Hyperrealism with Tom Mulliner

Kitaoka's Rotating Snakes: Pattern Anatomy Course: The Constructed Eye — Visual Illusion, Perception Science, and the Work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka and Beau Lotto Day 14 Topic: Kitaoka's Rotating Snakes: Pattern Anatomy Prototype of Kitaoka's Rotating Snakes pattern: the sequence and contrast of color arcs are critical. The effect depends on precise spatial ordering of luminance transitions. (SVG visualization for didactic use; see Kitaoka, 2003; Conway et al., 2005) Expert Objective To anatomize the Rotating Snakes ill...

Day 24 – Failure Case Studies: Cracking, Delamination, Bloom, Dirt, and Yellowing Intensive Daily Masterclass – The Chemistry of Binding Agents Egg Tempera (Cracked) Oil (Yellowed) Acrylic (Stable) Original infographic: Common failure modes—cracking, yellowing, and relative stability—across binder types. Each box is an enlarged pigment film for clarity. Dashed lines indicate crack networks or change boundaries. Dramatic Opener: When Masterpieces Crack and Bloom Picture Leonardo’s Mona Lisa , gently veiled by the crazing of age, or a glistening 1950s oil portrait now marred with white “bloom.” Such failures mark the fragile chemistry underlying every masterpiece. As stories from conservation labs worldwide reveal, understanding how and why paintings fail is as crucial as learning to make them endure ( National Gallery ). The Chemistr...

Day 13: Peripheral Drift and the Fraser-Wilcox Illusion Masterclass: The Constructed Eye: Visual Illusion, Perception Science, and the Work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka and Beau Lotto Observed Effects: The Fraser-Wilcox Peripheral Drift Illusions Classic Fraser-Wilcox ring pattern. When viewed peripherally, these segments seem to rotate. (Fraser & Wilcox, 1979; Kitaoka, 2003) ...

Modernism and New Binders: Acrylics, House Paints, and Artist Experiment Day 23 – The Chemistry of Binding Agents Masterclass Egg Tempera Linseed Oil Acrylic Polymer MODERNISM A new era of paint chemistry Diagram: The evolution of binders, from traditional (left) to acrylic polymers (right). Acrylics, developed in the 20th century, marked a profound leap for modern art. Sources: Tate, Getty, Kremer Pigmente. Dramatic Historical Opener The year was 1954. While Jackson Pollock stunned New York with his poured enamel whorls, across the Atlantic, artists like David Hockney and Helen Frankenthaler discovered a radically new substance–liquid, luminous, flexible: the acrylic polymer. Modernism's rush to new materials gutted convention—egg and oil now seemed ancient compared to a jar of brilliant, fast-curing color straight from the lab. But what was this new ...

Checkpoint: Construct and Test a Contextual Colour Illusion Course: The Constructed Eye: Visual Illusion, Perception Science, and the Work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka and Beau Lotto Day 12 A: Blue Context B: Grey Context Yellow Patch Yellow Patch Figure 1. The same yellow rectangle appears to shift subtly in saturation between blue (left) and neutral grey (right) backgrounds—a demonstration of simultaneous contrast illusion. All patch luminance and chromaticity values are physically identical. Observe perceptual effects over several seconds. Adapted after Lotto & Purves (2000), with reimplementation for this course. Expert Objective This session confronts you, as an advanced artist, with the challenge of precisely constructing and critically testing a contextual colour illusion within a digital medium. The objective is to systematically manipulate local chromatic and spa...

Old Master Mixed Techniques: Tempera, Oil, Glazes, and Transition Periods Day 22: The Chemistry of Binding Agents Masterclass—Decoding the Secret Alchemy Behind Renaissance Layering Egg Tempera Transit Mix Oil Layers Glazes / Fat over Lean 15th C. 1450-1600 Renaissance Peak Three Layered Periods: Visible track from pure tempera to oil overlays and glazing, showing how mixed techniques evolved from 15th-century egg-based layers to the classic oil-dominant approach of the High Renaissance. Adapted from Getty Conservation studies (see sources). It was the autumn of 1502 in Venice. At a honey-lit table, Giovanni Bellini held a panel that shone with velatura —soft oil glazes dissolving over an underpainted egg tempera landscape. The boundary between medieval and modern chemistry, held in those gummy hands, changed art forever. This...