Watercolor Painting Research Articles

759. STRUMARIA PHONOLITHICA

SummaryThe deciduous geophyte Strumaria phonolithica Dinter is a late autumn‐flowering species endemic to southwestern Namibia, with a beautiful outspread fan of leaves and scented white, funnel‐shaped blooms. A description and details of its history, taxonomy, habitat and cultivation are given, accompanied by a watercolour painting.

Painting with Polygons: A Procedural Watercolor Engine

Existing natural media painting simulations have produced high-quality results, but have required powerful compute hardware and have been limited to screen resolutions. Digital artists would like to be able to use watercolor-like painting tools, but at print resolutions and on lower end hardware such as laptops or even slates. We present a procedural algorithm for generating watercolor-like dynamic paint behaviors in a lightweight manner. Our goal is not to exactly duplicate watercolor painting, but to create a range of dynamic behaviors that allow users to achieve a similar style of process and result, while at the same time having a unique character of its own. Our stroke representation is vector based, allowing for rendering at arbitrary resolutions, and our procedural pigment advection algorithm is fast enough to support painting on slate devices. We demonstrate our technique in a commercially available slate application used by professional artists. Finally, we present a detailed analysis of the different vector-rendering technologies available.

“You are no stranger to me”

“You are no stranger to me”

Efficient Watercolor Painting on Mobile Devices

We present a novel watercolor painting drawing system which can work even on low powered computing machine such as tablet PC. Most digital watercolor systems are generated to perform on desktop, not low powered mobile computing system such as iPad. Our system can be utilized for art education besides professional painters. Our system is not a naïve imitation of real watercolor painting, but handles with properties of watercolor such as diffusion, boundary salience, and mixing of water and pigment.

Different Techniques in Fabrication of Ocular Prosthesis

Loss of an eye caused by cancer, trauma, or congenital defect creates a deep psychological impact on an individual's life especially social and professional life. Custom-made prosthesis, compared to stock prosthesis, provides a better fit to the eye socket, better cosmetic results, and less discomfort to the patient in the long term. The main objective of this article was to describe 3 different alternative and practical techniques of fabricating custom-made ocular prosthesis. An impression of anophthalmic socket was made with the addition of cured silicone-based precision impression material in all techniques. A master cast was prepared and duplicated with condensation silicone. A self-cure acrylic resin was polymerized in the silicone model and was fitted into the patient's eye socket. A digital photograph of the patient's iris was made using a digital camera and printed on good-quality photo paper in various shades and sizes in the first and the second techniques. Then the photo paper was coated with PVC so as not to allow any color flowing. The proper iris was then inserted to the acrylic base. The prosthesis was final processed using orthodontic heat polymerizing clear acrylic resin.In the other technique, after the trying-in process with wax pattern, an acrylic base was fabricated using heat polymerizing scleral acrylic resin. The prosthetic iris was fabricated from a transparent contact lens by painting the lens with watercolor paints and attaching it to an acrylic resin with tissue conditioner. The final process was made with heat polymerizing transparent acrylic resin. Custom-made prosthesis allows better esthetic and functional results to the patient in comparison to stock prosthesis. Further follow-up is necessary to check the condition and fit of the ocular prosthesis in such patients.

Richard Frederick Deckert (1878–1971), Florida naturalist and natural history artist

Richard Deckert (born in Germany in 1878, immigrated to New York in 1887, died in Florida in 1971) was a polymath with great enthusiasm and wide ranging interests in natural history. His collections and publications did much to document the reptiles, amphibians, and land snails of Florida. His contributions to natural history illustration were equally important, as his carefully detailed line drawings and water colour paintings delineated the intricate details of snails, fishes, amphibians, and reptiles (particularly snakes and turtles), as well as fossil vertebrates, and were used in a wide range of systematic publications. Deckert also contributed to the modernization of fish taxidermy, leading to the current methods for creating lifelike fish mounts. This paper documents his scientific and artistic work.

Lectotypification of Crepidotus variabilis var. subsphaerosporus

An original watercolour painting by J. E. Lange is designated as the lectotype of Crepidotus variabilis var. subsphaerosporus. This painting was cited in two descriptions published invalidly by Lange prior to his validation of the name; it therefore constitutes part of the original material on which he based his description. As a lectotype, it supersedes the neotype previously designated by Senn-Irlet, which is here designated as epitype.

