Color Advances Science

Do you think the words color and science belong next to each other? Does it surprise you to know that colors actually advance science, and makes new discoveries possible?

It is rate to discuss color science because of its vastness in content, as well as its difficult-to-appreciate science related principles. So while putting a pin in the mechanics of color science for a moment, how can we view color as an opportunity to push science forward? Let’s take a look at asteroid Vesta.

Vesta is the second largest formation in the asteroid belt, considered by many scientists now to be a planet. In the past, dimensions considered Vesta to be too large to be an asteroid, but too small to be a planet, Vesta sat undefined in a sort of astrology limbo. All that is beginning to change because of color.

The image above was taken by NASA’s space orbiter Dawn, the first man made craft to orbit around Vesta. Dawn’s framing camera uses near-infrared filters where red, green, and blue represent varying degrees of nanometers. The colors are assigned by scientists and detect the presence of previously unknown mineral and rock types. What this has revealed is a well segregated world of ingredients and layers. The information suggest steep visible spectral slopes and areas of recent landslides that reveal craters and other mountainous regions.

With colors assigned to specific elements, it is now much easier for scientists to detect what lie on asteroids, planets, moons, and other objects floating around in our universe. With this ability of more intricate detection, it is more possible to theorize what went into the development of our solar system and the complex elements that support it.

By spotting water, mineral deposits, and other elements difficult to detect, the use of color has certainly broadened the spectrum of analysis scientists can employ when studying a subject in the vast reaches of space.

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Related articles

• Asteroid Vesta’s ‘Rainbow’ Ingredients Shine in New Image (livescience.com)
• New Images Of Vesta Asteroid Taken By NASA Spacecraft (huffingtonpost.com)
• New NASA dawn visuals show Vesta’s ‘color palette’ (physorg.com)

The Creative, Artistic and Inventive Mind of Leonardo da Vinci

Being an artist also means having a deep connection with the world around you, viewing life with a different set of lenses. To an artist, creativity and beauty encompasses just about every facet of daily life. The amount of individual interests available to an artist are limitless.

Like many artists, Leonardo da Vinci didn’t just consider himself to be a man of one concentration. One fascination of Leonardo’s was that of invention and design.

Throughout his life, Leonardo had taken time to document ideas for inventions that intrigued and inspired him. He did this by sketching them in his journal. However, the ability to create prototypes and test each of these inventions went unrealized in his life. Unfortunately, Leonardo died before any of the world would know of his true genius. His works were scattered and lost, many of them not seen again for hundreds of years.

In the example above, taken from the Museum of Sciences website, we can see that Leonardo da Vinci had a vision for a flying vehicle nearly 500 years before the first manned aircraft would be designed and piloted by Paul Cornu in 1907.

In his drawings, it is easy to see Leonardo’s dead on grasp of where the future of technology was headed. From tanks and parachutes, to diving and aircraft landing gears, Leonardo would touch upon them all in his pen and paper interpretations.

Was it because he was a supremely intelligent and enlightened human being, or that he had visions of a future far superior to our own? In any case we may never know, but it was likely a pairing of the two that lead him to jot down so many innovative and profound ideas.

It is startling to note how severely under noticed the conceptions went until the incredible discovery of some of Leonardo’s works; drawings that would captivate the imaginations of so many throughout the world.

It is a lesson to us that an artist is more than artist, he is an instrument in the progression of the world and its many views.

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Related articles

• A Definitive Guide to Leonardo da Vinci’s Paintings and Drawings (brainpickings.org)
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• Cracked Da Vinci Code of the Day (thedailywh.at)

Tips for Improving your Landscape Drawing Skills

Whatever your level of skill, these tips will help guide you in developing habits that will grow your abilities to draw and paint landscape scenery with just a couple of weeks of consistent practice.

Implement these for 15 or 20 minutes a day and the improvements will be greatly evident.

