Saturday 9 February 2019

point par pouce

From Kottke’s Quick Links, we are directed to a little routine that will convert any image into a mosaic consisting of emojis, matched for shape and colour. There is not quite the level of granularity present to make for a pointillist image and probably works better where it does not have to compensate too much for changes in contrast.
Up close, the results look like a chaotic jumble but at a distance, it does rather capture quite well Georges Seurat’s iconic A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the Bathing Women of Hippolyte Petitjean and the self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh when viewed from a distance, just as the original technique prescribed.
Click on the pictures to see more details and resolve what glyphs are representing each brush stroke. Though the term carries no negative connotations now, pointillism was originally coined by critics to ridicule the style and the artists who experimented with it. Try it yourself with what you think might take well to the mosaic treatment—and take a step back before judging the creation—at the link above.