Escher Illusions

The Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher was known for his mathematically inspired art. I know what your thinking, math and art don't go together, but actually they go together all the time.  Escher did not have any mathematical training, but most of his math was done visually and by instinct.  I guess he had some great instincts.  

His work created some of the first optical illusions.  He loved to draw stairs that went nowhere and water that flowed up.  If he always tried to find a way to make you think about art.







Which one is your favorite?  What is some of the unique and unusual things that you can find in these drawings?

Day and Night in the same work

Have you ever wanted to create a work of art that has both day and night in it?  Well photographer Stephen Wilkes has done just that.  He positions his camera in a specific spot and turns it on for as long as 15 hours to catch both a night and day image in the same shot.

New York City

 

 

It is fun to find the line where the image switches from day to night. In the one above it is right around those bushes.  This one was also done around a Sept. 11th memorial, you can see the lights in the background.

 

 

 

I love this one in winter, but I don't think I could have stood up in his crane all day and froze in the name of art, could you sit still with him all day?

 

 

 

 

Perhaps you like the angle of this one better.  From the picture can you tell where the sun was compared to him?

 

 

This is a fun one of Coney Island.  You can see all of the beachgowers enjoying the hot summer day and all of the carnival riders having fun at night.  Could you have sat in the hot sun and got the shot? 

 



Forcing the perspective

Depending on your perspective of any situation you might see something different than someone else.  Well what if a photo forced you to change your perspective on a situation?  Can you force your brain to make it change the image to the right way?

Do you see the world different?  Do you have a creative idea you would like to try?

Failure

We are all scared to fail.  It means we did something wrong or that we are perhaps unable to do the task at all.  It never feels good to fail, but sometimes you have to fail in order to succeed. 

 One of my favorite quotes is from Thomas Edison.  It took Edison almost 2000 tries to get a working lightbulb but when asked about all of these failures all he would say is that he found 2000 ways how not to make a lightbulb. 

Here are some other famous failures.

 

There are even more examples of people who were considered failures but became huge successes.  So please keep in mind that if you never try anything you will never fail, but you will also never find success.

 

Is there anything that you have ever tried and failed at?  Did you just give up or did you try again?

Burning art

Now from the title you would think I am talking about burning artwork, but in a way you are both right and wrong.  I found a work of art that was created by candle smoke.  Yes you heard right, candle smoke.  The artist attaches paper to the ceiling and then holds a candle so far away from the paper depending on the shading that he needs.  They he puts the papers together to get his work of art.  Make sure you look at the details.

 

What are your thoughts on this artwork?  What would you like to do that would seem unrealistic?

Rocks

Have you ever wanted to create a sculpture out of something that you think you can't make a sculpture out of?


 
What do you think about a human made out of rocks and wire?  What do you think about this?  Can you see the hands and the feet and that there is a face in the wire?

Hands

Like learning to draw anything one of the most difficult things to draw are hands.  There are so many lines, wrinkles and differences in someone's hands that it is hard to create a realistic drawing.

 

One thing that you need to look for when drawing hands are the shadows.  The shadows will give the hands the depth and the realistic markings that they need.  Also don't forget the highlights.  Sometimes where the light hits is just as important as where the shadows are.

 

 

As you can see you don't have to shade everything dark, but there is not just shading on one side of the hand or on the side of it.  Both sides have some coloring to give the rounded feeling of a 3D object.

 

Does it help to look at pictures like this when thinking about drawing your own project?  I don't want you to copy but does this help show the shading?