Immortalized from the sky by German photographer Stephan Zirwes, these two series entitled «Pools» and «Pools Cut Outs» offer impressive shots of different swimming pools. From above, it is the geometry that strikes, as well as the different shades of blue. In fact, this project wants to show us the importance of water by confronting us to its misuse and waste. With elegance, simplicity and subtlety, he raises awareness on an important issue.
Renowned for his many aerial photographs, the Stuttgart-based photographer likes to play with our perception of textures, shapes and patterns, while proposing the public to discover topics from a new perspective.
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—The Scotsman reports that Tertia Barnett of Scotland's Rock Art Project and her colleagues have found evidence of a "ring" of settlements dating back 5,000 years in the area around Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire. She suspects there were probably more settlements, but they have been lost over the years. "It is likely the [River] Clyde was an important artery, connecting different areas to the sea and to the islands," she said. "People would have traveled by water instead of through the wooded interior of the country and people were generally concentrated in the coastal regions." Discovered in the late nineteenth century, the Cochno Stone, a Neolithic cup and ring rock art panel, is one of the 30 markers in West Dunbartonshire. Another 36 carvings in Inverclyde to the north have also been recorded. The next step is to plot the rock art sites on a map of other Neolithic remains. Barnett said the project could help scholars understand how rock art was used, and if it may have marked meeting points for trade and the sharing of news. For more on archaeology in Scotland, go to "Fit for a Saint." ----
Keith Haring's recently unveiled mural in Amsterdam. Photo: Hanna Hachula, courtesy Stedelijk Museum
Completed over just two days in 1986, a Keith Haring mural in Amsterdam has been revealed once again after nearly thirty years out of sight. The famed artist completed the 40-foot tall-white line painting on an outside wall during his (indoor) exhibit at the Stedelijk Museum. However, it disappeared from view a few years later when the brick facade was weatherboarded to improve climate control; the building was a storage site for the museum's collections. Over the last ten years, graffiti artist Aileen Middel (a.k.a. Mick La Rock) pushed for the mural—his largest in Europe—to be revealed once again. The restoration of the mural was made possible because the museum changed its storage location and the building is now a Markt Kwartier West grocery store and distribution center. (via Artnet)
The mural being unveiled. Photos: Mick La Rock
Haring painting the mural in 1986. Photo: Patricia Steur
Henry Ryland was a British painter and illustrator active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who shows the influence of Victorian painters like Albert Moore and Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
Though he sometimes painted in oil, he was known for his elegant figurative watercolors. These were rendered — like many watercolors of the time — in a painstaking technique of stipple, with hundreds of tiny dots of color applied to create tones, a process that also imparts a wonderfully appealing surface texture.
I had the opportunity to work recently on Aven Colony, a science-fiction city-building game with the premise of successfully building the first human colony on a harsh alien planet. The mechanics of the game are akin to Civilization or Sim City, with a tile-based grid and a variety of components necessary to start a settlement and scale it into a complex metropolis.
This was the first game that I was involved in designing almost every graphic element – including environments, buildings, vehicles, and more. I was tasked with designing an entire word from the ground up – including landscapes, vehicles, and a variety of "tiles" representing the different items needed to build a sustainable colony, and their various progressions throughout. Each set of images came with their own unique challenges and technical requirements necessary to make the game both aesthetically pleasing, but also easily understood by the players as they progressed.
I started first with the terrain – playing with several different ideas of what the planet would look like. I was asked not only to come up with the overall look, but also how the ecology was populated – with plants, wildlife, rock formations, and more. However, I couldn't go too extreme with the environment because of the technical requirements of the game – the concepts needed to include a lot of open, flat land for players to build upon. Ultimately, they settled on a landscape that was both alien and lush, with most importantly much bigger mountains in the distance to hint that there is much more of the world to explore.
For the building tiles themselves, I was provided a list of all the items that were anticipated to be used in gameplay – from housing, generators, factories, and more. My role was to design each tile with a unique signature and an idea of how each might function.
Working within tiles is certainly a challenge. I was confined by the dimensions of the square, not able to build too wide or too tall. In addition, while it was possible to zoom into the tiles within gameplay, the function of each piece needed to be easily recognizable from a distance as the player builds their colony.
In order to convey the most information in the most minimal way, I chose to rely on basic shapes to help identify the functionality of each tile. The goal was to subtly pull different objects and visual markers that seem familiar to machines we have here on earth, while still making them unique and aesthetically pleasing. For the generator for example (above right), I chose to use spheres that were inspired by a Tesla coil, to give the impression of something that could produce energy. Similarly, for the hospital (above left) I added a helipad, not unlike what is on existing hospitals, though the form factor is radically different.
Similarly, because of the scale, I had to keep in mind mechanics of movement for each of these pieces. Hinges are particularly difficult to see at that scale, so instead, for many of the tiles I focused on movement through floating elements, such as these turrets (above).
Each tile had three levels of advancement – starting with a rudimentary stage and ending in a much more sophisticated city. I started in reverse – working on the more advanced tiles and identifying the basic shapes that would be present at any level. For the more advanced levels, I wanted to use architecture that was very organic, soft, and light in color to establish a visual signature that sets the tone of the game. Then, as I began working on the earlier progressions of the tiles, I could keep a similar shape, but make it more angular, geometric, and industrial.
Working within the restrictions of a tile-based game allowed me the opportunity to maintain my own style and aesthetic while stripping away as much complexity as possible. But it was also uniquely challenging in that each of the tiles had to be modular, each simple shape snapping together. Like playing with Legos as a kid, the full effect of the game came from seeing each of those shapes put together into a much larger, more sophisticated city. Take a look at the final result in the trailer below!
