October 5, 2009

"People from the village come up to me and tease me, 'We hear you've started drawing on your telephone.'"

"And I tell them, 'Well, no, actually, it's just that occasionally I speak on my sketch pad.'"

David Hockney and his iPhone.

... Hockney limits his contact with the screen exclusively to the pad of his thumb. "The thing is," Hockney explains, "if you are using your pointer or other fingers, you actually have to be working from your elbow. Only the thumb has the opposable joint which allows you to move over the screen with maximum speed and agility, and the screen is exactly the right size, you can easily reach every corner with your thumb." He goes on to note how people used to worry that computers would one day render us "all thumbs," but it's incredible the dexterity, the expressive range, lodged in "these not-so-simple thumbs of ours."

6 comments:

ricpic said...

The thing I love about Hockney is that he keeps trying for more...which is not the same thing as pushing the envelope.

bearing said...

That is a really cool article that beautified my day. Thank you for posting it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

speaking of funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0

Glenn Howes said...

I noticed last night that my four year old son, who has been using an iPhone or iPod Touch since he was 2, was using his thumb to paint with the large clickable trackpad of my unibody MacBook. I told him to use his index finger, but maybe he's onto something.

Robt C said...

I envy the skill and artistry involved. It probably took him all of 2 - 3 minutes to do those sketches, and they're great. Color, composition, small details like the sun in the vase on the window sill. . .genius.

Thanks for the link.

traditionalguy said...

Oh boy, that's all we need: impressionist art on the computer touch screen.Will painting while driving need to be outlawed?