Negative Art

Or is it positive when a sketch of an inverted photo is inverted again?

It was like my re-discovery of Search Term Poetry and Spam Poetry: You think you are oh-so-innovative and leading edge, only to discover that people on the internet have done your thing for ages.

With invert art, I am again standing on the shoulders of giants. There are numerous drawing demonstrations on YouTube, of artists creating portraits in negative colors. On digital inversion, the ghostly blue hues magically turn into the color of human skin.

It is important not to google too much before you start something “new” – not to be discouraged, and not to commit things to your subconsciousness. You would never know later if you truly discovered it by yourself.

My so-called discovery of inverted art was borne of despair and necessity – as all great inventions are!

I wanted to draw my rotary dial phone:

But how should I get the small white numbers right? In a pencil sketch? Color everything black and leave the numbers empty?? (I was not aware of tools like white gel pens back then.)

So, I converted the photo to grey scale and inverted it:

Now the numbers are black – and we (an elkement) can draw it!

Invert it!

Now the numbers are white again!

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This phone is still in use today! It is guarding a landline that only scammers and cold-calling salespeople use.

Sometimes there is a ping call: That short call you can never catch, and that entices you to call back (at enormous costs). That scam only works if 1) the phone has a display showing incoming calls, and 2) you can initiate an outgoing call! 1) is obviously not the case. 2) is not either, as Voice-over-IP does not support the signals used in pulse dialing. I could add an electronic component to convert the signal – but I rather keep the phone as limited and protective as it is now!

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The lone black telephone had been featured before – as an illustration for found poetry:

Lone Black Telephone

The Origin of Darkness