Posted tagged ‘iPhone art’

Sunday Night End of Vacation Poem

January 3, 2011

Feeling sorry for all those going back to work tomorrow, especially the teachers!   My mother was a teacher;  she found Sunday nights, even regular Sunday nights (much less vacation Sunday nights) especially hard.   A poem:

Sunday Night Before Work Week

My mom mopped the basement stairs Sunday nights,
moaning that the lazy was at his best
when the sun went to the West.

We hid.
Even though we knew that
we should volunteer–not so much as helpers
but as fodder, like stiff British regulars
marched before the French–she had to get up a good head
of steam, she said, in order to get anything done—
still we slid into our beds like
coins (dull nickels) in search of a slot, feigned sleep,
knowing well that we
were sorry specimens.

The stairwell, narrow but tall.
clouded over with the lost weekend,
the day to come crowding my mother’s forehead
as she bent to her task.
From my room, I could hear the intermittent
rumble of her rhyme.  She
seemed to identify with the lazy, but I was sure
that she felt, secretly, the best,
at least among us.

1/1/11

January 1, 2011

Has a nice ring to it.

“Brushes” Hybrids – Compensatory Unskill Levels – the Art of the iPhone

December 31, 2010

Here are a couple of the “paintings”I tried so unsucessfully to post over the last few days–more examples of iPhone “art”.

What is particularly interesting to an unskilled artist (i.e. me) is the way that one can use the technology of the iPhone and the “Brushes” painting app to compensate for various gaps in training, talent and circumstances.  Of course, becoming adept at the technology is itself a skill, but again, the application and equipment allow one latitude for circumvention.

One answer is a kind of “hybrid” art, which takes advantage of what you can do ( i.e. draw on paper or take a photograph) without pushing you too hard into what you can’t (i.e. make complicated figures on a 3.5 inch screen, or take out a full watercolor set in a crowded train car.)

My favorite hybrid method is to make a pencil drawing on paper, photograph it with the iPhone, transfer it to the “Brushes” app, and then embellish/paint in.

Here’s one I did on a train, from initial drawing to “final” Brushes version:

Bare Drawing

One (of a few) Brushes Versions

Another idea is to take an actual photograph, transfer it to the “brushes” app, and draw a little figure inside it.  (Yes, I know this is not such a new idea, but it felt revolutionary to me.)

Here was my first elephant in real landscape, an iPhone photograph of ice.

Elephant on Ice

This is kind of a fun technique as you can transfer the “brushes” drawing onto different surfaces, or, for example, different ice:

Elephant on Different Ice

The possibilities are endless.  (Now, if I could just draw something other than elephants….)

Snow (Pearl)

December 27, 2010

Brrr.....

(More iPhone art.  Brrrr….ushes App.)

 

Merry Lame Duck Christmas?

December 24, 2010

Merry (Lame Duck) Christmas

More iPhone art, new techniques.  (You know, you can start with something called a “pencil”–works pretty well.)

I’m not sure the allegory is correct, as I started this just drawing elephant and donkey because I like drawing elephants and donkeys.  The implications were then pointed out to me, so added the duck.

Merry enough!

“Brushes” With iPhone – Feeling my Way into Apps

December 22, 2010

The iPhone is not all things to all people.

While it is purportedly the toy of choice for many (presumably well-to-do) toddlers, it has a pretty steep learning curve for many adults.

That said (along with the disclosure that I hold Apple stock),  once you get over some of the initial humps (no finger keys), it can be pretty terrific.

Especially if you are someone who spends a lot of time on computers, because, frankly, the more time you spend on computers, the more that non-computer life can seem obstacle-ridden.   (As in, ‘what! I have to look for a stamp?!’)

This is where Apps can be handy.  I’ve hardly used Apps, but I tried today a “drawing” App called “Brushes.”

Keeping track of physical art materials in a New York City apartment (without room for studio or even desk) can feel extremely trying.   Especially if you are used to having the world at your fingertips (in bed.)   This is what attracted me to the idea of computer art.

Sure, it would be better with an iPad.  But I only have an iPhone.  So, this morning, I made my first little extremely clumsy two inch drawing of an elephant kneeling in front of a fir tree in a Christmas tree stand.  It may have worked out better had I read the directions.

(I did not understand "layering".)

The second try:

(I avoided background fill, but the mountains started as Christmas Tree.)

And third.

It’s amazing how intriguing it is to manipulate something that is nearly mechanically impossible (i.e. your fingers on a teeny-tiny screen.)  It somehow reminds me of Gloucester in King Lear describing how he sees the world – “feelingly.”

But there we are!  Or me anyway!  Feeling, in limps and bounds, my way.