Dragon Copter

(Video link) Festo has built a working model ornithopter called a BionicOpter. Like the dragonfly it is based on, it can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air, and glide. 

I have always been fascinated by the idea of dragonfly ornithopters. Here is Arthur Denison's steam-powered dragoncopter from Dinotopia: The World Beneath (1995). Even though the dragonfly is a very ancient design, it's one of the most agile fliers among insects.

(link to video) The aerodynamics are suggested in this computer simulation from Wright State University.

-----
Thanks, Luke Davis 

Previously on GJ: 

Insect Vehicles

Butterfly ornithopter

The Black Garden

Here’s a plein-air oil painting called “The Black Garden” (Edit Back Garden) by Adolph Menzel (German 1815-1905). It’s about 35x45 inches. 

A careful study like this would probably be done over two or three sessions. Overcast conditions are a big help for such extended outdoor work because the subject changes less from hour to hour.

How Rockwell turned a detractor into a defender

My friend David Starrett met Norman Rockwell a couple of times in Los Angeles in 1949 when Rockwell was artist-in-residence at the old Otis art school. David told me this story, which he witnessed.

In those days, a lot of the art teachers at Otis criticized Rockwell. One remarked, as he passed through the hallway, "The only way Rockwell can paint is from a photo." Rockwell happened to be working in a classroom and overheard the comment.

Later that day, Rockwell, a slender and modest man, approached the critic as a dachshund might approach a pit bull.

"You have an interesting face," he said. "May I paint your portrait? Why don't you come by tomorrow around noon?"

The critic agreed, and the next day Rockwell proceeded to paint a perfect likeness from observation, all the while regaling the man with amusing stories. Then he gave him the painting.

The painting went up in the man's office and it blew everyone away. Now Rockwell's toughest critic became his biggest champion. No one could say a single word against Rockwell without an argument from this guy.

Marc Dallesio's one-minute videos

Florence-based American artist Marc Dalessio has produced a series of short videos, each one making a single point about academic methods for painting the landscape and the figure.


(Direct link to video) This one shows how to use the the sight-size method for landscape.


(Video link) A pocket mirror helps check the accuracy of a portrait. You can hold it both horizontally and vertically to help spot errors in the drawing.

Some of Marc's other one minute videos:
Using a cuttlebone for to prepare the surface of a painting
Scraping down between painting sessions
Sealing gessoed panels
------
Marc Dalessio's blog
Marc's website
Lines and Colors profile
Thanks, Thomas Kitts

Plein Air Gouache in Monterey

Gouache—or opaque watercolor—is a wonderful sketching medium because it's so portable, opaque, and fast drying. It's well suited to oil painters who want to travel super-light. I had a few tubes with me at the Plein Air convention in Monterey last Sunday.


Good thing, because I needed something opaque to cover a failed page in my watercolor sketchbook (better than cutting a page out).

For this painting, I set out to capture a lineup of painters in a warm color range, gradating both the background color and the silhouettes as you shift to the left. The morning sun edge-lit the artists and their easels, helping to separate them in some places, while they merged into the tone at the base.



(Direct link to Video)

You can watch the painting being made on this short video. Note the skateboard dolly shots by my son Frank and his buddy Justin Critelli, who operated the cameras while steering dangerously between tippy easels.
-----
Subscribe for free to the James Gurney YouTube Channel and see the videos before anyone else.

Materials: Designers' Gouache, Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils, Moleskine Watercolor Notebook, and various sizes of flat watercolor brushes.

Most Beautiful Abandoned Places

If you like eerily beautiful abandoned places, check out this portfolio of 33 of the best.


Here's an abandoned Russian military rocket factory.


....and Christ of the Abyss at San Fruttuoso, Italy
------
The 33 of the most beautiful abandoned places.

Air Bus

Yesterday there was a little delay before our Virgin flight could push back from the gate at San Francisco. So out came the watercolors.


The watercolor notebook and miniature pan set fit across my lap. I held the drawing tools in my left hand, but I kept dropping them. The lady behind me was nice and handed me the stuff I dropped.


This was the view out my window to the adjacent aircraft. Most of the fuselage was in shadow. Since it was a white color with high specularity it picked up a lot of reflected light: warm from below, and cool from above in almost equal brightness.

I used a dark blue colored pencil for the accents, staying well above black. I used gouache only for the highlight flares and the tops of the orange rubber posts. The whole painting took a half hour.


As everyone was getting off the plane, I showed the painting to the flight crew. Captain Mike Lawson invited me into the cockpit of the Airbus A320. Thanks, Mike!

Media: Rublev watercolor set, Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils, Moleskine Watercolor Notebook, and various sizes of flat watercolor brushes.

Happy 82nd, Dan!

(Link to Video) Happy 82nd birthday to my cousin, race driver Dan Gurney. Here's a YouTube video about his Indianapolis highlights.
Road and Track: "Dan Gurney: The Greatest American Hero"

Activision develops real-time face simulation

(Direct link to YouTube video) Activision's research and development team has released this video of an entirely synthetic animated character. It is rendered in real time, which means that a character could look this realistic during gameplay. Or a character could be created with entirely different geometry, such as an orc or a fish-man.

There are a few jarring artifacts, such as the flat black of the inside of the mouth. But the rest of the simulation—including depth of field, subsurface scattering, tiny skin twitches and eye movements, and skin elasticity—gives the simulation a compelling realism, a big step across the uncanny valley.

Via Best of YouTube

I-Wei and Almanac Interviews

Inventor, Artist, Animator, Toy Maker, and Tinkerer I-Wei Huang has posted an in-depth interview on his "CrabFu" blog.

I-Wei makes all sorts of cool stuff like steam turbine tanks and a steam walker.

Also, our local events paper, the Almanac has posted an interview here.