TexasWoodcarving.com

Some readers of this site may remember my post about ultra high resolution images of masterpieces from the Uffizi Gallery . Well, Google has taken this idea to the next level with their Google Art Project . The site lets you explore famous museums and zoom in on the details of many works. You can see close up the fantastic details in a painting like The Ambassadors . Following are a few videos that give you an idea of what you can see and do at Google Art Project . Have a look and let me know if you think this will be an aid to your art creation and appreciation.

Doug Oliver sent along this link to a site with some beautiful carvings from St. Martin's in Austin that he came across while doing research. http://issuu.com/ stmartinsaustin/docs/final_ art_book?mode=embed&layout= http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com% 2Fv%2Fdark%2Flayout.xml& showFlipBtn=true Have a look and let me know what you think.

The folks at http://www.haltadefinizione.com/  have scanned masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Botticelli and others at incredibly high resolutions. You can zoom in to see the finest details of the brush strokes. You can even see any cracks that may have appeared in the paint. This is likely more detail than you would be able to see in person without magnification. I think we can learn a lot from studying the works of past masters. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Google has made the LIFE photo archive available for searching. They have information about the project here . Now when you go to images.google.com you can add "source:life" to your search to find images from the LIFE archive.

Throughout history, artists have use images to tell a story or convey some meaning. The word iconography means "image writing." For a more in depth definition, see this article on iconography at Wikipedia. Following are some sites I found that explain some of the meanings associated with artistic imagery: Christian Iconography Gravestone Motifs & Their Meanings Art Symbols Dictionary: Flowers and Plants I hope these help. Please let me know if you have some other lists that I may be helpful.

Doug send me this link to an extensive Flickr album of woodcarving photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ana_sudani/sets/72157594361473412/ Take some time to enjoy over 5000 woodcarving pictures.

One of the students in my class thinking about carving a last supper. He thinking of carving this in the round rather than as a relief. With this in mind we discussed several ways to arrange the composition. I offered to find some images that might help with the creative process. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Levoca_Last_Supper.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Giotto_-_Scrovegni_-_-29-_-_Last_Supper.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Last_Supper_by_Theophanes_the_Cretan.jpg Some other images that may be interesting can be found at: http://www.museum-replicas.com/wc_ProductDetails.asp?PID=5969&SCID = http://www.easterinthepark.net/lastsupper.html http://www.abcgallery.com/R/rubens/rubens102.html In addition, check out the Last Supper images at Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Last_supper

I ran across fromoldbooks.org which is a site with thousands of high resolution images from old or rare books. Most of these images are now public domain. This should make one more useful reference site.