Published on October 02, 2010
For the October issue of Hacker Monthly, I was asked to illustrate "How to Read Mathematics" by Shai Simonson and Fernando Gouvêa, a very interesting article.
Playing with the idea of Mathematics being a foreign language, I thought of an archeologist/explorer reading math symbols carved on ruins (#1). Other idea was a Math symbol teaching a school student how to read the Math language (#3). I had some other ideas with aliens, but unfortunately I didn't have much time to draw many characters, just keep the ideas simple. While skething those and reading the article again, I came up with idea #2.
The idea came from this quote from the article: "Mathematics has a reading protocol all its own, and just as we learn to read literature, we should learn to read mathematics. Students need to learn how to read mathematics, in the same way they learn how to read a novel or a poem, listen to music, or view a painting.".
Here's a closer look:
One thing I've been learning about composition and color theory is you use a higher contrast on your areas of interest. In this case, our subject of interest is the painting rather than the girl.
This is the same image, greyscaled, so you can see the values more clearly contrasted:
If you look at the original image again, the colors on the girl lose saturation as we go to the bottom. Her sandals have almost no hue. In contrast, her bag and her hair are saturated; their purpose is to guide you again to the painting.
Playing with the idea of Mathematics being a foreign language, I thought of an archeologist/explorer reading math symbols carved on ruins (#1). Other idea was a Math symbol teaching a school student how to read the Math language (#3). I had some other ideas with aliens, but unfortunately I didn't have much time to draw many characters, just keep the ideas simple. While skething those and reading the article again, I came up with idea #2.
The idea came from this quote from the article: "Mathematics has a reading protocol all its own, and just as we learn to read literature, we should learn to read mathematics. Students need to learn how to read mathematics, in the same way they learn how to read a novel or a poem, listen to music, or view a painting.".
Here's a closer look:
One thing I've been learning about composition and color theory is you use a higher contrast on your areas of interest. In this case, our subject of interest is the painting rather than the girl.
This is the same image, greyscaled, so you can see the values more clearly contrasted:
If you look at the original image again, the colors on the girl lose saturation as we go to the bottom. Her sandals have almost no hue. In contrast, her bag and her hair are saturated; their purpose is to guide you again to the painting.
Published on September 07, 2010
Published on September 04, 2010
Hacker Monthly issue 4 is out. Cheng Soon Lim, the editor, suggested to illustrate an article by Tom Moertel called "A Coder's Guide to Coffee." He gave me images of latte coffee art and the idea to have something that represents "coder" drawn on it.
For those of you who aren't hackers and don't get it, the figure I chose was the Hacker's Emblem:
(Yes, it's not exactly coder, but every coder is a hacker by nature)
I had a hard time thinking on how to illustrate it. Since it's latte art, doing a comic-style, inked illustration wouldn't cut it, so I went for a realistic, painterly style. I didn't have coffee at hand (I don't drink coffee), just tea, so I made a cup, took my Acer Aspire One netbook and shot several compositions.
I left the latte art for later, so it dawned on me too late I should have used milk! (Latte coffee? Hellooo?) My reference was a dark transparent tea, while the latte is opaque milk with coffee. I couldn't take another picture since light has already changed. Finding the right hues for it was a challenge, since color is always relative. I examined many pictures of latte art to see how it mixed and blurred when drawn. I wanted to emulate its behavior the best I could.
Finally, Cheng Soon loved it so much, he put it on the cover of the magazine. That's absolutely awesome.
For those of you who aren't hackers and don't get it, the figure I chose was the Hacker's Emblem:
(Yes, it's not exactly coder, but every coder is a hacker by nature)
I had a hard time thinking on how to illustrate it. Since it's latte art, doing a comic-style, inked illustration wouldn't cut it, so I went for a realistic, painterly style. I didn't have coffee at hand (I don't drink coffee), just tea, so I made a cup, took my Acer Aspire One netbook and shot several compositions.
I left the latte art for later, so it dawned on me too late I should have used milk! (Latte coffee? Hellooo?) My reference was a dark transparent tea, while the latte is opaque milk with coffee. I couldn't take another picture since light has already changed. Finding the right hues for it was a challenge, since color is always relative. I examined many pictures of latte art to see how it mixed and blurred when drawn. I wanted to emulate its behavior the best I could.
Finally, Cheng Soon loved it so much, he put it on the cover of the magazine. That's absolutely awesome.
Published on August 17, 2010
Losing sleep
In a waking dream,
A recurring face I see
Comes to pass my way
Still, my heart,
Will you please be still, my heart?
In this world of change
You keep turning me round again
Vangelis - Losing Sleep
In a waking dream,
A recurring face I see
Comes to pass my way
Still, my heart,
Will you please be still, my heart?
In this world of change
You keep turning me round again
Vangelis - Losing Sleep
| Next Page ↓ | Previous Page ↑ |
