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Guido Reni 1575-1642 Bologna
La Sibylle 1635
Bologna Pinacoteca Nazionale
THE WOMAN IN THE PAINTING OF THE CATHOLIC AND HUMANIST EUROPE
Art in general, and painting in particular, bear witness to the importance accorded to women in European civilization.
But the image of women has evolved according to the ideological context, the beliefs in force at this or that time in European history.
By starting the European art history around 500, ie with Christianity, the subject of women in the painting of Europe will be evoked through five dossiers :
1 ° The woman in the painting of Catholic Europe. From 500 to 1500 approximately. However easel painting began only around 1300. Previously painting is manifested through the frescoes, mosaics, stained glass and in books: the illuminations.
2 ° The woman in the painting of Catholic and Humanist Europe. From 1500 to 1800 approximately
3 ° The woman in the painting of the Protestant Netherlands in the 17th century
4 ° The woman in the painting of the ideologically plural Europe of the 19th century. 1800-1950 approximately
5 ° The woman in the Official Contemporary Art. 1950 ...
The image of woman in European painting diversified a lot in the Renaissance, in certain social circles.
To understand this evolution one must first make a little some true history. This is why we have to leave the woman, during a few paragraphs (A), in order to explain the title, quite unusual in historiography, given at this period in the history of Europe: Catholic and Humanist Europe. Then it will be possible to study the image of the woman (B). A woman, who in this file of 74 paintings, will be less represented by the Virgin Mary and the Saints (18 paintings) but more by Venus, Diana or Bathsheba. But it is certain that this choice does not reflect, in number, the production of the artists of these three centuries, a production which is thematically very balanced between Catholicism and Humanism. The Church remains indeed throughout the period a decisive sponsor for the art of European painting. From the point of view of style, he is the same throughout these three centuries: "the full painting", in three dimensions, as well as she's finished developing herself towards 1500 following a persevering collaboration between the Italian South and the Flemish and Germanic North of Europe
A/
From the years 1500s onward, it is the "Renaisssance", for the official western historiography, the history taught and divulged widely, since the 19th century
In reality, Europe does not know in the 16th century, in relation to the immediately preceding centuries, any Renaissance: neither economic, nor political, nor artistic, nor scientific, nor technical, nor spiritual, nor intellectual, nor moral of course. These rebirths are much earlier, they are done, gradually but continuously, after the year 1000, to adopt a memorable date.
On the other hand, at the "Renaissance" the European aristocratic elite, including the high clergy, Popes in the lead, undertakes a new approach to the thought of Greco-Roman antiquity, discovery which is enriched by the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, and the consecutive exile of great Byzantine intellectuals with their ancient documents.
"The Renaissance" is a return to the past of Greek and Roman Europe, and a rehabilitation of certain values peculiar to ancient paganism. Certainly ancient thought was partly known by the the Scolasticism of the Middle Ages, but it is undeniable that in the intellectual, aristocratic and very great bourgeois circles of Western Europe, the interpretation imposed by Catholic Christianity in the reading of ancient texts ceases to be binding at the end of the 15th century.
It is this ideological turn that modern and contemporary historiography, "formatted" by the "Enlightenment", calls a "Renaissance". As if the Europe of that time had come out of the deep shadows of previous centuries.
Man does not like facts that do not conform to his world view. When the facts are contrary to his beliefs, he ignores them. Elites can even invent facts that have never existed, but have the advantage of concordant with the beliefs they want to impose on peoples : These are "the ideological facts". These facts are not facts, they do not exist, they are totally imagined to serve a cause. "The Renaissance" is largely an "ideological fact". A major ideological fact, entirely built on a few real facts and others not real at all.
However, it is true that Rebirth also has existed as a real fact. But not a renaissance of Europe, a renaissance of antiquity. It is Humanism that appears. A conception of the world, an ideology, quite simple, somewhat egocentric: The belief in human begins to appear under the belief in God. It is in Greco-Roman antiquity that the elites of the 16th century will seek the premises of the ideology of the primacy of man. It is true that ancient art is to the glory of the human being: All Gods are in his image. And even Zeus comes to seek among the mortals some of his many mistresses.
In painting the "growth" of the human throughout the Catholic period and at the beginning of the Catholic-Humanist period is very obvious: The donor couples of the early Gothic are very small characters at the bottom of the painting. Gradually over the decades ... they grow, and gradually they settle on the side flaps, then in the middle of the central part. They even push God and his cohort of saints off the picture. But where are we going? Until there is only the donors.
For the ideologues and historians of the "Enlightenment", who analyze the phenomenon of rebirth two or three centuries later, through their own rationalist, atheistic, materialistic and progressive ideology, it is "The Renaissance". For it is the beginning of a new revelation, the premises of a New New Testament. The "Reason Goddess" will prevail over Catholic religious Obscurantism (Jews and Protestants are apparently more enlightened). Victory is certain because Progress is irresistible (Condorcet). The humanism of the Renaissance, which was a form of respect for the man different from the Catholic version, but not incompatible with it, has become, over the centuries, "The Hommisme", in other words the cult of human. The recognition of human dignity within a complex universe that must be respected, has become the adoration of human aspiring to the total mastery of the universe. The divinity is now distant, accessory, absent even, and man can thus settle in the center of the world. And soon the man will be God. This is the current ideological project of the West for the world, the Globalist project. The present of the West is only one step on the path of universal society, governing the Whole Earth, a society enlightened by the new man, the god-man.
These ideological, profane, secular, supposedly rationalist delusions, in reality Gnostics and Kabbalistic, belong to the same kind of thinking as certain religious fanaticism. They have nothing to do with the conceptions of the world of Greco-Roman antiquity.
In the visions of the world of Greco-Roman antiquity human was not the center of the Universe. The man had to respect the Universal Harmony, not to disturb the Order of the World by his pretensions and his untimely actions. The major fault for the ancient man, Greek or Roman, was the Hubris: the Pride, the demeasurement, which leads the man to believe himself the equal of the Gods.
The Man-God, is simply Luciferian. In Christian symbolism it is the Angel who wants to take the place of God. A vision of the world that has seduced many humans for millennia, under multiple forms allegedly esoteric and magical.
The God-Man, Master of the universe, is absolutely not a characteristic concept of Greco-Roman antiquity, despite some misunderstood appearances. Except for the pathological case of Alexander, a pathology denounced in his own time. The divinization of the Ptolemaic or Roman emperors was only a political process, which no elite of these times took seriously beyond its social and civic utility.
For the new ideology of the "Enlightenment", apparently rationalist but in fact Kabbalistic, after the Renaissance came the essential stage of the Reformation, then the determining one of the French Revolution, then that of "proletarian Internationalism", finally that of the newest winner: the Capitalistic globalism. The Globalism, the last avatar of the thought of the "lights", claims to illuminate the whole planet. Christians, Muslims, Hinduists, Buddhists, Confucianists, Shintoists, Animists, Atheists, Agnostics, Pagans. All will have to submit to the "Light", the only one, the true one. All will have to submit to "Reason", the only one, the true one. The ideological and political elite of Europe and the West no longer belong to humanist thought, they practices the "Hommisme", the adoration of man. The adoration of the human "Master of the World" has replaced his perception, wise and measured, as a simple element of a universe that surpasses it infinitely. The Science being one of the great references of the contemporary era it is necessary to specify that the God-Man is not a scientific concept either. Or only of a science betrayed, enslaved, used by the political and ideological elites to justify their religion of the Human.
At the time of the "Renaissance" the history of ideas has not yet arrived at this stage. Indeed, a remarkable feature of this "Renaissance" is that it does not concern the lives of peoples.
