Mobile Art Monday No. 36

It's ok to have Mobile Art Monday on Tuesday once in awhile, right? As I mentioned last week, I'm taking a class from the amazing Robin and Ivy called Paint and Pixels. I rarely spend that much on a class but my heart was going in this direction at the time and it turned out to be soon very worth it. They give their all and there is so much information and content. It's one of those classes that I have to really pay attention because a lot of it is new territory for me.

This is my first mobile art journal page. 

I made the 'background' with Mextures, Repix and Procreate. This exercise was then supposed to be printed, then used actual paint to finish the piece. Since I'm not a big painter I decided to just play with the paints and brushes in Procreate.

One of the nice things about Procreate is that you can export the 'in process' video. (at any time) It still amazes me every time I watch it. That I actually did this. 

I'm excited to do more but I have a show to get ready for in a month. Who knows, I may just put this in the show for grins.

Mobile Art Monday No. 35

I've been taking a class called Paint and Pixels given by Ivy Newport and Robin Laws. The first three weeks have been all digital art although drawing in the Procreate app has been a stretch to someone not used to 'hands on' art. This week, week three, is combining digital with real paint and charcoal and who knows what. I haven't watched all the videos yet but I can tell you right now I'm seriously chickening out when it comes to hands on. I have all the tools, I just don't know how to use them. It will totally be trial and error with lots of error I'm sure since there is no undo button!

One of our lessons was a composite. I've done a few in the past never really being happy with them but with my new found knowledge, I must revisit some of those old digital files on the cutting room floor.

I used five of my own photos. The house photo is the main photo. The fence piece as masked in. The bird I had already extracted from the background and saved as png file. The moon, from last week. I played with just those 4, then decided something needed to be in the foreground. 

Pretty ugly right? I use Leonardo for layering my work. If one layer doesn't blend well, it can be adjusted which I had to do with the fence. Changed the exposure and contrast. You can barely tell where the sky met on the two photos. I also like it's masking abilities.

Next up Brushstroke for a painterly effect.

Now that's looking better already.

Now one of my all time favorite apps, Stackables, which has had an update and a few new textures and things. If you own the Master pack, the update is free. If you don't, you should get it!

I actually saved several versions but this was my favorite.

I then took it into Procreate and added the chimney, smoke and some line art for my finished piece.

Have you stepped out of your comfort zone lately? This is definitely not my normal work but it was fun and I've incorporated it into some still life photos and love the results.

Check out my Instagram for more art. Oh, and if you're a Hipstamatic user, join us on Instagram with the hashtag #hipstaaday_october. Some of us got hooked last month and it's a great way to experiment with some different combos. (be sure to post your combos)

Mobile Art Monday No.34

I have just a few days left to post my 30 Days of Pumpkins for the month of September so I'm trying to plan a few biggies for the finale.

Today I played with some of my saved formulas in Mextures. I came across this colorful one and it was my favorite.

Another one I liked from the guest formulas category.

I couldn't resist a play in Stackables while I was at it.

And right now I'm tempted to try them in Waterlogue or Brushstroke for some painterly edits, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Mobile Art Monday No. 33

I'm knee deep in classes right now so I'll just share a few of my favorite new found Hipstamatic combos. I'm doing #hipstaadayseptember on Instagram and I'll bet I do it for October too.

Sergio Lens and Irom 2000 film. Love that blur from the lens.

Gregory lens and Robusta film. I find myself using that film quite a bit.

Sergio Lens and Kodama film. It isn't very often I can capture a bee.

A new one I tried is the Eric lens paired here with Robusta film. It gives a very contrasty look.

Another with the Gregory lens and Robusta film. I really love taking shots of my granddaughter with Hipstamatic.

Gregory and Robusta. She and her PawPaw appear to be doing exercise in the grass. (At her prompting.)

Another new lens, Akira and Robusta film. 

Anyone is welcome to join me, just add the hashtag #hipstaadayseptember to your hipsta shots.

Hope you've had a good Monday.

Mobile Art Monday No. 32

It was quite by accident that I was able to achieve this edit in iColorama. I will tell you what I did to get here but I'm afraid I can't tell you why or how some of it worked because parts of the app are confusing to me. I will eventually know it inside out, but for now....

In iColorama I started with this photo that was shot in Hipstamatic. 

You shouldn't need to do this, but you can if you want. To get rid of the 'canvas' texture I chose Style>Coherence>Preset 1. Click Apply.

Next choose Brush>Bristle. You have to wait a few seconds for your canvas to turn 'white' (completely blank) then you begin to 'paint' back in the part of the photo you want revealed. I left it on Preset 1 but you can try some of the others. Be warned, some will smear the paint. (I didn't change the brush)

When you're satisfied (there is only one undo) click the Apply check mark.

Staying in the Brush Module, choose Paint. Pick a brush that is the pattern you would like to 'erase' your art. In brushes click on 'single' to get the choices of that particular brush category. Adjust the size. Then 'stamp' at the outer edge to get 'edge' patterns. Remember there is only one undo.

 However, once you've clicked Apply you can go to Steps in the upper left corner to back up to a previously saved step.

