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Ifat Glassman

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This particular painting is my favorite of yours. More: the scene actually had inspired me to write either a story or a collection of poems that had everything to do with what is taking place in that painting. Now seeing how my writing spans many pages, napkins, post-its, paper towels, envelops...it's still literally scattered and literarily scattered, but I was wondering if I could run some thoughts by you on it, seeing how a huge part of it was inspired by one of your paintings. I think it would be rather nice to show you directly what your art can do to a viewer and maybe learn a little more myself on why you painted that scene and see about getting other scenes painted...

Thanks for the compliment, and I am interested in knowing the thoughts that my art "inspires" or evokes or relates to.

However, I don't get along with poems so well. I don't "get it", usually (with few exceptions).

So unless it's some article or short story, I sympathetically refuse.

Got a question for you though: what did you mean by "see about getting other scenes painted"? (You can PM me about it if you wish)

Thanks for the compliment gags. I also like the colors in this one: I tried to make it very colorful, yet in the dark. I love that combination of colors hidden in the dark, of something full of life which is hidden, in a way.

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I've added a new section to my site, for new paintings.

It contains 1 new painting thus far :D entitled "Girl and a kitten", in the first stages of creation.

Enjoy!

post-3106-1159617199_thumb.jpg

"Girl and a Kitten" is the best one I've seen by you from a skill standpoint, because the proportions and grace of the woman are more natural than the others. Her arms and especially her legs look sexy and soft. The pattern on the shirt is expertly painted on a curvaceous form.

In terms of content, Metal Suit is my favorite.

I've enjoyed your work. You have a fun style and entertaining content. :)

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Thanks for the compliment, and I am interested in knowing the thoughts that my art "inspires" or evokes or relates to.

However, I don't get along with poems so well. I don't "get it", usually (with few exceptions).

So unless it's some article or short story, I sympathetically refuse.

No, it's just some thoughts on it, as I said. It won't be in any poetic form :) , and if it was...I'm confident enough in my writing, that most would "get it". I have written it initially as a (far from finished) story, and recently was trying to translate that into poetic form. I don't know which form it will end up, but certainly not in a crumpled form in the trash can.

Got a question for you though: what did you mean by "see about getting other scenes painted"? (You can PM me about it if you wish)

Oh, I will. Just please allow me a few moments to organize myself a bit.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I really like a lot of your artwork. You chose very interesting concepts to portray. As other people mentioned, your use of color is superb too.

Personally, I like "safe city" the most right now. The light colors you chose set the mood of serenity well. Also, the woman looks like she enjoys pondering. How much can I buy it for?

The woman in "bride" is very enticing. She has a nice butt(thats meant as a constructive compliment).

One thing about your characters is that they are all so damn serious. I checked, and there is literally not one piece with a character that is smiling. Why is that? I understand you want to show that your ideal characters are serious to have them portray a sense of strength, but even great heroes feel emotions. A suggestion I want to make to you is to add more emotion to your artwork. Do this with more detailed facial expressions, or certain gestures from the character. I like the characters expression in "naked", and I wish there were more emotionally intense scenes like that.

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Got something new to show off: Posing Naked

The woman in "bride" is very enticing. She has a nice butt(thats meant as a constructive compliment).

Thanks. I've worked hard on that ass, so it better. Though you might be missing the point of the painting by putting too much emphasis on her ass.

One thing about your characters is that they are all so damn serious. I checked, and there is literally not one piece with a character that is smiling.

That's not true. Here is a sketch that I did a few years ago: Girl and a monster. She is having a wide smile.

But seriously now (assuming you got the humour in giving that sketch as an example of the kind of smile you were talking about): How about Victorious ice dance? If you click on the link to see more details you can clearly see that the woman is smiling, proud and happy.

You have Night Out. The woman is definitely smiling. And although I have issues with her nose, the painting does express intense joy.

Girl and a kitten (in the "New paintings" section) shows a very obvious emotion. And those are just the obvious emotion ones.

All of my paintings are about some intense emotion. This can actually be used as a key to interpret my art.

I understand you want to show that your ideal characters are serious to have them portray a sense of strength, but even great heroes feel emotions.

Few things: First, I never design the expression of the characters so that it would show something. The expression is the one thing I never have to design.

Secondly: the emotions are there, you just need to learn how to see them.

Thirdly: I think the greatest emotions sometimes reveal themselves only by a clue.

One needs to observe closely to determine the exact emotion: you will not usually see a character smiling widely (unless she's about to try and injure you in some way :lol:), or looking proud or in love in a very emphasized manner (like a caricature).

A suggestion I want to make to you is to add more emotion to your artwork. Do this with more detailed facial expressions, or certain gestures from the character.

Will do. But now I'm more into nudity. I'm going to be practicing drawing nudes (women, of course).

I'm taking introduction to painting this semester. I had high hopes, so far we've been learning perspective (which is great) but mainly trees ("Dear god woman, if you make me draw one more tree I'm going to draw you hanging from it"). Got some stuff to show from the class as well.

In addition I plan to add a fun section to my site about fashion: women's clothing that I designed. So expect some updates coming up.