It is a strictly elitist ideological phenomenon. Catholicism remains the generally uncontested belief in the population. And likewise among the elites, Catholicism is absolutely not invalidated. The Church is also at the head of this movement. The ideological and political elites of Europe only grant themselves an opening on other ideological horizons, other visions of the world, other morals, in parallel with the catholic beliefs but not in replacement of them.
In the painting, and especially that of the woman the implications are going to be very important. But only in a certain art, an art reserved, confidential, intended for the aristocratic elite and very large bourgeois. Nothing changes in painting and sculpture destined for the populations and the middle classes. Mary and the Saints continue to dominate absolutely. But even in the painting for the aristocracy the art influenced by Humanism is added only to the painting inspired by the Church. A two-speed art thus appears in the aristocratic and plutocratic milieus, where the two visions of the world rub shoulders, without any confrontation.
That is why the period of European history that will follow, until around 1800, can be called "Catholic and Humanist Europe".
The agreement is not perfect between the two ideologies, but it is balanced, it will last three centuries in a large part of the Mediterranean, Celtic, Germanic and Slavic Europe of the west.
This appellation cannot obviously apply to the Slavic Orthodox Europe, nor of course to Europe colonised by the Ottomans, whose paths are diferent.
It is also necessary to exclude the part of Europe which was "reformed", protestant, in the north essentially, Europe which had remained outside the limits of the Roman Empire.
But in reality the reform is, for the most part, triple at that time: Anglican, Lutheran and Calvinist. These reforms are not exactly the same in their cultural consequences, and it is the Calvinist reform in the Low Countries of the north which, for various reasons, political and religious, constitutes the most obvious break with Catholicism, but also has with Humanism. The northern Netherlands will set up a completely original and new paint in which the image of the woman will change dramatically.
On the other hand, in North Germany, Christian Lutheran, the aristocracy has retained a political power distinct from the upper middle class. The aristocracy has also preserved memories and institutions of the times of the Holy Germanic Empire turned towards Rome and Italy. This reformed Germany remains culturally much more connected to Catholic Europe and especially Humanist than the Netherlands. Her art and in particular the image of the woman is not different from that which can be seen in France or Italy. England has been an island for a long time, and English painting is also somewhat different from that of the Continent. England is no longer Catholic since 1534, she is Anglican. A schism whose motives are entirely political. After much hesitation and going back and forth, finally, Anglicanism is not quite Puritanism. The Mayflower pilgrims have noticed this. In addition, the memories of antiquity are very far away and English painting has never cultivated much Greek mythology. But the themes of English painting are much more aristocratic than those of Dutch painting. The image of the woman is closer to that existing on the continent outside the Netherlands. However, the female nude is almost completely absent from English painting.
B/
Thematically the image of women in European painting has evolved over the centuries.
1° Throughout the Gothic period the woman is triply symbolic.
- Symbol of the fall of man (Eve) Then symbol of his redemption (Mary). First dialectical symbolic, subtly evocative of the relations between man and woman.
- Symbol of sacred, mystical love, with the Virgin Mary and the saints. Symbol also of the love of the child and the family.
- More global symbol of the love of beings and their protection, especially the poor and the weak against the rich and the violent. This symbol is evoked by the iconography of Virgins of Protection or Mercy.
2° In the 16th century, the image of the woman is also inspired, parallel to this first symbolic Catholic and Orthodox, which does not disappear, representations of Greek Antiquity.
An ancient Civilization for which the woman is doubly symbolic of Love and Beauty.
- The woman is symbolic of a form of Sacred Love. Sacred Love which through the goddess of Love, and also other major or minor Goddesses, is the reminder of the creative, centripetal link which is at the source of the primordial Life; and who perpetuates it in all beings since the origin of the worlds. The woman is then the symbol of Eros, which in Greek cosmogony, as evoked by Hesiod in his Theogony, is one of the primordial forces, binding, aggregating, which presided over the formation of the world. This Eros should not be confused with Eros (Cupid) the companion of Aphrodite (Venus). It is a Primordial Force that is at the origin of the World, an intuitive evocation, in mythical form, of the universal attraction of Isaac Newton.
- The beautiful woman, naked or dressed, is also for the Greeks the reflection and the symbol of the Beauty of the Universe. As also the male beauty, equally celebrated. The human being must be beautiful because he must be in the image of the Harmony of the World and that the Beautiful is an invitation to the Good and the True and thus an essential element of the Order of the World
The image of the woman, who was totally monopolized by Mary and the Holy Women in the period of Catholic Europe, Has diversified greatly in 1500.
Two new iconographic sources appear:
- The Greco-Roman antiquity, from the historical angle or from the mythological angle
- The Old Testament, of which some texts, not very many, are conducive to painting the woman.
These two sources all go in the same direction: they allow to introduce in European painting many possibilities to represent the female nude.
For the ancient source nothing surprising, the Greek and Roman Antiquity has constantly celebrated both female and male nudity.
For the Semitic source, on the contrary, it is very surprising. The entire Semitic culture is very hostile to the nude and moreover aniconic: totally unfavorable to the images. The use of the Old Testament to celebrate the female nude is clearly the hallmark of a non-Semitic, Indo-European interpretation of the Old Testament.
At the Renaissance, so there is a big change: Eve is nolonger the only one to be naked.
Catholicism, unlike Hinduism, is not favorable to the representation of the nude, feminine or masculine. And we will see by studying the painting of the Netherlands that Protestantism is even more unfavorable to the nude.
With Humanism, all the goddesses of Greece and of ancient Rome, the Olympian ones, or those more minor, will be reborn. The Renaissance is, in painting, an explosion of Goddesses, Nymphs, Bacchantes, Maenads and beautiful mortals mistresses of Zeus. All these women are little dressed, and often not at all.
The Old Testament is less rich: Bathsheba, Suzanne, Judith, the daughters of Lot, Dalila ..... The list is not long, but it will serve a lot, until the 20th century.
The people, on the other hand, must remain chaste, so it is not concerned by this new painting and this new image of women, which is reserved for the secular and religious aristocracy. The princes of the Church are most often the juniors of the Princes in political and military power. Not exclusively, however, because the Church has been a very effective social lift. Private salons of bishops and cardinals do not exhibit the same paint as churches and public halls.
In short, to make it simple:
Humanism it is for the European aristocracy, not for the peoples.
Catholicism it is for the European peoples, and also for the aristocracy.
However, the Old Testament will penetrate much more than in the previous period, all religious painting for popular use. In the Catholic Europe of medieval times rare are the scenes taken from the Old Testament. This is not the case after 1500. Obviously new influences have been exercised, which are not only humanist. But in art inspired by the Old Testament, for the people, the woman is dressed (Esther for example). The girls of Lot, Bathsheba, Suzanne, Judith ... are representations reserved for aristocrats.
Mary and the Holy Women remain quite present at all levels of society, in the churches, in the popular houses, in the bourgeois salons, in the palaces of the aristocracy and kings. Indeed the European elite, humanist, remains profoundly Catholic for a few centuries yet.
Ultimately in the Renaissance, the big change in the representation of the woman is that she puts herself naked. This event should not be underestimated. This is another reason, for many men, to see an immense progress there. After a thousand years during which it was only possible to see a naked woman, Eve, and from time to time, the breast of a nursing mother. Sometimes also some damned, because in Catholic iconography before the Renaissance the elect are dressed, but the damned can be naked. Nudity being a sign of diabolical lust.
The reintroduction of the nude into European painting in the 16th century is a return to certain values of Greek-Roman and pagan antiquity. Values that belong to the very old Indo-European fund. It is clearly a break with Christian conceptions very inspired by a culture completely foreign to Europe: the Semitic Jewish culture, very hostile to the nude and eroticism, which had triumphed over the Greco-Roman culture of inspiration towards 500 ac.
