Cornelius Mazurka

Cornelius Mazurka once conducted a seventy-five-piece consort of brassmen and hadros in Ruhmsburg. For many years he lived in a partially collapsed tower of the ruined bridge over the Jubila River. 

He remained among the ruins living a hermit's existence, along with his dinosaur partner Henriette, after most citizens fled from the city. He maintains a collection of antique instruments, though no one plays them but himself. 

During their journey to Chandara, Arthur Denison and Bix convince him to pack up his instrument collection and leave the city so he can start life again.

Turkey Consciousness

Naturalist Joe Hutto, who raised a flock of imprinted turkeys, says that they are extremely smart and aware communicators.

“But their ability to understand the world goes much further than just communication. I came to realize that these young turkeys in many ways were more conscious than I was”

In this nature video, he replays the experiment from his book Illumination in the Flatwoods. He raises a bunch of wild turkeys, allowing them to imprint on him so that he's their parent. The exercise—which must have taken total commitment for the better part of a year—gives us a rare insight into the umwelt of some very impressive wild animals.
 

Honoring a Hatchling

Dinotopians enjoy a mini parade to celebrate a new hatchling.

It was done as a comp for a possible FAO Schwarz toy catalog cover, but never went beyond this stage.

Super Zoom

How they found out Carlson was drinking on the job in Solar Corp’s Quad 28.

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He's drinking a home brew of Banisteriopsis caapi from the planet Xenon.

Background Painting with Ice and Snow

This background painting is from the Ralph Bakshi / Frank Frazetta animated movie “Fire and Ice.”

 

The left hand side of the composition is painted on an acetate cel so that the animated characters can walk through the middle of the scene. I used some airbrush in the back layer to soften the transitions, because I didn't want the background to compete with the figures.

Painting these backgrounds was an amazing experience because when I saw my paintings projected on the screen in the context of action and music and intercutting, I felt like I was living inside my pictures.

Making an Alpine Maquette

To create the painting “Thermala: Alpine Hideaway” I needed some reference for the lighting. 

I made a rough base from styrofoam, then draped some plaster-impregnated burlap over the base. 

I then built up a very rough model of an alpine castle from modeling clay and cardboard.

This was the work of no more than three hours—and I threw it out when it was finished

The painting appears in Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2024.
 

Troxler's Fading

Look at the little black cross at the center of this soft color field. Try not to move your eyes. Notice what happens to your perception of the colors in the rest of the area.

Did the colors mostly fade away to gray? It's caused by a neural adaptation that reduces your attention to a non changing stimulus. This happens because: 

"the neurons in the visual system beyond the rods and cones have large receptive fields. This means that the small, involuntary eye movements made when fixating on something fail to move the stimulus onto a new cell's receptive field, in effect giving unvarying stimulation."

 Source: Wikipedia on Troxler's Fading

Thomas Cole's Reaction to Photography

Thomas Cole, Youth, from Voyage of Life, oil on canvas

Thomas Cole (1801-1848) lived less than a decade after the invention of photography, but he already recognized what a game changer it would be for his fellow artists. He assessed the impact when writing to a friend:

"I suppose you have read a great deal about the daguerrotype. If you believe everything the newspapers say, you would be led to suppose that the poor craft of painting was knocked in the head by this new machinery for making Nature take her own likeness, and we have nothing to do but give up the ghost . . . This is the conclusion: that the art of painting is creative, as well as an imitative art, and is in no danger of being superseded by any mechanical contrivance."

I wonder how he would respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by today's art-generating machines. 

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Quoted from the book: The Painter and the Photograph

Ray Tracing and Path Tracing

Ray tracing and path tracing are both techniques used in computer graphics to simulate the behavior of light. 

Ray tracing is a rendering technique that simulates the behavior of light by tracing the paths of individual rays. In classic ray tracing, a specific algorithm calculates the reflection, refraction, and shading of light rays as they interact with surfaces in a scene. This technique has been widely used in computer graphics to generate realistic images that accurately represent the behavior of light. 

Path tracing is a form of ray tracing where the rays are traced across multiple bounces to take the contribution of indirect lighting to the scene. Path tracing is more computationally intensive than classic ray tracing, but it can render all lighting in a more physically correct way. 

As a result it's better for capturing caustics, global illumination, subsurface scattering, indirect lighting and the soft shadows that occur in real-world environments.

The game Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive lets you switch from one to the other, and the subtle differences are only really apparent when you see the same scene rendered with different techniques.

Jacek Malczewski's 'Melancholia'

Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) was a Polish symbolist painter.

One of his most famous works is a troubling, dreamlike image called "Melancholia," (1890-94). The painting depicts a chaotic scene in a painting studio:

"On the top left you can see the faint figure of the artist concentrated while working at easel. A chaotic crowd of allegorical figures flows out of the canvas at which the painter is sitting and into the space of the painting. Through the clothes and props held in their hands, the billowing column refers to the tragic history of Poland in the 19th century."

"Among the floating crowd you can see representatives of many social categories, insurgents, priests, children, desperate women, convicts in chains, scythemen and Napoleonic soldiers. The dominant props include weapons, scythes mounted on edge, bayonets, sabers and guns, some people hold violins, books, hourglasses and paintbrushes instead of weapons."

"The crowd seems to be heading towards the illuminated window, but only a few, decrepit old men reach the window sill and are unable to cross it. [At] the window stands a mysterious female figure in black robes, the title Melancholia, who prevents dozens of procession participants from penetrating the space symbolizing freedom."

"As a professor at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, the artist repeatedly told students 'Paint so that Poland is resurrected,' thus clearly defining the meaning and purpose of his own work.

(Source: Polish Wikipedia)