It's configurable too!
Numbers set grey scale.
Letters set colors (b=blue, r=red, y=yellow, etc).
Mouse click sets random color.
Spacebar or double-click resets canvas.
I didn't discover this, comment stolen from previous discussion (thank you Cactus2018!): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24284711
On a tangent, the floor of Pollock's studio is an artwork in its own right:
https://aaqeastend.com/contents/aaq-portfolio-jackson-polloc...
Fun, but more suggestive of Steadman (illustrator of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and other things) than Pollock: https://www.npr.org/2014/04/27/307285367/artist-ralph-steadm...
I absolutely love this and here's why: many people who criticize art as being "child's doodles" lack the experience and process of art. Education raises all boats. This is that type of simple education.
So now, I hope every here tries to make their own Pollock art.
I find it interesting that Pollock was a student of the American Regionalist Thomas Hart Benton[1]. No two artists could have been more unalike...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hart_Benton_(painter)
I know it’s early but it’s funny to note the difference between the comments here so far and what the discussion was like in 2020:
Beautiful. Minimal interface. The domain itself is the only necessary explanation.
People seem confused about the UI. You don't need to click, just move. Most keys on the keyboard correspond to a color. Shift + those keys sets the background.
I like it that there's no hint, it just rewards exploration and experimentation.
Hah! I waited far too long for the page to load. It wasn't until I moved my mouse to another window that I realized.
It's cool, but that's definitely a Ralph Steadman background generator, much more than Pollock.
In case anyone wants to do one themselves (and learn Clojure), I think this was posted on HN previously: https://tombooth.co.uk/painting-in-clojure/
Fun thing!
The double-click to clear is too sensitive for me. I keep accidentally clearing when I try to go fast.
I wonder what the art dealers in Who The #$&% Is Jackson Pollack[0] would think of this?
I've commented [0] on some of the hidden features (changing foreground and background colors with <letter/number> and <shift + letter/number> respectively) but also to note is there's some nice ascii art in the raw source (though the main bit is cut out by HN filters): view-source:https://jacksonpollock.org
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/ /\ ___ / /\ ___ / /\ / /\
/ /::| /__/\ / /:/ /__/\ / /::\ / /::\
/ /:|:| \__\:\ / /:/ \ \:\ / /:/\:\ /__/:/\:\
/ /:/|:|__ / /::\ / /:/ \__\:\ / /:/ \:\ _\_ \:\ \:\
/__/:/_|::::\ __/ /:/\/ /__/:/ / /::\ /__/:/ \__\:\ /__/\ \:\ \:\
\__\/ /~~/:/ /__/\/:/~~ \ \:\ / /:/\:\ \ \:\ / /:/ \ \:\ \:\_\/
/ /:/ \ \::/ \ \:\ / /:/__\/ \ \:\ /:/ \ \:\_\:\
/ /:/ \ \:\ \ \:\ /__/:/ \ \:\/:/ \ \:\/:/
/__/:/ \__\/ \ \:\ \__\/ \ \::/ \ \::/
\__\/ \__\/ \__\/ \__\/
The page looks blank so click/tap to fill it in…!
Based on Stamen Design's Splatter https://stamen.com/splatter-now-re-available-for-download-15... https://github.com/stamen/splatter
What a wonderful demonstration of how a simple UI can create so much joy. Utility to Kolmogorov complexity ratio is quite high on this one.
I’ve played a lot with this years ago. Could have been between 10 and 15 years back even! Didn’t know it still existed. Thanks for sharing
2003? Canvas wasn't a thing until the 2010s
Since we are on Pollock ...
To think that someone actually made a lucrative career out of the analogue version of this. I suppose it was one step above hanging a blank canvas with a pretentious caption underneath.
The Paper.js library is neat if you like this site (found it looking through the source). http://paperjs.org/
Has anyone seen Blue Poles? It nearly brought down a government.
Showed this to my 16 year old and she said, "oh, yeah, I've got that bookmarked."
"You should also try Mondrian and Me."
I did, and it's as you would expect:
More fun than panda dataframes, at least at this hour.
