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Frank Milburn's Blog PCB Art:  The Great Wave off Kanagawa
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  • Author Author: fmilburn
  • Date Created: 5 Mar 2020 7:31 AM Date Created
  • Views 2063 views
  • Likes 12 likes
  • Comments 14 comments
  • pcb_art
  • oshpark
  • pcb art
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PCB Art:  The Great Wave off Kanagawa

fmilburn
fmilburn
5 Mar 2020

Instead of doing what I should be doing I have been thinking about what kind of art works best for PCBs.  The PCB has a limited number of colors that can be used and also limited resolution.  This leads me to think that wood blocks, posters, and things of that nature might be good candidates.

 

One of my favorites is a color woodblock by the Japanese artist Hokusai called The Great Wave off Kanagawa published around 1829 to 1833.  It is part of a series titled Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.  It came to mind because of the current Project14 contest on Photonics and of course the famous wave-particle duality of light.  In the artwork the wave seems to transition to particles.  The tips of the waves have a fractal quality.  At least that is the way I see it :-).  Below is the original and my conversion for placing on a PCB.

 

{gallery} Conversion of Great Wave off Kanagawa to PCB

image

Original

image

Converted for PCB

 

The color palette was developed for OSHPark purple.  The conversion looks OK but really needs another shade or two to pick up the clouds on the horizon and the striations in the waves.  The print has more detail than The Scream  which I posted earlier.  After working about 3 hours I trashed my first attempt and started over.  It took about 6 hours to complete the conversion shown above.  Much of the detail was done by hand because the automatic tools in Photoshop weren't really up to the job.  Or maybe I am not adept enough with the tools.  There are still some parts of the conversion I am not happy with.

 

Bonus!  Here is another print from the series, Dawn at Isawa, that looked like it might be easier.

 

{gallery} Dawn at Isawa

image

Original

image

Conversion for PCB

I don't like this one as well - the palette is too limited and doesn't match the original artwork as well.  It took about two hours to complete.  I find it relaxing however.  It is kind of like painting by numbers but only having 5 paints and they are the wrong color.

 

For now I don't plan to have these made into PCBs but will hold them in reserve for the future when I might want to make them into working circuits.  Thanks for reading, comments are always welcome.

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Top Comments

  • Andrew J
    Andrew J over 3 years ago +5
    It is clever Frank. I’ve always thought that the waves had a fractal quality about them but never heard anyone else say that. It seems like a shame to stick components on the top of them - I think simpler…
  • dubbie
    dubbie over 3 years ago in reply to Andrew J +5
    Some Picasso's might work well, or Pop Art in general, although the colours would be different. Maybe some Warhol. Dubbie
  • dubbie
    dubbie over 3 years ago +5
    Frank, I have always liked the limited colour palette art works, my own are along those lines, mainly because I just cannot draw or paint. So sticking to shapes and putting them together and overlapping…
  • dubbie
    dubbie over 3 years ago in reply to fmilburn

    Frank,

     

    Very nice.

     

    Dubbie

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  • fmilburn
    fmilburn over 3 years ago in reply to dougw

    Here is a hand drawn sketch by me of a crane somewhat in the style of Benjamin Chee Chee and using 4 colors from the OSHPark palette.  If I continue doing this I need to learn to use Illustrator or some other tool for the artistic part.

    image

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  • fmilburn
    fmilburn over 3 years ago in reply to ntewinkel

    Hi Nico,

     

    Those would work great and I really like her art!  I wish I had that kind of creativity.

     

    RE Colors:  By stacking different layers it is possible to get additional shades.  This is the palette I am using based on the purple solder mask from OSHPark:

    image

    Other possibilities like silk screen on bare FR4 might also work but I haven't tried those yet.  Apparently there are board houses that will do multiple silk screens (although they don't really use silk screening much anymore as I understand it) but it might require a special run and adds cost.  I think I remember seeing where it can be done though.  Of course board houses offer many different solder mask colors these days as well.

     

    I describe my process in much greater detail and show the results in these posts:

    Screaming LM386:  An Audio Amplifier with PCB Art

    PCB Art:  The Scream

    PCB Art:  Screaming LM386

     

    If you or SuperArtGirl want to try this and have a question I am happy to help.

     

    Frank

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  • ntewinkel
    ntewinkel over 3 years ago

    That's really cool! Adds a whole extra dimension of possibilities to our projects.

     

    How many colours do you have access to? I was only aware of having the white silkscreen over the board colour, and maybe exposed copper? But do different places allow multiple silkscreens of differing colours?

     

    I might be able to convince my SuperArtGirl to add to a future project image Her art can often have simple and clean designs.

    https://www.instagram.com/superartgirlstudio/

     

    Cheers,

    -Nico

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  • fmilburn
    fmilburn over 3 years ago in reply to dubbie

    Hi Dubbie,

     

    Thanks for posting - I need to try working from some of my own photographs or drawings with the PCBs. 

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