Painting a Hologram -- Article By Igal Shenderey (Philosophy of Art, Metaphysics)
Updated: Jan 7
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"Painting a Hologram" explores the concept of finding meaning in one's craft and introduces a new dimension of art: holography. It introduces a technique called "materialistic holographic painting," which combines traditional materials to create holographic effects.
This method is accessible, less expensive, and made by hand, making it intriguing for traditional artists. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding light, optics, and the periodic table to create desired holographic effects. The author emphasizes the importance of passion and time in mastering this new art form.
INTRODUCTION
You can never find the meaning of life, but you can understand the meaning of what you do. Only by mastering your craft, you may understand its true meaning.
I feel that I have accomplished a fair understanding of what art is and what it will be in the traditional sense. However, I also believe that there is much more to it than meets the eye of even the most knowledgeable art critic. In this book, I will take you to a different and barely touched dimension of art: holography.
Some scientists claim that "the universe is a big hologram.” For a normal human with a physical perspective on reality, this can be hard to believe. However, holography in traditional art is possible to make, as you will see.
I have found that the materials we use in paintings have peculiar and distinct properties. They react to light in many ways, and each has a code. This means that they can be used in a certain manner to make a certain effect. Understanding these materials and their effects is the key to unveiling the purpose they have to serve. Different light conditions can contrast different notions of the painting. Some holographic techniques are better than others in some aspects and worse in others. However, I have used a totally different approach to those techniques, ironically using old traditional ones.
The name for this technique is “materialistic holographic painting " and it derives from the combination of materials rather than singular one like in holographic photography which uses certain crystalized film that captures laser light from different directions deflected from an object, which rearranges the crystal formation with in the film to form a reflected copy of this object. This method is wonderful, and it even gave its inventor Dennis Gabor the Nobel Prize.
But still, it has limitations, in terms of depth of space, colour, angle of view, distance, and the light conditions to see it properly. Also, it is an expensive setup to make at home and it's created not by a human but a machine which makes it less intriguing to me as a traditional artist.
Materialistic holography painting, on the other hand, is made by hand with fairly cheap materials, it has no colour limitation, and less lightening conditional problems, also in the sense of distance and view angle limitations it can prove to work better in some cases because there is no limit to the width of a layer like in the holographic film.
What is also interesting is the connections this new technique has in regards to how materials behave in nature, how they are layered and how they react to light. Most people tend to believe something only when they see it, but do we really understand what we see there? The sight in a sense shows reality which our mind has retrieved from data that our senses collected, but it is powered by light and it may also illuminate illusions. I found that light can be bent and captured in a way and also controlled to show us what normally we cannot see.
The means serve the purpose, and therefore we will be concentrating on the technique layer by layer showing the research behind it, I must note that there are lots of ways to do it properly and with good results but every painting has its own set of rules.
I established these techniques and rules through long research and we will see other ways to do it but they have more to do with style, like, realistic verses expressionistic and others, they have a different set of effects but the rules are basically the same. There is a lot more to it than I can point right now because there is lots more research to do, and I hope we together can continue this mission and bring the holographic painting closer to tradition. Last but not least, to make such a painting you need passions, it may take a lot of time, and as I will show you it actually can be endless…
Light Holography is the science of making a hologram, the meaning of this word comes from Greek which mean Holos- whole, and Graphe means drawing, but this description does not fit to what it is today. To begin, we will start by trying to understand basically the role of optics in this technique. Light is an energy which has speed and direction, it can be deflected from an object or absorbed in it, those two negatives, give us the ability to control materials to make a huge spectrum of reaction to light.
Light has also a direction and therefore when it is deflected from an object it may change its direction depending on the angle of the impact. You can notice that when we look at a painting or a print from different angles we will see less of the image than what is seen from the front side, and that’s because the surface deflects light virtually blinding us.
But we can notice something in that situation which we can’t notice otherwise like matt layers, just like dirt on the floor, or fingerprints on the table, this shows us other opposing factors which we will discuss and use later. Light has the ability to go through layers and change its output, from cold to hot and from one colour to the other.
As we established, light can be absorbed and deflected, we will notice that these characteristics are controlled by the type of matter we put on a certain layer. That creates a phenomena in which we can see illumination of light above the surface of the painting under some conditions (in my theory this happens by the slowing of light “particle”).
What is most important to understand is that making a painting is basically playing with light in every way possible by the medium that we work in.
