The NeoLucida is an optical drawing aid that lets you trace what you see. It's a modern reinterpretation of the camera lucida, a 19th-century tool popular with artists, scientists, and designers in the days before photography was invented. Launched in 2013 by two art professors who thought it might be interesting to revive old, obsolete art-related technologies, the NeoLucida Kickstarter campaign raised nearly $425,000 and was supported by 11,406 backers. Since then, the original NeoLucida, the 2017 NeoLucida XL, and the all-new NeoLucida Plus have helped tens of thousands of people draw.
As i’ve noticed my spine is not conducive to closely observing something at waist height and my legs are not sufficiently short or long enough to place the neolucida at eye level short of having collapsing scaffolding - If I may be so bold as to recommend an improvement, Perhaps a periscope that would allow top down viewing from a vertical stance . Find a solid edge you can index an attachment on existing models and allow people to stand with their backs straight and relaxed and the drawing surface at naval height adjustable up to an additional 6 inches to allow for arm length variation. Middle school engineering brain says 3 mirrors in a milk carton tube that is u shaped , and if you feel real fancy - do what DJI does for their FPV drone headsets and package a diopter adjustable + and - 3 to 5 . Heck the next generation of this whole Camera Lucida attachment process would be the ability to mount (in front of <in between subject and equipment> a digital camera’s lenses / through a DSLR’s viewfinder to allow for long range / perspective shifts beyond the contortions of the human body. ~In the event this product line development sells stupid money and brings in the photography crowd into the physical media rendering process- i ask for no large sums of money for I am a simple man . But funneling what would have been my earnings to my parents so they can retire , that would be pretty dope. Good luck bringing the old into the new, just learned about this thing less than an hour ago doom scrolling~
I study durer in order to improve my ink pen strokes, sometimes I use Lucida on my iPad version. I would love to see how a real prism behaved out in the wild…..thanks. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WOEZu5bJKto.htmlsi=8VD12gZ20efaKxAg
I bougth a NeoLucia plus recently, and i really highly recommend it. I've been interested in drawing and painting since i was a kid. But sometimes the perspective, or the field of view vs the edge of the paper can be really tricky, and frustrating. But this really is everything I hoped it would do. I've been impressed that I can copy an image from a computer monitor or from real life. (i made a platform for a camera tripod out of plywood for portable sketching). It's easy to get the details of my scene down, then i can spend some time imagining a bit more detail or adding interest to the scene once the perspective and basics are there. It's also been a great start for watercolour laying out my scene before I start.
There are a wide range of drawing aids available. You use what furthers your art. Believe me drawing aids do not guarantee amazing art. That is completely up to the artist. As an artist I have traced over photos, just don't find that very productive; projected slides onto large paper on a wall; used my pencil or paint brush handle as an arms length proportional gauge; currently use a proportional divider to help on portraits. These devices have been used for hundreds of years and are extremely interesting. I'm sure I will be getting one soon.
You said to mount it higher to draw larger and the only limitation is I just need to reach the paper. What about a vertical surface with my subject far to my left? Wouldn't that setup allow for a very large drawing without the need for a 3 foot long pencil?
You can see in our “How Versatile is the NeoLucida” video that you can mount your NeoLucida to a vertical surface and have your subject to one side. But the size of the drawing is related to the distance of the eyepiece to the paper. The larger the distance, the larger the ghost image. Placing your subject closer will make it look bigger in the eyepiece but not bigger on the page. Placing the subject far away will make it look very small in the eyepiece. Think of the eyepiece as a projector. The father you move the projector, the larger the image it throws onto a wall. Get closer and the projection shrinks. It’s the same idea with the optics of the eyepiece. Farther from the paper, the more paper the ghost image covers. Hope this helps!
I am amazed at how simple this is, yet I've become frustrated getting it to work. Are there any instructions for initial setup other than what is on the website?
Write us at our email info-at-NeoLucida-dot-com and we can help you out. Videos on this channel, the website content, and the instructions included in the NeoLucida package are all of our instructions, but we are happy to help you with specific troubleshooting for you.
