Men, Women, and Eyetracking

Have a look at the photos below for five seconds or so. We'll come back to them later.

Scientists have used eyetracking technology to see where people look in a photo. One question they have asked is whether men and women look at other people in the same way.

In one experiment, groups of men and women were asked to look at the picture of baseball player George Brett. 

The eyetracking heatmap shows that both men and women spent time looking at the head, but men also looked at the crotch. This isn't necessarily a sign of sexual attraction. They could be sizing up the competition or identifying with him.

According to Nielsen and Coyne, men also tend to look more at private parts of animals when shown American Kennel Club photos.

Here are the results of thirty men and thirty women looking without prompting at that first pair of photos.

The company Think Eye Tracking observes from the results:

1. Men check out other men, especially their "assets."
2. Women checked out his wedding ring.
3. Guys don't seem to care about the woman's marital status, but looked at her face, breasts, and stomach.
4. If you ask people to self-report where they looked, they tend not to be very honest or they're just not consciously aware.
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Read more:
Bathing Suit Photo Study (Think Eye Tracking)
Online Journalism Review
Studio Moh
Related GurneyJourney posts
Do Artists See Differently?
Dog cam: Where do dogs and chimps look?

Bullseye Interview

BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder did an interview with Jesse Thorn on the podcast Bullseye. He describes the Zeo sleep manager, which gives you a read-out on your past night's sleep (I need one!).

And he also recommends GurneyJourney (around the 4:00 mark).

Here are the links to the posts he refers to:
Macro Photos of the Human Eye
Building reference models of dinosaurs
Video of Sketching a Donkey
Portrait of Jehovah's Witnesses
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Direct link to interview
Thanks, Mark -- and Heather for telling me about it.

Water Article in International Artist

The upcoming April/May issue of International Artist magazine has a four-page feature that I wrote on reflections and transparency in water. 

It covers the optics of reflection and refraction, transparency, the effects of turbidity, and tips on painting waves and foam. I wanted to write kind of a go-to mini-guide for the magazine's readers to have handy when the subject comes up.   

One of the curious qualities of reflections in still water is that they tend to reflect vertical lines more readily than horizontal lines. This painting by Danish artist Peter Mork Mønsted illustrates the point.

The little branches on the far bank head in different directions, but it's the vertical branches that you see favored in the reflection. 

The effect of elongation is increased with the strength of contrasts of the elements being reflected. Extremely bright lights, for example, are reflected in very elongated vertical lines. As 19th century British writer John Ruskin says, 

"All motion in water elongates reflections, and throws them into confused vertical lines. The real amount of this elongation is not distinctly visible, except in the case of very bright objects, and especially of lights, as of the sun, moon, or lamps by a river shore, whose reflections are hardly ever seen as circles or points, which of course they are on perfectly calm water, but as long streams of tremulous light."

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International Artist magazine website

Man or Atmosphere

Norman Garstin (1847-1926) was an Irish painter who was part of the artist colony known as the Newlyn School in Cornwall, England. 

(Above: "The Rain It Raineth Every Day.") Like his contemporaries, Garstin was interested the idea of painting the atmosphere as well as the object. As Garstin put it:

"We seek to represent not only the man, but, as it were, his very atmosphere, and not only his surroundings but his surroundings under certain specific conditions, and it is in making this atmosphere as much a part of the picture as the mere actualities, that our chief claim to an original view of nature lies."

(Above: "A Steady Drizzle") This idea was current in Garstin's generation, particularly among his contemporaries such as Manet, Whistler, and Bastien-Lepage. Garstin was also a student of Japanese prints and calligraphy.
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Norman Garstin on Wikipedia
Newlyn School on Wikipedia
Quote is from the book: Stanhope Forbes and the Newlyn School Pb

Art Institute of Phoenix

The Art Institute of Phoenix is a degree-granting institution in Arizona that focuses on developing professional skills in the fields of animation, visual effects, game design, fashion design, and culinary arts.

It's part of the Art Institute association of schools, which has over 40 branches throughout North America. I visited the school more than a year ago, and I've also visited the Art Institute Inland Empire in San Bernardino, California.

Kevin Hedgpeth is on the faculty of the media arts program. He's showing me paper sculptures of a helmet and a motorcycle made by the students. Kevin has experience in illustration, toy design, character design, and paleoart.

He likened his job as an instructor to giving the students a "Batman's utility belt," with a variety of skills that they can use in an ever-changing job environment.

After touring the building, meeting faculty, and doing a digital presentation, I did a demo portrait of Kevin.
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Wikipedia on Art Institute Phoenix
Official website
Previously: Art Institute Inland Empire

TSA Area

If you're stuck in an airport for a while, and you have a sketchbook with you, a great place to sit is near the security screening area.

People get into all sorts of interesting poses as they're putting themselves back together.

Traveler's Tip: In Chicago O'Hare airport, you can sit at the entrance to the E/F gates of Terminal 2. There's a Starbucks perfectly positioned with cafe tables that have a good view in that direction.

Moebius Redux

(Video link) The BBC has produced this excellent documentary on the life and art of Jean Giraud (Moebius), who died yesterday. The production continues in Part 2, Part 3.



Thanks, BBC and Anonymous.

Jean (Moebius Giraud) 1938-2012

The legendary comic artist and sci-fi / fantasy illustrator Jean (Moebius) Giraud died of cancer today at the age of 73.



Moebius had a unique and influential imagination, shaping the look of the films Alien, Blade Runner, and Tron. His own comics Arzach (later "Arzak"), Blueberry, and The Airtight Garage are full invention, blending a mystical vision with down-to-earth details.

Many of his early works were full of baroque detail and cross-hatching; later, he strove for a simplified elegance. He had a prodigious drawing ability, improvising all sorts of characters in all kinds of angles and actions without any reference.

This news comes right on the heels of the passing of Star Wars film designer Ralph McQuarrie, another huge influence on me when I was starting out.

(Video Link) Here's a vintage film of Moebius drawing together with Hugo Pratt.
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Porfolio of his works at io9
Lines and Colors tribute
Previously on GurneyJourney
Moebius and Miyazaki

Color and Light in Japanese

Following their publication of Imaginative Realism, Japanese publisher Born Digital has just released Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter.

From the dust jacket: "アメリカを代表する現代イラストレーターの一人であり、博識で知られるジェームス・ガーニーが、自身のアート制作の経験と知識を分かりやすく語る「A Guide for the Realist Painter：リアリズム絵画の手引き」シリーズ VOLUME 2"
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Color and Light in Japanese on Amazon.co.jp
In the USA, get a signed copy in English

Born Digital / Imaginative Realism with sample pages in Japanese.
Color and Light on Amazon internationally: USA | CA | UK | FR | DE |

Microraptor's new plumage

A new study of the four-winged dinosaur Microraptor reveals new insights about the arrangement and coloration of its feathers.



(Video Link) According to Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History and his Chinese colleagues, it had an iridescent dark coloration, much like a crow.

More discussion at Dinosaur Tracking
Thanks, Jennifer Miller