Change is important, but in painting only, because in everyday life, European humanity has not deprived itself of anything at all, and certainly not lust, during these thousand years, at all levels of society. Despite Catholicism, Mary, the Saints, Saint Michael and the Holy Spirit, the "Devil" has never been very far from men.
The renaissance is therefore also a real fact, at least in painting and sculpture, because it is not only a renaissance of antiquity, it is also a renaissance of the female nude and the male nude.
A rebirth of lust? Certainly not, everything just continues as before.
Catholic and humanist Europe will last three centuries, and the image of the woman that his painting will spread takes on a tremendous scale, carnal, with Pierre Paul Rubens whose art represents the summit of the collaboration between Catholicism and the Humanism.
There is not with Rubens the distant reserve of Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael. The wife of Rubens is absolutely queen, glorious, fulfilled, including in his flesh. Except Mary, of course, but not puritanical. The virgins of Rubens are reserved as they should, But they are women, women to whom peoples can identify themselves .
This art to the glory of the woman is highly political, it has been painted to counter the sad flesh of Protestant art and regain ground, especially throughout Eastern Europe and southern Germany. A battle won otherwise than by arms. Through the art.
This is the whole explanation of the golds, stuccoes, frescoes and of the superlative paintings of Baroque: The Baroque is a Counter-Reformation, the affirmation of a Humanist Catholicism that was expressed artistically and used the woman in his fight against Protestantism. The Church of that time did not lack a certain audacity, and did not cultivate sad repentance. Art, painting, women have gained a lot in this policy.
In the catholic-humanist Europe, reconquered on the Reformation, during two more centuries, the woman will be constantly present in one form or another, always beautiful, always representative of her sex, always a little, or much naked, sometimes sacred sometimes profane, sometimes Catholic, sometimes Greek or Roman.
At the end of the period, however, the art of Baroque-Rococo, in the 18th century, gives of the woman a very profane image, a woman of lighter manners with painters like François Boucher, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Nicolas Lancret, Jean Honore Fragonard, Jean Baptiste Pater. This art of the "carpe diem" will spread in almost all the aristocratic Europe of the time. This theme of women is relatively new because it moves away from the Catholic religion, it is obvious. But it is also moving away from the humanist vision. It is a painting in which the feminine nude is cultivated for itself, without passing through the pretext of ancient or biblical references. This lightweight art is also the antithesis of the image of the Protestant woman of the Netherlands, which we will see in the next chapter.
It is necessary to say a word of the technique, even if the technique is not specific to the representation of the woman but obviously concerns all the themes of the paint. The technique is essential, because it will make the woman more pulpy, more vaporous, but more realistic, less symbolic, than in times of strictly Catholic Europe. The linear woman of the First Gothic, like that of the International Gothic, looks a little like the models of contemporary fashion shows. Infinitely better than skeletons, but she may lack some tasty curves.
Gothic spirituality is a little detrimental to the materiality of the image of women. The Gothic woman has angles. The woman of the humanist Renaissance, becomes more tangible, takes forms much more enveloping, more tactile, more realistic, more seductive.
However, the Renaissance is not, as far as the pictorial technique is concerned, a revolution. It is more a point of arrival than a point of departure. The rebirth is certainly the starting point, towards more than three centuries, of a painting perfectly imitating Nature. A paint perfectly imitating the woman. But the Renaissance is also the culmination of a long path undertaken since the middle of the Gothic to paint in three dimensions, and not only in two dimensions as in the Byzantine times, in the Romanesque period and early Gothic. From the 13th century to the 16th century European painting technically went from "flat painting" in two dimensions to "full painting" in three dimensions. From an approximate, sketched and symbolic representation of the world to an exact, faithful representation of nature. Exact representation that does not exclude the symbolic interpretation.
But a woman in three dimensions, from a certain point of view, is better than a woman in two dimensions.
Italy have finalizing around 1490-1510 two decisive techniques for the representation of space in three dimensions on a flat surface:
- The mathematical perspective, more exact, but not more aesthetically credible, than that intuitive of Gothic, or the atmospheric perspective of Flemish painters (Patinir, Bruhegel Jan, Momper ...)
- The Sfumato, "the Maniera Moderna", which merges the objects and the figures, in their spatial environment. Space then gently envelops beings and things, in a more credible way, than in the first Gothic painting, and even that of a certain terminal Gothic, called "International Gothic", with linear tendencies and acute contours.
But the Cologne school with Stephan Lochner and especially the Flemish school with Jan Van Eyck, had shown since the 1440s that painters from the North of Europe had invented a perspective that, although imperfectly mathematically, was everything actually aesthetically credible. They had also been able to represent perfectly in their environment, in an insensitive, melted way, the Virgins and Children who were the theme of their painting. These Flemish "Primitives" knew perfectly well how to create a progressive, gentle atmosphere, in line with our vision of the world. The art of Jan Van Eyck, Stephan Lochner, and Hans Memling still 40 and 20 years before 1500, is less linearly Gothic than that of Botticcelli, for example in "The Birth of Venus" (1480). So the Renaissance is not only Italian, the so-called "Primitives" Flemings have participated a lot, even if it is within the framework of an exclusively Catholic thematique, which is not considered, by the historiography dependent on "Enlightenment", like progressist.
The Mona Lisa is certainly a brilliant perfection of the Sfumato, and of the "maniera moderna", the art of melting the beings and the things in the atmosphere, but, at the same era, Giorgione, often finished by Titian because of the premature death of Giorgione, realizes very similar works, in regards to technique.
The Mona Lisa is more significant, exemplary even, as an archetype of the new spirit, of the new symbolism of the woman, and even of the symbolism of the human in general. The Mona Lisa is in the painting a model completed, exemplary, of the humanist spirit. The Mona Lisa is not Mary, this is important at the ideological level, for some it is even a decisive progress, but it is not Venus either. The Mona Lisa is not Catholic, without being anti-Catholic, and without being Antique. She is a new archetype, and especially universal
The Mona Lisa is the expression of the timeless, universal humanism of Leonardo da Vinci. All of Leonardo da Vinci's work is absolutely exemplary in its themes of the intelligent balance between Catholicism and Humanism, which was established during the Renaissance. This is his greatness which is not only technical. Technically the work of Vinci is a magnificent achievement, which like other works of the same period, will serve this model, for about 350 years, to European painting. But conceptually, metaphysically, the Mona Lisa is still, in our time, even for other civilizations, a living reference, shared at the elite level and instinctively at the popular level. Try to photograph it in the Louvre, if you are not a professional! The crowd of the public is proof that the Mona Lisa is the illustration of a true universalism, cultivated and rooted in the wisdom of particular and different peoples.
The Mona Lisa is intelligently and spiritually universal, she is at the antipodes of a globalism, universally accultured, whose manufactured speech, and the "conceptualist" pretentions masks the poverty of spirit of its projects for the world. She is the opposite of the so-called culture of a globalism of uprooted and robotic mens.
Consequence for the woman of this technical evolution of the European painting, multisecular evolution that culminates to the rebirth?
With the return to the Antique and the end of the ban thrown on the nude, the woman wraps herself even better in her nakedness. She is softer, but apparently only. Judith savagely slays the poor Holofernes, as Artemisia Gentileschi and Caravaggio show. Caravaggio's painting belongs for many of his works to Catholic iconography. The Church is always a key sponsor if an artist wants to succeed. But the art of Caravaggio is also often inspired by a more aggressive, subtly anti-Catholic humanism. Angelo Merisi was not an Angel, or rather a fallen angel, as in his "Victorious Love".
