I found the self portrait to be very well executed and the reinforcement of lines after the basic drawing was done showed real attention to details. The flower held in his trunk seemed a little questionable to me.
Editing software is quite good these days, so the skeptic in me is dubious.
There were parts where I couldn't help but think I was looking at a man's arm in an elephant trunk costume, especially if you consider exactly where the trunk was bending while holding the brush seemed to match a hand, wrist, forearm and elbow.
Like others have said, assuming it's not a fake video, pretty darn amazing.
Even with 10-years of training to produce a single painting, this would be an incredible feat of training.
It was not until the early Renaissance era that western culture learned about painting with depth of field and perspective (the legs part of the elephant painting are this). I forget the artist which is credited, but the image was of a crowd, a flight of stairs going up to a golden hue corbeled arch - it was a single point perspective - very dramatic.
"To most of the members of the audience, what they have seen appears to be almost miraculous. Elephants must surely be almost human in intelligence if they can paint pictures of flowers and trees in this way. What the audience overlooks are the actions of the mahouts as their animals are at work.
This oversight is understandable because it is difficult to drag your eyes away from the brushes that are making the lines and spots. However, if you do so, you will notice that, with each mark, the mahout tugs at his elephant's ear.
He nudges it up and down to get the animal to make a vertical line, or pulls it sideways to get a horizontal one. To encourage spots and blobs he tugs the ear forward, towards the canvas. So, very sadly, the design the elephant is making is not hers but his. There is no elephantine invention, no creativity, just slavish copying.
Investigating further, after the show is over, it emerges that each of the socalled artistic animals always produces exactly the same image, time after time, day after day, and week after week. Mook always paints a bunch of flowers, Christmas always does a tree, and Pimtong a climbing plant. Each elephant works to a set routine, guided by her master."
In other words, they are trained to do these things and guided during the process. It is still more than what we think these animals are capable of.
"To most of the members of the audience, what they have seen appears to be almost miraculous. Elephants must surely be almost human in intelligence if they can paint pictures of flowers and trees in this way. What the audience overlooks are the actions of the mahouts as their animals are at work.
This oversight is understandable because it is difficult to drag your eyes away from the brushes that are making the lines and spots. However, if you do so, you will notice that, with each mark, the mahout tugs at his elephant's ear.
He nudges it up and down to get the animal to make a vertical line, or pulls it sideways to get a horizontal one. To encourage spots and blobs he tugs the ear forward, towards the canvas. So, very sadly, the design the elephant is making is not hers but his. There is no elephantine invention, no creativity, just slavish copying.
Investigating further, after the show is over, it emerges that each of the socalled artistic animals always produces exactly the same image, time after time, day after day, and week after week. Mook always paints a bunch of flowers, Christmas always does a tree, and Pimtong a climbing plant. Each elephant works to a set routine, guided by her master."
In other words, they are trained to do these things and guided during the process. It is still more than what we think these animals are capable of.
Is there footage of the elephant painting, as opposed to a close up of the trunk? Also, I wouldn't believe the daily mail. I wonder if Desmond Morris is related to Johnny Morris.
Is there footage of the elephant painting, as opposed to a close up of the trunk? Also, I wouldn't believe the daily mail. I wonder if Desmond Morris is related to Johnny Morris.
I looked at multiple reports on this and they all say it is authentic video: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/elephant-painting.shtml
"Status:
True (Elephant uses a series of previously learned brushstrokes to create the picture)"
http://www.elephantartgallery.com/learn/authentic/spotting-fake-elephant-paintings.php
"Well, the answer to that question is not a straightforward yes or no and today people are still asking us. As the debate is also central to what we believe in here at TEAG, we'd like to give our take on the subject. Simply put: "Yes" the act of painting was performed by an elephant at a camp here in Chiang Mai. "No" the painting is not real art as we define it."
I looked at multiple reports on this and they all say it is authentic video: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/elephant-painting.shtml
"Status:
True (Elephant uses a series of previously learned brushstrokes to create the picture)"
http://www.elephantartgallery.com/learn/authentic/spotting-fake-elephant-paintings.php
"Well, the answer to that question is not a straightforward yes or no and today people are still asking us. As the debate is also central to what we believe in here at TEAG, we'd like to give our take on the subject. Simply put: "Yes" the act of painting was performed by an elephant at a camp here in Chiang Mai. "No" the painting is not real art as we define it."