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I, for one, love your unsmiling women. I love that sketch, too. I can imagine her standing atop the Empire State Building, glancing down at the city below her. Will she find something or someone in that city to rise up to her high level of self value? Her naked honesty and the honesty of the stone against which she leans and puts her hand upon are hard and intractable, unyielding, open and free.

I look forward to seeing your new work.

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  • 5 weeks later...
I'm going to be practicing drawing nudes (women, of course).
Ah, I came to this thread to ask if this was intentional, and here you've said it.. But why do you only do nudes of women and not of men? Do you not find the naked male form to be beautiful, too?
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Got something new to show off: Posing Naked
I really like this. Your newer stuff seems to have much better proportions than some of the older sketches on your site. That's an interesting pose, and a great facial expression. I like the shading on the breasts, too.
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Got something new on my site.

Ah, I came to this thread to ask if this was intentional, and here you've said it.. But why do you only do nudes of women and not of men? Do you not find the naked male form to be beautiful, too?

I do find the male form to be very beautiful, but I am more excited by the female figure.

I don't understand why completely, but here is what I do know:

Creating art with a female figure allows me to experience my own sense of life while I create it, and this makes the experience much more intense than if I was just creating something beautiful.

This is the main cause. It is also a form of self-reverence.

Another reason is that strength and confidence on a female body are a symbol of bravery and persistence for me. On a man those things may have only been a result of physical strength, of something which could have been easily achieved. But a confident woman is more of an achievement: at least this is how I think of it. It is also tied to breaking of expectations: usually (in society) a woman is expected to be weaker and leaning on someone. The women I paint are independent and strong, and I like how it breaks and ignores the expectations.

Another reason is that I don't have enough experience with drawing a male body. I had enough time to learn the structure of a female from observing my own body though.

There are more parts to the answer, but I don't know them now.

Hope you enjoy the new drawing, I am very pleased with the result. Expect more in a while :) .

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  • 1 month later...

I quite like your artwork, it is quite well done and like many others have said in this thread, and interesting to analyse. I will second the fact that the less cartoonish ones are more interesting.

I like the one with ice skaters, though possibly the guy looks a little stiff. The last one is nice so far, it has a nice level of detail and the women appears quite beautiful so far. I am just not quite sure what she is doing :-)

I like the nice simple, yet inviting look of your website. I am not sure why the central areas background changes to black in the galleries though..this does not work as well as other colors, such as some shade of blue.

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Ifat, the lastest drawing you have posted is really good.

However, you might want to consider posting a link to the drawings with nudity as opposed to just pasting them directly into a message. Some individuals could be working in environments where co-workers and/or colleagues find nude drawings uncomfortable. :dough:

Edited by DarkWaters
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I don't like many artists (especially contemporary ones) but I enjoy yours. I find your work to be very engaging, it is interesting and I find myself enjoying the process of analyzing it.

Thanks. I think this is a good approach to art - to analyze it (the ideas behind it). This is what I do with art as well.

I like the nice simple, yet inviting look of your website. I am not sure why the central areas background changes to black in the galleries though..this does not work as well as other colors, such as some shade of blue.

Ah, nice - some comment about the site!

I was aiming at simplicity. This was the key orientation I had in mind when building it. Something that would be very easy to use, and will be very "clean" and "simple" (straight lines, few sections, few, "quiet" colors etc'), so that only the paintings would be the "living" element.

I used black because I found it to be a color that allows the viewed to focus more on the content and ignore the rest. It highlights that which has colors.

Ifat, the latest drawing you have posted is really good.

However, you might want to consider posting a link to the drawings with nudity as opposed to just pasting them directly into a message. Some individuals could be working in environments where co-workers and/or colleagues find nude drawings uncomfortable. :lol:

I don't find this reaction to nudity in art rational, so I am not going to change the way of presentation. (unless, of course, I'll be instructed to do so by the forum owner).

Only when there is some rational negative reaction to something will I find it polite to provide a warning or something similar.

Thanks you all for your compliments and criticism/remarks. I found it useful.

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I don't find this reaction to nudity in art rational, so I am not going to change the way of presentation. (unless, of course, I'll be instructed to do so by the forum owner).

Only when there is some rational negative reaction to something will I find it polite to provide a warning or something similar.

Thanks you all for your compliments and criticism/remarks. I found it useful.

The rationality of the reaction to nudity in art was not the issue. The issue was that members on this forum could be working in environments where peers, who can possibly see the monitor of a co-worker, could have a negative reaction to the sudden appearance of a large nude drawing on someone else's computer. My suggestion was meant to be helpful, not to be critical of the content of the art.

For me personally, I will just avoid any threads on art while I am in such an environment.

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Ah, nice - some comment about the site!

I was aiming at simplicity. This was the key orientation I had in mind when building it. Something that would be very easy to use, and will be very "clean" and "simple" (straight lines, few sections, few, "quiet" colors etc'), so that only the paintings would be the "living" element.

I used black because I found it to be a color that allows the viewed to focus more on the content and ignore the rest. It highlights that which has colors.

