Images of Women

Posted Aug 2, 2005
Last Updated Jun 21, 2012
Jessica
Images of Women; a popular subject portrayed by visual artists of all kinds, and always appreciated by many art enthusiasts and collectors throughout the ages. The human face and form has always been a fascinating challenge, especially when the artist's style is realism, when a finished work is so readily scrutinized by its observers. I've always admired the old masters of this demanding theme; Titian, Waterhouse, Collier and many more, for their individually styled works of women of their own time. Major galleries all over the world are adorned with paintings of women mostly captured in their prime, and probably in each case the artist was striving for a good measure of accuracy while at the same time affording a little artistic license for a flattering outcome to the finished work. There are many artistic styles created by passionate and talented artists, and they all portray the human form in their own aesthetically appealing way, whether the art style is realism, expressionism, modern, abstract etc., they are all to be admired and enjoyed, and will I?m sure will continue to intrigue and fascinate art lovers for all of time.

I would describe my own artwork of women to be; glamorous realism, tasteful, romantic, and sometimes a little sensual, for me it's a celebration to the outer beauty of women of my own time. I?ve found that the subject of females portrayed in art is often controversial; as a female artist who passionately enjoys drawing and painting several subject themes of beauty, I feel strongly that women should be portrayed with the same passion and attention to detail as I?d take to create an image of a bird, or a cute kitten. As an artist I am inspired initially by the natural beauty of my subject, and would naturally afford myself the artistic freedom to enhance a birds feather colours a little, or give a kitten a furrier coat, a flower would have beautiful petals and healthy leaves. When you really think about it, this is what most of us want to see, if you?ve ever sat for a painting or posed for professional photograph, you will understand how disappointing it feels if the finished image is too honest, but you would be very happy if the artist or photographer had been kind and skilful enough to camouflage any annoying little flaws which after all most of us have! However, I believe that perfection and flawlessness in the total sense can be very boring; in my opinion beauty is not measured by its perfection, often its little imperfections that make someone or something beautiful.

I worked for a number of years as a professional make up artist and stylist to photographic models, in their individual ways all the models were naturally beautiful, but my job was to enhance that beauty with cosmetic artistry skills, the models were always thrilled with their finished look, to see their best features enhanced, and any imperfections no longer obvious, they would arrive on set with a renewed confidence, and further to this, the skilful lighting used by the professional photographer would result in very pleasing images.
In photographic images, I think that the natural features and individual characteristics of a subject is what truly makes a photographic attractive or interesting; and the cosmetics and lighting are the relevant artists materials used in creating a pleasing photograph.

I feel this artistic license also applies for most realist painters, in my case, my initial drawing or sketch is very important, it provides me with the crucial details I require of my subject; facial features and body form etc., as soon my drawing is satisfactory to me, my paints and brushes then become my enhancement tools, enabling me to develop my artwork to its finished stage.

For me it is always satisfying when I finish a work that I feel projects the image that I originally hoped to achieve, but the real reward will always be when a finished painting is pleasing to others. Hilary Eastment.



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Sienna Lady 2

Monochrome Watercolour only burnt sienna colour used for whole image.

Sienna Lady 2 sketch

Preparation drawing for my painting of Sienna Lady 2.