Similarly, in a completely different style, Paolo Veronese, whose religious paintings are often a shining display of consumerist and futile materialism. Unlike Tintoretto. The Church was not mistaken, who frowned at some of Veronese's paintings. Yet the Church at Venice, well kept in hand by a very merchant-minded aristocracy of mind, was broad-minded. So there are tensions between the two ideologies, tensions that will grow over the centuries.
The art of the Baroque-Rococo, of the 18th century French, which then spread throughout Europe is a very obvious expression of the appearance of new trends. It is the woman of Jean Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Jean Honoré Fragonard.
Because a more systematic, more simplistic, more materialistic ideology than Humanism is settling, surreptitious at first, then more and more effectively to reign undivided on the West.
Humanism is the expression of a thought which, in order not to be of a religious spirit according to the definition of religion which imposes itself with the Christian monotheism, was, however, of spiritualistic and highly philosophical tendencies. Hence the agreement preserved with Catholicism. At the 18th century arises a materialistic thought, intellectually limited, whose French Rococo art is a first testimony. And the image of the woman changes accordingly.
The public may prefer Mary to Judith, if he wants to forge himself an exemplary image of the woman.
But he may prefer also Aphrodite-Venus or Mary Magdalene, not too repentant yet. In the Renaissance and long after it, the aristocrat and the big bourgeois now have the choice between several images of the woman. And most often they cultivate the two, or three, or four images of the woman simultaneously or successively. Sometimes a Virgin Mary adoring the Child, sometimes a triumphant Venus, sometimes an ambiguous Diana, sometimes a repentant Mary Magdalene, sometimes a San Sebastian, androgynous equally ambiguous.
This globally bipolar balance situation of the image of women in the art of painting will continue, throughout Catholic and Humanist Europe, until the French Revolution. Always in an simplified dating, but memorable and synthetically exact.
But there is a "reserve", an exception, which is the Protestant Netherlands in the 17th century. Until the middle of the 19th century the European woman will paint herself, outside the Netherlands, according to the double dialectical criterion of Catholicism and Humanism, and in the style of "the full painting" to which painters from all over Europe had succeeded around 1510-1520. In the northern Netherlands, Protestants, Reformed Calvinists will change the image of the woman. They will not change the image of the woman technically, because the technique of "full painting", perfectly imitating the surrounding world, is acquired for more than three centuries, until about 1850. But the Protestant painters -calvinists of the Netherlands will change the image of the woman thematically. As much as the rebirth had done, but in other directions.
(To be continued!)
I have a lot of interior design and vintage finds to sell
I love what I do but am out of energy at the end of the day to determine how to expand, to enterprise, to take it to the next level, so to speak
It's time to simplify
We are going to open everything up for sale
I've had a etsy banner done (by the talente Hijiri) for vintage wares for over a year
Haven't taken it to further to actually load my wares and set up shop
I promise
I've gathered some really cool pieces
Sweet and throwback
I love the 50's, the 60's, the 70's
This is throwing myself out there, getting honest, maybe it will help me be accountable.
Peace
This bus was new to Centrewest as VN37897 in 2010.
Seen here in Holyrood Park.
This bus was acquired from a large number of buses surplus to requirements, due to the demise of First Centrewest in London. This bus was converted to part open top to run a tour in London. Lothian Buses have applied a slightly simplified version of their City Sightseeing livery on the already base London Transport red. The seat had already been trimmed in red vinyl, so little was required to get this bus in service an up the frequency of the Sightseeing tour to complete with First's Bright Tours in the resent bus wars.
1. Special FWB Disco Boogie Custom
2. FWB Custom with gorgeous Alpaca Reroot
3. I Love You It's True Full Stock Doll
4. FEELER - 2012 Traveling Blythe Doll - Chantilly Lace "Makani"
Serious Emails: Simplychictiques@comcast.net
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Henschel Hs 126 was a German two-seat reconnaissance and observation aircraft of World War II that was derived from the stillborn Henschel Hs 122. The pilot was seated in a protected cockpit under the parasol wing and the gunner in an open rear cockpit. The first prototype was not entirely up to Luftwaffe standards; it was followed by two more development planes equipped with different engines. Following the third prototype, ten pre-production planes were built in 1937. The Hs 126 entered service in 1938 after operational evaluation with the Legion Condor contingent to the Spanish Civil War.
By the time the Hs 126 A-1 joined the Luftwaffe, the re-equipping of reconnaissance formations was already well advanced. By the start of World War II in September 1939, the Hs 126 served with many reconnaissance units. They were used with great success in the attack on Poland where it proved itself as a reliable observation and liaison aircraft. Its use continued after the end of the Phony War in May 1940, but with more and more Allied fighters appearing over the theatre of operations, the type’s main weakness became apparent: the Hs 126 was rather slow and could hardly avoid or even escape from fighter attacks. The losses were dramatic: alone twenty Hs 126s were lost between 10 and 21 May 1940!
The Hs 126 was initially produced in two versions, which only differed through their engines. 47 squadrons equipped with Hs 126 A/B participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and the Hs 126 was also successfully used in North Africa. However, low top speed was the Hs 126’s main weakness. To rectify this deficiency, the Hs 126 was in late 1940 experimentally outfitted with a more powerful BMW 132K which replaced the Hs 126 A’s Bramo or the B’s BMW 9-cylinder radial engine, which delivered around 625 kW (850 PS) each. The new powerplant delivered up to 809 kW (1,085 hp) with 96 octane fuel injection at take-off and as emergency power, and 705 kW (960 hp) at normal military power. This extra power, together with an aerodynamically more efficient cowling, pushed maximum speed to 400 km/h (250 mph), and after successful tests in the 1940/41 winter the RLM accepted it as the Hs 126 C for production and service.
Beyond the new engine the serial production Hs 126 C-1 did not differ much visibly from its predecessors, even though the internal structure was simplified and lightened by roughly 50 kg (110 lb). Various Reihenbildgeräte (reconnaissance cameras) could be installed in a compartment at the rear of the cabin, and the defensive armament was upgraded with heavy 13 mm MG 131 machine guns instead of the former 7.92 mm weapons. Sometimes, a MG 81Z 7.92 twin machine gun was alternatively fitted in the rear cockpit instead of the MG 131, which offered a higher rate of fire.
An interesting sub-variant of the Hs 126 C was the Hs 126 C-2, a dedicated observation and liaison floatplane for theatres of operation with difficult terrain where sufficient airfields were rare or hard to install and where alternatively bodies of water could be used for landing. Around thirty Hs 126 Cs were modified with twin floats instead of the type’s standard spatted fixed landing gear. They were, however, unlike the Arado Ar 196 shipboard reconnaissance floatplane, not capable of catapult starts and not intended for operations at high sea. Other changes included a ventral fin for improved directional stability, additional fuel tanks in the floats that compensated the loss of range through the floats’ drag, and the land-based Hs 126s optional shackles for light bombs under the fuselage were deleted to compensate for the floats’ extra weight, and there was no free space left to ensure a safe bomb release.
Another feature that was developed for the Hs 126 C after field experiences with the aircraft during winter operations was an extended cockpit glazing to better protect the observer from the elements. It covered the while rear section of the cockpit opening but still was open at the rear. It was mounted on rails and could be pushed forward, under the original glasshouse for the pilot. This canopy extension was offered as a Rüstsatz (field modification kit) for older Hs 126 variants, too, and modified aircraft received the suffix “R1” to their designation.
Only 150 Hs 126 Cs (32 of them C-2 floatplanes) were built between early 1941 and 1942, production of the Hs 126 A/B had already ended in 1941. Most of them were operated in Denmark and Norway, even though a few were also allocated to Aufklärergruppen in the Mediterranean where they operated in the Adriatic Sea.
