What is Lucid's camera?

The Lucida camera is a tool of drawing that allows the artist or illustor to see a picture of an object overlapping on a sheet of paper, so the object can be precisely drawn by monitoring the outlines. This centuries -old device has been used by mirrors and eyepieces to create a superposed image. Antique and modern versions are still used by artists and scientific illustrators.

William Hyde Wollaston patented the instrument in 1807 as help for painters and other artists; However, it is possible that a similar optical device was used in earlier times: something reminiscent of Lucida's camera was described by astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler in the 17th century. Lucida's camera as a tool for painting and drawing was preceded by other optical devices such as Obscura, the type of pinhole; and Claude Glass or Black Mirror, a dark -colored mirror that is used to highlight objects to be painted on their background, and simplify scenes. David Hockney Themeter introduced the theory that the old masters, including the Intress, Van Eyck and Caravaggio, could use Lucida and other optical aids, quote as evidence of changes in the style of painting that coincided with the development of optics.

The

device consists essentially of a prism or set of mirrors and eyepiece on an adjustable rack. One side of the prism or one of the mirrors is half -cut, so half the light that is reflected and half of the range and half passes. The Lucida camera is modified so that the artist looks down from the eyepiece over the semi -brown mirror towards the paper below. Meanwhile, the light from the object to be drawn is entering this mirror at an angle of 45 degrees, reflecting back on it by a conventional mirror, and then part of the light is reflected in the eyepiece, along with the light from P.Aper.

In this way, the artist sees both an object to be drawn, and paper, along with her hand and pencil while she draws. A generally similar method is used to create an opticalThe illusion of "Pepper's Ghost", where a picture created in a hidden, darkened room located on the side of the viewer, reflects in a half -skilled mirror overlapping forward. It is commonly used in the HAUNTED HOUSE style.

Antiques and replicas of Lucida cameras are available, but modern versions of the device are still used to this day. Under certain circumstances, detailed manual illustrations of the object may be more useful than photographs, as certain elements can be emphasized to be clearer for the viewer. This is especially the case in fields such as paleontology, paleobotanic and neurology, where it is necessary to clearly show structures that may not be well picked up by the camera. Scientific illustrators sometimes of the modern camera Lucida to capture this detail by hand.