Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

039. Maurice Payne. Los Angeles

In his book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney describes the process of using a camera lucida:

Basically, it is a prism on a stick that creates the illusion of an image of whatever is in front of it on a piece of paper below. . . . When you look through the prism from a single point you can see the person or objects in front and the paper below at the same time. . . . You must use it quickly, for once the eye has moved the image is really lost. A skilled artist could make quick notations, marking the key points of the subject’s features. . . . After these notations have been made, the hard work begins of observing from life and translating the marks into a more complete form.

David Hockney
Maurice Payne. Los Angeles. 11th September 1999, 1999
Pencil on paper, using a camera lucida
The David Hockney Foundation
© David Hockney
Photography by Richard Schmidt