The Hs 126 was well received for its good short takeoff and low-speed characteristics which were needed at the time. However, it was vulnerable and the Hs 126 A/Bs were already retired from frontline units in 1942, the better-performing Hs 126 Cs only a year later. The type was soon superseded by the light general-purpose STOL Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, which was simpler and cheaper to produce, and the medium-range two-engine twin-boom Focke-Wulf Fw 189 "flying eye" with a fully enclosed cockpit and a better defensive armament. However, many Hs 126s were still operated for some time in areas with little Allied aerial threat, or second-line duties as glider tugs or liaison aircraft.
General characteristics:
Crew: Two (pilot and observer/gunner)
Length: 10,90 m (35 ft 7 in) fuselage only
11,52 m (37 ft 9 in) overall
Wingspan: 14.5 m (47 ft 7 in)
Height: 4,61 m (15 ft 1 in) from waterline
Wing area: 31.6 m² (340 sqft)
Empty weight: 2,030 kg (4,480 lb)
Loaded weight: 3,090 kg (6,820 lb)
Powerplant:
1× BMW 132K air-cooled 9-cylinder radial engine with 809 kW (1,085 hp) emergency power
and 705 kW (960 hp) continuous output
Performance:
Maximum speed: 360 km/h (223 mph) at 3,000 m (9,850 ft) with floats
(C-1: 400 km/h (248 mph) with wheels)
Travelling speed: 280 km/h /174 mph)
(C-1: 300 km/h (186 mph)
Landing speed: 115 km/h (71 mph)
Range: 998 km (620 mi)
Service ceiling: 8,530 m (28,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 550 m/min (1,800 ft/min)
Time to height: 4,4 min to 1.000 m (3.275 ft)
14 min to 3.000 m (9826 ft)
Wing loading: 97.8 kg/m2 (20.1 lb/sqft)
Power/mass: 0.21 kW/kg (0.13 hp/lb)
Armament:
1× forward-firing 13 mm (.511 in) MG 131 machine gun
1× flexible, rearward-firing 13 mm (.511 in) MG 131 machine gun
The kit and its assembly:
This build was inspired by a similar project done by fellow modeler ericr at whatfimodellers.com in 1:48 a while ago: a combination of the German land-based Hs 126 observation aircraft with twin floats from an Ar 196 seaplane. This combo looked very natural and balanced, so I decided to re-create a personal interpretation in my “home scale” 1:72.
Basically, this what-if model is a straightforward combination of the Italeri Hs 126 A (a venerable but pretty good model, even today, despite raised panel lines) with floats from a Heller Ar 196 A (also a slightly dated but very nice model, also with raised panel lines). The selling point of both kits is their good fit and overall simplicity, even though mounting the Hs 126’s wings to the fuselage – it is held only at six points – is a tricky task. Furthermore, once the wing is in place, painting the area in front of the cockpit as well as the windscreen area is quite difficult, so that I did that ahead of the final assembly.
The Ar 196 floats feature lots of struts, and to mount them (only) under the fuselage the outer supports had to go, because they are normally attached to the Ar 196’s mid-wing section. What was a bit challenging is the struts’ attachment points on the floats: they come with square bases that offer relatively big surfaces to glue the party in place, adding stability to the whole construction. However, blending these areas into each other called for some PSR.
A similar attachment solution was chosen by Heller to mount the floats’ struts to the Ar 196 hull – again, the “end plates” had to go and the struts had to be trimmed to keep the floats parallel to the fuselage. Since the outer supports were gone, I added diagonal stabilizers between the front and rear struts cluster.
To add a personal twist and depict an evolutionary late version of the Hs 126, I decided to swap the engine for a donor part from a Matchbox He 115 – it is basically the same engine, but the cowling is slightly wider and cleaner. The engine part itself is simpler. Just a disc with an engine relief. But with the propeller in place (mounted on a metal axis to spin free), this is not obvious. With scratched exhaust pipes, the new cowling gives the aircraft a slightly more modern and beefier look?
Another personal addition is improved crew comfort: the original Hs 126 observer workplace was totally open, just protected by spoilers on the canopy that only covered the pilot’s station. Esp. at wintertime this must have been a real P!TA place, so that I tried to extend the glazing. A raid in the spares box revealed two things that created an almost perfect combo: a Hs 126 glazing from a Matchbox kit and a rear canopy section from the spurious ESCI Ka-34 “Hokum” kit. The Matchbox parts’ selling point: it fits perfectly into the respective opening on the Italeri kit and has a slightly “boxier” roof shape, which better too up the square profile of the Hokum cockpit, which, itself, perfectly fell into place over the observer station! To adapt the modern piece to the highly braced Hs 126 glazing I added fake stiffeners made from adhesive tape cross- and lengthwise. I thought that just painting braces onto the flat windows was not enough, and with some paint the tape’s 3D effect looks quite convincing!
Other small additions are a barrel for the machine gun the cowling, a stabilizing fin made from styrene sheet material and PE ladders from the floats into the cockpit on both sides.
Painting and markings:
I wanted an authentic Luftwaffe livery – but the Hs 126 and similar German recce planes of the mid-WWII era only offer a small range of camouflage options. The generic paint scheme was a splinter pattern in RLM 70/71/65 with a low, hard waterline. Africa as optional theatre of operations offered some variations with field-modifications of this basic scheme with German and Italian sand added on top – but that would not have been the right option for a floatplane, I guess?
Eventually I decided to locate the model’s unit far up North and to add improvised winter camouflage to the standard livery. It was applied just as in real life: first, the whole model received its standard splinter camouflage with Humbrol 30, 91 and 65, then the decals were applied. The latter were puzzled together from the scrap box, using simplified Eiserne Kreuze without black edges. The white unit emblems are fictional and come from an MPM He 100 kit with spurious PR markings. The tactical code is “plausible” (“9W” is the AufklGr. 122’s unit code, “D” denotes the 4th aircraft, and “C” is the verification letter for the Stabgeschwader of the unit’s 2nd group) and created from single letters/digits. The black and the green have no strong contrast to the camouflage, but this style was common Luftwaffe practice. The Stabflieger color green was also incorporated on the spinner, another very typical Luftwaffe marking to denote an aircraft’s operational unit.
The temporary whitewash was the applied with white acrylic paint (Revell 05) and a flat, soft brush. Once dry, the whole model received a light black ink washing, post-panel shading and a light treatment with wet sandpaper on the white areas to simulate wear and tear. After some exhaust stains were created with graphite, the model was finally sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
Well, not a spectacular what-if model, and mounting the Hs 126 on floats was trickier than one would expect at first glance. Pimping the rather dull Luftwaffe standard livery with whitewash was a good move, though, adding an interesting and individual twist to the aircraft. And the resulting whole “package” looks pretty convincing?
As well as making for a colourful background I thought the facetted facade of this'pop-up' make-up store for Huda Beauty in Covent Garden made for interesting abstract images in their own right.
For this shot I've pushed it further towards the abstract by upping the saturation and contrast and well as using a Topaz Adjust Simplify filter to remove some of the texure and imperfections in the surface of the reflective metal sheets.
More info here : www.coventgarden.london/whats-on/huda-beauty
I hadn't heard of Huda Beauty but it seems they're quite well known....... Wikipedia states "Huda Beauty is a cosmetics line launched in 2013 by Iraqi-American businesswoman and makeup artist, Huda Kattan. The founder, Kattan, was chosen as one of "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet" by Time in 2017, listed as one of The Richest Self-Made Women and one of the Top Three Beauty Influencers by Forbes. In the span of 5 years, the brand has built a positive reputation on some of its products, such as fake eyelashes series, a collection of foundation, eyeshadow and some face palettes."
