Girl in the Iron Shoes, illustration, and cg art

That is 'The Girl in the Iron Shoes' a digital painting by the great Chris Beatrice
It was based on the Fairy Tale the Enchanted Pig. Perfect Painting for a great story. Painted in Painter 8 (I use painter Classic, but there pretty much the same) He has a great gallery of Fairy-tale paintings here. Here is a very informative article by him on the making of this piece: (here)

I love illustration. 100 years of illustration has a great collection of classic book illustrations.

(warning, this is going to develop into a rant about modern perspectives on art)

It's always annoying to hear Modern Artists saying illustration isn't art. They always want to exclude Norman Rockwell, calling him a mere illustrator. But somehow want to include all the renaissance artists who painted (or 'illustrated') the Bible, or mythology. I think illustration and narrative Art recognizes that History is a story, indeed His Story (God's story), our lives are stories, and so people and places are inevitably going to be painted in the context of story. To try do disconnect them, is gnostic. It makes sense, though if you believe that history is not a story, but a collection of random events. Why paint people in story? There is no story.

Any way, one of the reasons I like, and am interested in CG art, Matte Painting and Concept Design, is that it very tied to story. One reason CG art has been tied to story because of it's use in the development and production Film and to a somewhat lesser extent video games. (Check out Dusso's matte painting) Also good art in these cirles is more tied to good craftsmanship and skill then merly to originality. Originality will flow from a mastery of the craft. This in a way recognizes God as the only original artist, and craftsmanship is simply learning to re-present his work. (Greg Wilber has interesting thoughts on this, that I don't entirly agree with) Also it has developed nearly independently from modern art theory taught in universities. Making it much more like classical art or natural art. Because CG Art developed with computers there is a much friendlier relationship between Art and Science (think Leonardo Da Vinci). Which is good, because there not that different. Only in modern times have they been in antithesis.

There has also been a revival of classical art in the traditional art world as well: www.artrenewal.com

This might be somewhat scatterbrained, but it's a start...