Tip No. 1 – Quick Impression Drawings

Get out of the house! Go to the zoo, the museum, a park, an apartment building complex, somewhere other than where you typically draw. Focus on drawing moving things. Drawing objects in motion will help you develop the flow. Every experienced artist can tell you about the flow. Your speed of drawing will increase by practicing these quick impression sketches, but will also help you to develop your perspective drawing skills and build up a repertoire of animals, objects, and people that you can readily access from your mental toolbox.

Tip No. 2 – Blind Drawing

This method is mentioned in all major drawing instruction books and often goes unnoticed or ignored by most artists. This method (also known as “blind contour drawing”) requires that the artist follow its subject with his/her eyes and not focus on the paper they are drawing on. This technique is a great way to keep your drawings vivid and has been dubbed the ultimate anti-stiffening tool in a professional artists bag of tricks.

Tip No. 3 Forget the eraser!

“Do not fear mistakes. There are none.” – Miles Davis

Every line you draw is a representation of your own handwrite. This is the unique signature of your artistic expression. Do you really want to erase that? Practice making every line work for you.

Tip No. 4 Take measurements!

One of the largest sources of complaints of growing artists is that their proportions are off. You don’t need to get fancy here. Use your pencil or other small stick, extend your arm as far as it will go (in order to ensure accuracy for each measurement), and note with your eyes how much of the length of your stick that particular object runs. Drawing roofs, chimneys, beaches, trees, animals, and many other things become much easier to make proportionate when you implement this small technique.

Tip No. 5 – Draw negative space

When you see a bale of hay, a fishing net, or long strands of hair, are you trying to individually draw the lines in the net, the fence, or the hair? Try implementing this technique and draw the negative space and see what objects it works best on. It’s a nifty trick that, when mastered, provides a faster, easier, and better looking drawing of more intricate items.

So grab your pad and pencil and practice, practice, practice! After all, this is the one surefire way to improve!

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Related articles

• Do a Blind Contour Drawing (education.com)
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• Inspiration Station: Tree Drawings by Tim Knowles (fthats.wordpress.com)

Artistic Characteristics of the Right Brain and Left Brain

Do all artists use the right side of their brains? As the region of the brain that hosts creativity, imagination and art awareness, it seems so. However, more people are finding their inner artist can be awakened no matter what side of the brain dominates.

For a long time, humans believed we only used one side of the brain. Today, most people know about the stereotypes between the right and left sides of our brains. This is because thousands of studies have been conducted on the human brain and the way it works. While we still don’t know much about its vast complexities, we do know a lot more than we used to. For instance, we know that the brain communicates between its two halves and its many lobes.

What connects the halves of a brain are bands of fibers that serve as electronic information paths. In most cases, we use both sides of our brain, but typically one side is dominant. This is not the case for some individuals as is true for people who struggle with autism, wherein both sides of the brain have no fibers connecting the two halves.

Where do you fit into this complex picture? Do you know if you’re a right brained or left brained artist?

Here are some strengths and characteristics of right-brained dominant and left brained dominant people…

Left

• Mathematics
• Analytical thought
• Speech
• Writing
• Logic and reasoning

Right

• Creativity
• Imagination
• Identifying with emotions
• Philosophy
• Art awareness

After reviewing this list, you, as an artist, may want to gravitate towards the right side. It makes sense right? (Pun intended!) Do these qualities seem to manifest them into yourself as an artist?

WARNING: Don’t be so quick to assume that all left brained thinking is cold and analytical, and the right is all creativity and ingenuity. Some incredible bodies of work and research explain that, due to the nature of our brains, it is impossible to be pigeonholed into one type of thinking per individual. There are always exceptions, and the flat out truth is that almost all of us blend the use of both sides of our brain.

So how does this affect your artwork? Take the opportunity to research some of your favorite artists and their works, and research what type of thinker they were.  While you’re at it, explore articles about some of the many other characteristics of the right and left sides of the brain. You just might be surprised.

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• Creativity: Left Brain + Right Brain = WHOLE Brain (customerthink.com)
• Divided brain (behemot.si)
• Are you a right or left brain thinker? [Nigel Temple] (ecademy.com)

Mosaics: Creating Art with Technique

Mosaics are images or patterns created by way of placing small stones, pieces of glass, or other small materials together to form a piece of decorative art.

