Once in a while, to balance out all the contemporary, topical, post-modern posts, I like to post something
really old and
extraordinary. This qualifies beautifully.
Medieval woodcuts! Being an artist who works heavily in line drawing, and pen and ink, I can't get enough of this look. Sea serpents, monsters, leaping stags, religious illustrations, old German blackletter, map marginalia -- there's plenty to be learned from the old stuff, even in this glossy, slick, Age of Photoshop. It seems that everyone is a graphic designer these days, and nobody can draw a straight line. Something is lost, when we cut ourselves off from our artistic past.
Yes, I may be out of step with the times. In another life I'd be some monk going blind by a sputtering candle, hunched over a scroll, scratching with a quill pen.
To see more authentic woodcuts, check out this great site
here. To see my own humble attempt to imitate the old styles, see my riff on Durer and Bushmiller
here.
Medieval woodcuts! Being an artist who works heavily in line drawing, and pen and ink, I can't get enough of this look. Sea serpents, monsters, leaping stags, religious illustrations, old German blackletter, map marginalia -- there's plenty to be learned from the old stuff, even in this glossy, slick, Age of Photoshop. It seems that everyone is a graphic designer these days, and nobody can draw a straight line. Something is lost, when we cut ourselves off from our artistic past.
Yes, I may be out of step with the times. In another life I'd be some monk going blind by a sputtering candle, hunched over a scroll, scratching with a quill pen.
To see more authentic woodcuts, check out this great site here. To see my own humble attempt to imitate the old styles, see my riff on Durer and Bushmiller here.
