Arley

the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like. 

So you know. 

Normally, acetone is too volatile for restoration, but when it’s a gel, it becomes very stable and a) stays on top of the porous surface of the painting, and b) won’t evaporate. So it can eat up the varnish.

The Mona Lisa is a glazed painting.

A Direct Painting is one in which the artist mixes a large amount of paint of the correct value and shade the first time, and applies it to the painting. A Glazed Painting is a painting in which an underpainting is painted, generally in shades of gray or brown, and a allowed to dry, before layers of very thin glaze - a mixture of a tiny bit of pigment and a lot of oil - is applied to the surface.  Some artists, such as Leonardo, choose to work this way because it provides an incredible sense of light and illumination (look at how the real Mona Lisa seems to glow).

The Mona Lisa is an incredible work of glazed painting, but that makes it fragile, so fragile that many conservators don’t want to work on it because it’s extremely difficult and a conservation effort go wrong for many many reasons. One of the reasons it could go wrong is that the glazes and the varnish layers are actually a very similar chemical composition, and a conservator could accidentally strip off layers of glaze while removing the varnish. 

In fact, in 1809 during its first restoration when they stripped off the varnish, they also stripped off some of the top paint layers, which has caused the painting to look more washed out than Leonardo painted it. 

The Mona Lisa also has a frankly ridiculous amount of glaze layers on it, as Leonardo considered it incomplete up until he died, He actually took it with him when he left Italy (fleeing charges of homosexuality), meaning it never even got to the family who had commissioned it, and instead constantly altered it, trying to get it just a touch more perfect every time. That makes it really fragile, with countless layers of very thin paint, many of which have cracked, warped, flaked, or discolored. It’s not just the top layer, its layers and layers of glazing throughout the painting that have slowly discolored or been damaged over time.

Speaking of damage, look at the cracking. That’s called craquelure; it happens with many painting’s (even ones that aren’t painted with this technique) because the paint shrinks as it dries, or the surface it’s painted on warps.  Notice that the other painting has very little of it, even though it’s almost the same age.

The reason the Mona Lisa has so much craquelure is because Leonardo was highly experimental, almost to the point of it being his biggest flaw. There were established painting techniques, and then there were Leonardo’s painting techniques.  The established painting techniques were created in order to insure longevity and quality, but Leonardo didn’t stick to any of them. This has made his work a ticking time bomb of deterioration. 

Don’t believe me, check it out:

This is how most people think The Last Supper looks

But this is actually a copy done by Andrea Solari in 1520.

The actual Last Supper looks like this:

The Last Supper has been painstakingly and teadiously restored, with conservators sometimes working on sections as small as 4 cm a day. To get to it you’ve got to walk through a series of airlocks (AIRLOCKS!?!?!) and they only allow 15 people at a time because the moisture from your breath and your skin particles will damage it. Despite all of the precautions and restoration, it still looks like that.

This is because Leonardo painted the last supper using highly experimental methods. He didn’t use the traditional wet-into-wet method that fresco painters used, and insead painted onto the dry plaster on the wall, meaning the paint did not chemically adhere.  Before he even died the painting had already begun to flake. It’s a miracle it’s still there at all.

They’ve done what restoration they can on The Last Supper because the painting will absolutely disappear if they don’t. The Mona Lisa, which is delicate, but much more stable, doesn’t need the same kind of attention. And, like many of his works, is just too delicate to touch, and the risk of doing irreparable damage to it is far too high. The Mona Lisa is insured for something like 800 million dollars, and that’s a lot of money to be ruined by one wrong brush stroke. (fun fact: the most expensive painting ever sold was also a Leonardo, the Salvator Mundi, and it went for 450 million dollars.)

Furthermore, there are probably only 20 or so authenticated Leonardo paintings in the whole world. If you look through the list, most of them aren’t even fully done by him, are disputed, or aren’t even finished.  It’s simply too difficult and too risky to restore the Mona Lisa, one of Leonardo’s only finished and mostly intact works, when there’s hardly any more of his paintings to fall back on.

