Philip Glass’ book, Words Without Music, is an inspirational and humble look into the mind of a famous creator. When I read books like this, I like to keep an eye on some of the concepts that we are tracking here at Transparent Drawing. On page 196, he writes, “In a clear way, we are […]
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26May
2015
TRUTH
2015
To be any good, you need to be unselfishly dedicated to what is. In any design that we produce, it must respond to the truth of the forces that shaped it. This applies to an industrial object as well as a building. The concept of truth is rarely discussed when applied to buildings. I don’t […]
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22May
2015
THINK AHEAD OF THE ROBOTS
2015
An article in the New York Times today talks about higher education’s need to teach their students the skills necessary to remain relevant in face of the robotic revolution. The article mentions how a computer can intake the factual information in seconds that humans take a lifetime to accumulate. Robots are poised to assume great […]
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21May
2015
ANTI-TECHNIQUE
2015
I am wary of watercolor technique. You might call me anti-technique. Open any introduction to watercolor book and the pages are bold and bright and frankly intimidating. Those books demonstrate all sorts of standard watercolor practice. For example, they might show how to flick color dots onto a wet portion to create a splotchy effect. […]
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18May
2015
TRANSPARENT BRAIN
2015
The current issue of The New Yorker chronicles the efforts of Karl Deisseroth to understand how the brain works. Mr. Deisseroth is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Stanford. And he has led groundbreaking efforts as he develops new tools to help us understand the mechanics of how our brains function. A link to John Colapinto’s […]
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14May
2015
CULTURAL BIAS
2015
Analogue drawing is such a precious tool that we possess. From what I can tell, there is a lack of innovation. Yet we should be innovating. We should be developing broader and unique ways in which to look at and think about drawing. It seems that we all should be developing our own vocabulary and […]
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11May
2015
UNLEARN THE PICTURE PLANE
2015
Studies done of peoples who are completely separate from the western media and mindset are illuminating. Joan and Louis Forsdale demonstrate that our understanding of the contents of a two dimensional picture plane seems to be acquired knowledge. It is not innate. The Forsdales conducted simple experiments by showing conventional photographic images to Eskimos and […]
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7May
2015
DRAW THE WRONG WAY
2015
When you have to come up with a creative solution, you need to feel free to draw like you have never drawn before. And this typically means that you end up drawing the wrong way. How do you draw the wrong way? When everything that you draw is transparent, you are immediately in uncharted territory. […]
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4May
2015
CINEMATIC LECORBUSIER
2015
I believe that LeCorbusier was very dependent upon pictures and photographs to make his architecture. His books are stuffed full of photographs of ships and machines. I pretty sure that when he was designing the roofscape of Villa Savoye, he was not out sitting by the wharf with his sketchbook drawing the superstructure of ships. […]
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