I became interested in the camera lucida while researching Ingres's great
body of portrait drawings. David Hockney suggests in Secret Knowledge that
Ingres perhaps used a camera lucida to make the drawings. After recieving a
University of Georgia Center for Arts and Humanities Grant, I purchased a
camera lucida and payed students, faculty and community members to sit for
me. The drawings took between 40 minutes and an hour. I found that the
camera lucida allowed me to make highly accurate likenesses on a very small
intimate scale. I used toned paper as a middle value, drew with very sharp
graphite, and worked white acrylic paint into the drawing to add a layer of
depth. The light was set up to imitate 19th century daguereotypes. I
continued to draw portraits after the grant ran out and have accumulated
over 100.
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