Click here for more colourful shots : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157603588716047
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© D.Godliman
Taken a couple of weeks ago downtown Vancouver. A minimalist shot of what it looks like there during the playoffs this month. Game one in two hours!!
Some background:
The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. Its production was preceded by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X was strictly a jet aircraft, built to demonstrate that a jet fighter with the features necessary to convert to Battroid mode was aerodynamically feasible. After the VF-X's testing was finished, an advanced concept atmospheric-only prototype, the VF-0 Phoenix, was flight-tested from 2005 to 2007 and briefly served as an active-duty fighter from 2007 to the VF-1's rollout in late 2008, while the bugs were being worked out of the full-up VF-1 prototype (VF-X-1).
The space-capable VF-1's combat debut was on February 7, 2009, during the Battle of South Ataria Island - the first battle of Space War I - and remained the mainstay fighter of the U.N. Spacy for the entire conflict. Introduced in 2008, the VF-1 would be out of frontline service just five years later, though.
The VF-1 proved to be an extremely capable craft, successfully combating a variety of Zentraedi mecha even in most sorties which saw UN Spacy forces significantly outnumbered. The versatility of the Valkyrie design enabled the variable fighter to act as both large-scale infantry and as air/space superiority fighter. The signature skills of U.N. Spacy ace pilot Maximilian Jenius exemplified the effectiveness of the variable systems as he near-constantly transformed the Valkyrie in battle to seize advantages of each mode as combat conditions changed from moment to moment.
The basic VF-1 was deployed in four minor variants (designated A, D, J, and S) and its success was increased by continued development of various enhancements including the GBP-1S "Armored" Valkyrie, FAST Pack "Super" Valkyrie and the additional RÖ-X2 heavy cannon pack weapon system for the VF-1S for additional firepower.
The FAST Pack system was designed to enhance the VF-1 Valkyrie variable fighter, and the initial V1.0 came in the form of conformal pallets that could be attached to the fighter’s leg flanks for additional fuel – primarily for Long Range Interdiction tasks in atmospheric environment. Later FAST Packs were designed for space operations.
After the end of Space War I, the VF-1 continued to be manufactured both in the Sol system and throughout the UNG space colonies. Although the VF-1 would be replaced in 2020 as the primary Variable Fighter of the U.N. Spacy by the more capable, but also much bigger, VF-4 Lightning III, a long service record and continued production after the war proved the lasting worth of the design.
The versatile aircraft also underwent constant upgrade programs. For instance, about a third of all VF-1 Valkyries were upgraded with Infrared Search and Track (IRST) systems from 2016 onwards, placed in a streamlined fairing on the upper side of the nose, just in front of the cockpit. This system allowed for long-range search and track modes, freeing the pilot from the need to give away his position with active radar emissions, and it could also be used for target illumination and guiding precision weapons.
Many Valkyries also received improved radar warning systems, with receivers, depending on the systems, mounted on the wing-tips, on the fins and/or on the LERXs. Improved ECR measures were also mounted on some machines, typically in conformal fairings on the flanks of the legs/engine pods.
After joining the global U.N. Spacy union, Germany adopted the VF-1 in late 2008, it replaced the Eurofighter Typhoon interceptors as well as Tornado IDS and ECR fighter bombers. An initial delivery of 120 aircraft was completed until 2011, partially delayed by the outbreak of Space War One in 2009. This initial batch included 85 VF-1A single seaters, fourteen VF-1J fighters for commanders and staff leaders, and twenty VF-1D two-seaters for conversion training over Germany (even though initial Valkyrie training took place at Ataria Island). These machines were erratically registered under the tactical codes 26+01 to 26+99. Additionally, there was a single VF-1S (27+00) as a personal mount for the General der Luftwaffe.
The German single-seaters were delivered as multi-role fighters that could operate as interceptors/air superiority fighters as well as attack aircraft. Beyond the standard equipment they also carried a passive IRST sensor in front of the cockpit that allowed target acquisition without emitting radar impulses, a LRMTS (Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Sensor) under the nose, a Weapon Delivery and Navigation System (WDNS) and an extended suite of radar warning sensors and ECM jammers.
After Space War I, attritions were replaced with a second batch of VF-1 single seaters in 2015, called VF-1L (for “Luftwaffe”). These machines had updated avionics and, among modifications, a laser target designator in a small external pod under the cockpit. About forty VF-1 survivors from the first batch were upgraded to this standard, too, and the VF-1Ls were registered under the codes 27+01 – 90.
The VF-1 was without doubt the most recognizable variable fighter of Space War I and was seen as a vibrant symbol of the U.N. Spacy even into the first year of the New Era 0001 in 2013. At the end of 2015 the final rollout of the VF-1 was celebrated at a special ceremony, commemorating this most famous of variable fighters. The VF-1 Valkryie was built from 2006 to 2013 with a total production of 5,459 VF-1 variable fighters with several variants (VF-1A = 5,093, VF-1D = 85, VF-1J = 49, VF-1S = 30, VF-1G = 12, VE-1 = 122, VT-1 = 68)
However, the fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction!
General characteristics:
All-environment variable fighter and tactical combat Battroid,
used by U.N. Spacy, U.N. Navy, U.N. Space Air Force
Accommodation:
Pilot only in Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat
Dimensions:
Fighter Mode:
Length 14.23 meters
Wingspan 14.78 meters (at 20° minimum sweep)
Height 3.84 meters
Battroid Mode:
Height 12.68 meters
Width 7.3 meters
Length 4.0 meters
Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons;
Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons;
MTOW: 37.0 metric tons
Power Plant:
2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)
4x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);
18x P&W LHP04 low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hook/handles
Performance:
Battroid Mode: maximum walking speed 160 km/h
Fighter Mode: at 10,000 m Mach 2.71; at 30,000+ m Mach 3.87
g limit: in space +7
Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24
Design Features:
3-mode variable transformation; variable geometry wing; vertical take-off and landing; control-configurable vehicle; single-axis thrust vectoring; three "magic hand" manipulators for maintenance use; retractable canopy shield for Battroid mode and atmospheric reentry; option of GBP-1S system, atmospheric-escape booster, or FAST Pack system
Transformation:
Standard time from Fighter to Battroid (automated): under 5 sec.
Min. time from Fighter to Battroid (manual): 0.9 sec.
Armament:
2x internal Mauler RÖV-20 anti-aircraft laser cannon, firing 6,000 pulses per minute
1x Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 RPG, fired at 1,200 rds/min
4x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, including
12x AMM-1 hybrid guided multipurpose missiles (3/point), or
12x MK-82 LDGB conventional bombs (3/point), or
6x RMS-1 large anti-ship reaction missiles (2/outboard point, 1/inboard point), or
4x UUM-7 micro-missile pods (1/point) each carrying 15 x Bifors HMM-01 micro-missiles,
or a combination of above load-outs
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional VF-1 is more or less “only” a camouflage experiment, spawned by a recent discussion about the German Luftwaffe’s so-called “Norm ‘81” paint scheme that was carried by the F-4Fs during the Eighties and the early Nineties. It is one of the most complex standardized paint scheme I am aware of, consisting of no less than six basic shades of grey and applied in two different patterns (early variant with angled/splinter camouflage, later this was changed into more organic shapes).
I have built a fictional post-GDR MiG-21 with the Norm ’81 scheme some years ago, but had always been curious how a Macross VF-1 would look with it, or how it could be adapted to the F-14esque airframe?
