Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Response to David Hockney's Film

In David Hockney's film he showed how the artists relied on many tools, than there actual talent. Many of the artists had created difficult pieces and they had to find some way to help create those pieces.

David Hockney says that many of the paintings that he has reviewed that the proportion of the figures and the great detail were very correct. He tried to tried to draw the chandelier in the Jan van Eyck painting. He could not gethis drawing as precise as Jan van Eyck had done. Hockney's theory was that the artists back then were using a lens or a piece of galss to create the image they wanted onto a canvas and trace it. Hockney showed us in his film that when they traced the image they had to get most of the outline and the dark areas, so that the people posing could rest. Which in result when they needed to start tracing again they were able to tell the people the exact spot that they needed to be in.

After watching this film, I was really amazed that the artists back then really did not draw the image that they wanted to create by just looking at it. It was amazing that Hockney said they just traced the image, but after I let the film sink in I can understand that they may have wanted to create their pieces dramatically correct. It is hard to get porportions and all differnt kinds of detail correct. Even if David Hockney's theory is correct or incorrect I still believe that the artists he talked about in his film to be great artists. They may have just traced the image that they saw using lenses, but they did the rest of the painting themselves. To me that is true art because you still have to put great detail into the painting. So, in my book, I will always give them the credit that they deserve.

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