I do own a few TS Sullivant originals, but not this one. It was offered by Heritage Auctions late last year. Just like every Milt Kahl drawing, each Sullivant illustration represents an adventure in humorous, graphic exploration. EVERYTHING is entertaining, the animals' anatomy, the insane sense for caricature, staging and on and on. The caption is very funny, too. Here is what Heritage said about the piece:
Thomas SullivantLife MagazineIllustration Original Art (Life Publishing Company, 1921). Before LIFE magazine was purchased by Henry Luce in 1936 and become the long-running photo-magazine American institution it is remembered as, it started in 1883 as a humor magazine similar to the British Punch. This whimsical cartoon illustration from 1921 features only a portion of the caption, but in it, Mrs. Hippo asks Mrs. Gnu how her children are. Mrs. Gnu replies that one of them has gnumonia, to which Mrs. Hippo says that is "bad gnus". At least this Dad-joke has charming artwork crafted in ink on an oversized 25.5" x 17.25" sheet of Bristol board. Signed in the lower left of the image area. Toned, with edge wear, torn caption, and a missing bottom left marginal corner. In overall Very Good condition. Over the years I have posted numerous times on Sullivant's art. Here is the first one: http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/t-s-sullivant.html
Link is to Wikimedia Commons, original is in a private collection.
Like the remarkable figure of Perseus in his interpretation of the mythological story of Perseus and Andromeda, Leighton here manages to render the figure as both solid and etherial.
This is partly accomplished with solid draftsmanship, and partly with his superb command of value and edges. I'm struck in particular by the way he has handled the subtle shift in value on the arms, in which the tonal transitions are so delicate as to be almost imperceptible.
The diaphanous gown defines the underlying figure with precision and grace, again by subtle control of value and the draftsmanship in the sweeping folds of fabric.
The small bit of still life adds weight at the bottom of the composition and ties it to the hints of architectural elements that form the background.
Here are the eight most common setups for portrait lighting:
1. Three-Quarter Broad Most portraits have light coming from in front of the model, and a little off to the side. The main or "key" light strikes three-quarters of the visible form, leaving one-fourth of the form on the far side of the face in shadow. Typically, the key light is elevated from the subject's line of sight. It's high enough to leave a shadow under the nose and chin, but low enough to get some light into both eyes. The light casts a shadow from the nose onto the far cheek, leaving a lighted triangle on that shaded cheek. If the face is turned slightly to one side, the near or "broad" side of the face is the one receiving the major illumination, which is why it's called broad lighting.
2. Three-Quarter Short
Alternately, light can come from the farther, foreshortened, or "short" side of the face. It's still three-quarter lighting if the tell-tale lighted triangle appears on the shaded side of the face. This time the lighted triangle is on the cheek closest to the viewer. Short lighting can help make a face look thinner. Some photographers use the term "Rembrandt lighting" more generally for any three-quarter lighting, either broad or short. Rembrandt himself used both broad and short lighting. Both of these lighting arrangements are flattering and unobtrusive, good reasons why portrait painters and photographers have used them almost universally.
3. Side or Split Lighting
Light that comes straight from the side is called side or split lighting. The dividing line or terminator between light and shadow runs along the centerline of the face. It's not a light arrangement that you see too often, but it has its purpose, especially in film, comics and illustration. It places equal importance on the light side and the shadow side, so it can convey the sense that the subject is a doppelganger, a person whose soul is a battleground of equal and opposing forces. Sometimes two equal light sources shine onto each side of the face without quite overlapping, leaving a dark core shadow running down the forward-facing planes in the center of the face.
4. Top Lighting In top lighting, the light comes straight down onto the head from above. It occurs often under a streetlight, a ceiling light or a noonday sun. The forehead and the nose intercept most of the light. These parts of the face carry relatively little expression. The mouth and eyes, the chief agents of sympathy, are lost in shadow. As a result, the subject's emotion is masked. The effect can be threatening, mysterious or inscrutable. This lighting arrangement is ideal for a dramatic entrance of a dangerous character or for conveying a feeling of cool detachment.
5. Light from Below Strong light usually doesn't come from below, so when you see it, it grabs your attention. We tend to associate warm-colored under-lighting with firelight or theatrical footlights, which can suggest a magical, sinister or dramatic feeling. In modern times a cool light from below suggests a cellphone or a computer. Faces that are familiar to us (family, friends and celebrities) nearly always appear lit from above. We hardly even recognize them when we see them with the light shining upward on their features.
6. Frontal Lighting In frontal lighting, the light travels straight toward the form from an angle close to the viewer's line of sight. The planes get darker as they turn away, and the planes facing us are lightest. Frontal lighting tends to flatten the form, and it emphasizes the two-dimensional design instead of the volume. It can give the picture a striking poster-like impact. It's a good lighting to choose if you want to emphasize color or pattern. Frontal lighting is one of the few times when outlines actually appear in real life. The outline is really the thin fringe of shadow that appears at the very edge of the form.
7. Edge or Rim Lighting Edge lighting comes from behind to touch the sides of the form, separating it from the background. It's also called a rim light or kicker in the film industry, and it usually requires a relatively strong source of light. The width of the rim light varies according to the size of the planes that face backward to the light. Edge light is not just a thin white line around the form. If you want to introduce an edge light source, it should be a different color from the ambient light on the front planes.
8. Contre-Jour Lighting Contre-jour lighting is the opposite of frontal lighting. The planes that are darker in one system are lighter in the other. The head appears against a field of light, which might be a bright sky or an illuminated doorway. The field of light takes on an active presence, surrounding and burning out the edges of the silhouette. The darkest tones are on the front-facing planes and the hollows of the form. ----
