Andy Warhol paints Debbie Harry on an Amiga
This week, Cory posted a Talking Heads video and I followed up with a Laurie Anderson clip. For the trifecta of posts related to NYC's downtown scene in the 1980s, here is a video of Andy Warhol painting Debbie Harry on an Amiga computer at a Commodore press event in 1985.
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Sad thing is there are still some Amigans out there who are thinking this story is about the Amiga...
Even sadder, there are a few beardys that still both use the amiga, and think that it is still a viable platform.
Ah, takes me back. My first computer animation job involved using an Amiga 1000 to create about 60 animations for the Commodore-64 version of Battle Chess from Interplay. In 1989.
My first computer was an Amiga (it wasn't called the "1000" at that time, because it was the only model there was).
One of the things that tipped my decision when I was trying to decide if I would buy a computer (and if so, the amiga) was the then-current copy of Amiga World magazine at the news stand, with a big, bright picture of Andy Warhol on the cover. I bought the magazine, read it, and thought "you can do some cool stuff with this computer!"
It's not a viable platform anymore, granted, but god I miss my Amiga...
I made a vector animated film (16mm) on a Timex Sinclair :O
And later on a Tektronix...
http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2005/11/frank_smullin_a.html
I vaguely remember a series on UK TV in my youth when they had artists using early graphic programs/pens etc. Think it was ITV or 4 maybe. Mid-late 80s. Anyone remember?
BBC 1986 - Painting with Light.
The thing they were using was a massively expensive dedicated system called a Quantel paintbox.
#8
Cheers, heres Hockney on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLJWVRJ0qQM
I actually wrote Breach on the Atari ST and we ported it to the Amiga and then the IBM PC.
Battle Chess! You absolute legend.
Adding color to a photograph isn't painting. It's ... er, coloring?
Can we be done with Warhol now? Sheesh.
Tragedy plus time equals comedy.
Meth minus forty years equals The Factory.
Once a paint bucket, always a paint bucket.
Not a whole lot has changed between this 1985 program
and today's Photoshop CS-4
PS - Warhol looks pretty darn good
Tish and fie to all you doubters. We all know that in 2012 when the Singularity comes, Amiga will once again be the computer of choice. Waitaminute... who's this Andy chap?
The way he picked a flood tool, then the yellow color? GENIUS!
Maybe I was always a lttle creeped out by how much he looked like my mother. But really, no one paints a soup can like Warhol. Except, of course, the guy that designed the soup can...
"The paint program (ProPaint) being used was a very early alpha, and the software engineers knew that it had bugs in it. One of the known bugs was that the flood fill algorithm—the paint program didn't use the hardware fills that were demonstrated earlier—would usually crash the program every second time it was used. Yet there was Andy clicking here, there, and everywhere with the flood fill. Somehow, the demo gods were smiling on Amiga that day, and the program didn't crash."
Debbie Harry looks sooooo stoned.
"there are a few beardys that still both use the amiga, and think that it is still a viable platform."
For what it does, it still is a viable platform. Just like the Commodore 64.
In 20 years, what we're doing today will seem strange funny too. But, if you take a liking to it, why stop? Don't need to replace what you love.
somehow a bit OT, but maybe i will hit paydirt here... there's an episode of Love Boat with Andy Warhol.. and the Cunninghams from Happy days... it's one of my fondest childhood memories (ok I have a lot of fond childhood memories) seeing this... anyone has this available somehow?
BANKY: I ink it and I'm also the colorist. The guy next to me draws it. But we both came up with the characters--
COLLECTOR: What's that mean - you "ink it"!
BANKY: Well. It means that Holden draws the pictures in pencil, and then he gives it to me to go over in ink.
COLLECTOR: So you just trace!
BANKY: It's not tracing. I add depth and shading to give the image more definition. Only then does the drawing really take shape.
COLLECTOR: You go over what he draws with a pen - that's tracing.