* * * * *
The Masters cheated …
> Starting with that jangling observation, Mr. Hockney derived a new theory
> of art and optics: around 1430, centuries before anyone suspected it,
> artists began secretly using cameralike devices, including the lens, the
> concave mirror and the camera obscura, to help them make realistic-looking
> paintings. Mr. Hockney's list of suspects includes van Eyck, Caravaggio,
> Lotto, Vermeer and of course the maddeningly competent draftsman Ingres.
> All of them, Mr. Hockney suggests, knew the magic of photographic
> projection. They saw how good these devices were at projecting a three-
> dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface. And they just could not
> resist.
>
Via Flutterby, [1] Paintings Too Perfect? [2] [requires free registration to
read—sorry]
Way back in '89 or '90 I took a drawing class at FAU (Florida Atlantic
University) [3] and since it's been over seven years I think I can safely
admit this: I cheated on my final exam.
The final exam was to draw a self portrait. I had put it off until the day
before it was due and in a fit of desperation, I knew I had no time to do a
proper portrait, so I improvised.
At the time, I had a photocopy machine in my closet (yes, I actually had a
copy machine and I still wish I had it but the whys and wherefores about it
will have to wait for another time), a light box (constructed by myself and
my maternal grandfather when I was in the 6^th grade for a project on
animation and which I still own. Why I kept a $10 light box (in 1980 dollars)
and not a $100 photocopier (in 1989 dollars) is beyond me but I digress …), a
pencil sharpener that produced graphite powder as a byproduct and lots of
erasers, and thereby my plan was hatched.
I photocopied my hand. Well, several times, until I got this nice high
contrast black-and-white photocopy of my hand. I then prepared a piece of
drawing paper by smearing powdered graphite over it turning it to a dark gray
shade. I then taped the photocopy to the lightbox, then the shaded drawing
paper and using an eraser, proceeded to “draw” my hand.
It took maybe two, three hours from start (“What the hell am I going to do?”)
to finish (“God, I hope no one finds out I cheated!”) and the result was good
enough to get me an A on the final.
Postscript: I bought a cheap frame for the picture and took it to my office
at IBM [4] when I worked there as a student programmer in 1990. Before I got
around to hanging the picture up it was stolen one night. I hope that it was
stolen because the thief liked the picture and not just for the frame—that
would be too demoralizing.
I also have somewhere around here another “drawing” I started of a photocopy
of a Coke [5] can. I don't think I can finish it as I no longer think I have
the original photocopies to work from. Alas.
[1]
http://www.flutterby.com/
[2]
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/04/arts/design/04OPTI.html
[3]
http://www.fau.edu/
[4]
http://www.ibm.com/
[5]
http://www.coke.com/
Email author at
[email protected]
