Thursday, June 30, 2016

Found: A Gorgeous New Shade of Blue [feedly]



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Found: A Gorgeous New Shade of Blue
// Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places

article-image

YInMn Blue. (Photo: OSU)

Mas Subramanian and his team at Oregon State University weren't looking to create colors; they were just mixing chemicals together to see what they could produce. They were aiming for something with an electronics application. Instead, they got YInMn Blue—a new and vibrant blue pigment.

YInMn Blue came from mixing manganese oxide, which is black, with "other chemicals" and baking them in a 2,000 degree oven. One of the samples that came out was this beautiful blue color. Its name comes from some of those "other chemicals," which included the elements Yttrium and Indium.

YInMn Blue has some other nice properties. It's non-toxic! It's very durable. And since it reflects infrared waves with remarkable efficiency, it could be used to help keep buildings cool, if used in exterior paint. Imagine flying over a city of a roofs painted bright blue instead of dirty white or dark black. That's a very beautiful future.

Every day, we highlight one newly found object, curiosity or wonder. Discover something amazing? Tell us about it! Send your finds to sarah.laskow@atlasobscura.com


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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

brom 40 [feedly]



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The Visual Thrill of Color | Acrylic Painting Ideas [feedly]



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The Visual Thrill of Color | Acrylic Painting Ideas
// Artist's Network

Chris Cozen is back with guidance on acrylic painting for beginners! In today's guest blog post, be inspired with ideas for experimenting with color. For a limited time, Chris's Acrylic Color Explorations is included with Acrylic Artist (Summer 2016), Guide to Acrylic Mediums, and a set of disposable palettes in this exclusive collection. Enjoy! ~Cherie

Acrylic painting ideas | Chris Cozen, ArtistsNetwork.com

'Reflections' by Chris Cozen, who says to "limit your pigment choices but push and pull them to develop all their nuances." PIN this!

On Color and Acrylic Painting by Chris Cozen

Hello again! As always, I'm so pleased to be able to tell you all about my favorite subject–acrylics. I am all about color and that's why I'm so happy that I finally took the time to gather up all the bits and pieces I've learned along the way and put them into Acrylic Color Explorations: Techniques for Expressing Your Artistic Voice so you could have them as well.

Acrylic painting ideas, color wheels | Chris Cozen, ArtistsNetwork.com

Wheeling through color … 

When I was writing Acrylic Color Explorations I found myself making dozens of color wheels so that I could explore various red-blue-yellow pigment combinations. Each one was a marvel to me. What I learned from all those wheels was that acrylic color is infinitely malleable and easily tweaked and adjusted. I also learned that you can get by with a lot fewer colors if you fully understand what the colors you already have can do. Before writing this book I had never really considered keeping a color journal to record the discoveries I made as I intuitively mixed on my palette. I learned as I went along that a journal would help to encourage my own color explorations and push me to experiment more. I hope you will consider starting one of your own. You can follow some of the lessons in my book to get started or just experiment. I like using a bound journal with 140 lb. watercolor paper. This allows me to record water media explorations as well as straight acrylic without bleed-through. This sturdy paper holds up to collage, glazing and markers as well.

As always, when working with acrylic color it's important use the best quality paint you can afford. I always use Golden Artist Colors but will branch out to include other acrylic products or alcohol inks for fun. Artist quality paints have the most pigment per ounce and are the most cost effective in the long run. If you're just beginning, consider using "student grade" paint which has substantially better pigment strength than craft paints. One of the points I talk about in Acrylic Color Explorations is that you should know your pigments. Some are good mixers and others not so much. Whenever you add Titanium white to any color you will create a tint. The transparent qualities of some pigments will also be affected by the addition of white shifting them to opaque or semi-transparent. This is a great exercise to add to your own color journal.

Acrylic painting ideas | Chris Cozen, ArtistsNetwork.com

Chris's color journal for acrylic painting. Colors used on left side are Nickel Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Red, Cobalt Turquoise, and Titan Buff; colors used on the right side are Napthol Red Light, Transparent Pyrrole Orange, Paynes Gray, Titan Buff.

Color All Around

I'm living in the Northeast right now, which is a long way from California, where I usually call home. I arrived here in Ohio at the very beginning of spring. I was visually thrilled every time I went outdoors to see the variety of greens on display as the new leaves developed. Anything from gray green, to chartreuse, lime, blue-green and more. I ran to get my color wheels to see which pigments I could use to capture them. I keep them with my color journals so I'm always ready to record color when I see it. This kind of color exploration will really improve your ability to see and record the colors you experience.