Not Only Prints: Early Republic-Era Visual Culture Research at the Library Company of Philadelphia

Scholars, the general public, and special collections libraries are increasingly aware of the importance of visual images in examining the past. With the proliferation of sophisticated digitization technologies, researchers now have the opportunity to "see" images in new ways. No longer considered secondary to text and used merely to illustrate the written word, visual materials are taking their rightful place as primary evidence that document the past and influences our understanding of the present. The Library Company of Philadelphia supports this continuing focus on the historical importance of visual culture.

Stephanie L. Normann, 1935–2011

Stephanie L. Normann, 1935–2011

Design for Ecological Democracy by Randolph T. Hester

Design for Ecological Democracy is indispensable as both field guide and handbook for creating ecological democracy through the design of the buildings, cities, and landscapes of the future. As a field guide, Hester enables the reader to recognize the social and ecological beauty of places when it is encountered with his rich hand-drawn illustrations and watercolor paintings. As a handbook, Hester gives the reader the intellectual tools to apply these ideas in one's own work in planning and design with his thoughtful analysis and clear design principles.

The Album Amicorum & the London of Shakespeare’s Time (review)

Reviewed by: The Album Amicorum & the London of Shakespeare’s Time Heidi Craig June Schlueter, The Album Amicorum & the London of Shakespeare’s Time (London: British Library 2011) xiii + 210 pp. June Schlueter’s impressive and accessible The Album Amicorum & the London of Shakespeare’s Time is the first full-length study in English of the album amicorum, or the “friendship album” genre. The album tradition began in German universities in the mid-sixteenth century, and flourished among German-and Dutch-speaking travellers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Album owners would fill their alba with textual and graphic media, and circulate their volumes in order to collect friends’ and dignitaries’ signatures, dedications, coats of arms, drawings, and watercolor paintings. These albums served both as a public declaration of one’s social connections and personal taste, as well as a souvenir of one’s travels and acquaintances. Although predominantly a continental tradition, Schlueter limits her focus to albums with a connection to what she dubs “Shakespeare’s London”: the city between the 1580s (when Shakespeare arrived in London) and 1623 (the publication of the First Folio). Schlueter focuses on albums that belonged to Dutch and German visitors to London, as well as on continental albums with English contributors. In this way, Schlueter offers a tourist’s view of early modern London and explores Londoners’ interactions with their continental neighbors. The monograph is divided into ten chapters. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the genre’s general features, including albums’ material attributes and the role the albums played in social exchange. Chapter 2 is devoted to Flemish soldier Michael van Meer’s 1614–1615 album, which documents his visit to London. Chapters 3 and 4 reconstruct early modern London through accounts and illustrations of London landmarks, institutions, costumes, and processionals as they are presented in various visitors’ albums. Chapters 5 and 6 investigate albums with royal connections, which, with their wide array of signatures from England and the Continent, reveal a complex network of royal and aristocratic [End Page 277] relationships across Europe. Chapter 7 examines illustrations of early modern actors and musicians in performance, while chapters 8 and 9 explore some of the more peculiar paintings in alba amicorum. Finally, in chapter 10, Schlueter concludes with an examination of Francis Segar’s album, one of the few Englishmen to adopt the continental custom of album keeping. The monograph’s sixty-seven beautifully rendered illustrations display not only the signatures, coats of arms and portraits that were incorporated into albums, but also drawings and watercolors of landmarks and scenes of everyday life in early modern London. For example, an album painting of Elizabeth I’s Westminster Abbey tomb records features no longer extant, while illustrations of theatrical performances and travelling players provide perspective on contemporary dramatic practices. Throughout the work, Schlueter cites 187 examples from the 2,000 alba amicorum she examined over a seven year period in libraries and archives in continental Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. As is typical of material book histories composed of numerous case studies, the masses of data required to relate such examples do not always produce a readable narrative. However, the book is always highly informative, and Schlueter’s meticulous citations provide a valuable resource for researchers. The Album Amicorum is most engaging when Schlueter moves from discussions of particular albums to the broader cultural implications of the genre. She reveals the albums’ importance to early modern friendship and self-fashioning, both of which were conducted in public. Album owners displayed their social connections by soliciting signatures and tributes from eminent dignitaries, aware that later contributors would read these tributes. As Schlueter explains, “[n]ot only did the album owner receive the praise of his contributors with satisfaction; so also was he pleased to have subsequent contributors read what earlier ones had written”(27). For their part, contributors gauged their status according to the albums’ previous contributors, and were conscious that subsequent ones would read their entries. Album owner and contributor alike displayed their personal taste and wealth by incorporating erudite textual and beautiful (and expensive) visual materials for albums, with owners and contributors each highly attentive to the public nature...

