Modern Tech Meets Traditional Arts

When I'm painting, I will often take photos of my paintings and bring them into the computer for some digital analysis. Sometimes I will overlay the image onto the original photo to see how far off my drawing is, and other times I will just use a tool to line things up. Here, I'm drawing lines to show you what I'm doing, and how far off the lines are. The eye is smart. It will know when things are off, even if you don't realize it.

It takes quite a bit of patience to get the lines right. First, you have to very carefully paint the line. But, you also have to watch the edge of the line you're creating. You don't want to leave paint at the edge of the line, forming a ridge. You'll never get rid of that ridge if it dries, especially if you find you need to move the line. Keep things flat. It helps to lightly brush the ridge either into the line or into the area of the same color.

The eye will notice slight differences, but it will also notice optical illusions. If you have an adjacent line intersecting with another, that line can make the first line look bent. It's important to be sure the line is not bent, but also that the optical illusion is not interfering with the line. What you see is more important than what is there, so be sure that things "look" right, even if they aren't. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it can really help. If you hang a painting on your wall and it's level, but the whole room isn't, it will still look off. So pay attention to how things feel, as well as how they look.

I find exercises like this to be very useful. Now, I can use these images instead of holding up a ruler to the painting. That's not convenient, as you can easily smudge wet paint, and the ruler will get in the way and cause shadows. Sometimes technology and traditional arts work great together!

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