I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment, but none of them have quite made it to the stage of being ready to blog about yet! Instead I thought I'd share with you an acrylic painting which I completed in 2009. I've always been fascinated by the concept of hyperrealism, an art genre which involves creating an image which, for all intents and purposes, resembles a high-resolution photograph. In fact, the masters of this genre can produce such detailed pieces that they appear more real than reality (very deep!).
According to Wikipedia (the fountain of all knowledge...) the expression hyperrealism was coined by Belgian art dealer Isy Brachot in 1973 to describe the advancement of photorealism. Like photorealist artists, hyperrealists use photographs as a reference, but strive not to recreate them exactly as they appear, but to convey emotion and a deeper sense of vitality which is not necessarily found in photorealism.
Anyway, enough chit chat, here is my attempt.
Personally, I think I may be on the brink of achieving photorealism, but I'm a long way off inspiring that awestruck gasp that people let out when they realise that what they're actually looking at is a painting!
Just in case you don't believe me, here are some examples from the masters. First up, the work of Jason de Graaf, taken from his blog.
Never mind the detail in the tubes of paint, that blurred background is awesome!
If that's whet your whistle, take a look at these by artist Pedro Campos, taken from his website. They're very reminiscent of the pop art movement.
If you thought they were good, check these out by Robin Eley, found on his website.
These are only a handful of paintings by a tiny proportion of the super talented artists working within the genre. There are many more images on their websites, it's definitely worth a look! (Also check out Eloy Morales, Joongwon Jeong and Simon Hennessey)
So, I looked at these paintings and had an "if they can do it, I can do it" moment. Then I set about doing some research into how, exactly, I'm going to make this statement come true. Here's what I found.
- It's fine to use grids, projectors and other technical methods to get the image onto the canvas. It's not cheating! (Whoopee!)
- These artists often use ginormous canvasses, we're talking bigger than themselves, which makes it easier (apparently) to get all that detail in.
- The paintings can take over 6 months to complete, which explains the more than £20,000 price tag on some of them! (Yep, definitely got to crack this!)
- According to Eloy Morales, tone (not detail) is the most important aspect.
Not exactly a step by step guide - "Hyperrealism for Dummies". It appears that hints and tips regarding this style are thin on the ground, perhaps to uphold the illusion. This only makes me even more determined to reach the standard of these artists. One day. First though, I need a cup of tea.
PS. Any comments, shares or new followers would be very welcome :)
I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Paint Party Friday.
