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Food Photography - back to basicsFood is a necessity for daily life and good health (the right kinds anyway), but food is also fast becoming something of an Art as well as many turn to their cameras once a mammoth baking session is over and capture the delightful dishes in attractive and alluring ways. Since the beginnings of Still Life Photography, food has been a subject and whilst the topic has remained the same - methods, equipment and ease have changed in varying degrees across the years. Food Photography is still a genre that is vastly overlooked and majorly underrated in the art world.
It all began with Still Life Paintings back in the 17th Century. They were as far from commercial as a style could get and certainly weren't created with selling in mind. However the skill and main aspects that realism painters took back in the 17th Century are kept close to the hearts of Food Photographers today as they grip onto Realism, effects of light, composition and arrangement. Props have always been an important part of

An Interview With A 'Historical Figure'Learn all about `ndifference!

Tell us a little about yourself.
I was a literature Tier Admin way back in the foggy past, then Gallery Director for two years.
I have taken workshops from Etheridge Knight, Adrienne Rich, John Bensko, and Allen Ginsberg.
I have been published in a handful of literary journals, including the Southwestern Review and River City.
Why did you start writing?
That was over 40 years ago, so I really have no memory of the first compulsion to write. I'm not certain I could have answered the question if it was asked the minute I began writing. The impetus was organic and just happened.
How do you think you've progressed over time in your writing?
Like most, I started with a fixation on the meaning of words. After a few years, that approach started to seem a bit too utilitarian to me, and once I discovered artists like John Cage and Brian Eno, I realized that the meaning of words was just one aspect of

Famous Photographs: Lunch Atop A SkyscraperWhilst the most famous photographs from across the years often feature famine, death, destruction and war, it's sometimes refreshing to catch a glimpse of one or two that don't exhibit depression, demise and conflict. Photo-journalism can work both ways to brief the viewer of an image on what it's like to step into somebody else's shoes. It can shock, bring a tear or even, by some miracle - a smile.
Lunch Atop A SkyScraper does exactly that. It provokes a smile, it features across the world in postcards, books, greeting cards and other formats and ultimately it tugs at that part of your heart that knows there can be good in the world. So what makes it famous?
Source: Wikipedia
The Photograph itself shows eleven working men eating lunch, sitting on a steel girder. Nothing extraordinary about that right? Wrong. Their feet are dangling 256 metres above New York City. Nobody actually knows w

Digital Art - Why it's such a popular mediumThe World of Digital Art
Stepping out of the real world and into your imagination is an experience that is both shared and held close to all of us. Most of us here express it in our own way in respects to art and the art form. As time moves forward technology progresses on, that type of expression is finding new means and mediums to be painted upon.
Digital art has exploded with the modern age and with it brilliant and fantastic artists have emerged from its rupture. So why is Digital Art so popular.

Cordyceps by *jeffsimpsonkh
What makes Digital Art so appealing that most would give up traditional art to move onto something more accessible. Is it money? Is it the potential to further your own artistic ventures? Some say all and others none of the above. It's all personal preference but I am sure we can all observe how popular Digital Art has become. Not just for the artists down the street but as

William KentridgeWilliam Kentridge is a South African born filmmaker, sculptor and artist. His works are full of narrative that is influenced by politics and his studies in theatre. He generally works in traditional media such as charcoal and pastels. Some of his most memorable works were between the years of 1989 and 1996, which were a series of animations as viewed through the eyes of three different running characters.
During this period of time his works talked about the politics, social issues such as race and class, and injustice in South Africa at the time. Whilst his works are often about his views about what is going on, sometimes there are autobiographical elements in it as he has included his own image in his work.
The way he treats his materials also adds to the messages he is trying to get across. Rubbing out charcoal lines, drawing over it, but of course charcoal never cleans off completely so you can get a sense of the passing of time, decay and memory in his film.
"In the same w

Eadweard MuybridgeSo Eadweard Muybridge, why should all animators know his name? He is an English photographer who moved over to America. So what is a photographer doing in our Film, Animation and Flash month?
Well his photography is really quite unique for the time, he set up multiple cameras for his shots in order to capture motion in the form of stop-action photography. He was also known for creating the zoopraxiscope, which plays a series of images in order to create the illusion of motion, in other words very early animation work! These series of images were on disc that were spun and projected, so the images loop in sequence. Kind of like your first generation animated gifs!
His photography work and his zoopraxiscope helped people to study in detail how things move. From the way people walk, jumping, running through to horses galloping. And as a tutor once said to me, if you can animate a horse, you can animate anything. These images surprised many people, such as when a horse runs, there is a pha