Next Choose Style>Edges, change the blend mode to Multiply. You can choose a different preset or change the size of the edge line width. 

BEFORE you click apply... Click the Zoom/Move tool. A blue line appears around the whole screen to show it is active. Move your photo to the left and zoom in so you can see one side of your edges. touch the Zoom/Move again to deactivate it.

Touch the Brush/Mask. It has a red line to show it's active. Now 'erase' any edge lines you wish. I left just the ones around the white filagrees. If you change your sketch layer back to normal it's easier to see where you've erased it. Then change back to multiply.

NOW click apply.

If you'd like to play with a little color change, choose Preset>Colors2. Choose a preset, change the blend mode, lots of options for some different toning.

Save your file, don't close the app. Go to Steps, chose the first step to get back to the original photo. (if you didn't do Coherence, if you did you may want to choose that one.)

Next under Style>Edges. Choose a preset that shows good outlines. This will only be for reference for drawing purposes unless you want to use it for your sketch layer. Save to camera roll.

Next up, Procreate!

For great tutorials on how to get started with Procreate checkout The Digital Painter's YouTube. He has three great tutorials.

Here are what my layers looked like. 

Initially I reduced the opacity of the sketch layer to use it for a guide to sketch by. Be sure to create a new layer to sketch on. The first ink layer was black. Then I decided a little white ink might look nice. So that went on a separate layer. 

After I thought I was finished, I changed the original sketch layer to 15% opacity and blend mode soft light to brighten up the whole piece. 

Mobile Art Monday No. 31

It would be fitting that my Mobile Art Monday post No. 31 would be about my 31 Days of Hipstamatic Sunflowers on Instagram. 

It's been a glorious month! And I took too many to narrow it down to 31 so the past few days on Instagram I've posted extras and some 'four photo' grids. 

This was one of my favorite and I saved it for the last day. It was the closest to any that had a heart at the center.

Robusta lens, Lowy film.

A few random favorites.

Sergio lens, Blanko C16 film.

 Jane lens, Black Keys Extra fine film.

Tejas lens, Ina's 1982 film.

 A few of my combos with the same shot for comparison.

John S lens, Uchitel 20 film   -   Yoona lens, Dixie film.

Jane lens, Blanko C16 film  -  Robusta lens, Lowy film..   

Jane lens, Black Keys Extra fine film   -   Tejas lens, Ina's 1982 film.

Sergio lens, Blanko 일 film   -   Tejas lens, Dream Canvas film.

A mix of Jane lens with Blanko C16 film and Yoona lens with Dixie film.

Tejas lens, Ina's 1982 film.

BlankoBL4 lens, Madalena film.

August has been a sunflower month and it looks like I'll have tons more for editing in September.

These were all taken at the only field a few miles southeast of town.

For more sunflower shots check out my Instagram.

Mobile Art Monday No. 30

Today I'm warning you to be aware when you combine any old files with new ones...

My finished edit.

This weekend I was cleaning out my iPad and came across a 30% grayish file from April of this year. An accident I assume, but thought I would put it to good use. I would import it into Mextures and make a few textures from some of my saved formulas. I made three, saved them, and decided to play around with the pink one. 

On the left is the texture made in Mextures. On the right, I've used Repix to add more texture and a painterly quality.

Now for some layering. 

In Superimpose, I brought in the Repix edit as the bottom layer and my wilted desert willow as the top layer.

I proceeded to blend and mask, then saved it to camera roll. You have a choice when you save to Camera Roll if you want to preserve the Metadata from the Foreground or Background. I normally leave mine as background because I'm usually working on current photos. In this case it was not a good idea. 

I normally use the Transfer Photo App to get my photos from my devices to my computer and when I did this I just happened to notice that none, no not one, of my various versions of this edit series was showing on the camera roll to import.

I decided to open the Photo Metadata Reader on my iPad and see what it had to say. The images were right there, the last things I had edited but the date said April 2015. Problem solved, sort of, at least the mystery was. 

I have often noticed, depending on which app you are editing in, it may save your edits back with the original photo. And if that photo was months ago it may get skipped when importing to the desktop. At least that's how Transfer Photo works. 

I may have to go back to using Image Capture (Mac) to pull in my images. One nice thing about Photo Transfer app though is that it shows all your albums so if you're wanting to import all your Hipstamatic shots it's very easy to do. It also has a Drop Box, Google Drive and a Flickr plugin. I'll be checking those out to see if they'll be handy for my work flow.

I am curious, what app are you using to transfer photos to your desktop?

Mobile Art Monday No. 29

My artichokes are beginning to dry so I cut one while it still had color for some shots.

At the last minute I grabbed a black background to see what I could do with it.

Original on the left and first edit in Snapseed on the right.

Second edit in Snapseed with the Retroflex Filters.

Third edit in Stackables adding four layers of textures.

And lastly into Superimpose to add some detail back into the choke.

To do this I imported the Stackables image as the bottom layer. The top layer is the first Snapseed edit so I could eliminate the background. I used the Filter menu to turn it to black and white. Then the masking tool to erase the background with the magic wand. I changed the blend mode to multiply and and lowered the opacity to 15% to get the finished image.

Hope you've all had a great Monday!