paintings prints and stuff

A new 25mm brush drawn  with a Dagi pen, using the Sketch club app on an ipad When these kind of pens for digital tablets came out they were very very expensive and I didn't feel I could justify one.   The Dagi pen has come down to an affordable, justifiable price now  and I've been playing, seeing how good it is.  Mine is a pretty frosted green :>)  It's good!  I don't know how robust it will be, time will tell.  The plastic disc is there presumably to protect the screen, it comes with a few spares,  obviously it is easily damaged.  The fine point means precise placement. The images shown were all drawn in this app on the ipad For accuracy in placement of the tip of the pen when drawing on the tablet, it feels just like normal pen/pencils - you can see precisely where you are placing the tip, unlike the normal rubber tipped stylus. The paintbrush was drawn on a single layer, flipping between pen and brush ...

Hedge silhoutted against the snow, late afternoon.  Charcoal and pastel This one started with a sketch in Derwent's tinted charcoal pencils (lovely subtle colours).  See the original sketch below. On the other side of the road was this wonderful early sunset that I'd done an iPastel sketch of on the iPad.  I thought it would be interesting to see how it worked with what was actuall a pale grey sky on the opposite side of the road, where the hedge was- so on the ipad I borrowed the sky from the ipad work and combined it with the sketch - this may well turn into a larger painting where I can play with those tangled twigs and branches :>) .  It was done in an A4 Stillman and Birn, hardback Beta book with lovely lovely heavy paper, that takes anything I throw at it.  I would love to get my hands on some A2/A1 sheets of this paper. The tinted charcoal pencils are gorgeous to use, with subtle natural colours and were perfect for the hedge and undergrowth....

Snowy early morning, slightly misty, ipad painting Another sketch done on the ipad of the morning filelds, a slight mist in the air and so quiet.  Again I played with the text tool as I felt it worked with this. Done with the Sketch Club app.

Painting from memory; a fabulous late afternoon with fresh snowfall, low sun throwing apricot through and bouncing off the dark clouds and the snow. I stopped on the way home to look at the gorgeous light on the landscape.  The furrows and tyre tracks in the ploughed field made a beautiful pattern on the hillside, with smooth snow n the adjacent field. The low sun threw apricot light on the snow and shone through the dark clouds. It didn't last long.   By the time I'd driven for maybe 5 minutes it was gone, the sky was all dark clouds or grey.  So this is from memories.  I did take some photos but didn't get them out when doing this and the previous one, I started it off in the Pen and Ink app The image was then imported into Sketch Club and I painted it on a layer below with some final touches on a layer above the 'pen' sketch. I like this ability to use layers - it replicated using a watercolour wash over a pen sketch and then using a little...

Travelling home in the late afternoon the light was beautiful. The pattern of ridges and tyre marks in a ploughed field made sweeping patterns, defining the form of the land. The low sun reflected apricot colours on clouds and snow. And then a flock of birds took off from the field, making a beautiful moment even more special. I have to do some paintings from this, but for now I've just had time to do some sketches on the iPad. This is a test post from the iPad so I'm hoping it works ok.

Using Diptic and Adobe Photoshop Express Apps Diptic and Adobe Photoshop Express Apps for the iPad review I've used these 2 apps with photos here, but of course they will work equally well with art work, digital or analogue :>) I like the above image - it's a montage of my youngest grandson at Christmas  :>) I put the pictures together in an app called Diptic  - which has a variety of grids you can choose from (and edit) to create montages.   You can move the images about and enlarge or reduce them within their grid.   These were all cut from larger photos. It's very very simple to use and well worth having if you want to create this sort of compilation. The images were dropped into the grid, the text added and the whole changed to black and white in Diptic, then in Adobe PE I gave it a grainy texture.    I think these grids work best in black and white or sepia - or in the Warhol like effects of the thermal camera or similar....

More playing with Sketch Club on the ipad.   A portrait of my grandson. I need a finer stylus for finer detail, like features.   There is a good comparison, i n 2 parts, on youtube .   I want that pen type with the circular clear disc.   The brush would be fun maybe, though not essential.  He also recommends the Bamboo stylus - but buyers on Amazon slated it for an ephemeral lifespan - has anyone any experience of this? This was sketched in a mix of the pen and brush tools in Sketch Club and then using the text tool just for fun. The drawing was done on one layer with the colour added on the layer beneath, varying the opacity and brush size so that colours were overlaid and blended. more to come ................