^ladygagz (current)
June 11, 2012 - Present

$namenotrequired
September 29, 2011 - June 10, 2012 (Moved to Community Projects)

`WDWParksGal
January 6, 2011 - September 28, 2011

`ginkgografix
January 18, 2010 - January 5, 2011

`GaioumonBatou (now $wreckling)
January 16, 2010 to May 15, 2010 (moved to literature)
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A History of Photography (Mostly)Art History Photography Month has begun and where better to start than with the History of Photography! I appreciate not everything is included, but here are some key main events and features, images and happenings that have impacted Photography across the years. If you don't want to read it all, scroll to the bottom for my tl;dr handy summary

1000AD
This is said to be where it all began with Alhazen inventing the first pinhole camera - known as Camera Obscura. Heard the phrase before? Now you know where it originates from! Aristotle observed and noted in around 330BC the optic laws that made pinhole cameras possible and questioned why the Sun could make a circular image when it shined through a square hole.
Source:LOC
1794
The First Panorama opens - the forerunner of the movie house invented by Robert

Hungarian Comics - From 19th Century till WWIFirst of all, I'd like to say that when I heard that there will be a Graphics week, I was so happy and wanted to write and article about it since I studies Traditional Graphics for 4 years. I had History of Art classes and I had some extra classes from it. I just loved what we studied in school!
The roots of Hungarian comics reach back to the mid 19th century. Until the late 1930s Hungarian comics followed the European trends. Comic strips were generally found in newspapers and magazines, featuring works from both Hungarian and foreign artists. Since comics were so closely bound to the printed media, their creators were mostly caricature artists as well. The years preceding World War II proved to be unfavorable for comics as the mainly Jewish owned yellow press basically disappeared together with comic strips (a great exception were children’s comics).
Interesting note: The Hungarian word for comics is képregény, a combined word from ké

Kyle Cooper - Revolutionizing title sequencesTitle sequences are to movies what appetizers are to food. Often underrated, they are not unimportant. A good title sequence leaves a good first impression of the film, and makes the watcher want to see more. Good title sequences can be found throughout history of film, and some have even left a profound impression on their franchise. One example of this is the James Bond series, where in the first film, "Dr. No" (1962) many of the iconic aspects of the James Bond movies were established in the first few minutes; the gun barrel sequence and the music in particular.
There is one man in particular who took the art of title sequences to a whole new, insane level. That man is Kyle Cooper.
Se7en
In the movie "Se7en", we are confronted with a serial killer who murders his victims in a way that reflects the sins they have committed in their lives. What seperates Se7en from many other horror movies is the source of these murders: normally we see one disturbed ind

A short history of QuiltingSince the history of quilting could easily fill a book and has in fact has filled many books, I'm going to keep this rather shorter. As it is a short overview there will be things left out that the more historically minded might miss but there are so many facets to quilting that I cannot include it all.
First of all some definitions to help you understand the terms I use:
- Patchwork is the sewing together of many pieces of fabrics to create a new larger piece of fabric that can then be used to make a quilt or a garment or anything else the maker chooses to make from it.
- Quilting is the layering of two fabrics with a filler layer in between that is then covered with lines or patterns of sewing stitches to hold the filling in place. In modern times it also often refers to a piece of patchwork that is given a backing and a filling and stitched through. In this article I will use both meanings.
Quilting has been around for at least 5000 years if not longer and used to pad fabrics for ma

Film Legends: Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) is one of the most influental directors of the last century. If there is one thing most obvious that his works have in common, it is a strong inclination to the unsettling, sometimes disturbing and most likely controversial.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" via imdb.com
From ancient history over horror to science-fiction and erotica, there seems to be no topic he did not create a master piece in. He always avoided to repeat himself, yet you just know when you watch a movie of his.

