Standing in the Shoes of Renaissance Masters

Thanh Ngo

Leonardo da Vinci

In my sketch, cars are traveling forward through a street with buildings on both sides toward the sunset at the horizon. I chose to leave the image in black and white because I’m not good at coloring. I started this drawing by choosing a point where I want my horizon and then drew orthogonal lines around that point. This point became my vanishing point as I used the orthogonal lines to draw the street, cars, and buildings going toward that point. I showed atmospheric perspective by drawing objects that are in the foreground very dark and having them get lighter as they progress towards the background, the horizon. When the horizon is approached, every object, car, and building, the street, and the sun are drawn extremely light. To enhance the perspective of my drawing through scale, I drew cars and buildings that are in the foreground large and progressively smaller as they approach the horizon in the background. The car, the buildings, and the sun at the vanishing point are much smaller in scale than the objects at the foreground of the drawing.

Jarrod Pinkerton

Leonardo da Vinci

The city in the background is the vanishing point in the sketch. I used orthogonal lines coming from the vanishing point to make the road leading to the city. I made the tree and the road in the foreground darker to show atmospheric perspective. As the road approaches the city, it gets lighter. The tree closer to the city is lighter as well as the city itself.

Minh Nguyen

Michelangelo

At the beginning I thought it was an easy project, but when I put my hand on the peace of foam I don’t know where to start. It took me three tried to get the fourth one right. You have to have a very good idea of what to do before you even begin, if the idea is not there than there is a good chance of you messing up. I now understand the process of Michelangelo and even admire his work more. The object I have done is a bottle.

Ragale Russell

Michelangelo

For my sculpture I chose to do something that I thought was fairly easy. My subject was a Flat Screen Dell desktop computer. While at first this project seemed to be easy, I must say that after two ruined bars of soap I soon found out that it would be much more difficult. My first attempt was to try to achieve a 3-D effect with the bar of soap. I wanted my computer screen to sit up and have the keyboard sitting flat. On my first attempt I completed the computer screen but I could not carve off enough soap to get the keyboard to sit flat like I wanted it to. After cutting off too much soap the first time and cutting my soap completely in half the second time I gave up on that project. For my third try I decided to keep it simple. I carved out a computer screen and right underneath I cut out the keyboard. I decided to keep both on a flat surface to avoid any further mishaps. My finished product was not what I expected but it was the shape of a computer and would have to do for now. Michelangelo was able to create magnificent sculptures from marble. Even with a bar of soap I can acknowledge that this was not an easy task. From this project I now have a greater respect for his artwork and his approach to creating masterpieces.

Dennis Onabajo

Michelangelo

As soon as I put my eyes on the block of soap, I saw a tennis racket hidden beneath the layers. Often times artists express themselves in their art to reflect past experiences or desires. For me it was not a surprise to sculpt a tennis racket as it is something I have loved to do since I was a little child. I found it quite difficult to put my visualization which I had in my mind and make it a reality on the bar of soap due to the precision which was needed to create the 3d object.

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Vincent van Gogh 1853-1890

Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Holland.  His parents were Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Reverend Theodorus van Gogh. Vincent had three sisters and two brothers and was brought up in a religious and creative household.   Van Gogh’s first love for art began to show at the age of 16 when he went to work for the Hague gallery which was run by French art dealers Goupil et Cie. Van Gogh remained with this company for about 5 years and was relocated several times. While working for the art dealers, some of his early admirations were for realistic art painters Jean-Francois Millet and Jules Breton.  Even though he had a love for art work, he soon lost interest in dealing art and decided to become a clergyman.  In 1876, after leaving Goupils, van Gogh made several attemts to become a preacher.  Eventually, he turned to artwork as a way to get his message across. He studied art in Belgium before moving to Paris to live with his brother, Théo who managed an art gallery.  After Paris, he moved to Arles where he hoped to start an art school with his closest friend, Gauguin.  His bourgeoning plans for a progressive school for art were cut short when he and Gauguin began to have heated disagreements.  Vincent began to show signs of psychosis.  During a particularly emotional fight, van Gogh attacked his friend but ended up cutting part of his own left ear off.  After the incident, van Gogh's dreams of teaching art vanished.  Van Gogh suffered from epilepsy and his mental state slowly disintegrated to periods of dissociative states coupled with lucidity.  The last months of his life were spent with Dr. Gachet who was working to help Vincent with his physical and psychological problems.  While he was alive, van Gogh only sold one painting.  The majority of his now infamous work was created in a three year period toward the end of his life.  Sadly, on July 27th 1890 van Gogh shot himself in the chest and returned home only to die two days later on July 29th with his brother Theo at his side. He was buried in Auvers on July 30th.  Saddened by his brother’s death, Theo soon became sick and died 6 months later. Theo’s wife and son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, inherited Van Gogh’s paintings and later donated his work to the Vincent van Gogh foundation.

(adapted from www.vangoghgallery.com)

Sheaves of Wheat 1890

This painting was one of the last van Gogh

painted before he committed suicde. It was part

of a series. He painted the series while he was staying

with Dr. Gachet, who he also painted (in our text). He

was staying with Dr. Gachet for physical and

psychological problems. During his time with

Gachet, the fields were harvested and van Gogh

did this seires focusing on the wheat fields. This

painting is unique because it shows the wheat

stacks close up, almost like a family portrait.

Sunflowers 1889

Van Gogh is famous for his paintings of sunflowers. 

When van Gogh went to France, he wanted to look for a good 

artistic community where he could find his own place. 

This is when he began to paint the Sunflower series. When he 

first started painting sunflowers in Paris, France around 1887, 

his sunflowers were clips of flowers rather

than an entire vase of sunflowers, as in his paintings later on. 

He painted these inorder to decorate Paul Gauguin’s home. 

I wanted to concentrate on this painting of a vase

with 15 sunflowers because it shows depth beyond its simplicity. 

He used yellow a lot during this part of his life, a color 

that can give the effect of livelihood.

However, as this painting shows, yellow is used with a brown color that 

suggests an image of death. All of the colors in between yellow 

and brown are used as if suggesting all of the

stages from life to death. Incorporating all the differences in the 

petal structure, the colors of the centers of the flower, and the 

colors of the petals, this simple painting creates

so much balance that the theme of life and death is apparent.

Irises 1890

In 1889, Van Gogh checked himself into

 Saint Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Remy, France many times.  

During his time there, van Gogh painted about

130 paintings.  Irises is one of them.  The surrounding 

gardens are the main theme for this series.  Irises is one of the 

first paintings he started for this series.  Irises is among the 

most recognized of van Gogh pieces.

Irises is on the list of the most expensive paintings ever sold, 

selling for $54 millionin 1987.  The painting is currently on display at 

the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California.

References:

http://www.aspectart.com/info/category/van-gogh-paintings

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/sunflowerindex.html

http://collections.dallasmuseumofart.org