It's a lot of fun building these kinds of things. I made this a few years ago and got obsessed with modelling bezier curves for individual bristles and tweaking the tiny details of blend modes https://react-artboard.netlify.app/
someone, once, attached different paint brushes to the branches of a tree, that could touch a canvas placed below. The completely random, but compelling results, resemble nothing so much as a pollock one of the few mad artists that I admire there work. Also have lived with paintings done in his studio by an X's relative, who was attempting the same style, but in no way achiving what pollock himself did. I do have a few random unknown artist works, that come close, and have a partial back story on two, and they were also, mad! Mad but precious, and in this time there is little physical and financial room for people and the subculters they create to thrive, and so we are impoverished. The app is cute, but it trivialises what was a huge reach into the unknown.
How cool to see this. This last year, I helped the artist fix this and bring this back to life. Makes me smile to see it here. :)
Here is the Artist's home page, btw:
Reminds me of the early days of Javascript when every other website had a gimmick like this one.
This reminded me of my Show HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41791443
Fun fact! Jackson Pollock, along with other abstract expressionists, was a CIA propaganda asset!
The CIA believed that abstract expressionism, with its unbound and individualistic style, could be associated with American freedoms, so they secretly funded the "Congress for Cultural Freedom", an anti-communist advocacy group that promoted American arts and culture, including abstract expressionism, through international art shows and publications.
Art or writings that touched on US racism (Pollock was contemporaneous with numerous lynchings) and imperialism (Guatemala, Iran, Greece, Korea) were, of course, passed over.
Ever since I learned this, I have lost all emotional appreciation for his works. While before they seemed free, now they seem cheap.
the main reason why I el-you-vee love this is that it's what my first sketches in processing ( minus the obligatory "random" color generation on every mouse click ( somehow those colors where never really random ) ) plus some algo for extra splotches around curves, it looks like. a very simple starting point elevated to a super cool thing.
My portrait https://imgur.com/a/SKrexZb
Can someone help me? I can't get to the main page, but it draws what looks like a toddlers art work when I try and use it.
Firefox on Linux.
I want this but multitouch so badly.
This brings back fond memories of playing around in KidPix in elementary school.
absolutely wonderful, thank you
Pollock’s art is not just random splashes but a sophisticated interaction of movement, gravity, and fluid dynamics, creating fractal-like structures. This fractal nature might contribute to why people find his work visually compelling—it resonates with patterns we see in nature.
Great! Is this website funded by CIA as well?
Can someone with ChatGPT Pro use Operator and ask it to move the mouse to create a beautiful painting and see what happens?
why is this front page on HN
Amazing!!!
Make this a Vision Pro app, please.
lol not gonna lie I thought it got the HN hug of death at first
it got old fast lol but for a few minutes I was into it.
Here's a topic I don't see people engaging with: I could in principle make the same kinds of completely abstract paintings Pollock did, but if I do it, it won't be art because I'm not in the art world. I have no access to galleries, I have no patrons, and I generally don't move in those circles, so I have no ability to be taken seriously for doing it.
___ ___ ___ ___
/ /\ ___ / /\ ___ / /\ / /\
/ /::| /__/\ / /:/ /__/\ / /::\ / /::\
/ /:|:| \__\:\ / /:/ \ \:\ / /:/\:\ /__/:/\:\
/ /:/|:|__ / /::\ / /:/ \__\:\ / /:/ \:\ _\_ \:\ \:\
/__/:/_|::::\ __/ /:/\/ /__/:/ / /::\ /__/:/ \__\:\ /__/\ \:\ \:\
\__\/ /~~/:/ /__/\/:/~~ \ \:\ / /:/\:\ \ \:\ / /:/ \ \:\ \:\_\/
/ /:/ \ \::/ \ \:\ / /:/__\/ \ \:\ /:/ \ \:\_\:\
/ /:/ \ \:\ \ \:\ /__/:/ \ \:\/:/ \ \:\/:/
/__/:/ \__\/ \ \:\ \__\/ \ \::/ \ \::/
\__\/ \__\/ \__\/ \__\/[dead]
[dead]
[dupe]
Cool, but needs color.
Fun! Reminds me of spending a week in 2012 trying to find the perfect blackboard chalk effect http://mmoustafa.com/experiments/chalk/
After many experiments, the most realistic was painting a thick line and then erasing tiny randomly sized rectangles out of it.