MATERIALS
The materials that painters have used and still use are, in some way, too traditional. What I mean is that in a painting, we will find a different set of materials that have a certain effect, like the medium presents, but only to give a certain feel to the image in the painting. That's only one part of the story I will tell.
Of course, we need the traditional understanding of geometrical, color, and tonal perspectives, as well as different compositions and other basics. However, this book relies on the painter who reads it to know those traditional rules and rely on them as well.
This specific technique is not specific to using only one type of material. In fact, it will use many of them simultaneously on one painting, because each material has its own characteristics and they will be helpful somewhere along the process.
In fact, we will use mostly varnish and fixative, but their role is much different from the role of the other materials, like color spray, oil colors of different sorts, ink-based and alcohol-based markers and pens, acrylic, watercolors, tempera, and we will discuss more potential materials like chalk, glow-in-the-dark colors, and nail polish.
We will also see and try to understand the periodic table and see how different materials react to light. It is important to understand that the pigment of a colored material has only traditional meaning in this holographic technique.
Traditionally, paintings are done on many different layers depending on the material used. For example, oil paintings are mostly done on a canvas covered with gesso or acrylic at first so that it will not be exposed to moisture underneath. Watercolors or ink are done on a certain paper to soak up the water, and alcohol-based colors are done on plastic or polymer-based paper.
However, in our technique, we use a thick cardboard board! This is because we need the sheet to absorb up to a certain point. This creates a contrast between the absorbed material and the one laid on top of the surface, which also adds to the 3D effect that is noticeable from the beginning.
Materials are categorized by their solution content, but pigmentation is a more general additive. Therefore, we may also use a material with no additive of that sort (oil pastel with no pigment). Materials substitute reality, meaning that varnish or fixative replaces air, metallic replaces light, and normal colors replace natural objects, as in known traditional art.
For example, we can see the use of metallic colors in iconography and many forms of classic art, which were meant to replace light as well as other needs. They are also used in their original sense, such as in painting jewelry. We can also see on some of those works the use of wood carved bumps and holes to make the painting seem more 3D.
LAYERS
We can describe visual nature as a three-dimensional space, as each object in that space is known mathematically to have three coordinate systems: x, y, and z. Therefore, this object can be viewed from many angles. Two-dimensional (2D) space, on the other hand, consists of a maximum of two coordinate systems and represents part of a 3D object. It is made of a single flat surface.
There is a big misconception today in which actual 3D objects are seen as 2D.
For example, a sheet of paper is actually a 3D object. This abstraction makes us see reality in a narrow point of view, and it is still considered to be true enough for the naked eye to see. In this book, we will make a distinction and show that actual 2D objects only exist in theory. From a great distance, everything seems two-dimensional. Therefore, we will try to amplify reality to show that it is actually 3D.
Any object can be split into a number of 2D layers to a certain extent. We will see that creating a holographic painting is amplifying this 2D object to make it look 3D. I call each layer "2.5D" because it serves me well to treat it as part of 3D.
If we take a closer look at a real classic oil painting, we can actually see the effect created by a combination of layers. Because it is oil, we can actually see through it, in some cases more and in some less. This is due to the number of layers, their thickness, and color. It is just like seeing the veins under the skin. The actual purpose of a certain layer is to give additional information to the layers beneath and to serve the ones above.
If you try to establish all the information on one layer, you will lose most of the effects we need to create on a holographic painting. Although the potential is there, it will be lost completely to the naked eye.
Another interesting thing to notice in drawings and traditional art in general is that creating an object inside the painting was always done by making sets of strokes. In the classic sense, they provide information about the object. For example, round or diagonal strokes can be used to create a round object, as if we were sculpting it with our hands.
As we collect more and more sets of strokes from different directions, we make the shape seem more uniform and smooth. We will see how this technical part helps us to create a real form by creating an illusion of it. That is why I believe that traditional art serves us greatly here.
We will also see how each layer theoretically casts a shadow on the bottom layer depending on the light direction. This interestingly serves us a great deal with creating the holographic illusion, enabling us to see it from different directions. We will examine this closer in other chapters.
VALUES
Values are basically tones, and we can see any picture as a collection of values. Any colored image can be seen also in black and white, the same picture but only in values of light and dark. This understanding serves us greatly in the creation of a holographic painting.
