Nicole Wittig's Rendering of a J. & A. Blyth blueprint of the
crane from the Bermuda Maritime Museum.

Image selected by Wendy Savage.

This technical line drawing is impressive because of its attention to details. Initially, it was reworked from a very old blueprint. The difficulty the artist encountered was modifying this drawing from a photograph of the original blueprint, not the original itself. There are many things that can create issues when trying to reproduce an image of this nature given that the source material was not an exact representation of the original. For instance, the perspective is something that had to be considered.. When copying flat images one must consider what lens will be used on their camera. It appears that although a pretty good rendition, this image was possibly shot with a wide-angle lens that would explain why the lines are not completely straight or in correct perspective. This was among the many things the artist needed to work on. Given those issues, the artist created a wonderful rendition that seems absolutely perfect to me. It is beautifully rendered.

What was interesting even beyond looking over this incredibly detailed image was the reference to the electronic darkroom and the many techniques involved via the computer to create this excellent drawing. Utilizing tools found in both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator were without question the best tools to utilize for these purposes. Having many years behind my belt using Adobe Creative Suite, I know first hand how incredibly powerful these tools are at supporting the artists using them.

I could spend a very long time looking at the finished drawing. This lateral view of the crane uses a variety of circles and lines in differing opacities that visually describe what the inner workings of this crane looked like. It is a spectacular view of beautiful engineering. I am always astounded at how the mind works to construct things of this nature into three-dimensional working equipment that is useful to man’s productivity. It is quite astounding that from someone’s mind a mechanism so complex came to fruition. But, even with these things in mind, I am taken with this drawing because of its ornate and patterned inner workings. It is extremely attractive and leaves me curious about how the real crane (if one exists) functions.

You can view the original post here: http://www.uri.edu/artsci/his/mua/in_the_field/ink.shtml

Page Source: Digital Inking by Stephanie Gandulla and Nicole Wittig. Original Image: J. & A. Blyth blueprint of the crane from the Bermuda Maritime Museum.


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