Juanwara's F200X Art Blog

 The Baroque Era (roughly between the 17th and 18th centuries), followed the Renaissance and opened a new genre of art. After the Reformation that occurred during the Renaissance in which people began to distance themselves from the Catholic church, the church began a counter-reformation to regain it's following. Rather than the idealized images of the Renaissance period, the church began coveting and commissioning more realistic, emotion-provoking pieces of art. The technique of tenebrism emerged. Focusing on a sharp contrast between the dark and the light of a painting, this technique allowed the darkness of a painting to become more noticeable compared to paintings popular during the Renaissance. With the looming darkness emerged darker imagery being portrayed. Part of the Counter-Reformations efforts in inspiring people to return to the church was presenting jaw-dropping imagery of biblical events. Because conquering sin can be seen as a messy task.  A painting that stands...

      While the Italian Renaissance produced many amazing sculptures and frescoes paintings, ideas such as humanism spread up to northern Europe. There, artists newly perfecting oil paints began creating amazingly realistic works of art. Hans Holbein the Younger was active from 1515-1543 and was one of the most notable artists for portrait paintings.      His work with portraits begun to stand out due to his use of accessories, ability to bring character into the portrait's face, and strong silhouettes. He was associated with a humanist group of acquaintances, one of his most famous works was his portrait of Sir Thomas More, author of Utopia. Humanist ideas and theories, the philosophy focusing on human's individual and social potential without the need for supernatural elements, worked their way into Holbein's artwork. Holbein had given up almost all religious painting by around 1530.  With his rise in popularity for his portrait commission...

 For this post I wanted to focus on the use of lines in my chosen artwork. The entire work of Tomie by Junji Ito is a wonderful blend of stunning, horrifying artwork and a bizarre plot. The frame I have chosen to look at today is a scene from Moromi which was first published in 2000 in the magazine Nemuki (or Monthly Halloween as it's called in english). Moromi is a chapter in the Tomie series in which Tomie's current lover decides the best way to dispose of her body is to turn her into sake. Putting the story context aside, I'd like to draw attention to the line work of this frame. All the shading that is done to add to the depth of the piece is done with line strokes. There is no cross hatching techniques or pencil shading. I believe this adds to the illusion that she is flowing out of the tank. The choices of where to draw lines closer together and where to draw them farther apart also add a feeling of thickness. On the faces, I find that the negative space is importa...