Values from white to black are not absolute, because the white and black colors are not absolute in terms of the materials we use, due to the effect of light on them, just like in nature. However, an astronomical black hole is totally black, and sunlight can be absolutely white. So, we will use materials that may get us closer to absolute values, such as matte black oil, chalk, or ink. Silver materials can show real light, which can be lighter than the white color we use.
The matte effect has a unique signature, but it can be measured on the same type of scale we use for values. However, it is harder to identify the effect and control it. Only if we look at the painting from an angled viewpoint to the light can we see it in full scale and understand the true meaning of this holographic layering technique.
Metallic colors are also hugely important. They can change values under different conditions. Sometimes they will appear lighter, and sometimes darker. This change creates movement. We need that movement both from the perspective of an observer and from the changes in the surrounding light.
Mid-gray is a very elusive tone. The viewer will always find it hard to pinpoint it. That is because the contrast lies between black and white, and mid-gray is like the zero between them. It is important in cases where we want to make something fade out or disappear.
Values give us the ability to see objects and judge their form. In 2D traditional art, values create the illusion of form. This concept is also very important to us because it gives us the ability to flatten 3D objects. As contradictory as it may sound, it actually helps us to compress the layers enough to make a hologram, not an actual 3D object. This is similar to many epoxy layering techniques, which are essentially sculptures.
That's why the compression of layers in this new technique relies on old traditional techniques. These techniques give us the knowledge of compressing real life into one 2D object: a painting.
PROGRESSION
To me, the balance we try to find in each painting must not only have good balanced compositions (color, geometry, tone, etc.), but also have a good balance between the effects of light that we build up in the layers. These effects can actually be seen appearing and progressing on the painting.
First, let's divide all the effects we see into two main families: primary and secondary. primary effects are the intense family of effects that are present in color, tone, reflective, matte, etc. We cannot use primary effects all over the painting, otherwise we will kill the balance we are looking for. For example, in traditional art, we never use primary effects in the background of an important object, so as not to draw attention.
Secondary effects are the family of effects that we recognize visually later and are there to represent space and depth of field. We can always hide primary effects and make them secondary, under a new layer of varnish or other material.
If a primary effect is covered by another layer, its effects are reduced and it becomes secondary. We have two ways of detecting this. One is from a frontal view, where we can see the reduction of brightness and the tinting of the bottom layer. We can also notice the lower temperature of the color than before. The other view is from a side angle to the painting, any side angle. There, we can see the reduction of matte effects and the saturation of the image.
In some stages, when the cardboard can still soak up varnish and water, we can identify the matte that originates from the cardboard. Later, when it can no longer soak up, we need to recreate it with the materials in hand, such as oil-based or matte varnish, for example. We keep the primary effect always on the last layer we make, with the right intensity we are looking for.
THE IMAGE
I went through many stages in my art career, trying to taste all styles and all techniques I could. I found that a style fits to some ideas, but a subject cannot be subjective to a certain style alone. I always felt there was something bigger going on. Throughout history, art has progressed with people, and it has always told stories of religion and history. It teaches us not only about those things, but more importantly, about the world surrounding us.
Traditional art to me is a science, a subject of slow evolution, constructed brick by brick. My book is about combining those bricks and others to create a whole new reality of what painting is to me. The first step is understanding the process, and through that process, we will learn what is behind it and what lies under those bricks, the foundation.
An image is a collection of geometrical patches, they both carry information of light and form, which our mind rebuilds to describe in details. Details are mostly what our mind concentrates on, and therefore it cannot see the whole picture at first glance. This is due to a selective process we go threw to understand the hole image. This process can take a long time and it is called adaptation. New images usually take longer to adapt, as well.
Basically, what happens is that our mind burn the image bit by bit to form it, in such a way that the longer you look the longer this image will last in memory, as an example, when we look at a bright patch of light for long enough it will burn and attach the patch on top of a current image like when we look at the sun.
Our eyes are the operator that passes that info, but it has certain limits, it cannot focus on the whole image at once and therefore it moves, the closer to the centre the more clear the image will be. In addition, we concentrate on movement, traditional art describes movement as angular lines in opposition to static structures that are orthogonal or horizontal, and therefore we will remember them better.
As I said, an image is a collection of patches, each image is a collection of huge amount of patches, some of them carry the same values and colour, and if we reduce an image to those alone we will see a spread of patches on the picture surface, it is easily done on the computer using Photoshop or other photo editing programs. Most of the layers we will create in the holographic painting will be a reduced collection of patches, and they will carry only bits of information about the final image.
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