The Arts
Leng Jun’s paintings look like photos

Published
1 month agoon

The precision is such that the hyper-realistic paintings by the Chinese artist Leng Jun look like photographs. Not only the look and the structure of the faces but also the hair, the skin texture, even the fibres of the fabrics look perfect.
Leng Jun paints in oil on canvas, without preparatory drawings, without shortcuts. Freehand, with the models standing in front of him. All improvised but absolutely perfect.
It’s not just the perfection of the painting but it’s interesting to see how he has been influenced by masters from the past. The models (mostly women) wear contemporary clothes, but their poses and demeanour reminds us of famous classic paintings.









Worked in many sectors including recruitment and marketing. Lucky to have found a soulmate who was then taken far too soon. No intention of moving on and definitely not moving to Thailand for the foreseeable future. Might move forward. Owned by a cat.

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There is an Instagram artist called Hossein Diba who creates characters that look almost real. He recreated the entire Simpson family and other characters of the show to look like they would be in real life. The results are quite astounding.
There are also other characters from other series in his Instagram account. You can have a look at them here. If you want to know more you can also have a look at his YouTube channel.
I would have loved to have thought of this before, and above all to have the talent to accomplish it, but I can’t even draw the Simpsons characters in 2D, let alone in 3D.
History
Humorous caricatures by Thomas Rowlandson and G.M. Woodward


Published
4 weeks agoon
January 31, 2021
Thomas Rowlandson was a well known caricaturist of the Georgian era. He specialised in caricatures of famous people and satires of the society at the time. His friend and drinking companion was George Moutard Woodward who was also a well known satirist and caricaturist. They often worked together like in this case with Rowlandson doing the etching.
Rowlandson was the most famous of the two, he studied at the Royal Academy and although he experienced periods of poverty, he was fairly well known in his lifetime. He died in 1827 and was buried in St Paul’s, the actors church in Covent Garden.
These caricatures are from a series called Country characters which Rowlandson created in 1799. There are 12 works in this series which now is in the Boston Public Library. Given the age of the prints, they are in the public domain. Click on any image to enlarge it.

















































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