Tempera

Abstract

This paper explores the characteristics of painting developed during the Nineteenth century, and specifically updates the use of matter and brushing techniques invented by a group of painters called "Impressionists". In that period, impressionist artists began to brush "tempera" on a canvas as a malleable matter able to emphasize an accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities. Thick brush strokes left on the painted surface revealed the master' gesture and completely changed the way to represent reality. Stimulated by the recent advancements in digital technologies, this paper looks for methodologies able to transfer impressionistic painterly innovation into a contemporary digital 3D environment and investigates how paint behaves when morphing from a photorealistic depiction of Nature to a disfigured one. In particular, reality-based 3D information, first frozen by a laser scanner into a digital geometry, slowly melts into liquid paint on a colour palette. While colours mix, the geometrical matter that constitutes the photorealistic scanned reality and its details disappear into primitive paint clog that are mixed and brushed into new colours and shapes able to create novel atmospheric and chromatic effects. © 2013, The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong, and Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture (CASA), Department of Architecture-NUS, Singapore.