There are all kinds of ways that you can explore color in your journal! One of my favorites is to choose three colors that you don't ordinarily use but already own and then find out what they can do. First combine each of the colors with white and with black to create tints and shades. Then start exploring what happens when you mix two of the colors together, then two more and then the last two. Each of these secondary colors can have tints and shades as well. If you like mixed media, add your painted papers and collage elements to your color journal, or use an image as a prompt to explore color. I often draw on the top surface of my color pages just for fun. The pages of Acrylic Color Explorations can give you more than enough material to get you started in your own color journal.

Artfully yours,
~Chris

**Free download: Easy Acrylic Painting Techniques To Try Today!
**Click here to subscribe to the Artists Network newsletter for inspiration, instruction, and more!

The post The Visual Thrill of Color | Acrylic Painting Ideas appeared first on Artist's Network.


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Wednesday, June 1, 2016

'Alto's Adventure' zen mode is built to help you relax [feedly]



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'Alto's Adventure' zen mode is built to help you relax
// Engadget

Alto's Adventure is already something of a tranquil experience between its endless snowboarding and beautiful pastoral landscapes, but developer Snowman wants go even further. It's introducing a "zen mode" to Alto that removes scores and lets you continue from wherever you crashed -- all you have to do is enjoy the experience. There's also a more relaxing soundtrack in this mode, and you'll even get a photo tool that lets you zoom in and peek behind foreground objects that might clutter the scene.

The update will arrive on June 2nd for all iOS users. As for Android? That's coming "soon," Snowman promises. Alto might not be your first choice for a chillout session (a soothing album and a quiet room would be my pick), but this should help for those moments when you're more interested in tuning out than beating your previous run.

Via: The Verge

Source: Built by Snowman


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Charles Joseph Grips [feedly]



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Charles Joseph Grips
// lines and colors

Charles Joseph Grips, Dutch interior paintings
Charles Joseph Grips was a Dutch born painter who spent much of his career in Belgium. Grips was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but his subject matter of quiet domestic interiors carries forward the flavor of Dutch genre painting of the 17th century.

Some of his compositions are particularly in the vein of De Hooch's marvelous interiors, inviting you back into spaces beyond the foreground room.

Unfortunately, there aren't many images of Grips' works online, and only a few of those are reasonably large. Those that are, however, reveal that his interiors (like those of William Merritt Chase) also work beautifully as still life paintings.

 

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Best of Pastel Pointers | Painting Greens in the Landscape [feedly]



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Best of Pastel Pointers | Painting Greens in the Landscape
// Artist's Network

Green can be a perplexing color to deal with when it comes to pastel landscape painting. As we head into summer and the presence of ever more foliage, here are a few tips that may prove useful for painting greens in your landscape subject.

painting-green-richard-mckinley

Green plays a prominent role in landscape painting at this time of year as seen in this pastel by Richard McKinley.

 

 

Mixed Greens: First, remember that green is a pigment in your palette and light in nature. Our pastel sticks are not what we see in nature, they are the tools we use to portray what we see. Many of the pigments used to manufacture green pastels are too chromatically intense (over saturated) and too cool in color temperature. Viridian and phthalocyanine green are examples. When these pigments are left in their native form and merely tinted with white and shaded with black to produce a value range, they appear artificial. While greens that appear cool in temperature definitely serve a purpose in a painting, these pigments have to be affected to appear natural. This has lead many pastel manufacturers to offer greens made by mixing pigments together much in the same fashion as an oil painter. These mixed-greens are often warmer in color temperature, producing a more pleasing green tone. While I have viridian green on my oil palette, I think of it as a turquoise blue/green and mix my basic green paint by combining a warm-yellow and blue. I duplicate this in my pastel palette by purchasing pastels that represent these mixed greens.

Color Secrets: Understanding the importance of color temperature and the effect simultaneous contrast phenomenon has on the appearance of color led me to create a saying for students: the secret of green is orange and the friend of green is violet. Natural light represents all color, so a little orange introduced into green (which is a combination of yellow and blue) subtly introduces the color family of red and completes the color wheel spectrum. Orange can be in the pastel stick itself, as previously mentioned, or feathered into a green passage within the painting. Violet also helps to visually complete the color wheel because violet is made with blue and red. When it is place in close proximity to green, it makes the green appear warmer. Note: Orange (the secret) is in or on top of the green and violet (the friend) is next to the green.

PAstel landscape painting tips for painting greens with richard mckinley artistsnetwork.com

A close-up of the green selection of one of my pastel palettes with a few friendly violet pastels.

"The secret of green is orange and the friend of green is violet."

