What's your favorite work of art?

[Queen Michael]

Just to be clear, I've got a few rules.

1. Only drawings. No sculptures or books or music or photos, even though that's art too.

2. I want your real favorite. No naming the Mona Lisa as your favorite just because it's the done thing. But do feel free to name it if you prefer it over everything else you've seen.

3. Apart from that, anything goes (as long as it doesn't violate the forum rules). Furry art, comic book covers, chewing gum wrappers, classic paintings... Anything.

Here's my favorite:

 

[Silvanus]

Not sure whether it's my favourite, but I really like Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper:

Calm, fairly lonely, and leaves a lot unsaid.

 

[Elfgore]

This art was shown to me by a friend on this very site. Had it as his wallpaper and when he shared it, I think my jaw hit the floor.

Spoiler: To the extent of my knowledge it is called, The Troubled Girl.

Relaxing after a hard days work on a lonely grassy cliff with the city lights below. *deep breath* Sounds perfect.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I haven't got a specific favourite work of art so here is my bro favourite instead!

Spoiler: Men at lunch

 

[JoJo]

Well, excluding any favourites that feature overt nudity that wouldn't be allowed on this site, there's the Creation of Adam:

Spoiler

With a convenient fig leaf to protect his modesty. I'm not religious but I like the symbolism surrounding the creation of mankind, the spark of life that God is giving Adam can be seen as the first speck of creative thought in what was previously just a tool-making ape. Heck, the red background thing around God and the cherubs even looks like the shape of a human brain, not sure if that is deliberate or not.

 

[Eomega123]

Raphael's 'The School of Athens'

Spoiler

OK, everything about this painting is fantastic. The use of perspective and geometry, the representations of the philosophers, all the little details in the background and around the edges. In my opinion this piece exemplifies 'mastery'. There is purpose in 'The School of Athens', but there is also an obvious display of extreme skill. Everything in this fresco was put there for a reason, and you can spend hours (or more realistically like 20 minutes, we're busy people) pouring over each piece of it. I generally don't care about art, but this is beautiful.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I know it's a trite answer, but I just love Van Gogh's Starry Night. When I was in college studying art I fell in love with the Impressionist Art movement and everything that was being done in that era. Monet, Munch, Van Gogh, and a whole bunch I'm embarrassed to say I no longer remember by name. And I think an argument could be made that Starry Night is one of the best examples of that art style. And even though it's an easy answer where fine art is concerned, it still remains my favorite.

Someone also did a version of it that looks like Batman standing over Gotham City which I also very much love.

 

[FPLOON]

I'm drawing a blank here, so I guess I'll just say...

Spoiler: this

http://larryfire.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/1342076329524.jpg

(Click on pic to zoom and enhance...)

I mostly love it's attention to detail (mixing the old with the new, the nostalgic to the forgotten, the overrated and the underrated) as it reminds me that, at the end of it all, its legacy is not that older than me in retrospect...

 

[Vicarious Reality]

ehhh most of my art collection probably violates some forum rule....

This is nice

 

[Remus]

The Hobbit 3D concept art - 2 artists were drawing over each other's work to make this one piece.

Apparently Captcha has a favorite too - Edgar Degas' "the Dance Class". Who'd have thought Captcha was an art connoisseur?

 

[Godhead]

While I can't actually remember what my favorite painting, this will do because I basically want to be this when I grow up.

Spoiler

 

[vledleR]

Natasha Kachuevskaya by I. Baldin

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I've always loved surrealism, here's just one example:

 

[Mikeybb]

Not sure whether it's my favourite, but I really like Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper:

*snipped for convenience*

Calm, fairly lonely, and leaves a lot unsaid.

Very, very nice selection.

It's wonderful on its own, a piece to be admired, but in addition to that I love it also for the numerous homages that it has spawned over the years.
I'm reluctant to call them 'parodies' like google search is eager to as most seem to be done with a degree of respect for the tone and mood of the original. Even some of those that play around with the tone still do so with affection (I'm looking at you angry, unexplained aardvark...)
I don't think I've ever seen one, no matter how silly the characters they sneak into it, that has diluted the quality or enjoyment of the original.

I guess it's a mix of love for this artwork and the way it has inspired so many jumping on points for people who may not normally have contact with 1940's/50's era art that's had me rambling along in a haze of admiration.

As to what my personal favorite would be?
I'll have to think about that.

 

[blipblop]

Wow hard one I do love john bauer
Francisco de Goya´s black paintings or Las pinturas negras
And of course anything by Hieronymus Bosch

But my absolute favorite is "Lady whit veil by Alexander Roslin

I dont know what it is but I get mesmerized by this painting
every time I see this painting its like she looks in to my soul and I beacome perfectly calm and end up in a nirvana state of mind

sorry if im rambling, nerding out or sounding totaly pretentious but it was really hard to write this post while watching this picture

 

[blipblop]

and a honorary mention to Bob Dob the guy who made the art I have as a profile picture
he makes really cool stuff

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My favorite painting is "Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening" which I'm not going to post here because it has nudity and I have too many strikes as it is without needing to risk more.

I will say, my favorite title for a painting is "Fifty Abstract Paintings Which as Seen from Two Yards Change into Three Lenins Masquerading as Chinese and as Seen from Six Yards Appear as the Head of a Royal Bengal Tiger."

I have seen both these paintings in real life, and they are amazing.

 

[loa]

You can only find it in microscopic size online or make a shitty scan limited by print dots if you have the actual physical card because wizards want none of that garbage where people appreciate the details of the art they mass-produce and forget about bugging wayne reynolds for a print because he doesn't have the rights to that.
Your only hope to get this as a poster on your wall is to paint it yourself. Enjoy.

 

[Fox12]

I love my man, Hieronymous Bosch. He's like the real OG surrealist. The Garden of Earthly Delights is terrifying.

Look at it.

Spoiler

LOOK AT IT!

Spoiler

I love how strange it is, it's great.

 

[SaikyoKid]

Snip snip

Bah, got beat to it in the first post. Definitely a great choice though.

Spoiler: To contribute a few things to the post though...

Spoiler: Red Run

Absoultely LOVE Supergiant's stuff. Transistor's got some amazing fan art going for it.

Spoiler: Squigly by Xuco

Just kinda cute art of one of my favorite fighters.

Spoiler: The BEST MSPaint I've ever seen

Was an old image on a neoGaf thread. Dunno where that old thread is now. Seriously though, shit was done in MSPaint. Good God is this something.