Observation Skills and CG - An Introduction to Computer Graphics for Artists - page 38

affects your model's resemblance to the target. Professional artists are expected to
be able to create a likeness as a minimum job requirement. If a model is not a good
likeness of the target subject, it usually will not meet the fi t for use standard defi ned
for the project. This means that a technically perfect model may be rejected due to
likeness alone.

3.2 Observation Styles

If an artist is consistent in their methods, a personal style will develop. A style is a
way of working that leaves marks in the work itself. These marks can be subtle, but
they divide the work of one artist from another. This is one way forgeries may be
detected, or a genuine work discovered (Hendriks and Tilborgh 2001 ). The paint-
ings of Henri Matisse, for instance, would not easily be confused with the work of
Vincent van Gogh because of the numerous stylistic differences between the two
artist's observational and working methods. Despite the differences between their
works, there are also similarities. These similarities make it possible to group their
works as French and from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Because of
this, paintings by these artists would not be mistaken for the work of the seventeenth
century Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn or for a more modern artist like the
American painter James Rosenquist.
Styles can be so subtle that they are diffi cult to defi ne exactly, but in other ways
they can be defi ned objectively. Table 3.1 lists some of the larger differences between
paintings made by the artists mentioned earlier. The factors listed in the table are not
enough to identify any of these artists by name, but they are enough to identify their
work as not made by the same artist.
A more extensive list could get very close to identifying artists accurately on the
basis of style factors, though it wouldn't be able to differentiate forgeries. This illus-
trates how artists develop styles and how those styles have recognizable attributes
that can be described objectively. CG artists also develop styles, though it can be
diffi cult to identify individual artists on group projects.
On an individual basis, artists develop habits during the observation process that
affect the structure and appearance of the end result. These become stylistic traits,
but when they are related to observational errors, the style interferes with achieving
a likeness.

Table 3.1 Sty le properties

School Underpainting Subject Paint depth

Van Gogh Post-impressionist Sketchy or none Landscapes Heavy impasto

Matisse Modern Sketchy or none Figures Thin wash

Rembrandt Dutch realist Extensive, tonal Portraits and Biblical Light impasto

Rosenquist Photorealist Grid tracing Advertising Thin opaque