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Painting by Stu Dunkel made using one of our Camera Lucidas

Balance of Good, 12x16 oil on masonite

Paintings by Terry Elrod made with the help of his Premium Lucida

“I like to draw and paint en plein air. I purchased my Camera Lucida a year ago and modified it so it would mount on a camera tripod. [now you can buy a tripod mount with the Premium Lucida] It’s great for drawings of cityscapes to get the perspective right (even while sitting in a car), but it also works well for painting. A backpack carries my pochade box and tripod, so all I have to carry is the Lucida. I begin a painting by mounting the Lucida on the tripod and laying my painting panel on its drawing board. I adjust the panel’s position on the board to get a good composition, and then loosely draw key edges on the panel using a carbon pencil. In just a few minutes I’m started on a well-composed painting while my attraction to the scene is still fresh. Often I let drawn lines show through for an interesting effect.”

-Terry Elrod

Art Work by Jerry Flanary using his Camera Lucida

Local stores selling the LUCID-Art camera lucida

Art work with Camera Lucida by Les Bruder

Here is some art work done with the help of one of our Camera Lucidas, thoughts and a testimonial by Les Bruder. He is working on a website in which artists share their ideas, techniques etc, so that traditions can develop and veer off in creative directions. We will post a link when his site gets up and running.

“The Camera Lucida is suited to reducing panoramas and natural scenes to the size of a large drawing pad, and its portability makes it ideal for such image capture. You don't have to rely upon electricity as with projection systems, and the filters help one deal with all manner of natural lighting.

In my portraits and the movie screen shot [Below] I managed to use small photographs placed very near the aperture and mirror, together with a light near enough the image to allow me to view clearly the faces and figures on the paper. The enlargement of the image was about double.

You really learn a lot about light and seeing when you begin to play around with such an instrument. You feel like part of the camera, in fact you are a part of the camera; the mirror reflects the image onto a surface, the artist plays the part of the developing chemicals which fix the image on the paper. Another and perhaps greater instruction one gets from using the Lucida is practice in seeing and manipulating proportion, which, as Leonardo Di Vinci said, is divine. “ –Les Bruder

Art Work by Lynne Hurd Bryant using her Camera Lucida

Lynne has a BFA in art, and has no problem with light, color and shading but had trouble drawing anything to her satisfaction. She found our eBay store (AncientOptics.com) after watching a National Geographic documentary, and ordered a Camera Lucida immediately. Here is her reaction to her Camera Lucida:

“I LOVE THIS THING! I am so pleased and so excited and it is like MAGIC. My grammas were artists and I am sure they would roll in their graves to know I use one, but they would love it if they were here. This will add to my art degree training and expand what I can do.

I got an opaque projector to work from photos and I am less than impressed. Part of the problem is that they are photographs. The lucida will not have this problem. If anything, it seems to increase the depth of things.

I researched online about lucidas. Yes, you can sit in front of a computer screen with a digital image and use the lucida to draw it. I tried looking at some digital images through the lucida and view is 100% better than with an opaque projector.

Also, I drew a pot outside with the right oval shape and appropriate shadow. It was effortless. Perfection!

I found the instructions useful, as far as distance and adjustments were concerned. I didn't feel lost at all and I love the results. VERY HAPPY HERE.

The girl is my daughter and it is VERY like her, an very good likeness. Keep in mind, while I have a BFA in art, I never would do a portrait in school. This of her is about 8th or 9th portrait I ever done, period.”

-Lynne Hurd Bryant

We will undated you with more of her art work as she continues to use her Camera Lucida.

Student-reenactors at McLean High School, VA

Student-reenactors at McLean HS using one of our lucidas. It was demonstrated at an outdoor event at Carlyle House in Alexandria, VA. It is the historic home of a prominent 18th c Virginian and was the site where General Braddock planned the campaign (with young Geo Washington serving under him) to Ohio in the French & Indian War. The students roamed the grounds to set the "historical atmosphere"...and the lady in the photo above showed how sketching was done in that period. It was a hit.

Their performance season is just now heating up, so we plan to use the lucida and obscura that they got from AncientMagicArtTools.com a lot. Updates will be coming!

The obscura with the silhouette we made using it.

About.com: Painting five start review of our Premium Camera Lucida

Please read the About.com: Painting five start review of our Premium Camera Lucida by Marion Boddy-Evans, About.com
http://painting.about.com/od/artsupplies/gr/camera-lucida-magic-tools.htm

Welcome!

AncientMagicArtTools.com

Welcome! More posts will be coming. If you have any question or comments about our Camera Lucidas, Camera Obscuras or other historical art tools and techniques, then send me an email (noushles@hotmail.com) or post a comment.

Also we’d love to see any art work done with our art tools, hear any stories about using them in the classroom and/or hear any testimonies.