Flash-Brushes

Flash i.e. Actionscript can be used to imitate brushes very realistically. An artist who uses this technique for his work is Erik Natzke. His work looks vibrant, colorful and one could not tell that it is generated with the aid of a computer. I very much like the "paintings". Unfortunately, Natzke does not publish any code of his code enabled brushes.

Another artist who uses Actionscript is Patrick Gunderson. His work looks less like a painting, but not less beautiful. In contrast to Natzke, he published some of the code he uses.

I found an comparable example of a processing implementation of a paint brush online:

http://screamyguy.net/sketchBoard/index.htm

http://jot.eriknatzke.com/?p=164
http://pat.theorigin.net/category/code/as3/

Morphing

Morphing is a special effect that transits one image to another seamlessly. Morphing software involves fading as well as distortion. Corresponding key points need to be selected in both images, so the program can exactly calculate how to change one image to the other.

The first very good morphing program was developed by Thaddeus Beier and Shawn Neely (Pacific Data Images) in the early 1990s. They used this "feature-based morphing" first in videos such as "Black and White" by Michael Jackson.

Nowadays, there are various small morphing software packages available to buy and to download. I am currently experimenting with an application called Morpheus Photo Merger. It is very easy to use, but the quality may not be sufficient for the final.

Example:

Portraiture

Generally, a portrait is an artistic representation of a person. The face dominates the painting, photograph or sculpture. The artists usually intents to reveal the person's character, mood or likeness. Usually, the person looks directly to the artist, so the viewer can connect more easily with the person.

One of the best known portraits of the 16th century is the portrait of Francesco del Giocondo's wife, Mona Lisa. The painter Leonardo da Vinci succeeded in providing her with the famous Mona Lisa smile that is fascinating and attracting people all over the world.

Self-portraits, in contrast, display the artist him- or herself. Artists may chose to create a self-portrait for promotional purposes, to tell stories about themselves or to show them in a more superior role than they actually are.

Albrecht Dürer can be seen as the first prolific self-portraitist. Even at the early age of 13 he started experimenting with self-portraiture. At the age of 22, he painted the "Self-portrait with Carnation", which was originally intended for his fiancée. His probably most popular portrait was produced at the hight of his success and therefore promotes himself as the triumphant artist.

One of my favorite painters is the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The vibrant colors she used as well as the influences she had from Realism, Symbolism as well as Surrealism make her work very unique. She is famous for various self-portraits. They reveal very strongly and sometimes even shockingly her emotional state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-portrait
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo

http://artcess.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/frida_kahlo_le_due_frida1.jpg

Synopsis

My most visited gallery in London is probably the National Portrait Gallery. Every time I go, I am fascinated by a different piece of work. One of the art peices that caught my attention is the portrait of “Susan Adele Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield” by Tom Phillips. It is a computer-processed drawings and video. While looking at the portrait, you can notice slow changes. Graphics underlining and modifying the woman’s expression become obvious.

I am interested in portraiture for various reasons. First of all, its aim is to capture the subject’s feeling, emotion, expression, and even personality and mood. To represent these traits accurately as an artists is usually rather challenging.

The person traditionally looks straight to the painter or to the photographer’s camera to engage with the viewer at the best achievable level. I would like to find a way of using this intimacy for my project.

Portraiture can be in form of painting, photography, graphics or even sculpture. It can be naturalistic or abstract. Whichever form is chosen, it seeks to convey one of the traits mentioned above.

As I would like to engage with a project that combines various creative techniques portraiture is a great subject to be working on.

Recently, I did a digital photography course at London Academy of Media Film and TV. This course enabled me to appreciate photography as an art form far more. To be honest, before I had been ignorant of the large creative input photography can have. That is why I decided to include photography in this project.

Though my knowledge of Photoshop had been good, since I started using it to improve my photographs, I realized what impact is can have on the picture’s mood, for instance.

Another hobby I would like to include in this project is painting and drawing. I have some experience in life-drawing and I find it very exciting and enjoyable. Using materials such as charcoal can also help to underline the person’s mood.

Taking all these processes and puting them into one single project may seem confusing. However, I believe I’ll find to combine them.

Similarly to Phillips’ approach, I would like to render graphics, drawings and photography. In contrast to the portrait of “Susan Adele Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield”, I am going to include different people’s faces. The changes will hopefully appear very smooth. Transformations of faces, light, color and shadow will provide different moods.

To achieve this, I am probably going to use a range of software. Eyesweb, Flash as well as Progressing are the basic starting point. If there is any other useful software such as video synthesizer, I will not hesitate to use them.

The changes will most likely be random. In case I progress very quickly with the whole progress, I can also imagine to make the changes depending on life data taken from the Internet.