Make a Comparison: When painting on location, a comparison can be made between a pastel stick and the scene. Start by selecting a pastel stick. Then hold it up in front of the scene, close one eye and squint. Make sure that the pastel stick is in the same light as the area in question, i.e. sunlight or shade. Often, the selected stick will appear more intense (chromatically saturated) than the actual area. This tests what we believe we see with what is really there and can help in making better green choices.

Green can be a tough color to handle, but with color temperature finesse, sensitive observation, wise selection, and artistic permission to sometimes tweak reality for the sake of a harmonious outcome, a successful lush painting can be achieved.

You'll find more landscape painting tips from Richard McKinley and 22 other top artists in the new e-book, Landscape Painting in Pastel.

The post Best of Pastel Pointers | Painting Greens in the Landscape appeared first on Artist's Network.


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Google offers tools for creating art using AI [feedly]



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Google offers tools for creating art using AI
// Engadget

Google doesn't just want to dabble in using AI to create art -- it wants you to make that art yourself. As promised, the search giant has launched its Magenta project to give artists tools for bringing machine learning to their creations. The initial effort focuses around an open source infrastructure for producing audio and video that, ideally, heads off in unexpected directions while maintaining the better traits of human-made art.

Ultimately, Google doesn't just want the technology to produce 'optimal' art based on what it learns from samples. It's hoping for the same imbalance (that is, focusing on one element over others), surprise and long-term narratives that you see in people-powered projects. It should feel like there's a distinct personality to a song or video.

You can look at Google's early Magenta code right now, and the company is vowing to accept both code and blog posts from outsiders who have something to add. If enough people rally around the idea, you could see a budding community of artists who add AI flourishes to their productions.

Source: Magenta, GitHub


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gothichorror: El Vampiro Sangriento aka The Bloody Vampire... [feedly]



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gothichorror: El Vampiro Sangriento aka The Bloody Vampire...
// Hyperwave



gothichorror:

El Vampiro Sangriento aka The Bloody Vampire (Mexico, 1962)


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Colorful Portraits of People You’ll Want to Meet [feedly]



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Colorful Portraits of People You'll Want to Meet
// Brown Paper Bag

Hayley Mitchell portrait

Hayley Mitchell paints people that you want to meet. Clad in bright colors, the Cubist-inspired ladies are adorned with beautiful headpieces and jewelry. They're abstract, yes, but still display unique personalities, and the pigments give us some insight into who they are. Wouldn't you like to know?

Hayley has created prints of these characters and sells them all on Etsy.

Hayley Mitchell portrait

Hayley Mitchell portrait

Hayley Mitchell portrait

Hayley Mitchell portrait

hayley-mitchell-12

Hayley Mitchell portrait

Hayley Mitchell portrait

Hayley Mitchell portrait

Hayley Mitchell portraits

The post Colorful Portraits of People You'll Want to Meet appeared first on Brown Paper Bag.


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The mesmerising graphic design of mid-century typewriter manufacturer Olivetti [feedly]



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The mesmerising graphic design of mid-century typewriter manufacturer Olivetti
// It's Nice That

Olivetti_ica_int_list

Our craving for minimalism in today's chaotic and information-heavy world is only further indulged when looking at the work of Olivetti, one of the leading manufacturers of typewriters of the mid-20th Century. Founded in 1908 by Camillo Olivetti in Italy, the company continually favoured design over pure functionalism and was responsible for some of the most iconic hand-typing devices and early computers of the era. 

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These Awesome Bright Illustrations Are Made With MS Paint [feedly]



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These Awesome Bright Illustrations Are Made With MS Paint
// Visual News

Remember playing around on MS Paint and thinking you were the next Picasso with your multi-colored scribbles and filled in blocks? Well, Sydney-based artist Miranda Lambert, otherwise known as Lazybones, is basically the Van Gogh of MS Paint artwork. By day Lambert is an HR assistant, but during her spare time on the weekends and in the evenings, she produces beautiful images of island scenes on the outdated technology of MS Paint.

MS Paint art

Using images of sunsets for color inspiration, Lambert's digital paintings take her about a day per image as she works for hours getting the color gradients and mountain ridges just right. The paintings are minimalistic and rarely stray from her choice to depict seascapes and mountain ridges. The results are fanciful and bleak, the bright colors splashed across each image evoking feelings of being on a hot, sandy beach on a deserted island.

MS Paint Art

Each of her paintings are captioned with little blurbs such as "a drawing about finding something and letting it go" and "a drawing about when you leave the party to be alone for a bit" that help to resonate the bleak feeling found throughout each image.

Check out more of her work here.

MS Paint Art MS Paint Art MS Paint Art

[Via: It's Nice That]


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Artist Of The Day - Christopher Lee [feedly]



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