Simplicity is usually a good thing when creating a web site as you seem to have figured out, and I think often especially when it comes to gallery sites like yours, and you got that aspect right, it could hardly be any more simple to use. It certaintly does not direct ones focus away from the paintings which I assume you had in mind during design.

As for the choice of black, looking at it with your reasons for choosing that colour in mind, it actually takes make more sense I suppose. Though I am not entirely convinced it works so well with the pencil sketches, it probably would not be a good idea to change to another color for them eithear (it gives the site a more inconsistent design, which probably is not a good thing).

Still, its pretty good and a lot better than some overly complicated gallaries I have seen before.

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For me personally, I will just avoid any threads on art while I am in such an environment.

Ok. I already stated my reason why not to change anything. When I consider presenting my art in the way I see fit vrs. sparing the feelings of co-workers (or users which are bothered by this), choosing the second will be a sacrifice for me.

Glad this is resolved now.

Ifat, enjoy your art very much and you've really been improving.

Am I allowed to be somewhat critical? :D

Sure (if this question was directed at me).

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Sure (if this question was directed at me).

I'm not an expert, but I've done some drawing myself, and am currently doing some 3D polygon modeling using a package called "Blender".

If I were to critically evaluate your art, I'd say that you need to work on proportionality more than anything, and secondarily you need to work on giving your human figures more natural poses, because some of them are a bit stiff. These are things that can be improved with a pencil and pad of paper for sketching, and doing lots of light, simple, quick sketches.

I have this book "How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way" by Stan Lee, world famous comic book artist. Don't let the title fool you, because it teaches serious drawing methods. His techniques are such that you can practice fundamentals very efficiently. Working on poses and proportionality are a couple of things he emphasizes. Let me know, and I can scan a couple of pages in and make them available for your viewing only (copyright issues, otherwise, I’m sure) to give you an idea of what I mean.

You may already be aware of these techniques, and I may just be giving you something you already know, but I thought I’d provide this feedback anyway.

Another idea, find a good forum on the web for artists, and see if you can get some feedback from them. Look especially for negative (constructive) feedback from really good artists, because this is a great way to improve. I’ve done this for my Blender models, where there are highly talented modelers from all over the world who have given me constructive feedback.

Anyway, I enjoy and appreciate your art work. I enjoy looking at the women you draw, and this drawing http://www.ifatart.com/pencil/jungle.htm is superbly rendered. :D

Edited by Thales
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If I were to critically evaluate your art, I'd say that you need to work on proportionality more than anything, and secondarily you need to work on giving your human figures more natural poses, because some of them are a bit stiff.

There are some of my oil paintings that have a proportionality problem which is quite visible: pelvis is too narrow when compared to the head, for example, in "Metal suit", or in "Night out".

In "Night out" the face is also problematic. (Still I love that painting, for what it expresses, just a note).

There is Celebrating life, where her pelvis is rather narrow, but still on the border of real. I like that narrowness, though now I would do it a bit differently (less height, for example).

I think I improved the proportionality thing, and am able to criticize myself about it more easily now than before when I did my earlier oil paintings.

In the drawings and painting in the "New" section I used a model. For now I will be using models, but I am interested in your opinion of the next new drawings/painting I will do that will not be based on a model, because it will reflect my current ability and the criticism will be more efficient.

I came to the conclusion a long time ago, that to develop from the point I was in, I need to do a lot of drawings based on some object/model. But I feel that this will not be enough: I want to be able to reach, at some stage, an ability to construct a 3D image of a human body in mind, and visualize how light falls on it. I believe that this is what artists like Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo have - and it's the greatest thing that an artist can have - that freedom to be able to draw whatever they please, without having to first create a model in reality. If there is a guide to help me reach this - I would be very happy to accept that "push".

These are things that can be improved with a pencil and pad of paper for sketching, and doing lots of light, simple, quick sketches.

Anything you think I should focus on while doing them?

I have this book "How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way" by Stan Lee, world famous comic book artist. Don't let the title fool you, because it teaches serious drawing methods. His techniques are such that you can practice fundamentals very efficiently. Working on poses and proportionality are a couple of things he emphasizes. Let me know, and I can scan a couple of pages in and make them available for your viewing only (copyright issues, otherwise, I’m sure) to give you an idea of what I mean.

This sounds great; Please do that, thanks.

Another idea, find a good forum on the web for artists, and see if you can get some feedback from them. Look especially for negative (constructive) feedback from really good artists, because this is a great way to improve.

Good idea, but I don't have time for it. Until now I've been showing my drawings to one of my roommate, who draws as well. The bitch (affectionately) has a good eye for these things, and she was able to find even slight problems. It was very interesting and fun to be able to suddenly see those things, correct them, and realize how the new version is more complete.

However, when I barely have time to draw, I would rather focus on learning by myself and doing new things for now (and finishing paintings/drawings that I've started).

Anyway, I enjoy and appreciate your art work. I enjoy looking at the women you draw, and this drawing http://www.ifatart.com/pencil/jungle.htm is superbly rendered. B)

:lol: at this one I just bought a new pencil (3B), and I got enthusiastic about the effects of "depth" it allows me to do (before that I was using an HB all the time <_< ), so I just set on this one for hours. It was fun.

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