The Artist's Magazine

Cloudy sky inspirations

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:20:17 GMT

I took this picture on a road trip recently—the evening sky was just blowing me away. I fully intend to do something with this image (I've been dabbling in acrylics but don't dare show anyone yet).

I've come across a lot of great cloud images recently. Like the Times Online's 10 best clouds, with great images. And the Telegraph, another British newspaper, put up a slideshow of extraordinary clouds—these formations are so amazing you'll hardly believe they're real.

More books for cloud inspiration:

And some demos and articles about painting clouds:

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Develop film using coffee and vitamin C

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:31:53 GMT

No, seriously. The blog Photojojo explains in great detail how you can develop black-and-white film using instant coffee and vitamin C powder to create a MacGyver-style photo studio.

The results are grainy and artsy—isn't that what you were going for? There's even a home-developer group on Flickr where you can see other people's results.

Learn more:

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Digital camera buying guide

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:18:05 GMT

Occasionally, we get questions from artists wondering what digital camera is best to photograph artwork with. Over at pica + pixel, Ana posted a layman's guide to buying a digital camera that I think will be useful for any non-photographer trying to find the right camera.

Here's a quick rundown of her tips:

Photography is both a craft and a tool.
Start small—physically and/or financially.
Stick with the big brands.
Fight the urge to think bigger.
Do your homework.
Hold it in your hand.
Buy from reliable sources.
Learn how to use it.

Read the full descriptions on pica + pixel.

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Cincinnati's snow day

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:22:00 GMT

The Artist's Magazine's offices were closed yesterday, as it was illegal to be on the roads in the city. We got probably 8 inches of snow over two days, with an interlude of ice rain, as you can see in the archaeological evidence from excavating my car:

Driving hazards aside, it's really beautiful out:

I feel bad for the over-eager trees, though:

Those little buds are goners, for sure. Anybody else get hit by the big storm?

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Zoom in with 2GB inauguration photo

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:43:00 GMT

Feel like you didn't have the best view for the inauguration? (First choice La-Z-Boy doesn't count.) Photographer David Bergman took a 2 GB photo of the inauguration using new Gigapan technology, which stitches together hundreds of photos to make a high-resolution, zoomable image.

This is the whole photo, made up of 220 images and 24,658x59,783 pixels:

Double click or use the buttons to zoom in, where you can see President Obama giving a speech:

Zoom in even further, and you can see Bush and Cheney's reactions

You can see really well into the crowd, even in the distance. What's that on the horizon? Rooftop security?

Yep! Crazy, huh?

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Trees on canvas

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:16:25 GMT

Myoung Ho Lee separates his subject—trees—from the surrounding landscape by suspending a canvas behind them. The resulting photographs are really striking. See the Morning News and Lens Culture to read more.

At right, Tree #2 by Myoung Ho Lee (archival ink-jet print on paper, 125x100cm, 2006)

PS: It's probably obvious by now, but I'm back at the helm of the blog! I helped the new guy over at ArtistsNetwork.TV transition into the job, and things are rolling along well there! (In fact, a little birdie told me that they filmed some new videos yesterday...)

I've also been working on a new series for The Artist's Magazine that's starting in the March 2009 issue called Mediapedia. They're four-page, in-depth, brand-free guides to art media that you can clip and save for in-studio reference. The first one is on acrylics, so watch for that issue when it comes out in February!

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DIY Polaroids

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:38:43 GMT

Already mourning the death of Polaroid instant film? You can make your own vintage-looking shots with Poladroid, a free software program.

After installation, all you have to do is drag-and-drop your photos and wait for the mini-Polaroid to pop out. (The pictures show up as a muddy brown for a minute or two before the picture comes through—cute feature!) The final products show up in your Pictures folder as JPGs.

Right now, the software's only available for Macs, but a Windows version is coming soon. You can see a bunch of other people's Poladroids on Flickr.

Here's one I did, with the original picture:

And the Poladroid version:

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Israeli Photographer Dovrat Amsily-Barak

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:13:25 GMT

Everyday at The Artist's Magazine we receive a cascade of mail. Readers compliment and sometimes complain; artists send queries or postcards announcing shows; publishers send review copies of books; societies and galleries send catalogues, etc. The other day, however, I received a disc of images and an accompanying artist's statement that were extraordinary.

Dovrat Amsily-Barak describes her work as "staged photographs of scenes that are déja vu fantasies." Actually a mother, she portrays one in her photographs; the settings evoke the austerity of institutions like clinics, orphanages, and convents; the light is precise and penetrating, reminiscent of Vermeer’s and Chardin’s.

The light is natural light, what Dovrat Amsily-Barak describes as "of the universe only." She says, "I am shedding light on the figure as an individual and illuminating the sacredness of its doings."

Photographs by Amsily-Barak;
used by permission

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