717. GEISSORHIZA MONANTHOS

Details of the history, life cycle, taxonomy, cultivation and propagation requirements of the striking Geissorhiza monanthos Eckl. from South Africa's southwestern Cape are given, accompanied by a watercolour painting and habitat photographs.

722. GAZANIA KREBSIANA subsp. ARCTOTIODES

The herbaceous perennial Gazania krebsiana Less. subsp. arctotoides (Less.) Roessler is widespread across South Africa and an outstanding garden ornamental. A description and details of its history, biology, cultivation and propagation are provided, accompanied by a watercolour painting and photograph of subsp. krebsiana in habitat.

723. GORTERIA DIFFUSA

The beetle daisy, Gorteria diffusa Thunb., is a South African and Namibian spring-flowering annual with a very interesting pollination strategy involving insect-mimicking petal spots, details of which are given here, in addition to notes on its history, habitat and cultivation, accompanied by a watercolour painting of the subsp. diffusa and a habitat photograph.

William Birch: picturing the American scene

William Russell Birch arrived in Philadelphia, the American capital, in 1794, where he soon influenced the course of the culture of the young nation by creating the first sets of engraved views ever published in the United States: The City of Philadelphia in 1800 and The Country Seats of the United States. In a period when images of the American landscape were still scarce, Birch's prints provided the foundation of this key aspect of Americans' understanding of their country. Birch established an artistic career in London after a childhood in Warwickshire, working as an enamelist creating original portrait miniature paintings and copies of the work of his mentor Sir Joshua Reynolds. Like many others of his generation, Birch aspired to become a landscape artist-someone who both created images and designed gardens professionally. He issued his first set of picturesque views, Delices de la Grande Bretagne, in 1791. After Reynolds and his two most important London patrons died in the early 1790s, Birch decided to emigrate. His City of Philadelphia (created with his son Thomas) was a commercial success, and he designed a number of gardens in the mid-Atlantic states in the early nineteenth century. He showcased his designs at his own property, Springland (located on the Delaware River near Philadelphia), and other suburban estates in the Country Seats of the United States (1808). This is the first biography of Birch. Written by eminent landscape historian Emily Cooperman, it gives a detailed account of the artist's life and career. Illustrations include previously unpublished watercolor paintings, engravings, and enamels by Birch. Also published here for the first time is his autobiography, edited by Lea Carson Sherk. It is a fresh and vivid document of Birch's life and times. William Birch: Picturing the American Scene will be an invaluable resource for American and landscape historians, and for readers eager to glimpse America in the early years of its independence.

Into the Thicket: Seeing the Forest for the Trees in Children's Picture Books

A few years ago I got a call from Greystone Books asking me to have a look at a picture book manuscript that they were working on. The book already had finished art, a set of gorgeous watercolor paintings by Sheena Lott, and it had an outline of the scientific phenomenon that was its subject, an outline by David Suzuki. What the book needed was a story. Would I step up to the plate? There’s nothing I like better than an assignment (oh good, you mean I don’t have to face the blank page alone?!), and I found the subject very appealing, the intriguing relationship between trees and salmon. In simplest terms, trees need salmon and salmon need trees. Researchers have discovered, for example, a correlation between tree rings on trees that grow close to rivers and the salmon runs on those rivers. In fact, tree rings provide an historical record of salmon stocks that go back 250 years. What is this correlation? The answer is multifaceted. Here are some of its elements: Trees provide the shade that keeps the river at the correct temperature for the developing salmon eggs in spawning areas. Fallen branches create pools that shelter young fish. Tree debris provides nutrients for aquatic insects that in turn provide food for the developing salmon. In the other direction, salmon provide food for bears and other mammals who then leave the salmon carcasses on the river bank creating a richly fertile soil. When salmon return to their spawning ground they bring with them rich amounts of nutrients from their sojourn in the sea and they release those nutrients when they die, making them available for streamside vegetation. The relationship is very striking. David Suzuki’s idea for the picture book was to present this information in a way that was accessible to an eight-year-old. My assignment was to

Lectotypification of the nameEpipactis leptochila(Orchidaceae)

It is argued that an alleged lectotype of the nameEpipactis leptochila(designated in 1981) is actually a neotype, as the published plate in question did not appear in print until 14 years after the protologue. A herbarium specimen at BM represents original material that was used by Godfery when describing theE. leptochila, and in all probability the same is true for the original watercolour painting (now deposited at the Natural History Museum, London) from which the published plate was eventually reproduced. Therefore, a part of the herbarium specimen is designated as lectotype.

