Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #76 - Interpreting Van Gogh

In response to yesterday's plea for creative bear ideas, wonderful watercolorist and blog buddy Rhonda Carpenter came up with the idea of emulating an old master, such as Van Gogh or Matisse.  I loved the idea, and thought the style of Van Gogh would fit the bear beautifully.  What better inspiration to use but Van Gogh's famous Starry Night.

And here's how it looks on the bear:

Starry Night Bear

Gotta admit, I loved doing this one, and it's one of my favorites.  It practically fell on the page by itself.  Thanks for the suggestion, Rhonda!  Keep those creative ideas coming!

As promised in yesterday's post, today we're going to take a little trip to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Bustling Michigan Avenue in front of the Art Institute

The beautiful architecture of the Art Institute

One of the two famous lion statues in front of the building.  Arguably the most photographed lions in the world.

The gorgeous entrance hall and admissions desk.

The Grand Staircase.  It is so very aptly named.

Here are a few pics of the Alsdorf Galleries, which showcase Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan Art.

Some scenes from the Impressionist galleries.

After walking, browsing, and examining some, a bit of lunch in the McKinlock Court cafe was in order.

The pigeons knew we were easy marks when they saw us.

More scenes from the various galleries.

             

And a few artifacts:

If they had garden gnomes in the Han Dynasty, they would look like this.

Can you imagine painting on this easel?

This is one of my favorite sculptures in the museum.  It is a 'Chimera', a tomb guardian from the Han Dynasty. To me, it looks like someone crossed a dragon with a Corgi.  Would it be called a Dragi?  Or a Corgon? Either way, I want to bring it home.  Wouldn't it make a great painting?  

Thanks for sticking around and going on the tour.  If you haven't been to the Art Institute, I highly recommend it.  And if you come to Chicago, drop me a line, and we'll feed the pigeons in the cafe together!

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #75 - Single Value

When lolling in the artistic doldrums, an excursion to the Art Institute of Chicago is a sure cure for what ails ya.

Whilst browsing through the Impressionist gallery, an inspiration snuck up on me.  The Impressionists painted light, and used color temperature more heavily than value to describe form.  Why not try that with our bear?

The inspiration coalesced into the idea to create the bear using one single value, and mold the form by using a limited number of colors, and changing the temperature rather than the value of the colors.

Single Value Bear

I used three different blues: a cold Ultramarine for the background, a warmer Cobalt for the eyes, nose, ear, and halftone shadow, and an even warmer Cerulean for the body.   The temperature differences show up much better in person.  Looking at this now, I see that using a single blue, and maybe a green and a violet would have been a more effective demonstration.

For the warmer part of the body, I used a Yellow-Orange Azo, and cooled it with a Pyrrole Crimson.  Chroma also played a part, as I greyed the legs a bit by adding a dash of Cerulean.

Now...if I judged my values correctly, when I convert the above bear painting photo to black and white, the bear should disappear, and it should be a simple flat grey at the value I picked for the colors.

Close.  The bear is still a little visible, the Cobalt areas were a little dark, but not bad for a first try.

Okay, time to put on your artistic thinking caps.  We're in the home stretch of this challenge.  I have inklings on how to do the last 25, but I'd love to get your method ideas.  What would you do with this bear?  The only caveat I would put on the proposals is that it has to be something that can be done fairly quickly, since a bear needs to appear here on a daily basis.  An unusual color scheme or substrate suggestion would work.  Creating a bear out of 1,000 pounds of various flavors of cheese probably won't.  You get the idea.  Send in those creative challenges!

And more on the Art Institute visit tomorrow.