May 22, 2007: "Painting of Tica" - this is not a photograph
 

http://cellar.org/2007/paintingoftica.jpg

Artist Dru Blair painted - yes painted - this image from a printout of a digital photo. Head over to Mr Blair's site to see versions of the painting at various stages of completion. It took the gent 70 hours to finish this item. He has an interesting take on photorealism:

Ce n'est pas une pipe

Why is it not a pipe?

Wow, sure looks like a photograph.

@Shawnee123: It's not a pipe, it's a painting of a pipe.

I'm so confused.

I was joking, but not sure what I was joking about. I don't remember the word pipe from my two quarters of college French.

Am I just completely obtuse? (Please don't say it.):D

http://www.phil.uu.nl/staff/rob/icons/MagrittePipe.jpg

It's a famous surrealist painting by Magritte. The idea is that one shouldn't mistake a representation of a thing for the thing itself -- each should be seen for itself, not for how it resembles the other one. It sort of refers to the discourse in French philosophy/ literary theory about the relation between the signifier and the signified.

:o

All the art history classes I took in college and I missed that reference. I remember the Son of Man better, though.

Have you ever heard "Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War" by Paul Simon? Neat song.

Isn't every person you see in magazine ads, billboards and movies a painting? Either Photoshop or makeup artist.

I like the way you think, Bruce.

Actually, I bet it is a photograph. A photograph of a painting. :-)

(Yes, I know I'm being pedantic.)

He painted the chromatic abberation and blur caused by the camera lens, too? The closeup doesn't even show any hints that it isn't a photograph and the "various stages" images are too small to prove it.

Ahh...maybe. Damn impressive if real.

Don't fret chick. I have never actually seen the painting, only read about it, and heard it referenced. If anyone had asked me to describe it I would have ended up with ostrich sized egg on my face - I thought it was a pipe as in oil-pipe, water-pipe, heating-pipe etc. I had no idea it was a smoking type pipe.

It is indeed.

I thought the same about the "various stages". I want to see the layers as he build up the eyes... etc.

utter sceptic regards............

Very true. - Besides what's all the fuss about photorealism? Terry Pratchett has got it right: A camera is just a box with an imp inside, painting away like mad. We've (almost) all got one :D

Well this "painting" has been partly put togeather by air-brush, so I gather from his website, air-brush makes skin so much easier to do

I like how the "3.5 hour" image makes Tica look as if she has a layer of shaving cream on. Maybe that's what the painter needed to do mainly, leave off the subject's beard and mustache.

I have a couple of airbrushes myself and have used them a bit for work. I can picture how he could use the airbrush in laying down the base colors and blending the broad areas of shadow and highlight, not so much the details like the hair.

:smack: I'm always tuned off by artist who claim about *their* art that "no other artistic style demands so much of an artist. " Feh. That's poppy-cock no matter *who* says it.

A damn fine example of photo-realism, but I'm afraid I'm one of those painters who generaly dismiss photo-realism of this degree as being more or less pointless. I'll agree it's a great way to hone skills, but a dancer generally doesn't post vids on You Tube of themselves doing crunches to hone their abs. (Although at least there'd be hubba-hubba value to that ;) )

I'd be more impressed if they also posted the photo that he copied. Who knows? Maybe this painting looks nothing like that photo.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon the original photo. Glatt is right, the painting is not entirely accurate.

:lol:

Purported comparison between original and airbrush painting.

I'd like to see, you know, canvas texture detail or something.

:zzz: ZZZZZZZZZZZ:zzz:

No Kitsune - wrong original.

http://www.cellar.org/attachment.php...1&d=1180004339

:rotflol:

So he made her skin oranger, her nose bigger and her hair messier? I bet he has clients lining up....

I don't think he made her nose bigger, just her face smaller.

maybe not physically bigger, but there's more shadow, implying more....

...either way, not a flattering interpretation imo

More shadow implies less. Light catches on the surface of objects.

looks bigger.

I want to know why isn't she on the "Beautiful Women" thread?

Because you haven't put her on there yet?

Or because it's not a woman, it's a painting.