Mobile Art Monday No. 55

Today is a Procreate day! Once you learn what this app is capable of, you can do just about anything with it. (I'm hoping to do some video recording to explain parts of it in the future.)

This week I did a little art journaling piece. I had written this in my 'journal' (Notes App) last week and was trying to figure out what I would do for a ballerina to turn it it some art.
I have always wanted to turn some flowers into skirts so when I saw the dill in my camera roll I figured it might work.
You can find my Procreate video here on Vimeo. You'll be able to see the photos used, a paper I stenciled and progression of my 'painting'.
Originally I did all the writing in Procreate and was so proud of myself. (You can see in the video that I used a grid to help keep the writing straight and uniformly spaced. Then later deleted the grid layer.)

But I just wasn't happy with it.

I knew Snapseed had added text in a recent update so why not try it.
I exported a version from Procreate without the writing.
I felt this looked much better. I liked the font, the only thing I didn't like was that I had to do each line separate because it would not do a return. Since you can go back and edit each 'edit' in Snapseed, it made a long list of text 'layers'. This is good if you need to reposition something or change it's size or color. I also added a touch of Image Tuning to the final piece.

Does it bother me that she has no arms? 

No. She's probably still working on that restraint issue.

Have a great Mobile Art Monday!

Mobile Art Monday No. 54

This week's Mobile Art Monday brought to you on Wednesday.

Apps used: Procreate and iColorama.

This was supposed to be a simple test to see how my last tutorial would work on a building.
I got carried away and couldn't give it up. I had to try and make something of it.

In the first part of this edit, I followed the steps in the last tutorial here using these images in iColorama.

The only thing I did different was the blend mode was set to Color Burn when I imported the 'sketch'.

*I saved this to camera roll and eventually used it later in my workflow. 

At this point I went on to play... (be sure to click Apply to save your changes.)
In Form>Mirror Preset 17. I saved this edit to camera roll to use later. (You never know what you might need.) Did NOT click Apply.

Still in Form>Mirror but with Preset 11. I applied this edit and moved on.

In this step I did 2 things.

A. Effects>Blend.  I imported my original cropped photo because I wanted more of the windows brought back. Masked out the other areas. Clicked Apply.

B. Effects >Blend. I imported the sketch again to give more definition to the roof. Blend mode was set to Multiply and masked out most of the lower area. Clicked Apply.

The sky was too blank so I imported the other 'mirror' photo that was saved previously. Effects>Blend>Multiply. Rotated it and masked out all but the corner. Clicked Apply.

I went back to Style>Tensor but used Preset 4. I imported the sketch photo and got this streaky effect.

One more photo import... Effects>Blend. This time I imported the first saved edit.*

I saved one version with a Color Blend Mode and another with Hard Light.

Switching gears, I started importing images into layers in Procreate.
I started with the last two, reducing the opacity on the Hard Light layer.
Next came the sketch image at Color Burn.
A new blank layer to add sketch lines of my own.
A previously edited image for texture in the sky area.
Tiny evergreen trees.
A large leafless tree.
And a paint layer for enhancements and dodging and burning.
All it seems to be missing is a few birds so I added them today.

Hope you're having some fun with mobile art no matter what day it is.

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.52

The first edit for 2017...
I've spent a whole week cleaning out my 'studio'. Completely rearranged. Cleaned off shelves. Took stuff off walls. Hauled out three bags of trash. You can even see the 'whole' floor. It's so nice I don't want to mess it up. My still life shooting area is twice as big and I now have a wall to shoot against instead of a window. One big thing remaining is that I'd love to pull out the carpet and put down vinyl wood plank. But I don't need another project right now. My brain is fried. I was just thinking about how many decisions I have made in the past week. Everything I picked up had to go somewhere. I was making decisions every few seconds. No wonder that was so tiring. And the past couple days I've been culling photos from last month. After awhile you just say think "oh heck, keep 'em all." But after reclaiming space in the 'studio' I intend to reclaim space on my computer too. More about that later.
One thing I did while cleaning was take photos of all my dried weeds I've been collecting so I could throw most of them away. (That took a few hours.)
This is the first in my 'weeds series'.

I began layering and in Superimpose. The only downside to this app is you must merge the top layer into the bottom before adding any more. 

The upside of this app is that you can save (upload) your top layer if you've masked away the background and then 'download' it to reuse it again and again. Which is what I did with the hydrangea flowers.

 Next I opened Stackables to add one of my formulas.

 Then in iColorama, under Sketch, I used the image before texturing to get this line drawing.

I opened the two images in Procreate to blend the sketch over the textured image. The blend mode was set to multiply and slightly skewed for effect. I usually don't use procreate for simple 2 layer blending but I wanted to try some hand drawing on it. I wasn't impressed with anything I tried this time.

At this point I opened it in Retouch to eliminate a couple stems that I should have taken care of earlier, resulting in the finished piece.

Hope you're having a great Mobile Art Monday!

Mobile Art Monday No. 50

This may be the last Mobile Art Monday for this year...

I have a big art show coming up in November and a 2 week RV vacation in October. (again? you say!) Yes, we're going east as far as Asheville NC. Perhaps I'l be able to post a few road trip photos from my iPad. I'm going to check into getting a new 7+ before we leave and if so, you'll find out if I'm impressed or not.

It's been a long time since I had an image featured on Instagram. I was getting a bit discouraged and I realized how unstimulating some of my work had become. Or I should say uncreative. But then with the artsy stuff I do, I don't know what hashtags to use to get it noticed. Well, this finally got a feature today by @Illustrious_Art.

Since it is pumpkin season I have been going nuts with edits. I love the fall colors and I've been doing some still life set ups. I can reach a much bigger crowd with that style anyway. Kind of like killing two birds with one stone. Although a lot of the still life people don't go for the texture anymore. 

I did several versions of this edit in Stackables. The reason I chose this one besides the fact that I like it was because of the teal coloring. Anything turquoise gets more likes (unless it's pink.) Here is the formula in case you would care to use it. ( pumpkins2016 ) Check out the instructions at the end of this post for adding formulas to your Stackables app.

Be forewarned... the background on this photo was black/dark gray.

Here are a few other versions with some of my formulas.

I'm one person away from reaching 1000 followers on Instagram and I may just have to celebrate with a little give away after vacation.

Hope you'll be having some great Mobile Art Mondays the rest of this year.

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!