@@neo.lucida l have watched the videos. I read the card. I like the idea. I need simple. Straight forward. How to instructions. All of what I read does not work as the the instructions claim it works.
Experiment for NeoLucida - set up a wifi 4k video camera to look through the XL and broadcast the image to your iphone, then you could zoom the iphone to the area you're working on and draw watching the iphone screen (but your pencil on the paper) using a normal tech pencil, ink fine liner, etc. for long focal lengths.
I'm 64, and I can't draw a straight sitck man. I suppose you can draw on a canvas and then paint it. I'd like to try that. What do you think about that method?
Absolutely! Many artists use tools to get the first draft of lines and composition onto paper and then move away from the preparatory tools to work with other media. So this totally makes sense. Keep in mind, however, that the NeoLucida works best in sizes ranging from postcard to 11x14/A3 paper. You can go larger with some adjustments but don’t expect to make large murals or epically gigantic canvases. We have a video on our channel exploring how large you can draw, in case you are curious.
Someone just gifted me a set of drawing tools and im eager to get drawing again after so many years. Im in my 40s, but looking at the art supplies in the box took me bsck to my high school art classes.
Not really. It is not a projector in the electrical sense. When you look in the eyepiece it APPEARS to project a ghost image on your page, but that’s just the eyepiece optics showing you that. So to make something large, you would have to be far away from your drawing surface, which means really long arms or really long pencils.
I am loving this video, due to the variety of uses that are not explained in the manufacturer's videos. I have 2 questions: 1. Can the neo lucida "enlarge" as well or does it only provide projections in one dimension? 2. You mentioned transferring an neo lucida onto canvas... How is that done?
Thanks for your comment! 1. The NeoLucida can make various scale drawings. The size of the drawing is based on the height of the eyepiece. Raise the eyepiece, and the ghost image you trace gets larger. If you clamp the NeoLucida onto your table, you can go to A3 size/US11x17. If you raise it on a higher shelf or tripod, you can go much bigger! 2. The process I used to transfer the drawing to canvas in our study of the Gustave Caillebotte drawing related to the evidence we found in the canvas as well as the drawing. Find more information here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6EZ1H8_ISRA.html I used rulers and simple drafting tools to scale up the geometry to the full size canvas. Hope this helps!
I remember a video where you said you were going to make a single batch of NeoLucida then open source all of the designs and make the CAD files available. what ever happened with that?
When we first launched in 2013, we had some extra prisms we sold to DIY/Maker audiences and made 3D-printed files available for free. Since then, it has become more difficult to sell the individual prisms due to very low demand for parts. So we currently do not offer the loose prisms. But with some questions like yours comign up recently, we are looking into options for the Maker community that might want to work on making their own designs. Stay tuned!
The NeoLucida Plus (as of this writing still in pre-order for November 2023 shipping) is a different prism design that offers a slightly larger viewing area, plus it has integrated features like a built-in shader and aperture control paddles. The NeoLucida Plus is easy to use for beginners with included features for intermediate and professional artists.
With the rising of digital AI art I think a bunch of people will draw by hand to show some actual skill so this tool will probably become popular again
Paris seems so quiet and calm. I'd like to go there to visit the museums, sip a beverage and relax out on the patio at a cafe, and use the NeoLucida to draw. 🙂
I'm 44 and have never heard of this! I've taken drawing, drafting, photography (w/ developing in a dark room) classes. Not once has this concept ever been mentioned. I watched your 9 year old video, only to find out you are working on a new version?!?! In the 1990s, it would have been impossible to hide such a new device from artists, and here we are in 2023. I didn't hear about the OneWheel until 2022 and it was a successful kickstarter campaign in 2014. As quickly as news travels today, it's so odd not hearing about amazing products. I haven't drawn in decades, mainly because I can only draw what I see. I have difficulty drawing anything original, I lose interest when drawing from imagination. Also, I always hated looking up, down, up, down, over and over, sometimes for hours. I tried painting on a canvas instead, don't care for the mess. There is something about art created with pencil. Just rub the lead to add value and shading around subjects. Your product is amazing, I can't wait to try them all! Even in the right hand of lefties, the NeoLucida will Make Art Great Again!
