The Lilies below were drawn in August 2001. There were two plants and I drew them as they wilted. The Drawings look a bit photographic because they were drawn using a camera lucida, with a pencil directly onto 13.5x12cm white shikishi paper. They are the starting point for many ink drawings. It is very difficult to show these linear pencil drawings here, as they were not created for an online environment. Unfortunately the contrast needed to be increased and the drawings lost most of their very subtle feeling, but at least they can be seen online.
There will be a gallery for these drawings, in the catalogue section. Movable type does such a great job uploading files, that I could not resist and had to use it to generate the thumbnails and popup windows. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger version of each drawing. (Again, they are not as harsh in real live.)
Such a lovely evening tonight, now made even lovelier. Very delicate work. I tried to draw flowers with a camera lucida one summer, but mine are not nearly so detailed. No patience, I think. And then my pressed, dried flowers are sewn onto the drawings. The same tool in separate hands yielding such separate results..
Oh, and Ellen Gallagher is at the Drawing Center through this Saturday. I really think it more than worthwhile to go. She is quite inventive with materials. And maybe it is good to see what the Center is doing....
All the best.
Posted by: k on April 19, 2002 12:59 AMVery inspiring work. I love to draw also, but have let it fall to the side the last few years.
Hmmm, seeing your work makes me think I need to re-arrange my leisure time activities.
Weird though, all the art classes I've had and I've never heard of a camera lucida. Gotta look that one up.
Thanks for sharing your works.
Posted by: Promo on April 19, 2002 09:24 AMThank you for the kind comments.
A camera lucida (it is the opposite of a camera obscura and works in daylight) is an artist drawing aid. It is basically a prism on a stick that is positioned in a way that it projects the image of what it is pointed at into the eye of the draftsman. The artist then has the perception that the image is projected onto the drawing paper and can trace the image.
It sounds very simple, but it is actually pretty difficult to get any good results with one. It takes quite some time to master this tool.
William Fox Talbot tried to use one and was so frustrated with his results, that he decided that maybe instead of having the image projected into the eye, it should be projected onto a surface that could "remember" the image, without him trying to interpret what he sees. He invented photography.
As soon as cameras appeared on the scene, Camera Lucidas must have looked like dinosaurs. (Probably much more than digital photography is now making film look antiquated) Eventually nobody was using Camera Lucidas, except maybe for scientists, or people in museums, who prefer the interpretive photography drawings that can be made with a Camera Lucida. There are no new Camera Lucidas available on the market, it seems. Most available on the market seem to be from the turn of the century.
It is a fascinating tool. It is not cheap right now if you want to get one on eBay, because David Hockney unveiled this whole "scandal" that master painters like Ingres were using Camera Lucidas to create their stunning portraits. I do not see it as a scandal, as it still requires very much skill to draw with the aid of one. The revelation is a very interesting one though. Hockney just published a book about his investigation. It is called Secret Knowledge. It is a pretty nice book, goes deep into the investigation and explains other old master techniques as well. On the cover of the European edition of the book is David Hockney, with a Camera Lucida.
The picture does not really show how one draws with a Camera Lucida (it is a less attractive almost painful looking process), but you get the idea of the proportions of a “modern” camera lucida.
very nice indeed
Posted by: Jarrett on April 19, 2002 08:55 PM