Mobile Art Monday No. 53

While playing around in iColorama this week I discovered an interesting thing and just have to share!
Here is my workflow for this piece.

Like most of my edits I start in Snapseed for initial adjustments like Exposure, Ambiance and Tonal Contrast.

At this point I had only made the crop to use on it's own (which I did) but ended up using it in this edit later.

I imported the portrait format image into iColorama.
Style>Coherence>Preset 1 with opacity reduced about 50%. Check Apply.

Style>Tensor 5/5. This is what it looked like before changing any settings.

I chose the photo option at the bottom right To import the square Snapseed edit.

I adjusted the Amount slider all the way to the right which created an interesting offset mask. Saved to camera roll.

I then opened it in Stackables to get some color and texture in the image. (Download link for this formula is below.)

I felt like it was calling for some sketchy line drawing effects. Since I used the the square crop for the 'mask' I decided to use it also for the sketch. Back to iColorama.
Style>Edges Preset 1, reduced size for finer lines. Saved to camera roll.

I imported the Stackables edit and the sketch into Procreate to add in the sketch effect. The sketch layer was set to darken at 50%. It was chopped up into the separate flowers to get things lined up the way I wanted. A new layer was created to add more pencil lines to the piece. I saved this image to camera roll then imported it back in and set the blend mode to hard light and reduced the opacity to 61% for a more dramatic look.

Then in Snapseed I made a little tonal contrast. I have to decide if that tweak was worth it because I went from a 10MB png file from Procreate to a 2MB jpg from Snapseed. I'll have to consider this when I do some future printing.

Here is the link to the Coneflowers2017 Stackables formula. Check out the instructions at the end of Mobile Art Monday No.47 for adding formulas to your Stackables app.

Wishing everyone a great Mobile Art Monday!

Mobile Art Monday No. 48

I received some exciting news last week. I entered 2 mobile art competitions and got selected for both. Woohoo! (one has not gone public yet) Greenwich Workshop held an Instagram contest and I must say after reading the 'info' I wasn't sure I wanted to participate. Then the last day came and since there was not an entry fee I decided to tag a few images. Well, 'The Shovel' made it to the top 25. However to get to the top 10 the public gets to vote. (yee-haa) So I guess it comes down to how big a social media following you have or perhaps relatives. LOL Anyway if you'd be so inclined to vote for The Shovel go to this link. I surely appreciate it.

Sometimes I feel like I'm spending too much time on an edit if I don't think it'll get printed for sale. Then on the other hand I get a real kick out of seeing what all I can do with it. I have so many 'styles' that I like it's hard to stick with just one and not experiment. Besides, I've found myself a little bored lately so I need to get out of my comfort zone.

This was created using just one photo.  

But it was manipulated many different ways, then layered together in Leonardo and painted and drawn on in Procreate. Then later added textures in Stackables and I couldn't resist all the versions I'll show you at the end of this post.

I cloned out a few buds in Retouch, then 'painted' the background in Repix with the chalk brush.

I made a few different edits in iColorama saving each one. This was the first. 

I layered it in Leonardo with the previous edit to bring back in a little more color for the flowers.

Two more edits in iColorama...Style>Edges with the blend mode changed.

I decided to have a play with the brushes on the previous edit.  (Don't even ask what I did, I can't seem to repeat it.)

And on the above I pushed it one step further with Style>Triangle Preset 1.

These were all taken into Leonardo and masked, duplicated, blend modes changed, duplicated and enlarged individual flowers.... Then last of all into Procreate to add some ink lines to achieve my final result.

But wait, I always seem to have to try and add some textures in Stackables to see what happens.

The first is using the early version with just the Repix-ed background. I have to say this one is a favorite.

I love the softness of this one. It's a little more my taste than the brighter version.

This one reminded me of newsprint. So I added some.

 And I think I may try to 'color' this one in Procreate later.

This was not meant to be a step by step tutorial but I hope it inspires you to get creative with your iPhone photography. Have a great Mobile Art Monday!

Mobile Art Monday No. 47

I have two Stackables formulas for you today. The first I call Pods since I used it on my poppy pods.

