Watercolours are a compelling medium because their aesthetic is the product of multiple variables. The pigment, the surface and, of course, water play into every unique stroke. But design engineer Kenichi Yoneda is using openFrameworks to create digital watercolours. And they look organically beautiful.
Kenichi has replicated the aesthetic of other media, like pencil drawing, and he has tried to represent watercolours before. But the algorithms he presented at the openFramework Developer Conference last week are his most successful yet. He wrote on his blog:
I’ve been recalling sometimes that I was asked if it was possible to do my own watercolours . . . Since then I’ve been kind of haunted with the idea of mimicking my watercolours with codes . . .
To create the effect Kenichi combines water and pigment layers to produce texture, and he manipulates images with openGL blending and applies it for dimension and depth. Kenichi’s watercolours seem natural and flowing, so it’s amazing to realise that the art is being driven by ones and zeros. [Creative Applications]