Mobile Art Monday No. 57

If you've never picked up a copy of Somerset Digital Studio Magazine, the current issue would be a great one to grab. It is the first of several issues that I hope to have my art featured in. I wrote a feature article titled Digital Mobile Watercolor explaining the steps I use to create some of my work. (I did add some textures from Stackables on the pumpkins at the end.)

I've also uploaded a video I recorded in iColorama showing this poppy edit in progress.

One thing you'll notice is that I constantly use the undo button as I try out different brushes.

Hope this gets your creative juices flowing!
Have a great Monday!

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!

Sketching on the iPad

I have fallen in love with a great app and stylus for mobile sketching. Since I wasn't much of a 'normal' sketcher to begin with, I have no qualms about digital drawing. Besides, there is no mess and you can take it anywhere. And the best part is the undo button.

The app I use is Procreate. The stylus is the Adonit Jot Touch with Pixelpoint. You could use your finger but who uses their finger to draw on paper?

The original photo was edited in the painterly app Repix. (It's also the same original that I used for the dill photo in the header of this blog.

I used black ink to sketch back in lost detail, then decided to add some white to make it pop more.

I took it back into Repix and ended up turning it into a black and white and found I really like this look.

I'm linking up with Veronica Roth this week. She's doing a sketch challenge. The theme is 'calm', although mine looks like it could be a party, I always find calm in my garden.

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. 

Daisies, 100 Day Project, Day 8

My 100 Day Project is coming along nicely.

I stared at a few how to sketch books at Micheal's yesterday and one was really tempting. I may just have to go back.

At this point I'm only 2 days behind but that is just fine. I'm not trying to keep up. If I just drew with out making a mobile edit I could probably keep up. But that is not the point for my project.

This is my original photo. As you can see in some of the edits, I cloned out parts of the background and blended in and blurred parts of the foreground.

This is the edit I spent most of my time on in Stackables and saved a new formula. 

Tip: Did you know you can re-order your own formulas so your favorites are at the top? This only works for your own formulas. I wish it would work for the others.

The rest are some of my 'saved' formulas.

And my sketch...

I will be looking for the simplest things to draw… Maybe I'll start taking photos of just parts of flowers. Ha, ha, ha! I have switched for a pen to a pencil so if I really need to I can pull out the eraser. I've made myself not because I want the imperfections. I'm also finding that it's a lot easier to draw something the exact size that it is instead of smaller. (I need to get larger paper because I'm drawing from my iPad onto a piece of 4x4" paper.) Makes my mind go crazy.

Paint and Ink iPhoneography

I have a tutorial over at E-scapeandScrap's blog today featuring painterly photos mixed with line drawings/sketches. In a nutshell, you need a black and white line drawing of your original image and a painterly version of the original. The black and white is layered over the painterly and the blend mode set to darken or multiply. Here are six more samples of this style of work.

Remember you can always add more adjustments to tweak your image.