TODAY'S FEATURED POST

How to Address When An Artist Feels Stuck and Unable to Keep Up

Ron Lemen

Although I gave myself a timed limit to this, this is my typical approach to something complex, falling into a pattern of what I would usually do when sketching on location.  It is not very exciting and is certainly not exploring the subject from a creative angle.   As artists, it can sometimes feel like the walls are closing in as new technologies and tools appear faster than we can fully understand them and feel…

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EVERYDAY ORIGINAL

Monkey’s Paw

YESTERDAY’S POST

Image

Rückenfigur

Lauren Panepinto

September 4, 2025 - I didn't know there was a word for this until recently, but of course there is, and of course it's German. Rückenfigur (literally "back-figure") is a compositional device in painting, graphic art, photography, and film. A person is seen from behind in the foreground of the image, contemplating the view before them, and is a means by which the viewer can identify with the image's figure and then recreate the space to be conveyed. (from Wikipedia) The textbook example of this is this image is Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog: And in fact, I only heard the term Rückenfigur at all because there was just a Caspar David Friedrich exhibit at The Met. He loved this device and it shows up in his work a number of times:   Obviously Friedrich…

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