NeoLucida: The 21st Century Camera Lucida

Product Information

As university art educators, we ( Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin) sought to give art students the opportunity to test the HockneyFalco hypothesis for themselves. Wollaston was primarily a chemist and made his reputation far away from his camera lucida invention. In his 2001 book, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, David Hockney presented compelling evidence that developments in representational realism in Western art since the Renaissance were propelled by the (sometimes secret) use of optical instruments, such as the camera lucida, camera obscura, and concave mirrors. I bought the NeoLucida Plus, it's a sharp bright image, and allows for accurate drawings from from my monitor, or from real life into a sketch.

But your brain blends the two views, making it look like your subject is "projected" onto your paper. The original NeoLucida was made in 2013 by Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin and supported by 11,406 backers on Kickstarter. Instead of reflecting your subject, the partially-slivered glass reflects a mirror facing your subject. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The thesis elevates the artists to new heights, suggesting their hinger for experimentation, for their technical prowess in inventing or recognizing an invention’s potential to contribute to their artmaking.Both the NeoLucida and the NeoLucida XL are simple technologies that may make learning to draw a little less discouraging, and perhaps a little less intimidating.

Each model offers adjustable brightness through optical filters: LUCY flex and LUCY pro have two filters for four levels, while LUCY mini has one for two levels. He remarked in 1833: “when the eye was removed from the prism—in which all looked beautiful—I found that the faithless pencil had only left traces on the paper melancholy to behold. It is a modern reinterpretation of the camera lucida, an indispensable tool popular in the days before photography was invented. Working with optical scientist Charles Falco, the Hockney-Falco thesis inspired new conversations about the intertwined relationship between art and technology. The NeoLucida was also released with an open-source hardware license, encouraging others to modify and develop their own camera lucida devices.I have long been fascinated by camera Lucidas and obscuras and have even considered making a camera obscura out of curtains so that I can actually walk into it. For those not familiar with these devices, a Camera Lucida was an optical prism drawing aid that allowed the user to superimpose a scene they intended to draw onto their paper/canvas, allowing them to trace the basic outline and form. Today my drawing skills are non-existent, even my stickmen are deformed abominations that would make most shake their head. As someone who likes to draw, and has drawn consistently since I was little, I was surprised by how many people were drawn to (pun intended) these tools I make.