As long ago as 1807 – and possibly up to 200 years earlier – many artists used an optical device known as a camera lucida to help them in sketching subjects. A controversial theory even suggests that ...

*Back from the dead via Pablo Garcia and no less a man than Golan Levin. "We have designed the NeoLucida: the first portable camera lucida to be manufactured in nearly a century — and the lowest-cost ...

A couple of days ago (Friday 10 May 2013) I became aware of a rather interesting project on KickStarter.com. Two guys – Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin – have designed something called the NeoLucida, ...

At its most basic level, it’s a prism on a stick. Aim it at an object, put your eye just above the prism and on the paper below appears a ghost image beside a busy pencil. “Within 72 hours, we had ...

They say there is nothing new under the sun, and nowhere is that more true than Kickstarter, where anything old and cool is being made new again. We've seen this before with everything from da Vinci ...

It’s a widely held belief that the Old Masters were exactly that: masters, such as da Vinci and Vermeer, who painted in flawlessly precise freehand. There are savants with steady hands, no question.

Looking to support some awesome photography projects? Channel you inner venture capitalist and get in on these crowdfunding prototypes. The camera lucida, an old 19th–century optical technique that ...

I have three very good reasons to write this post. One is that the camera lucida is just a kick-ass gadget, the kind of thing that all you creative iOwning folks out there will presumably love. Second ...