Digital Art: Painting with Pixels (Exceptional Social Studies Titles for Upper Grades)

Ron Miller has worked as a freelance writer and illustrator for more than 30 years. Many of his illustrations appear in magazines like Astronomy and Scientific American. He has also worked on motion pictures and created postage stamps. (One of his stamps is attached to a spacecraft headed for the planet Pluto!) He has also written short stories and novels and has even created a comic book.

Grade 6 Up—Miller covers the history, background, practice, and future of technology in art, focusing on how digital art is made and how it works. The first chapter covers the "archaeology" of the genre, including harmonographs, oscillons and electronic abstractions, and fractals. By extension, the author also draws parallels between math and art and manages to make the mathematical genesis of the technique fascinating and easily accessible. This chapter also looks at the contributions to the development of computer-generated art of such artists as Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Succeeding sections discuss the "hows" of various methods such as computer-aided drawing, animation, 3-D modeling, and motion-picture special effects. The final chapter looks at career possibilities. This beautifully designed book will be an excellent background source for those beginning to experiment with art on the computer, or who are looking for information on digital art as a career option.—Jane Barrer, PS/IS 111 Adolph S. Ochs School, New York City
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.