The Photorealism of Norman Rockwell Explained

[Adsos Letter]

SOURCE: Neatorama


Photo credit Norman Rockwell Museum.


This week a story at NPR discusses the extent to which Norman Rockwell used photography to capture images of models; he then traced these photographs onto canvas as an early step in the creation of his famous paintings.

Rockwell used photos, taken by a rotating cast of photographers, to make his illustrations… Rockwell never kept it a secret, but for some reason this little fact has been neglected in recent decades. Although he may not have clicked the shutter, Rockwell directed every facet of every composition.

A newly published book, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera (Little, Brown and Company, 2009), and an exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum provide further insight into this process and offer acknowledgement to the photographers involved in the process.

Those who feel the lack of freehand drawing somehow diminishes Rockwell’s status as an artist should be reminded that painters as famous as Vermeer and Caravaggio are thought to have used the camera obscura to compose their works.


LINK: http://www.neatorama.com/2009/12/06/the-photorealism-of-norman-rockwell-explained/

[ConsAreLiars]

1. Wow! That explains a lot about his genius and the magic behind his art.

Thank you.

Rockwell's paintings often had a great tension between capturing some true thing and being utopian unrealism. Like socialist realism, it portrayed a view of how things might be, the best of what might become real, or what one might to imagine was actually real.

I once searched for corroboration of something I'd heard from somewhere, that Rockwell was allied with the socialist/progressive/commie movements of his era, but got nowhere. Helen Keller and Einstein left wrote down their political beliefs, but not Rockwell, as far as I've seen.

No proof, but I think the values and priorities he expressed so uniquely well in his art were far closer to Woodie Guthrie than those on the other side.

(edit because many keys on the keyboardf are located close to other keys)

[Adsos Letter]

6. Yer welcome ConsAreLiars! Nice to see you weigh in on occasion...

but not nearly enough! :hi:

Hope your younger son is enjoying his assignment, and that new camera. :D

[ConsAreLiars]

9. I'm here pretty much every day. The quiet, or very slow typer, one in the far corner.

Younger son told me about an encounter with a wild mink. (I never thought of any existing outside of a cage or coat). Sitting quietly on some overlook and the animal becomes curious and comes out to sniff, retreats, and comes back again to lick/sniff his boot.

No photo of that encounter, but many more that illustrate that kind of connectedness: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnyhayseed/ Check the "My foxy friend" link for just one of many cases.

Only a couple pix with the new gear, but if you walk through his photo stream you will be helped to see, as he does, that plants as well as animals are living beings.

(edit typo)

[Tindalos]

2. That's interesting

I had no idea he used that technique, but it is used by a lot of artists. And it doesn't diminish his work at all for me. Even having an outline, it's hard to translate a 3D scene into 2D and still make it look realistic.

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[blueraven95]

3. I bought the book about a month ago

and I absolutely love it - I'm actually writing a paper about one of the pieces.


I do have to say, about that particular image, that I personally prefer the original waiter over the one in the painting. :shrug:

[alfredo]

4. I like the way he simplified the background.

[Adsos Letter]

5. It appears to me that he also widened the cops shoulders a bit

and reduced the size of the kid slightly, in order to heighten the contast in size between them I would guess.

[alfredo]

7. He also moved the boys hands and arms to make him appear smaller.

Notice the soda jerk has no tie. That makes it more relaxed and friendly. The soda jerk is thinner, and less agressive in appearance.

[JeffR]

8. Cool. I've often wondered about the flat light in a lot of his work

and whether there was a connection to flash photography. I guess now it's settled.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. I don think there is anything wrong with painting from photos. In some cases it's the

only chance you might ever get to paint certain subjects.

I've never been to Ireland to paint a graveyard, and maybe I could have imagined one up, but I saw a photo of one that really struck me so I gave it a shot. (I am by no means a trained painter. I just got it in my head one day many years ago that I wanted to try painting, so I did a few pictures. Now that my boys are bigger maybe I will end this 12 year hiatus and try it again. :P)

[NashVegas]

11. I Like The Comments That Blasted the Article

So many technology users and promoters keep finding the need to claim that great artists are/were hacks. A few years ago there were people who claimed Rembrandt and others used projected images to trace and paint. The bottom line is, these artists sat down and used their brain's own natural computing capabilities to understand and delineate perspective and color mixing, and used skill that was attained over years and decades to craft their work. Cut the shit.

[Celebration]

12. +1

I learned to draw by looking through a grid to get the perspective right. Of course artists are going to figure out ways to make it a bit easier

I have a friend that is an artist who does all sorts of clever things having to do with photos, transfer paper, copiers, etc. Nobody can figure out how she does it. I think I am the only one she told the secret (since I am not an artist), and naturally I can't remember the details. She was right that her secret was safe with me!