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.

I was thrilled and honored to have a photo chosen for the MPA Awards for 2016.
It's a world wide mobile photography completion in it's 6th year. So far my track record has been good. I've gotten a piece in the last 4 years and in 2014 two actually made it.

"As always we (I speak as a member of the Jury) were succumbed by the wealth of talent displayed across our screens. We’ve had more entries to this competition than ever before and the quality of submissions has been totally outstanding across all the categories." -Joanne Carter, theappwhisperer.  

I will confess that I entered 20 images. I just couldn't narrow it down and figured my chances would increase. I keep winning in the still life category though. That's not the subject that thrills me the most although I do love it. It just doesn't fascinate me like other things. I am surprised what some people would categorize as still life.

The grand prize winner is actually a professional photo journalist and of course his work is amazing.
If you want to see easily the first place winners in all the categories check out this post on TheAppWhisperer.com
If you want to cruise through all the honorable mentions and see all of Giles Clarke (the Grand Prize winner's) images (fabulous work) go to MPA. There are truly some fabulous pieces.

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.

The Family Farm

As long as there is a son in the family who has farming in his heart, I will always have this place to come home to.

It looked totally different back in the 60's and 70's.

As I was growing up we raised wheat, rye, millet, oats, barley, corn, and later a few sunflowers. Oh, and flax, my favorite because it felt good to the feet and hands when you climbed in the truck bed to 'play' as it was getting augured in. Smooth and slippery like satin. Now it's just 2 crops, corn and soybeans. Yes, I'm sure they are both GMO and some day in the future that landscape will again look a bit different.

Dad retired from farming many years ago but my brother and his son are still there and are techno geeks when it comes to the latest and greatest methods. (GPS)

I sometime wonder what my grandfather would think about all of it. He farmed this land first. Well actually someone else did for a few years before him so we can almost say it was always in the family. 

There is still one original building standing. The barn where we milked cows. Not your typical barn, half as tall as most around the country.

 New reflected in the old.

I remember the pasture behind it and the cow trails and how you'd have to dodge the piles. That's where I first learned about grub worms.

There would always be a few foxtails growing there.

On the north edge of the pasture was a grove of trees. I only remember the Russian Olive trees, my favorite. They are long gone as is the pasture and fence. An extremely large metal building stands there where the guys do their inventing and building of specialized equipment. My nephew actually holds several patents and is the genius behind most of it. 

The east side of the pasture was bordered by the river. Technically called the Maple Creek. We fished there in the summer and skated in the winter. Swimming wasn't a good idea unless you wanted to come out with a few leeches attached. My sister-in-law paddles down it in her kayak these days.

Have you ever tried choke cherry jelly? To get the real flavor out one must grind the berries in a sausage grinder so the seeds will crack. The incredibly dark juice will stain everything in site and of course it must be strained through cheese cloth. A process of love for sure and a bit of a lost art in that area now. I was so tempted to pick some but I've cut way back on sugar and don't need this temptation.

And of course the milkweed. Ready to spread itself into the future.

How about your summer? Did you revisit some wonderful childhood places?