Storytelling / Jon Foster

This illustration by Jon Foster is a great demonstration of how to reveal a story in a static artwork, with its excellent composition and unusual cropping.

You'll probably first notice the passengers expression because of their direct gaze (eye contact being the strongest way to attract a viewer's attention). Next, your attention will likely cycle around the passengers flapping t-shirt (which has been deliberately painted in green; the complimentary colour to red, which is used for the vehicle) to the passengers arm, which leads you past the driver, down to the cartoon character, and on to the twisting tubes and detailed engine, before coming back up again to the passenger.

Skyborn, Jon Foster

It's only once you've cycled around the composition and become familiar with the larger, more detailed and colourful elements that you notice the vehicles in pursuit—painted in muted colours and softer contrasts—revealing the images context as a chase scene.

Quotes from Alex Kanevsky

The following are extracts from an interview with Alex Kanevsky, who is a fantastic fine art oil painter. This interview was conducted by Vivianite

What inspires you?

...[The] naive artist works with first-hand experiences, uncompromised by self-analysis. Sentimental are works that are self-aware of their place in history, theory, etc. One usually sees this kind of work accompanied by an artist statement. I think I am more naive than sentimental in the things that inspire me.

What would you say to an artist just starting out?

Build up your self esteem to the level that might seem unwarranted. This will help you to ignore both positive and negative responses to your paintings. Both are usually misguided, since they come from the outside. Be your most severe and devastating critic, while never doubting that you are the best thing since sliced bread.

The moment something works well and is under control - is the time to give it up and try something else.

Put all your eggs in one basket. Precarious situations produce intense results.

Forget subjective, it is mostly trivial. Go for the universal.

Delacroix on Multiple Personalities

He is like everyone else, a compound of strange and inexplicable contrasts, and this is what the writers of novels and plays will never understand; they make their characters all of a piece. But people are not like that. There may be ten different people in one man, and sometimes all ten appear within a single hour.

—from The Journal of Eugene Delacroix

Random Quotes

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."

—Isaac Asimov

A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike. Knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

—anonymous

Many years ago Rudyard Kipling gave an address at McGill University in Montreal. He said one striking thing which deserves to be remembered. Warning the students against an over-concern for money, or position, or glory, he said: "Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are."

—Halford E. Luccock

Contrast

I watched a German film the other day in which the lead character learns of her sisters death. The scene shows her sitting in a hospital corridor with head in hands much like the man in the left-hand image below.



What I thought interesting was that her jacket accidentally created a turtle shell-effect (right) which better communicated her feelings. It was such a small detail but one that emphasised the need for contrast to heighten emotional effects.

In the same way, if you want to communicate beauty you must show its opposite. Beauty in isolation looks average. Beauty alongside something ugly has a stronger affect because of the contrast.