From wikipedia on Caravaggio:
The birth of Baroque
Caravaggio "put the oscuro (shadows) into chiaroscuro."[31] Chiaroscuro was practiced long before he came on the scene, but it was Caravaggio who made the technique definitive, darkening the shadows and transfixing the subject in a blinding shaft of light. With this came the acute observation of physical and psychological reality which formed the ground both for his immense popularity and for his frequent problems with his religious commissions. He worked at great speed, from live models, scoring basic guides directly onto the canvas with the end of the brush handle; very few of Caravaggio's drawings appear to have survived, and it is likely that he preferred to work directly on the canvas. The approach was anathema to the skilled artists of his day, who decried his refusal to work from drawings and to idealise his figures. Yet the models were basic to his realism. Some have been identified, including Mario Minniti and Francesco Boneri, both fellow artists, Mario appearing as various figures in the early secular works, the young Francesco as a succession of angels, Baptists and Davids in the later canvasses. His female models include Fillide Melandroni, Anna Bianchini, and Maddalena Antognetti (the "Lena" mentioned in court documents of the "artichoke" case[32] as Caravaggio's concubine), all well-known prostitutes, who appear as female religious figures including the Virgin and various saints.[33] Caravaggio himself appears in several paintings, his final self-portrait being as the witness on the far right to the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula.[34]
Caravaggio had a noteworthy ability to express in one scene of unsurpassed vividness the passing of a crucial moment. The Supper at Emmaus depicts the recognition of Christ by his disciples: a moment before he is a fellow traveler, mourning the passing of the Messiah, as he never ceases to be to the inn-keeper's eyes, the second after, he is the Saviour. In The Calling of St Matthew, the hand of the Saint points to himself as if he were saying "who, me?", while his eyes, fixed upon the figure of Christ, have already said, "Yes, I will follow you". With The Resurrection of Lazarus, he goes a step further, giving us a glimpse of the actual physical process of resurrection. The body of Lazarus is still in the throes of rigor mortis, but his hand, facing and recognizing that of Christ, is alive. Other major Baroque artists would travel the same path, for example Bernini, fascinated with themes from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
DRAMATIC LIGHTING! Where would Batman be without it? The creators of batman use shadow so much, Batman becomes ICONIC in the process of the darkness.Today I am going to introduce a new term: Lighting and TONE.
The artist in the above iconic batman picture uses darkness to express WHAT is important. This icon, being iconic, is NOT realistic. In fact, it isn't clear where the light source is. But where light HITS batman is important. His eyes, for example, are white. This is because the eyes are important. The cape is hit by light. This is because the cape is important.
Light order is used to enhance the drama of a drawing. It was done beautifully by the Baroque master, Caravaggio and we can still learn from him today.
The above picture of former Russian prime minister and tiger enthusist, Vladimir Putin, is a joke, but once again there is a logic to this joke. Dramatic lighting BLOCKS out distraction. The view does not see the environment, but rather focuses on Putin's face. The lighting is DIRECTED to show Putin's face.
The following figures are in SHADOW. Today's assignment is as last weeks. I will help you draw and I want you to make these drawings your own ... but the added bonus today is I want you all to use DRAMATIC lighting. Make sure there is a big TONAL RANGE in your drawings.
Review of Terms:
* Abstraction
* Realistic
* Iconic
* Perspective
* Will Eisner Story Structure
* Introduction (Character, Setting, Time)
* Reference
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