Recent work has shown that the mathematics of fractal geometry can be used to provide a quantitative signature
for the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock. In this paper we discuss the calculation of a related quantity, the "entropy
dimension" and discuss the possibility of its use a measure or signature for Pollock's work. We furthermore
raise the question of the robustness or stability of the fractal measurements with respect to variables like mode
of capture, digital resolution, and digital representation and include the results of a small experiment in the step
of color layer extraction.
Compared with colorimetric imaging, multispectral imaging has the advantage of retrieving spectral reflectance factor
of each pixel of a painting. Using this spectral information, pigment mapping is concerned with decomposing the spectrum into its constituent pigments and their relative contributions. The output of pigment mapping is a series of spatial concentration maps of the pigments comprising the painting. This approach was used to study Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night. The artist's palette was approximated using ten oil pigments, selected from a large database of pigments used in oil paintings and a priori analytical research on one of his self portraits, executed during the same time period. The pigment mapping was based on single-constant Kubelka-Munk theory. It was found that the region of blue sky where the stars were located contained, predominantly, ultramarine blue while the swirling sky and region surrounding the moon contained, predominantly, cobalt blue. Emerald green, used in light bluish-green brushstrokes surrounding the moon, was not used to create the dark green in the cypresses. A measurement of lead white from Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte was used as the white when mapping The Starry Night. The absorption and scattering properties of this white were replaced with a modern dispersion of lead white in linseed oil and used to simulate the painting's appearance before the natural darkening and yellowing of lead white oil paint. Pigment mapping based on spectral imaging was found to be a viable and practical approach for analyzing pigment composition, providing new insight into an artist's working method, the possibility for aiding in restorative inpainting, and lighting design.
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