Now the painting you see in the video above is 200 years old, not 600 years old, and I assure you, the conservators decided the risk to restore it was minimal (after extensive research, paint testing, x-raying, gamma radiation, etc.) and that the work they were doing was worth the risk based on the painting’s value.

Conservators make the decision all the time about how much they can do for a painting, because really, they have the ability to completely strip a painting of all varnish and glazes and just repaint the whole thing (which happens to a lot of badly damaged paintings, especially when there’s no way to save them - one of the very small museums in my area recently deaccessioned a Monet because it was barely original, and no one wants to look at a Monet that’s only 20% Monet’s work) - but doing that to the Mona Lisa, removing the artist’s hand from the most famous piece of artwork in history? Hell No.

The Pixel Art Mega Post

Pixel Art Tutorials, Tools, Games, Sites, Tributes, Masterpieces

1.) PIXEL ART TUTORIALS

Pixel Art Tutorial (by Derek Yu)

HD Index Painting in Photoshop as Article and Video (by Dan Fessler)

No Bullshit Pixel Art Tutorial (by Retronator)

Pixel Art Knowledge (by various Pixel Artists)

Pixel Art Tutorial (by Cure)

Pixel Art Tutorial (by Android Arts)

Pixel Purism: Process vs Results (by Dan Fessler)

Pixelation Knowledge Repository (by Helm)

6 Pixel Art Drawing Techniques as Video (by GDQuest)

What the Heck is Pixel Art (by Pix3M)

Pixel Art Process - or 8 steps to a polished result (by Cyangmou)

Perfect Pixel Art with Specular and Bump Lighting in Unity (by Anton Kudin)

ISOmetric Pixel Art Cheat Sheet (by Dennis Busch)

GIMP Pixel Art Tool Setup Tutorial as Video (by Retronator)

Run Cycle Tutorial (by Glauber Kotaki)

Pixel Art Tutorials (by finalbossblues)

A Little Guide to Pixel Art (by Simon Hunter)

Secret Weapons and Tactics for Better Pixel Art (by 2D Will Never Die)

Pixel Art Tutorials (by drbubu)

Pixel Art Tutorial (by Studio Purloux)

Pixel Art Academy (by Retronator)

2.) PIXEL ART TOOLS

Free Pixel Art Tools:

Piskel [Windows/Mac + Browser]

Pixel Art Editor [Browser] -with collaborative editing mode-

Asesprite 0.95 [Windows/Mac/Linux]

Grafx2 [Windows/Mac/Linux]

Paint.NET [Windows]

GIMP [Windows/Mac/Linux] 

Paint [Windows]

Pixly [Android]

Commercial Pixel Art Tools:

Photoshop [Windows/Mac]

Pro Motion [Windows]

Pyxel Edit [Windows/Mac]

Asesprite [Windows/Mac]

GraphicsGale [Windows]

Pixaki [iPad]

Sprite Something [iPhone/iPad]

Sprite Lamp [Windows/Mac/Linux]

Pixel Art Tutorials:

Collection of Pixel Art Tutorials

Other related Tools:

Voxel Art Tools:

Qubicle [Windows/Mac] -Commercial-

MagicaVoxel [Windows/Mac] -Free-

Hexel Tools:

Hexels [Windows/Mac] -Commercial-

GIF Creation Tools and Tutorials:

Ways to create animated GIFs

Game Making Tools:

The Big List of Game Making Tools

3.) PIXEL ART SITES / COMMUNITIES

Pixel Dailies

Pixel Joint

TIGSource Tumblr and TIGSource Forums

Retronator Magazine and Retronator Tumblr

PixelArtus

Pixelation

DeviantArt Groups (Pixel Artists and G-Pixel)

2D Will Never Die

4.) GAMES WITH PIXEL ART (PART 1)