The earliest known mosaics were found in a temple in Mesopotamia, dating all the way back to the second half of the third millennium BC. Their significance in religion, story telling, and decoration are evident in nearly every culture and corner of the world.

How to Lay Mosaics

There are over a dozen techniques for laying mosaics, but the three most common are the direct method, the indirect method, and the double indirect method.

The Direct Method

In the direct form, images and designs are constructed by directly gluing each piece to the supporting structure. This method works very well for shaped surfaces such as vases or pottery. One of its disadvantages is in work on larger scale pieces. It is less practical for an artist or assembler to remain on site working for hours in this way, especially if the pattern is to cover entire walls, ceilings, or other large surface areas. For jobs like this, the indirect method is often employed.

The Indirect Method

The indirect method is when an artist is using a backing paper or mesh to adhere the stones or materials to, and then adhering the finished parts of a piece on site.

The Double Indirect Method

Some of the most famous mosaic works belong to cathedrals, temples, castles and museums across the world.

The Irano-Roman floor mosaic in the palace of Shapur in Bishapur is famous for its intricacy, while pieces like “A Deer Hunt” found in Greece at Pella are significant culturally for their portrayal of man and gods.The double indirect method is similar in that it involves using a separate medium to place your materials on, but requires that you don’t adhere them right away.

This way, for more complex images, the artist can see his work as a whole, instead of just as its being developed.  From there the operator must place another piece of paper on top of the finished work so it can be transferred to its final surface. This process can damage your work and requires much practice before it can be executed properly.

Mosaics offer a fun and creative way to represent events, ideas, and people. What will you make?

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When Ink Art and Underwater Photography Collide

Two seemingly different concentrations of art have been making waves in their recent mash up with artist and photographer Mark Mawson. While not a tremendous amount of information is available about the technique and execution of this brilliant, color-soaked approach, we can speculate on some of the aspects of this thrilling new style.

Water

Water is a funny thing. When we are submerged, it is the one known natural element that resists the pull of gravity by working with the natural buoyancy in our bodies to alleviate some of our weight. Nearly everyone experiences these effects while swimming or taking a bath.

Another peculiar trait is how it spreads and disperses other liquids or particles that have been introduced into it. Think of when you put cream in your coffee, or when you add dye to water to make Easter eggs. The effect is immediate and really quite interesting.

As seen in the picture above, a second liquid-like material introduced into still water creates a shadowing, swirling veil of almost air-like quality that slowly ripples and radiates outward; akin to the slow leak of a pin-pulled smoke bomb.

Ink

What photographer Mark Mawson manages to capture is thrilling and new in several ways; not only in its gorgeous eye-popping presentation, but also in its incredibly temporary state of existence as well as its unique, un-typified use of ink.

While the featured picture is an amazing and brilliant example of Mawson’s technique, it is certainly not the only approach to this style of art. As you look further into some of the images he’s captured, you’ll notice the endless possibilities for positioning, lighting, and background.

Some pieces are seen with a subtle back drop of flurrying colors (perhaps immersed in the water sooner to capture their translucency), cascading down over a more vivid splotch of color floating in the foreground, constantly shape shifting to create new and interesting views of our underwater art gallery.

To see more of Mark’s work, check out http://www.paranoias.org/2011/12/aqueous-fluoreau-by-mark-mawson/  and see the waves he’s creating by making, well, waves.

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Icicles

An icicle is a spike of ice formed when water dripping or falling from an object freezes. The heat source which causes the ice to melt is typically the sun. Although icicles might be a hazard when positioned over people, they generally exist in natural surroundings where snow and rain fall off exist.

Because of their cylindrical shapes, icicles beautifully refract the world around them.

Our collection of Icicle patterns show a diverse collection of icicles in winter scenery viewed from inside windows and outside settings. You’ll find icicles forming from trees, branches, leaves, and roofs. In their backgrounds you’ll find bright blue skies, mountains, and sunsets.

This set contains 24 paintable patterns.

