New Medieval art.

I think I have some of my confidence in my art back.

But, one major problem I have with the few people I let see my work is that, and I don't mean to gloat, my style is too unique. It leaves me open to some pretty harsh criticism. I call my style 'New Gothic' or 'New Medieval'. It's really just melding my own manga style with the Gothic art of the high and late middle ages.

Sometimes it's subtle, like the picture of St.Michael I have here. The design of the armor and the words around the yellow halo are of course of medieval origin*. Other times, it's more obvious and overt, like my picture of St.Hermenegild or my picture of St.Peter Pashasius. Both are obviously gothic in design. (St.Hermenegild with the costume, as well as the patterned background and tiled floor popular for saints of that time.** St.Peter Paschasius is my version of a French miniature of St.Remigius, taken from a book of hours.)

In all of my art, I generally reference MANY pictures for help. For example, for my picture of St.Peter, I referenced the bishop saints of Van Eyeck's Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,used his painting of the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Canon Joris van der Paele for the carpet, and used Van der Weyden's Miraflores altarpiece to color the chapel. And again, for St.Hermenegild, the backround fabric is a direct copy of a swath of 15th century fabric that went up for sale last year.

In the end, I think my art is well designed but usually poorly executed. I think it looks better of you understand the concepts and ideas that I put into it, so a knowledge of the art of art of the middle ages is good. Of course, I could always learn to execute designs better, but that takes far too much effort, time, and money than is available for me at this time.