Curses N Chaos

Odallus: The Dark Call

Tick Tock Isle

Freedom Planet

Tower57

Iconoclasts

Eitr

Heart Forth, Alicia

Olympia Rising

Shovel Knight

MegaSpehre

Mercenary Kings

Maldita Castilla

Foxtail

Beard Blade

More Games with Pixel Art can be found here

5.) GAMES WITH PIXEL ART (PART 2)

Into The Rift

Witchmarsh

CrossCode

NeuroVoider

Cerulean Moon

Dungeon of the Endless

Timespinner

Owlboy

Hive Jump

Leilani’s Island

Chasm

Ninja Senki

CoinOp Story

Starr Mazer

VHS Story

More Games with Pixel Art can be found here

6.) PIXEL ART MASTERPIECES (PART 1)

Pixel Art Diorama - Treasure (by cocefi)

Pixels, Huh - Scene #14 ‘Ben’ (by Octavi Navarro)

Level 4 - Hell! (by vierbit)

Autonomous Space Suit (by Oncle Gab)

Pixel Art Diorama - Fishing Spot (by cocefi)

Neo(n) Pixel Art I - Ceremony (by valenberg)

Platformer House (by bugpixel)

Cyberpunk Pixel Art (by Jason Tammemagi)

Pixel Art Diorama - Bookkeeper’s Garden (by cocefi)

Vikings Tavern (by albertov)

Panduranga Temple (by Socnau)

A Donkey’s Life (by iLKke)

Pixel Art Diorama - (Re)Drawn to Life (by cocefi)

Neo(n) Pixel Art II - Neon Bounty Hunters (by valenberg)

zero (by valenberg)

Neo(n) Pixel Art II - Jet Plastic (by valenberg)

More Pixel Art Masterpieces can be found here

7.) PIXEL ART TRIBUTES TO GAMES (PART 1)

Tribute (by retronator)

Mirror’s Edge (by junkboy)

Bayonetta (by junkboy)

Smash Bros. - Mario and Mega Man (by AbyssWolf)

The Last of Us (by pwang)

Left 4 Dead 2 (by AbyssWolf)

God of War (by pwang)

Smash Bros. - Samus in Zero Suit (by AbyssWolf)

Smash Bros. - Samus in Power Suit (by AbyssWolf)

Hyrule Warriors - Link (by AbyssWolf)

Colossal Katamari (by snakepixel)

Dark Souls - Beat Them All Demake (by Mr_HK_)

Isometric TF2: Badlands (by gas13)

Metroid - Mockup (by Robin Wouters)

Dark Souls II - Bonfire (by Bandygrass)

Alien Isolation (by jonroru)

Dark Souls (by zedotagger)

Captain Toad (by Paul Robertson)

Chip and Dale 3 - Mockup (by snakepixel)

Turrican II (by junkboy)

Super ISO Bros: The Other Side (by Emperor_Pixel)

Splatoon (by Davitsu)

A New Wario Land - Mockup (by snakepixel)

Metal Gear Solid - Psycho Mantis Battle (by tenpoundpixel)

More Pixel Art Tributes to Games can be found here

8.) PIXEL ART TRIBUTES TO MOVIES (PART 1)

Adventure Time - Finn and Jake (by AbyssWolf)

8-Bit Ghibli: My Neighbor Totoro (by Richard J. Evans)

Akira (by mazeon)

Adventure Time - Swords (by Luciana Nascimento)

Star Wars - Millenium Falcon in Asteroid Field (by mazeon)

The Pix Lebowski (by Spiddrelli)

Adventure Time - Treehouse (by Gengar)

Tron (by mazeon)

Game of Thrones (by Czarek Luczynski)

8-Bit Ghibli: Princess Mononoke (by Richard J. Evans)

Game of Thrones (by Orkimides)

Mad Max: Fury Road (by Mazok Pixels and Misha Petrick)

Simpsons Pixels (by Paul Robertson and Ivan Dixon)

Watchmen: Rorschach (by mazeon)

Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan (by mazeon)

The Dark Knight: Joker’s Car Chase (by Bruno Moraes)

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison 

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think 

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites.