Christoph Ruckhaeberle

Christoph Ruckhaeberle is an artist of the Neue Leipziger Schule who studied under its founding Guru, Arno Rink. The Neue Leipziger Schule uses old master techniques inherited from Marxist Social Realism and influences from Surrealism and German Expressionism. Ruckhaeberle approaches figurative painting from a purely formalist standpoint using the technique of glazing over a monochromatic underpainting. His paintings are a compositional jigsaw puzzle, each element an individually delineated shape filling a gap in the whole with a strong sense of rhythm. Notice the similarity between the first picture and the early work of di Chirico -- the empty buildings, the strong patterns of light and shade. More about him at Sutton Lane Gallery and Nicolai Wallner Gallery.

The Art of Carlomaria Pilloni

Carlomaria is a friend of mine from Pordenone, Italy who is associated with the Vastagamma Gallery in Pordenone. He draws his inspiration from Paul Klee, Art Brut and outsider art. Carlomaria works mainly in collage but also does a great deal of drawing and his work is always quite original and surprising, combining playfulness with a strong, intuitive sense of design. He is also associated with Viva Comix. See more of Carlomaria's work at Flickr.

Carlomaria always creates a special e-card for New Year's greetings to his friends. This is a playful assembly for 2008.

Mask 59 The bulk of Carlomaria's work are these collage "Masks." In this one there is a nice contrast between the face and black ground. The tilted rectangular shapes create a tension between themselves as well as the edges of the collage. And the eye, which has been torn out on the left becomes the eye on the right, with the rough torn edges contrasting nicely to the sharp edges of the rectangles. The printed text creates a nice rhythm for the teeth and nose.

Mask 4. Contrasting lines of blue and red define this mask. The red lines circle the face in a nice rhythm.
Mask 2. This is a whimsical mask with a lot of surprises. Carlomaria is a master at invention.
La Bestia (The Beast). Interesting rhythms are created by the dagger shapes of the paws and the tail and back. Note how the shape of the eyes is echoed in the letter B at the bottom left.
La Cravatta (The Tie). Carlomaria shows that expressive drawings can have good form just as the more formal ones. We feel the pain of this man who is compelled to wear a tie to his job. And it is probably not just the tie that is choking him. :-) This gestural drawing presents a marvelous variety of line and shapes that circle the man's head.

Elements of Composition & Design

Art and Visual Interest
To be a good work of visual art, a work must have the requisite elements of unity, variation, contrast and rhythm. Most of the other characteristics of significant form are derived from these. Here is a simple demonstration of the principles.



Rhythm is a more complex element and I would refer you to the article in ArtLex pertaining to rhythm for a good explanation.
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/r/rhythm.html


VISUAL INTEREST
Visual Interest is the essence of art and the aesthetic emotion that Clive Bell spoke of. The artist must create interest in the work in order to keep the attention of the viewer and not produce a monotonous work. Something is interesting when it is unexpected or unusual or draws our attention in some manner.

Let us look at a drawing and analyze it in terms of the above principles.



This is a contour drawing of a village outside of Guanajuato, Mexico that was made without looking at the paper except for filling in the shaded areas. We call these "blind contour" drawings. The dominant lines in the drawing are more or less straight and are contrastd with several curved lines in the arch and the mountain. The trapazoidal shapes indicated by the lines also create unity and variation in the drawing. Both the lines and shapes are contrasted with curved or "organic" lines and shapes in the arch and the mountains. Additional contrast is provided by the shaded mountain area and the shaded roofs and windows. The shapes of the buildings and the shaded areas march along the drawing from left to right creating rhythm and movement. And virtually every line and shape is interesting and unexpected. One of the greatest advantages of the blind contour method is the unexpectedness of the shapes and lines. Thus, such drawings can be used as explorations of line and shape for more intentional drawings or paintings.

Here is another blind contour drawing with checkback.



There is a contrast of lines with those in the face being quite organic and the ones in the foliage being more straight. And there is a variety of similar organic shapes enclosed or suggested by the lines in the face that contrast with the lines and shapes in the foliage. There is also unity and variation in the shading of some shapes. The lines in the face going from the throat to the top of the nose present a rhythm and movement up through the face while the lines and shapes in the foliage present a different kind of rhythm. Because of the unity, variation, contrast and rhythm in this drawing, it can be said to have "significant form." Further, there is a great deal of "unexpectedness" in the lines and shapes as well as the surprising placement and distortion of some elements like the nose lips and throat. These elements all make this an extremely interesting drawing with "significant form."

Here are two videos of Picasso making a drawing that show how he thought about line and rhythm during the creation of the work.





Notice how Picasso systematically paints his shapes and lines with a view toward creating rhythms and similar and varied shapes. First a stem is painted with its branching stems as a unified rhythm. Then the flower petals are put in, etc. It is clear in these works that Picasso is thinking in terms of creating similar, varied and contrasting shapes with a view toward their rhythms.

Cropped Drawing

Here is the original of a blind contour drawing and a cropped drawing taken from it.

Enlarged Detail Drawings

A blind contour drawing is first made. Then the drawing is scanned and imported into PhotoShop where small details are selected and then enlarged.

Here is my original drawing of a village near Guanajuato, Mexico and two enlarged details taken from it.

Painted Paper Cut-Outs (Footballers)

Bristol board was first painted with acrylic paint, then pieces cut out to produce these interesting portraits of British Footballers.

Screen Scribbles

These are a couple of drawings made by putting tracing paper over a photo on my flat screen monitor and then copying very loosely with a sharpie marker. They produce a rather rough and interesting likeness.

Severely Manipulated Digital Image

Here is an image that went through a number of major transformations in PhotoShop before arriving at the final image. Compare the final image with the original photograph. The manipulation of images in PhotoShop or other imaging program can produce ideas for entirely new styles of art that one would not otherwise have thought of.



Also, compare the PhotoShop image with the early 1970s work of British artist, Patrick Herron and this work of his.

Contour Portrait Drawings

Here are two portraits done by tracing the images on a light table.

Blind contour Drawings with Checkback

These drawings are done mainly by not looking at the paper and only peaking occasionally.

New Comic Character Style

This is the banner for my Cafe Q Sacramento website. It is a social network for the local Sacramento area gay & lesbian community. You can see the website at http:cafeqsac.ning.com

Here is a poster I recently did for my Gay Seniors group in Sacramento. I usually don't do cartoon type characters, so I think these are pretty good for a first try.They use the same general style as in the banner for Cafe Q Sacramento.