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Icicles

An icicle is a spike of ice formed when water dripping or falling from an object freezes. The heat source which causes the ice to melt is typically the sun. Although icicles might be a hazard when positioned over people, they generally exist in natural surroundings where snow and rain fall off exist.

Because of their cylindrical shapes, icicles beautifully refract the world around them.

Our collection of Icicle patterns show a diverse collection of icicles in winter scenery viewed from inside windows and outside settings. You’ll find icicles forming from trees, branches, leaves, and roofs. In their backgrounds you’ll find bright blue skies, mountains, and sunsets.

This set contains 24 paintable patterns.

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Using Complimentary Colors

For some artists, the use of complimentary colors may seem like the basic of the basics. Without much thought they may discount their effect and use them as if they are second nature. But let’s not forget, sometimes simplicity can be the most elegant and (ironically) sophisticated approach to an artists color scheme. Using complimentary colors is an easy and certain approach to deliver works of art.

Reference the Color Wheel for Complimentary Colors

Lets address the color wheel. A lot has changed here. For centuries artists were limited in terms of what specific shades of color they had access to. Because of this, much of history’s most famous artists were compelled to use the simple pairings of complimentary colors, found on the basic color wheel. These pairings are…

• Red and Green
• Blue and Orange
• Yellow and Violet

You’ll notice that the complimentary colors are simply opposites on the color wheel. With the ever- expanding body of knowledge we’ve dubbed “Color Theory”, the color wheel itself has changed immensely.

The HSV Color Wheel

What you are more likely to see as a representation of your color choices today – looks something like the HSV color wheel to the left. The same principles apply, that opposites are complimentary, but as you can see it offers a vast multitude of shades not found on the standard color wheel. Now instead of trying to achieve the feel of a romantic Italian town with solid reds and greens, an artist can take inspiration from the HSV wheel and instantly hand pick shades of Sage green and Venetian red. This work previously (depending on your skills and way of expression) could take hours of mixing to define the desired colors intent. Now with the digital age, we can find a representation of the colors in our minds before we start to mix and blend. This is a huge advantage of artists today that is largely overlooked.

Finding new color schemes and developing more complex characteristics for a piece is still interesting. However, if you find yourself stuck, or not conveying the images and thoughts you would like, then take a look at the HSV color wheel and find your complexity in all of the wheels simplicity.

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Chalk Art Transforms the Sidewalk into a Canvas

For many, chalk brings back childhood memories of scribbling figures out on the sidewalk, playing hop scotch in self-made disproportionate boxes, and being saddened each time the rain washes everything away. Today, many professional and amateur artists never leave the driveway. There are many different mediums to work within, but one of the fastest expanding niches of chalk artists transforms the sidewalk into a canvas. Concrete is still king.

So what exactly is chalk and where does this stuff come from?

Chalk is a form of limestone, a soft, typically white, sedimentary rock. It forms from the accumulation of mineral calcites -which also makes it a porous rock, similar to pumice. This quality can make chalk a challenge to work with, leaving holes and unfilled patches on the canvas or pavement from a seemingly solid and even stroke. Still, chalk has a variety of uses: teachers use it on blackboards, gymnasts use it for grip, pavers use it for painting evenly lined parking spaces, and artists use it in a variety of forms from varying degrees of hard and soft chalks, to chalk pastels and even liquid chalk.

Using Chalk for Art

Working with the challenge of this porous mineral, artists have envisioned and developed increasingly complex and abstract ideas that have been executed by such famous sidewalk artists as Kurt Wenner. In fact, the work of Wenner and other artists like Ellis Gallagher and Julian Beever have created an overnight cult following in some major cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Their work has been the center of many email chains, sparking interest all across the globe in their incredibly intricate, three-dimensional works of art.

Techniques for Chalk Artists

Some noteworthy techniques employed by many artists include various approaches to blending and the use of the “Wet Effect”. Dipping or soaking your chalk in a container of water for up to 6 minutes achieves this effect. This softens the chalk, making it malleable enough to work like paint. From here, the possibilities for blending and shading become endless.

So get inspired, grab a bucket, and give it a shot! If you don’t like what you come up with, there’s always the hose…

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