Original (tweaked in Snapseed)

A grunge filter added in Snapseed. I love how it made the stems blend out toward the edge.

In Image Blender I added one of my own textures.

Then into Stackables for the finale.

I also used it on my freshly emerging yellow coneflower daisies. 

Original tweaked in Snapseed.

The second I call Antique. It's wonderful on still life shots. This is my original edited shot that I save the formula for.

It also worked great on my coneflowers.  (This was a formula in the app that I made adjustments to.)

And a landscape shot I thought worked good with it.

You can download the formulas for Pods here and Antique here.

 Save them to your Dropbox. 

Now on your device, open Dropbox and click the file. Use the 'Open in' option and choose Stackables. It will ask if you want to import the formula, tap 'Import'. 

You will find it under the 'formula' icon with the heart. Click the formula of choice on the right  to apply it. You can make further adjustments by clicking on the wrench icon on the lower right to make each layer editable.

Hope you had a great Mobile Art Monday yesterday and didn't have any firework mishaps.

My July Garden

These funky tiny coneflowers have brought a ton of delight this summer. They've bloomed a long time and still look good. I need to start dead heading so they'll last better until fall. They may have come back from seed, but I think they are the original plant.

I love them in blurry form.

I'll confess the bokeh was added. It's from Pretty Presets, their Luminous Set.

My pink/purple cone flowers seeded out. None of the originals survived.

(iPhone)

Fortunately the red/orange cone flowers seeded out all over and I've transplanted some of them to the front beds.

I guess a lot of things came up volunteer this year. This is a purple verbena variation that gets quite tall. It came up right in the middle of my flagstone path and because it wasn't coming up anywhere else I just left it alone. (Added bokeh, don't you just love it? I think it makes the photo more magical.)

Our butterflies have been few and far between this year. I believe it's because the city has been spraying our mosquitos a lot. We're already well above the average rainfall for the year. 

I love this in monochrome because it makes him look transparent.

Of course I've had a plethora of zinnias.

My sunflowers always volunteer in the veggie garden. A bad storm wiped most of them out last month so the majority are laying on the ground.

You'll see a lot more sunflowers from me this month. The farmer down the road has a field in rare form this year and I've been out twice in the last 3 days. This morning I took my tripod with me and actually dressed nice for some selfies. I'm doing 31 days of Hipstamatic sunflowers on Instagram. Check it out, link in the side bar.

Coneflower Love

These babies have ravished my heart. 

The common pink coneflower I planted last year didn't survive the winter. There are a few volunteers out there but I think they may all be yellow. Most are still quite small. The rabbits seem to enjoy them more than is allowed. 

I bought a few new ones this summer. They were all shades of coral and orange when they were planted. So far this color is all that's blooming.

I dusted off my Lens Baby (Composer Pro with Double Glass Optic, 4 aperture) and tried out a few new presets for Lightroom.

Lightroom Presets Summer Collection- Summer 2

Lightroom Presets Summer Collection- Summer 10 with additional adjustments. 

This one is my most favorite, at least for today.

I didn't care that this ended up out of focus. I really like it this way. 

Rad Lab Replichrome Sample Pack Tweaks, Curve:: Fade+++ This is a free 'try me' part of Rad Lab's  Lightroom Film Presets. This is the first time I've played with it. Not sure that I'll spend the money, we'll see.

Matt Kloskowski's preset  Twilight (Strong) Another freebie.

Rad Lab ReplichromeII Sample Pack Films, E100G Calibrated+

Absolutely no edits! When I went to look up my info on this one I couldn't believe I had not done ANY edits. (Makes me want to go back and play.)

I used several fonts in my word art, (Yes, I broke the rule of no more than 2 or three max.)

Merged them to one layer.

Added a mask, added a gradient to the mask from the bottom so BLUR would fade out.

Duplicated my layer and applied the mask. 

Added a slight vertical motion blur. 

Added a new mask to it. 

Selectively brushed away and added back on the mask of both text layers.

Added a texture to my type layer set on multiply.

Do you feel like you get lost in the blur? 

I often do.

Every time I turn around, it's Friday again. 

Better than Monday right?