Texture:  One of the seven essential elements of art

Texture:  One of the seven essential elements of art

According to Kristin Farr (NYTimes-10/13/2016) texture is one of the seven essential elements of art.  Actual physical, tactile texture dynamically interacts with it’s environment. Glistening reflections of light and shadows that dance around as your angle of view changes create the sensations that bring a work of art to life.

How It’s Done

 

Extracting the textural characteristics

The creation of a Soulevé 3D textured print starts with an analysis of the digital image to be reproduced.  We use the same principals employed by the human visual cortex to extract signals from the image that represent edges and shadows.  This is done primarily by measuring changes in luminance properties from one pixel to the next. These are essentially the same methods used by the human brain to detect depth and texture.

Creating the texture map

Once the textural characteristics of the artwork have been extracted from the image we generate a series of files that are used to instruct the printer to lay down layers of ink in an artistic pattern in much the same way as the artist’s brushstrokes might build up layers of paint.

Creating the textured reproduction

These layers of ink recreate the underlying physical texture of the painting.  The inks are essentially a form of latex paint, formulated for use with a highly engineered, Swiss made flatbed printer.  The complex engineering design allows for precision registration to be maintained from one layer of printing to the next while physical texture is built up to heights of up to 1/4th of an inch.

The Product

Our Soulevé textured fine art reproductions are available on canvas, canvas board or Dibond, an aluminum coated rigid PVC board.  The inks are UV cured and extremely resilient.

The finished artwork is an elegant, eye-catching and durable work of art.  The Soulevé textured fine art reproductions are a perfect solution to the one of a kind scarcity of original fine artworks at a fraction of the price.