A lovely article on imaginative realism, art that combines realistic technical skills with fantastical subject matter, like this gorgeous piece by Donato Giancola (©2012).
This year, the Association of Fantastic Art in coordination with the Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, USA, will be putting on a groundbreaking exhibition: At the Edge: The Art of the Fantastic, from June 3 through Sept. 9, 2012.
Donato also has a new video on his art technique which chronicles his work on a large scale painting of Joan of Arc. You can buy the dvd at his website.
In this film, Donato provides step by step narration as he creates Joan of Arc, from initial abstract concepts, reference gathering, and detailed preliminary drawing to the final application of oil paint and glazing mediums. His extensive professional knowledge and intimate trade methods provide the viewer rare insight into how to create a complex and detailed narrative work of art.
A few weeks ago, I was on one of those websites which sell painted reproductions of classical art. All legal, because all is out of copyright. However, I found a number of Donato’s paintings for sale on the website. I dropped a note to Donato and the art was removed quickly. Seems the site did not realize Donato was not an old master.
If you’re going to have your work stolen, that’s the only way it could be considered a compliment.
An very interesting article on whether or not characters enjoy copyright protection. Every creative should read all of this.
In Detective Comics, Inc. v. Bruns Publications, 111 F.2d 432 (2nd Cir. 1940) the Second Circuit was asked to determine whether a comic called Wonderman infringed on the Superman copyright. Wonderman argued that “various attributes of “Superman” find prototypes or analogues among the heroes of literature and mythology” Id. at 433. The Second Circuit disagreed, finding that the “pictorial representations and verbal descriptions of ‘Superman’ are not a mere delineation of a benevolent Hercules, but embody an arrangement of incidents and literary expressions original with the author, they are proper subjects of copyright and susceptible to infringement.”
