Trompe L’oeil – Meet Artist Sharon Moody – ArtistsNetwork
Basically we could call these artworks just “still life” or hyper realistic artworks but a trompe l’oeil is something more: it tricks the eye of the viewer, there’s the intention of creating a strong illusion of reality, playing with shadows and tridimensional effects. It’s an antique genre of painting but Sharon Moody has found her own way to renew it. It’s hard work, it takes one or two months to create such kind of artwork. She reproduce Wonder Woman’s comic books on wooden panel in oil paint using very tiny brushes for the details.
Transcript:
They call it art week in Miami.
You can see a whole lot of art in a short period of time. It’s very intense. Tens of thousands of people. It’s great for artists because you can see what everybody else is doing. I came across one comic book and I thought how perfect it was for a trompe l’oeil painting. Because the intention is really to fool the eye. And literally that’s what trompe l’oeil means, is trick the eye or fool the eye. Oil paintings can fool you. I don’t think photographs can quite.
I work on wooden panels in oil paint. I use a variety of brands of oil paint. But primarily Windsor & Newton. I use tiny tiny brushes for the details. For these I just do an outline drawing of the book itself. And then I do a very careful painting of just the paper and the wrinkles. And all of the cast shadows and everything. Then I go back and I do a very careful drawing of the imagery. And then I start painting all of the different colors.
What I’m doing is painting it in the same way it was actually printed originally. It takes about a month or two to do one of these paintings and I work all day and I work every day. I need it to be 100% accurate. So I have a photograph I trace because there’s no other way to get that sort of exactitude. I do consider myself to be a little bit of a perfectionist.
What inspires me as an artist is vast history of art. It’s like a conversation without words. It’s a conversation of images. My association with comic books really was a turn of the century Pop Art Roy Lichtenstein and Mel Ramos.
Recently I have been enjoying doing paintings of Wonder Woman. And it’s been interesting to see the changes in how Wonder Woman was presented. The difference in the 40s 50s 60s and 70s the 80s. Wonder Woman might be saying something in her dialogue box about how she’s not allowed to do something because she’s a woman. She has to do it secretly or Steve Trevor will find out that sort of thing. Which is still significant to us today something that we’re still struggling with today.
What I would say to all artists of all ages. Just keep painting. You’ll keep learning every day. Just keep working and your vision come through.
Original video description:
Artist Sharon Moody loves trompe l’oeil, which means “trick the eye.” What inspires your art?
