Digital Desserts

Here is my latest Digital Dessert!

Katsushika Hokusai

Hokusai (1760-1849)

Katsushika Hokusai, Japan's best known artist, is ironically Japan's least Japanese artist. Japan's best known woodblock print, The Great Wave, is very un-Japanese. Welcome to the artist often known as Hokusai.

Hokusai (1760-1849) lived during the Tokugawa period (1600 to 1867). In a Japan of traditional Confucian values and feudal regimentation, Hokusai was a thoroughly Bohemian artist: cocky, quarrelsome, restless, aggressive, and sensational. He fought with his teachers and was often thrown out of art schools. As a stubborn artistic genius, he was single-mindedly obsessed with art. Hokusai left over 30,000 works, including silk paintings, woodblock prints, picture books, manga, travel illustrations, erotic illustrations, paintings, and sketches. Some of his paintings were public spectacles which measured over 200 sq. meters (2,000 sq. feet.) He didn't care much for being sensible or social respect; he signed one of his last works as "The Art-Crazy Old Man". In his 89 years, Hokusai changed his name some thirty times (Hokusai wasn't his real name) and lived in at least ninety homes. We laugh and recognize him as an artist, but wait, that's because we see him as a Western artist, long before the West arrived in Japan.

"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. but all I have done before the the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing." -- Hokusai

Hokusai started out as a art student of woodblocks and paintings. During the 600-year Shogun period, Japan had sealed itself off from the rest of the world. Contact with Western culture was forbidden. Nevertheless, Hokusai discovered and studied the European copper-plate engravings that were being smuggled into the country. Here he learned about shading, coloring, realism, and landscape perspective. He introduced all of these elements into woodblock and ukiyo-e art and thus revolutionized and invigorated Japanese art.

Although Chinese and Japanese paintings had been using long distance landscape views for 1,500 years, this style had never entered the woodblock print. Ukiyo-e woodblocks were produced for bourgeoisie city gentry who wanted images of street life, sumo wrestlers, and geishas. The countryside and peasants were ignored.

What was the influence on Hokusai? Here's an example of Dutch landscape art:

Erik Johansson's Digital Photographs WEBSITE

I'm a 25 years old photographer from Gothenburg, Sweden. Working mostly with personal projects and commercial work. I see myslelf as a photographer as much as a retoucher, a combination that is only limited by my own imagination. I hope you find my work inspiring!

Here is a link to a youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKaTDHUTYPU&feature=related

Free Graphic Arts Softwareto e

Here are some, free great graphics arts programs to Art it up with.

Sculptris is virtual clay modeling. It is a  very easy way to model in 3D. I have taught 6 year olds how to create using this program.

InkScape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw

http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en

Gimp is a  GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a raster  or bitmap graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs. Here is a free great alternative to Photoshop


http://www.gimp.org/downloads/


Artrage
The best actually real painting program I have seen for any price.
You can actually blend colors, just like real oil paints."
Starter edition is very basic and free however their 30 free trial of "Artrage 3.0" is incredible and only $60
$1.99 on the iphone or $5.99 for the ipad.  Give it a try.

http://www.artrage.com/artragedemo.html

Google SketchUp 8

Create 3D models and share them with the world

Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create 3D models of anything you like. Build models and add them to Google Earth »

Get started right away.
Most people get rolling with SketchUp in just a few minutes. Dozens of video tutorials, an extensive Help Center and a worldwide user community mean that anyone who wants to make 3D models with SketchUp, can. Check out our training videos »
Model anything you can imagine.
Redecorate your living room. Design a new piece of furniture. Model your city for Google Earth. Create a skatepark for your hometown, then export an animation and share it on YouTube. There's no limit to what you can create with SketchUp.

Get models online for free.
You can build models from scratch, or you can download what you need. People all over the world share what they've made on the Google 3D Warehouse. It's a huge, searchable repository of models, and it's free. Explore the Google 3D Warehouse »

http://sketchup.google.com/download/

We have access to a 3D Printer, go to http://www.dimensionprinting.com/ to see the possibilities. So when you create something in a Google Sketchup you can have it made into a real object.


Andrea Mosaic
Welcome to the official page of AndreaMosaic, a free project to create digital art using images and computer software. With AndreaMosaic you can create your own photographic mosaics made with your own pictures. A photo mosaic is an image composed of many tiled photos.

http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/

Processing
Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Developed at MIT

http://processing.org/download/

Blender

Blender is a software 3D animation program. It can be used for modeling, texturing, rigging, skinning, animating, rendering, UV unwrapping, particle and other simulating, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D applications. Blender has a robust feature set similar in scope and depth to other high-end 3D software such as 3ds Max and Maya.

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/


Bamboo (Small) Pen Tablet with Pen Only
If you really are planning on working creating "art" on a computer, then you need this great tool for inputting your ideas. Using this with "Artrage" is the most realistic way of painting on a computer screen I have experienced.

Amazon has the best price $49.99 or direct at Wacom for a reconditioned one which just had a packaged opened by customer then returned .
http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Small-Pen-Tablet-Only/dp/B000V9T2JA

ALEX MEADE Painter of Live 3D objects

Alexa Meade's innovative use of paint on the three dimensional surfaces of found objects, live models, and architectural spaces has been incorporated into a series of installations that create a perceptual shift in how we experience and interpret spatial relationships.

Alexa Meade is an installation artist based in the Washington, DC area. Her background in the world of political communications has fueled her intellectual interest in the tensions between perception and reality.

Stone Sculptures Blend Art and Technology

Western artists — in concert with Chinese craftsmen — realize fine art is not possible without digital and rapid prototyping.

Click here for a "U 2 Print in 3D Advertiment !" from Uprint 3D Printer "Advertisment " U 2 CAN PRINT 3 D ART!"

http://www.dimensionprinting.com/3d-printers/3d-printing-uprint-video.aspx
Example of a 3D printed sculpture: Challenge (rapid prototype): Bruce Beasley

Streamline Your Designing: Dimension 3D Printers are priced for office use, so you can create onsite perfect working models directly from your CAD, made of tough ABS plastic that can be sanded, milled, even painted. And that’s just the beginning: