Thomas Gainsborough

I thought I would take a bit to step back and look at the painting by Thomas Gainsborough that we saw close to the end of the tour. For those that don't remember its was the painting of the creepy boy holding his friend back as they watch two dogs going at it. It was called "Two shepherd boys with dogs fighting".

http://uploads4.wikipaintings.org/images/thomas-gainsborough/two-shepherd-boys-with-dogs-fighting-1783.jpg

It just amazes me how detailed this particular painting has. But I thought I wound talk not just about this painting but Thomas Gainsborough in general because there was a couple painting there that we saw. Gainsborough at the age of 13 was recognized for his talent in art and was later shipped off to London to study the Flemish style of painting (a paining trend that was fairly popular with art dealers). He got his feet off the ground with a couple landscape paintings.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Thomas_Gainsborough_-_Landscape_in_Suffolk_-_WGA8402.jpg

http://www.paintinghere.org/UploadPic/Thomas%20Gainsborough/big/River%20Landscape.JPG

Becoming ever more popular, he later became a founder of the Royal Academy. Before he died in 1788, he was able to paint King George II and Queen Charlotte.

http://www.history.com/images/media/slideshow/american-revolution-key-military-figures/king-george-III.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmeef7Zgew1qhpzs8o1_1280.jpg

During this lifetime, Thomas Gainborough painted 200 landscapes and around 800 portraits of the aristocracy! I think its just ridiculous to paint around 1000 pictures in ones lifetime with suburb quality. He must of truly been a hard worker to complete such a task.

Computer vs.Hands

A lot of pictures we see today are Photoshopped;  magazine covers, models, scenery, T.V. ads, and probably a ton more that we don't even realize. I knew that you can photoshop anything these days but it wasn't until I took an imaging class before I really saw how easy it was to make your crappy little photo look like a masterpiece. Now to be honest, I have never been to the art museum before, and my very first thought when I stepped into that room with all the painting was, this all looks shopped. It almost took a bit to realize that these were painted without any help from a computer. I have never been a big fan of  painting but after I started looking around I was really amazed by all the artwork. I just kept wondering how they were able to paint such such tiny details on such a small painting. And looking at some of the painting by Gainsborough and attempting to comperhend the time that was needed to paint something so fantastic, makes my head spin. But the one thing that I don't think I could handle as a painter, would be messing up or not liking a part of my painting. For example, the tours guide told us that the painting that Thomas Gainsborough did, of the Countess in the pink lace dress, he changed around a bunch of times because he didn't like her feet. But it really must be a pain to re-paint something over again, because I'm not the best with history but I don't think they invented the undo button around that time. On computer today you can take back something in a second. It just gives a little more respect to the painters that have created these great works of art.

Scared to watch the movie

I have heard some really good things but also some very bad things about the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. When I told my friends that I was reading this graphic novel, just about all of them said that they have not read the graphic novel but they have seen the movie and rated it very high, so I thought it would be pretty cool to see it after we were done reading it, plus I thought that a book like this would make an excellent movie. However the second day into the book, our discussion somehow lead into the movie version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and some of the things that our professor said really discouraged me from wanting to watch the movie. So what I'm asking now, it  worth to go and see it? Now I know it won't be a Lord of the Rings(obviously the best trilogy out there) but I don't want it to be so bad that I wish I never have watched it *cough* Avatar *cough* Eragon *cough* *cought*. But I heard a couple of other people in our class talk about this so I'm wondering what you all think?

First couple bites into the comic

I haven't read that many graphic novels in my reading career the only one that I can clearly remember was V for Vendetta, only because of the overall awsomeness of the comic book! So in class, it was said that some people may have trouble reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen because its hard to decided what text boxes to read and the difficulty of reading the text and interpreting the pictures at the same time (without taking an hour to read every page). I picked up The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and really started to get into it and had a little trouble with what we talked about in class but I had other problems with the comic. I'm used to reading manga which, for those who don't know, are read from back to front and right to left on the page. So reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen through me through a loop hole. I heard that a couple other people in our class are manga fans so I was wondering if it was a difficult transition for you?

The other thing that I noticed was how unique the art is. I'm only half way through the book and several times I've wondered, how long did it take just to draw out this page? I had to especially take a little more at the chapter pages. For example chapter 4: Gods of Annihilation, there was just so much detail on that page. Up to this point I have been very impressed with the art style used in this comic. Going back to the manga thing again, Japan has a very interesting art style in their anime and manga so reading a book like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has really been an interesting transition.

A Modern Version of "Forced Perfection"

I was thinking about John Rusken's writing on how man made things loss all their uniqueness when copied over and over again. Since the industrial revolution, the would has been rapidly been moving closer and closer to that concept. Today, we go into any fast food place and we can get the exact same thing as the person next to you. Yes, there is a little verity (if you want to exchange the pickles for the ketchup) but overall its the same as all the other meals that are ordered there. Same goes for the place I work at. I'm a cook at the Residence Inn and we use the same 2 week rotation with hardly no change in routine. All of our meals are prepared the exact same way and served the same way as we did the same day 2 weeks before. Getting a bigger picture, all of the Residence Inns are using the exact same line up for their meals as well. You can go to 2 different Residence Inns on the same day and see the exact same food. All uniqueness is completely lost. It makes me think how many other places do the exact same thing. (Again using food for an example) I look back at the places I have all ate at, and the ones that stick out the most were the ones that were different. It was something I either haven't seen before or never tried before. The makes me wonder if we made and sold something unique (just not food) would people flock to it because its different or would they reject it because its too different?