"Full Metal Jacket"
He was a perfectionist who often drove his actors to the extreme. Repeating seemingly simple scenes 5o times or actually endangering their health for a certain shot.
Obsessed with every detail of the movie, from camera to costume, he was also immaculat

Famous Photographers: What we can learnThere are things that we can learn from everybody, whether it's as they say - sitting at the feet of an elderly person - or indeed reading from a book, looking at history in photos and so on. But what, if anything, can we learn from the Famous Photographers of the past? Well, plenty.
Julie Margaret Cameron
She was a shrewd business woman, and her fame came from having the only photographs of some very famous iconic people in History. And how did she manage this? By meticulously keeping details and registering her copyright with every single Photograph she took. We can learn a lot from her actions, particularly in an age where anything can be replicated, if you have the right tools. Equally, we can also learn the value of the equipment we have around us, and how easy it is now to capture a photograph and share it with the world. Julie's time in Sri Lanka served as a testimony that without pure water and chemicals, she couldn't continue with her craft and a

PapercuttingsPapercutting is an art form that has been seen all over the world, adapted to regional styles based on cultures. It should come as no surprise that the Chinese have the earliest forms of papercutting currently known to us as the 'ancestor to paper' has been found in China. This was dated as far back as 2nd century B.C. and is considered as important as their discovery of printmaking, gunpowder and the compass.

~Thessatoria's It's Your Life
Naturally as paper spread throughout the world this art form evolved, spreading all over the Far East through to the Middle East. For example Japanese Kirigami where origami folds are cut and Indian Sanjhi.
This art form is popular to this very day, take renowned British artist Rob Ryan, which I am sure many of you here would have at least seen his work before! His work has been seen printed over everything you can think of, kitchenware, clothes, books and probably more!
<i>

The Tales of Beatrix Potter

Cold winter evenings or blustery Autumn days had the soundtrack of my Mother's voice reading Beatrix Potter books out loud when I was younger. In fact, the wonderful children's books were the epitome of my childhood. The illustrations were just perfect and the stories, whilst simple, were mysterious and adventurous in their own way. Beatrix Potter was born in 1866, South Kensington, London. She was said to live a lonely life, being educated at home by a governess and so perhaps that's why she delved into a fantasy world of rabbits, geese and other traditional animals.

Beatrix's illustrations come from her copious studies of her own pets, and the animals that roamed the gardens of the places in which she holidayed as a child. The fascinating fact was that Beatrix's illustrations became greetings cards before her books were created. I see her drawings on cards in shops now and I always thought that it had developed the other way around. Her first boo

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Brief History of Claymation

Fri Feb 8, 2013, 7:24 PM

Claymation is a method of animation where clay figures are filmed using stop-motion photography.

Claymation (clay animation) dates way back to 1897, when the material plasticine was introduced to the artistic world. In this article, we will briefly explore the history of Claymation!

(scene from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas)

So.. where have you seen this method used before? Films such as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, and Chicken Run were all made using Claymation. TV shows such as Wallace and Gromit, Gumby, and Bob the Builder also use this method.

Sammy Squid: Turns The Other Tentacle by SuperDaddytv

In terms of notable clay animators, Jan Švankmajer is someone worth talking about. Švankmajer created his first film in 1964 and has impacted the film and animation world with his unique style. He has created many feature-length and short-films using claymation - many of which influenced filmmakers such as Tim Burton and Brothers Quay.

Darkness Light Darkness by Jan Švankmajer

You can view some Claymation on deviantART created by our talented Film and Animation community in the Stop Motion gallery.

9 Comments

Brief History of Claymationby ^ladygagz

Journals / Art News / Animation

A brief history of Claymation, for #ArtHistoryProject

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*KittyLaFurr Feb 9, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Soooo cool! A friend introduced me to some of the films by Tim Burton and I fell in love with it. I'm excited that you shared this with us!

*RTNightmare Feb 9, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

Yeeeeeeeeeah, Nightmare!

I love you, Jack!

`Infinite-Heart Feb 9, 2013 General Artist

Well done!
I lovec claymation, although, some styles creep me out.

`catluvr2 Feb 9, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

You didn't mention games done with claymation?

At least mention the Neverhood.

=Armonah Feb 9, 2013

The Neverhood was a claymation masterpiece. Damn shame that wasn't mentioned :[

`catluvr2 Feb 9, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

I know. I've gone through it at least twice, and I chose both endings. I chose the good ending first, though.

*Merwilla Feb 9, 2013 Student Filmographer

actually most claymation nowdays don't use clay anymore for the moving characters.

Most make a metal skeleton and cast a silicon form around it or like with Paranorman 3D print a lot of the parts [link]

^pica-ae Feb 9, 2013 Professional Interface Designer

Gotta love clay motion

And even if as a kid you think they are actually alive

`YukiMizuno Feb 8, 2013 Hobbyist Writer

Fuuu! You stole my idea.

Oh well, I did a feature, guess that's enough.

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