thing dali must do is to git rid of zee stoopid bald bird and to replace with zee sea urchin! Zee urchin is much more better of creature and she lives deep in zee ocean like zee mind of dali and zee unconscious. Eet is most important that Dali build a giant egg the size of the capital-- so it can be seen from spaccccce! Zis will ensure national security and prosperity of thought! we need to move the country ahead like a Booterfly--she flaps her wings like this!!! (flapping motion) Zee most important thing is for the government to bake the breadof GENIUS. The Pentagon must now be a bakery and wars will be fought using zee bread. Stale bread when dropped from plane is heavy like zee bomb. It is also important that will have lots of MILK and soft cheese for zee digestion of uncle sssam. The only true enemy is zee grasshopper and we must fight him with all our armies before he finds DALI. Zank you for zee vote of AMMMMERRICA and Dali will be a president most par-excellent and never be stooopid.

brooklyn

I should be done with brooklyn bridge painting by tomorrow...will post when finished.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

stanley Kubrick

When I was 8 I wanted to be a painter and then when I was 16 I discovered Stanley Kubrick and I wanted to be a film artist. I then learned that in a film there a lot of chefs in the kitchen and that there was not much control. I like to have control of my images as much as possible. I still think kubrick is one of the all time great artists.
vote dali!

Monday, November 3, 2008

great illustration by dulac

art lesson of the day--by gardega

still life


Here is an amazing painting by Caravaggio you can google him as I am too lazy to write about the old crazy bastard. He was my kind of artist--a rabble rouser crazy man who was always in trouble. You wouldnt know it from this masterpiece of quiet observation. This is almost japanese in its simplicity, neither bell nor whistles. I dont paint many still life's because I dont paint many still lives. If I did paint a still life it would be in motion.

whats on my easel?

right now I am painting a brooklyn Bridge cover for ambassador publishing...will be done soon and post..I have come to like this bridege (the real one) not mine as I have painted it 5 times.

NYC Marathon

I ran the new york city marathon yesterday..That is a lie--- I watched it for two hours from a bar on the 17th mile mark on first avenue. I noticed the people in the bar were smiling more than the people who had run 17 miles. I took this as a sign that it is better to sit in the womb of a warm bar than to run that far...maybe next year. Every day I run a marathon in my brain, except I dont wear an number and no one hands me cups of water.





It's not how fast you can go
The force goes into the flow
If you pick up the beat
You can forget about the heat
More than just survival
More than just a flash
More than just a dotted line
More than just a dash

It's a test of ultimate will
The heartbreak climb uphill
Got to pick up the pace
If you want to stay in the race
More than blind ambition
More than simple greed
More than a finish line
Must feed this burning need
In the long run...

Chorus
From first to last
The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light that gets in your eyes
One moment's high, and glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightning
That flashes and fades in the summer sky

Your meters may overload
You can rest at the side of the road
You can miss a stride
But nobody gets a free ride

More than high performance
More than just a spark
More than just the bottom line
Or a lucky shot in the dark
In the long run...


You can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don't burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance
First you've got to last...


N.P.

painting of the day--the old plum



The massive black trunk of an ancient plum tree with bending, twisting branches spans nearly sixteen feet across four gold-leafed sliding panels. The downward thrust of its principal branch is echoed by the parallel reverse movement of two young shoots. Supported on both sides by vertical and horizontal expanses of rock, the old reptilian tree sprouts blossoms, which convey the atmosphere of a cold, early spring and symbolize birth and renewal.

These panels originally formed one wall of a room in the Tensho-in, a subtemple of Myoshin-ji, a Zen temple in Kyoto. During the 1880s, they were sold to a private owner and trimmed at the top to conform to the dimensions of the new owner's home. On the reverse, which formed a wall in the adjacent room, was a composition depicting the Chinese theme of the Eight Daoist Immortals. This was later separated and remounted. It is now in the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

This remarkable painting bears no signature or seal, but the exaggerated bends of the tree and the cubelike crispness of the geometric rocks are idiosyncrasies associated with the signed works of Kano Sansetsu (1589/90–1651). Sansetsu was a pupil and son-in-law of Kano Sanraku (1559–1635), an artist who enjoyed the generous patronage of monks at Myoshin-ji. Sanraku and his adopted heir worked together to decorate rooms in the Tenkyü-in, another Myoshin-ji subtemple, in 1630. Sansetsu must have received the monks' continued support after the death of his father-in-law. The Tensho-in was constructed in 1647, the year in which Sansetsu was granted the honorary title of "hokkyo." He was then fifty-eight years old, and these screens reveal the eccentric and abstract tendencies that characterize his later works.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

security by hunter s thompson



Security

by Hunter S. Thompson (1955).


Security ... what does this word mean in relation to life as we know it today? For the most part, it means safety and freedom from worry. It is said to be the end that all men strive for; but is security a utopian goal or is it another word for rut?

Let us visualize the secure man; and by this term, I mean a man who has settled for financial and personal security for his goal in life. In general, he is a man who has pushed ambition and initiative aside and settled down, so to speak, in a boring, but safe and comfortable rut for the rest of his life. His future is but an extension of his present, and he accepts it as such with a complacent shrug of his shoulders. His ideas and ideals are those of society in general and he is accepted as a respectable, but average and prosaic man. But is he a man? has he any self-respect or pride in himself? How could he, when he has risked nothing and gained nothing? What does he think when he sees his youthful dreams of adventure, accomplishment, travel and romance buried under the cloak of conformity? How does he feel when he realizes that he has barely tasted the meal of life; when he sees the prison he has made for himself in pursuit of the almighty dollar? If he thinks this is all well and good, fine, but think of the tragedy of a man who has sacrificed his freedom on the altar of security, and wishes he could turn back the hands of time. A man is to be pitied who lacked the courage to accept the challenge of freedom and depart from the cushion of security and see life as it is instead of living it second-hand. Life has by-passed this man and he has watched from a secure place, afraid to seek anything better What has he done except to sit and wait for the tomorrow which never comes?

Turn back the pages of history and see the men who have shaped the destiny of the world. Security was never theirs, but they lived rather than existed. Where would the world be if all men had sought security and not taken risks or gambled with their lives on the chance that, if they won, life would be different and richer? It is from the bystanders (who are in the vast majority) that we receive the propaganda that life is not worth living, that life is drudgery, that the ambitions of youth must he laid aside for a life which is but a painful wait for death. These are the ones who squeeze what excitement they can from life out of the imaginations and experiences of others through books and movies. These are the insignificant and forgotten men who preach conformity because it is all they know. These are the men who dream at night of what could have been, but who wake at dawn to take their places at the now-familiar rut and to merely exist through another day. For them, the romance of life is long dead and they are forced to go through the years on a treadmill, cursing their existence, yet afraid to die because of the unknown which faces them after death. They lacked the only true courage: the kind which enables men to face the unknown regardless of the consequences.

As an afterthought, it seems hardly proper to write of life without once mentioning happiness; so we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?