The Secret Tool That Made Old Art Look Great - Camera Lucida

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[MathieuStern]

Thanks for watching!! Discover more experiments and weird lenses here :

[danmagoo]

I had a version of this as a kid, that was advertised in comic books. Of course the comic book ad illustration was greatly exaggerated, making it look (to a kid) like it was projecting the image into the page, the way a movie projector today might do. So of course it was a disappointment at first -- but years later, I realized in fact it is a pretty cool and potentially useful device that actually worked.

[saturnday]

This feels like a very useful way to get the proportions down quickly, even if you're not going for realism.

[sergioreyes]

I have been a photographer for many years, and it's incredible that I had never heard of this device. It's also wonderful to learn about it.

[tupactheory]

camera lucidas are also very effective when only used partially - sketch a shape and shade then fill in your own color ideas, try hatching and cross hatching, try improvising certain parts using outside realism skills, etc. there are so many opportunities!

[jamesslick]

Using this device CERTAINLY does NOT take away the "art" of..art. It's a tool. (and a damn cool one at that). You STILL need talent and skill to draw even when using it. Does ANYONE think architects are NOT artists if the use a scale or compass? It's gear. I have several Nikon DSLR bodies and lenses. THIS ALONE does not make me a "photographer".

[kfdaddy]

I purchased the NEOLUCIDA through the Kickstarter campaign back in September of 2014. Haven't used it recently but I keep it safely tucked away with the pouch and original box. I'll have to dig it out and freshen my skills with it. I am no great artist but I did take oil painting lessons from the woman who lived upstairs from us.

Along the same lines, I saved my allowance when I was a kid to buy a wooden pantograph made just for tracing images at different scales. It was probably around $3.00 and my allowance was 25¢ a week. I used it to trace photographs of different things including photos of my family. Sixty odd years later I still have that pantograph. Don't know how I managed to keep it these many years but I'm glad I did.

[knoptop]

the glass optics and brass construction makes tracing classy! :D

[footrotdog]

There was a Kickstarter for the NeoLucida a few years back. I totally forgot I'd bought one. I should go find it. :) Thanks for the inspiration!

[zacmumblethunder]

In the middle ages artists used a version of a pinhole camera. The subject would sit outside in bright sunlight and the artist inside in virtual darkness with a tiny hole projecting the image onto canvass.
This was demonstrated very well in "The Tudor Monastery Farm" TV series.

[justaminute]

Thanks for this. I knew about the use of the Camera Lucida technique for drawing scientific specimens for taxonomy purposes, but that uses a dissecting microscope. This doesn’t work with architectural sketches, so I couldn’t figure that out. There was a huge jump in the accuracy of landscape and architecture depiction in the 19th century. I knew about the grid system, like van Gough used, I also knew that once photography was created, a light table could be used but one was too crude and the other too late.
I work with kids and have had discussions about drawing because it can be really disheartening to them to compare their work with professionals. It is good to know about the tools that professionals use. As I point out, using tools isn’t cheating if everyone knows. Also, as with van Gough, those tools can be used to train our brain to draw better free-hand.

[d.rabbitwhite]

People often misunderstand that a tool like this is still just a tool and that it will not make everyone have the same abilities. Back when doing graphic design before the aid of computers, people used a projector attached to a wall that would raise up and down to give a huge range of size reproduction. Good, skilled, AND talented artists could do wondrous things with this tool, while others who relied only on the tool did work of much less quality and skill. Being an artist, it is good to understand that using a tool is a skill in itself.

[sushi_donut]

1:39 - I love this perspective. I think non-artists and new artists seem to only see the 'magic' (or the results) of the work; perhaps it's more fun to think about someone having this innate talent or quality to produce beautiful things, instead of the lifetime of commitment to the medium. IMO the artist should use most anything (ON TOP of the lifetime of commitment), to actualize the images in their minds. Regardless of the tool, it's the artist that brought life to it. ☺

[shynebox]

Fascinating. I also agree with Hockney that the skill in any process is down to the artist's ability to use the available tools.

[danmagoo]

What is being overlooked here, including comments that suggest tracing a photograph as an alternative, is that making a good drawing requires skills that tracing cannot replace. Tracing may let you get the general shapes, proportions, composition and perspective right, but the result is still going to look pretty bad if you don't have good drawing technique, and an understanding of how to capture the feel as well as the look of the subject and scene. This is especially true of drawing faces.

[KitKatToeBeans]

I’ve had a Lucy stored safely in its shipping box since December of 2019, untouched. I just dusted it off and I’m excited to get over my fears of jumping into drawing again, after so many years. Thanks for this video!

[skyhightabby]

What a beautifully done video! I love all the information, i love the personal trial. When i was a kid I had a kids art projector, where it came with various slide reels of different themed images (basic clear plastic with black outlines of animals, flowers, etc) so you could put it in, turn on the light and it would put the shadow on the surface. I took it to school and charged kids a quarter each for gel pen tattoos.

[hal_aetus]

OMG, I love what you and the interviewee in the video say: An artist uses the tools available at the time. I am an exclusively digital artist and I always sense the devaluing of what I do, simply because I use a digital pad to pass my stylus over in my painting. Like somehow the computer is doing all the work. My response is always to ask them what a classical artist would have done if they had access to digital technologies. I can't help but think that they would have been elated to use something that expanded their abilities. Thanks for the great video. I may have to try one of these for my plein air sketching!

[pipfox]

we had these in Botany Departments when i worked as a botanical illustrator in the 1980's. Made the job of drawing sometimes very small samples brought in from the field, very easy to draw. But the ones wee had were large and clunky compared to the neat small original one shown here. Thanks for uploading!

[widam]

pretty interesting, I hope they sell a modern version of it, could be a very good gift for somebody that is learning to draw.