Concerning the model, it’s another vintage ARII VF-1, in this case a VF-1J, built OOB and with the landing gear down and an open canopy. However, I added some small details like the sensors in front of the cockpit, RHAWS sensors and bulges for ECM equipment on the lower legs (all canonical). The ordnance was subtly changed, with just two AMM-1 missiles on each outer pylon plus small ECM pods on the lo hardpoint (procured from an 1:144 Tornado). The inner stations were modified to hold quadruple starters for (fictional) air-to-ground missiles, left over from a Zvezda 1:72 Ka-58 helicopter and probably depicting Soviet/Russian 9M119 “Svir” laser-guided anti-tank missiles, or at least something similar. At the model’s 1:100 scale they are large enough to represent domestic alternatives to AGM-65 Maverick missiles – suitable against Zentraedi pods and other large ground targets. The ventral GU-11 pod was modified to hold a scratched wire display for in-flight pictures. Some blade antennae were added as a standard measure to improve the simple kit’s look. The cockpit was taken OOB, I just added a pilot figure for the scenic shots and the thick canopy was later mounted on a small lift arm in open position.
Painting and markings:
This was quite a challenge: adapting the Norm’ 81 scheme to the swing-wing Valkyrie, with its folded legs and the twin tail as well as lacking the Phantom’s spine and bulged air intakes, was not easy, and I went for the most straightforward solution and simplified things on the VF-1’s short spine.
The Norm ‘81’s “official” colors are all RAL tones, and I decided to use these for an authentic lokk, namely:
RAL 7009 Grüngrau: Revell 67 (acrylic)
RAL 7012 Basaltgrau: Revell 77 (acrylic)
RAL 7039 Quarzgrau: Xtracolor X259 (enamel)
RAL 7037 Staubgrau: Xtracolor X258 (enamel)
RAL 7030 Steingrau: Revell 75 (enamel)
RAL 7035 Lichtgrau: Humbrol 196 (enamel)
This basically plan worked and left me with a very murky aircraft: Norm ’81 turned out to be a kind of all-propose camouflage that works well against both sky and ground, at least in the typical German climate, and especially good at medium to low altitude. RAL 7030, 7037 and 7039 appear like gradually darker shades of the basically same brownish grey hue, framed with darker contrast areas that appear either greenish or bluish.
However, the Xtracolor enamels turned out to be total sh!t: they lacked pigments in the glossy and translucent base and therefore ANY opacity, esp. on any edge, at least when you use a brush like me. Not certain if using an airbrush improves this? The result were uneven and rather thick areas of paint, not what I had hoped for. And the Revell 75 just did what I hate about the company's enamels: drying up prematurely with a gooey consistency, leaving visible streaks.
After a black ink wash, very light post-shading was added. I should have from the start tried to stick to the acrylics and also mix the Xtracolor tones from Revell acrylics, a stunt that turned during the weathering process (trying to hide the many blemishes) out to be quite feasible. RAL 7037 was mixed from Revell 47 plus 89 in a ~1:1 ratio, and RAL 7039 from Revell 47, 77 and 87 with a touch of 09. Nevertheless, the paint finish turned out sub-optimal, but some shading and weathering saved most of the mess – even I am not satisfied with the outcome, the model looks more weathered than intended (even though most operational German F-4Fs with this paint scheme looked quite shaggy and worn, making the different shades of grey almost undiscernible).
After some consideration I gave this German VF-1 full-color (yet small) "Kite" roundels, together with a German tactical code. German flags and a vintage JaboG 32 squadron badge decorate the fin - a plausible move, because there are British Valkyries in source books that carry RAF fin flashes. Stencils and other markings came from VF-1 OOB sheets.
Finally, after some typical highlights with clear paint over a silver base were added, and the small VF-1 was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish.
A spontaneous interim project, with interesting results. The adapted Norm ’81 scheme works well on the VF-1, and it even is a contemporary design from the era when the original TV series was conceived and aired. With the authentic tones I’d call it quite ugly – even though I was amazed during the photo session how well the different shades of grey (four from above!) blend into each other and break up the aircraft’s outlines. If there were no red-and-white roundels or the orange pilot in the cockpit (chosen intentionally for some color contrast), the camouflage would be very effective! Not perfect, but another special member in my growing VF-1 model fleet. ^^
Just want to share some Work-In-Progress Simplified Layers I used in composing the final image which you can view HERE. Hardest part in doing these kinds of composites is trying to match the lighting with the background image. It's always best to take a look at the shadows present in your Background image and try to match the light source position when composing your shot. For a seamless composite to be made, I highly suggest to also match the white balance of your photo subject with the proper color temperature of the background image. Hope these tips are quite helpful.
Good morning everyone and Happy Sliders Sunday. I was walking out of K-Mart yesterday when I saw a Life Flight helicopter land in the parking lot. No one was in need of medical help and it turns out it was part of a community “safety days” demonstration.
So, I grabbed a quick cell phone shot and thought it would be good raw material for a slide. A little cropping, Topaz Simplify, Clean and Adjust later we have todays slide!!
Lighthouse Road, Watch Hill, RI
Topaz Simplify - Dynamic Boost Warm
Topaz Impression - Chalk Pastel I (Masked)
Topaz Texture Effects - Color Blast Grit (Masked) SL
Edgar Degas. 1834-1917. Paris. Répétition d'un ballet sur la scène. Rehearsal of a ballet on stage. 1877. Paris Orsay.
ART MODERNE : TROIS RUPTURES SUCCESSIVES
L'Art Moderne, 1850-1950 en dates approximatives, peut se résumer à trois ruptures successives et progressives par rapport à l'art européen en vigueur depuis la fin du gothique et la renaissance :
1° La rupture impressionniste
2° La rupture post-impressionniste
3° La rupture de l'art abstrait.
La Rupture Impressionniste, c'est essentiellement avec "le tachisme", et "l'Esquisse", une remise en question des grands principes classiques : Le dessin exact, parfaitement précis et achevé, et la touche du pinceau invisible, ou le moins visible possible. (Voir sur ce sujet le texte intitulé " La Rupture Impressionniste")
La Rupture Post-Impressionniste, va plus loin dans le renouvellement des formes de l'esthétique européenne. Elle réunit plusieurs écoles: Nabis, Fauves, Cubistes, Expressionnistes, sans être exhaustif.
Les Post-Impressionnistes ajoutent à l'Impressionnisme, de toutes nouvelles techniques dont les principales sont "la peinture plate" et les couleurs arbitraires. Ces techniques ne sont en réalité pas nouvelles, elles sont empruntées à l'art Paléo-Chrétien, Byzantin et Médiéval. Les post-impressionnistes reviennent à la peinture en deux dimensions, ils renoncent à l'imitation parfaite du réel de la peinture en trois dimensions, qui a caractérisé l'art européen depuis le Gothique tardif et la Renaissance jusqu'à l'art moderne.
La reproduction exacte de notre monde environnant, exact c'est à dire tel que notre vue nous le restitue, n'est en effet pas une condition nécessaire de l'Esthétique. C'est ce qu'ont démontré pendant des siècles les peintres Byzantins et ceux de l'époque médiévale. Outre la simplification des lignes, la réduction des volumes et la suppression de la perspective, les couleurs peuvent être inventées, et s'écarter totalement de celles réellement perçues par les hommes : Il en est ainsi pour l'école de Pont Aven, les Cloisonnistes, les Fauves, les Symbolistes, ou les Expressionnistes germaniques.
Les Post-impressionnistes, notamment les Cubistes, vont aller encore plus loin sur le chemin de la nouveauté en décomposant le monde réel en lignes et en volumes de plus en plus simplifiés et en multipliant les points de vue simultanés sur les objets et les êtres. Ils sont une introduction à l'art abstrait.
L'Art Abstrait nait en effet des nouvelles approches esthétiques proposées par les Post-Impressionnistes. Le premier art abstrait ne quitte pas tout à fait le réel, qui reste le point de départ reconnaissable de leur art, mais il développe, à partir du monde environnant, tout un jeu de lignes et de formes schématisées qui sont une évocation, une suggestion, une recomposition, et même une invention du monde.