On the Ethics of Teacher–Student Friendships

THE DIMENSIONS OF FRIENDSHIP Fifteen years ago, when I was teaching at an elementary school in Krakow, Poland, a student became my friend. I taught his class English in fourth, and then fifth, grade, and he participated in an after-school program I ran. The school was in a gritty industrial suburb of the city, and most of the boys were, in the way of boys of such places, sweet but acquiring a pose of exterior toughness. The boy who became my friend, however, loved butterflies. He also loved art, and after I’d been teaching there for a few months, he stayed after class one day to show me some watercolor paintings he’d made of sunflowers. I loaned him a children’s book in English, and in thanks he gave me one of the sunflower paintings that I’d admired. Throughout my year and a half of teaching, he continued to show me his paintings and his photographs of butterflies, and occasionally he’d accompany me to my tram stop, explaining the key geographical features of his neighborhood, like where Tomasz broke his arm and which dumpster the older boys stood behind to smoke. Once, after some students in his class had been unusually rowdy during their English lesson, he came up to me afterwards and told me “Don’t get upset about it. They do that to all the teachers.” We never engaged in more conventional friendship activities such as socializing on weekends, sharing a wide range of details of our thoughts and lives, or asking for help with personal problems, but I thought of the relationship as a real friendship and so did Olaf. We stayed in touch over the years, and I last saw Olaf, now 27 and still photographing butterflies, when I was in Krakow last summer.

Mean Shift Segmentation을 이용한 스마트폰 기반의 수채화 효과 변환 기법

본 논문에서는 최근 급속히 보급되고 있는 스마트폰에서 촬영한 사진 영상을 수채화 효과가 나도록 변환하는 기법에 대하여 제안한다. 제안하는 수채화 효과 변환 기법은 영상처리 분야에서 많이 사용하는 양방향 필터링(bilateral filtering)과 평균 이동 분할(mean shift segmentation)을 이용한다. 먼저 입력 영상을 스마트폰 화면 해상도로 크기 변환한 후 양방향 필터링을 이용하여 사진의 외곽선 부분은 보존하면서 고주파 성분을 약화시키도록 한다. 다음으로 양방향 필터링을 거친 영상에서 평균 이동분할을 수행하여 최종영상을 생성한다. 실험을 통하여 스마트폰의 연산속도를 고려한 평균 이동 분할의 파라미터 값을 설정하여 다양한 사진에 대하여 수채화 효과가 잘 나타나는 것을 확인하였다. We propose a retouching method that converts a photography taken by smartphone to a watercolor painting image using bilateral filtering and mean shift segmentation which are mostly used in image processing. The first step is to convert an input image to fit the screen resolution of smartphone. And next step is to weaken high frequency components of the image, while preserving the edge of image using the bilateral filtering. And after that we perform mean shift segmentation from the bilateral filtered image. We apply parameters of mean shift segmentation considering the processing speed of smartphone. Experimental result shows that our method can be applied to various types of image and bring better result.

Margherita of Cortona: Women, Preaching, and the Writing of Hagiography

This article examines Margherita of Cortona (1247–97), who took a penitent habit in the late 1270s. In 1290 Margherita was granted permission to rebuild the church of San Basilio near her cell and a secular priest became her confessor. After her death in 1297, her former confessor, the Franciscan Giunta Bevegnati, composed Margherita's Legenda, which provides an account of her life, conversion and penitence, her conversations with Christ, and her charitable works. In addition to the Legenda, there is also an altarpiece, portraying Margherita and scenes from her life, and the seventeenth-century watercolour paintings that reproduce the frescos which once decorated the church of Santa Margherita, the former San Basilio. Following a short introduction to Margherita's life, and a brief examination of preaching for women in the Middle Ages and its prohibitions, the article examines how the biographer, Giunta Bevegnati, represents the relationship of Margherita to preaching and sermons, in particular focusing on passages in Margherita's Legenda, where her efficacious speech or performance has a clear impact on an audience and her biographer does not use the term 'preach' for her utterances. Finally, the extent to which Margherita's biographer uses hagiography for homiletic purposes is discussed.