De simplifications en schématisations, de synthèses en combinaisons, et de symboles en archétypes, la peinture européenne parvient dans les années 1900 et suivantes au second art abstrait qui s'éloigne totalement de l'observation de la nature pour exploiter esthétiquement les seules ressources de la géométrie euclidienne : c'est l'ère des lignes, cercles, carrés, rectangles, triangles etc, de couleur diverses.
Dans l'histoire universelle de la peinture l'Art Abstrait est une nouveauté absolue : l'art européen cesse de vouloir signifier, d'avoir un sens, de tenir un discours compréhensible par le public. La peinture abstraite devient un jeu de formes et de couleurs sans plus aucune référence au monde environnant, tel que l'homme le perçoit par le sens de la vue, et tel qu'il l'expérimente dans son vécu quotidien. Le Non- sens, compris comme l'absence de signification, est inévitable au bout du chemin de l'art non figuratif.
Mais pendant toute cette période de l'Art Moderne, les artistes européens ne sont pas en rupture avec le passé artistique européen sur un point essentiel : Ils ne renient pas le grand principe de l'Esthétique universelle: créer le Beau le mieux partagé possible. D'autre par si le Non-sens, l'absence de signification, l'absence de discours partagé est une caractéristique de l'art abstrait terminal, l'Art n'est pas encore devenu une religion de l'Absurde et de la Provocation. Le Laid et l'Absurde sont les grandes inventions de l'Art Contemporain Officiel (ACO) qui s'impose en Occident, dans un petit milieu qui se prétend élitiste, à partir de la seconde moitié du 20è siècle.
MODERN ART: THREE SUCCESSIVE RUPTURES
Modern Art, 1850-1950 in approximate dates, can be summed up in three successive and progressive ruptures compared to the European art in force since the end of the Gothic and the Renaissance:
1 ° The Impressionist rupture
2 ° The pos-impressionist rupture
3° The rupture of abstract art.
The Impressionist Rupture, it is essentially with the "Tachisme", and "the Sketch", a questioning of the great classical principles: The exact, perfectly precise and completed drawing, and the touch of the invisible brush, or the least visible possible. (See on this subject the text entitled "The Impressionist Rupture")
The Post-impressionistic rupture goes further in renewing the forms of European aesthetics. It brings together several schools: Nabis, Fauves, Cubists, Expressionists, without being exhaustive.
Post-Impressionists add to Impressionism, all new techniques, the main ones are "flat paint" and arbitrary colors. These techniques are actually not new, they are borrowed from the Paleo-Christian, Byzantine and Medieval art. Post-Impressionists return to two-dimensional painting, renouncing the perfect imitation of the real of three-dimensional painting, which has characterized European art from late Gothic and Renaissance to modern art.
The exact reproduction of our surrounding world, that is to say, such as our sight returns it to us, is in fact not a necessary condition of Aesthetics. This has been demonstrated for centuries Byzantine painters and those of the medieval period. In addition to the simplification of the lines, the reduction of the volumes and the suppression of the perspective, the colors can be invented, and deviate completely from those really perceived by the men: this is so for the school of Pont Aven, the Cloisonnists , the Fauves, the Symbolists, or the Germanic Expressionists.
Post-Impressionists, especially Cubists, will go even further on the path of novelty by decomposing the real world in lines and volumes more and more simplified and multiplying the simultaneous views on objects and beings. They are an introduction to abstract art.
Abstract Art is born of new aesthetic approaches proposed by Post-Impressionists. The first abstract art does not leave quite the real, which remains the recognizable starting point of their art, but it develops, from the surrounding world, a whole set of lines and schematized forms which are an evocation, a suggestion , a recomposition, and even an invention of the world.
From simplifications to schematizations, from syntheses to combinations, and from symbols to archetypes, in the 1900s and beyond, European painting came to the second abstract art, which totally deviates from the observation of nature in order to exploit aesthetically the only resources of Euclidean geometry: it is the era of lines, circles, squares, rectangles, triangles etc, of various colors.
In the universal history of painting, Abstract Art is an absolute novelty: European art ceases to mean, to make sense, to hold an understandable speech by the public. Abstract painting becomes a play of shapes and colors without any reference to the surrounding world, as man perceives it by the sense of sight, and as he experiences it in his daily life. Nonsense, understood as the absence of meaning, is inevitable at the end of the path of non-figurative art.
But throughout this period of Modern Art, European artists are not at odds with the European artistic past on one essential point: They do not deny the great principle of universal Aesthetics: to create Beautiful, the better shared possible. On the other hand, if nonsense, the absence of meaning, the absence of shared discourse is a characteristic of the terminal abstract art, Art has not yet become a religion of the absurd and the Provocation. The ugly and the Absurd are the great inventions of the Official Contemporary Art (ACO) which imposes itself in the West, in a small environment that claims to be elitist, from the second half of the 20th century.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Garden
Yu Garden or Yuyuan Garden (simplified Chinese: 豫园; traditional Chinese: 豫園; pinyin: Yù Yuán, Shanghainese "Yuyu" lit. Garden of Happiness) is an extensive Chinese garden located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai at Huangpu Qu, Shanghai Shi. It abuts the Yuyuan Tourist Mart, the Huxinting Teahouse and the Yu Garden Bazaar.
This garden is accessible from the Shanghai Metro's Line 10 Yuyuan Garden Station.
A centerpiece is the Exquisite Jade Rock (玉玲珑) a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumours about its origin include the story that it was meant for the Huizong Emperor (Northern Song Dynasty from 1100-1126 AD) at the imperial palace in Beijing, but was salvaged from the Huangpu River after the boat carrying it had sunk.
History
Yu Garden was first built in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty by Pan Yunduan as a comfort for his father, the minister Pan En, in his old age. Pan Yunduan began the project after failing one of the imperial exams, but his appointment as governor of Sichuan postponed construction for nearly twenty years until 1577. The garden was the largest and most prestigious of its era in Shanghai, but eventually its expense helped ruin the Pans.
The garden was inherited by Zhang Zhaolin, Pan Yunduan's granddaughter's husband, and then passed to different owners. A section was briefly organised by Zhang Shengqu as the "Academy of Purity and Harmony" (清和书院, Qīng-Hé Shūyuàn) and the Ling Yuan (灵苑, Líng Yuàn, lit. "Spirit Park"), today's East Garden, was purchased by a group of local leaders in 1709. A group of merchants renovated the increasingly decrepit grounds in 1760 and in 1780 the West Garden was opened to the general public.
The gardens suffered damage numerous times during the 19th century. During the First Opium War, the British army used the Huxinting Teahouse as a base of operations for several days in 1842. During the Taiping Rebellion, the Small Swords Society ran its headquarters in the Dianchun Hall; by the time Qing troops recovered the garden, the original structures had nearly all been destroyed. They were damaged again by the Japanese in 1942 before being repaired by Liangshun Han (Rockery Han[9]) appointed by the Shanghai government from 1956 to 1961. They were opened to the public in 1961 and declared a national monument in 1982.
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My hat just happened to catch my eye and I thought, that'll be today's photo, but what to do with it. It's the same colour as one of our doors that has hook, so bingo, hat on a hook, but it need something else, hence the bluebells......as they say, simples :)
Programs used:
Adobe Camera Raw
Adobe Photoshop w\Plugins:
NIK HDR Effects Pro
NIK Color Effects Pro
Topaz Labs-Simplify 2
Lucisart
DCE Tools
I shot this with my iPhone 6s. The original photo is much flatter with respect to saturation. I used Topaz Simplify "painting" to simplify the colors, lines, and increase the saturation.