Cat in digital calligraphy, Sketch Pad app on ipad The ability to draw in text (see last post) in Sketch Pad is fun. These were done importing the previous digital sketches I'd done from life in another programme ( see earlier post s ) and working in a layer above them.   You can swith the layers on and off, exactly like photoshop, by clicking on the eye.   Once I'd got the basics down I deleted that layer and finished the image. details sketch from life using Pen and Ink app the digital calligraphy drawing is based on this onward ................

Tangled undergrowth, a sketch done with the Sketch Club app on an ipad This App was highly recommended to me and I'm so glad.  It has all sorts of features that I want - the ability to use layers, to import images done in other apps, layer options much like Photoshop, a good range of marks including some of Mr Doobs , (a free online app that you can use on a pc) and more.  It really is a very versatile one.  There are good options on resolution and file types.  It's extremely easy to use, very intuitive. The ability to work onto images done in other apps (or of course your photos) extends the creative possibilities enormously. Below is an experiment with drawing in lettering, not a great drawing but it demonstrates the fluidity with which the writing moves.  This has lots of potential in images and design.  I input the words happy birthday and then simply treated the text like line, to draw the flowers .  They repeat endlessly.  Cool?...

Quick sketch from life using the Pen and Ink app on the ipad, drawn with my fingers The free Pen and Ink app really does have the scratchy feel of pen and ink.  It comes with very limited tools and options but you can pay to have more.   I'm planning to stick with the free pen option on this one. I couldn't work out how to open the image in another programme with layers to add colour (on the ipad) so I did it on the pc - see below: With added colour I simply worked on a layer below the pen drawing, using the colour at low opacity, with the layer option set to Multiply, so that glazes of colour built up with transparency.  I'm sure this is possible on the ipad when I can work out how to move the image into a suitable programme.   I know how to do the opacity/layers thing on the ipad in other apps - it's the moving an image into another app that I can't do. sketch of winter undergrowth using pen and ink app on the ipad, using a basic Colt ...

Taken with the thermal image option on the ipad   A preliminary look at the apps for art and photography on the ipad that I've experimented with so far, some were deleted as rubbish but I didn't keep track of the names,  though I know Glaze was one, sorry!   ....... OmniSketch  A free app. This one was a lot of fun and my grandchildren enjoyed it as well (aged 2 and 5).  It is a little like the Mr Doob Harmony programme for pc I've shown here before, with interesting marks working on algorhythms. I really enjoyed experimenting with the way the marks interacted with each other and the difference that speed and pressure made.   The colour palette was a colour wheel , so lots of choices and the ability to choose close colour or tone, creating a reasonable amount of subtlety in finished pieces. The symmetry option was good - finished images sometimes felt as though they would work well in embroidery or stained glass or as a repeated...

sunset study with the Pastels app on ipod The ipastels app on the ipad is good to use, a definite keeper.  If you like using pastels this is defintitely worth trying out. I've downloaded several .....  umm  quite a lot.... of apps to try out, those that I don't like will be deleted eventually. As I've downloaded this I can't tell if it was a freebie or a bought one, sorry but it doesn't show any more once it's purchased - but the prices for any I bought were very low, all under £3. It's very simple to use with all the options clearly laid out and quick to access. You can work on different layers, preserving the layers beneath while you experiment.   I haven't used this yet but have worked in a similar way in Photoshop and know how handy it is. The image above was done on a single layer. You can vary the stroke width and pressure, meaning colours mix very naturally, thin veils of colour can be laid down and subtle transitions made, the sm...

more sketching with omnisketch and close up detail I think some of the earlier doodles would have worked well as stained glass windows with the light glowing throught them - this one I see as an embroidery.  If I had the talent I'd have a go at doing one! What do you think? and thank you for the app suggestions, they've been extremely helpful. And as a teaser - Derwent have got a really gorgeous new product coming out next year.   I can't tell you about it but I'm going to get to play with it :>)  I did have a really quick secret go when I was demo-ing at the NEC in October and LOVED it!  The hitmen would be after me if I told though :>D

   detail of drawing below More drawings on the ipad, using Omnisketch.   Isn't the blue/purple luscious against the firy reds and oranges? entire drawing using omnisketch I've shown details as the fine marks don't show otherwise. detail of above image Still loving it!   I have to work out how to get these directly from the ipad to the blog - if anyone wants to leave instructions in the comments I'd be delighted,  So far I've emailed them to myself and posted via the computer.

Drawing with an ipad detail showing the marks My Christmas present to me, from me, for having had a horrible year was an ipad.  Friends have given me masses of great advice on which apps to download for art (and others).   Any more advice on apps is welcome. This one is done with OmniSketch and it works on algorhythms, rather like the programme by Mr Doob that I've used here before.  It's lovely for creating rich patterns and this one was done using an option that creates the symmetry as you go.  Lines relate to each other, depending on nearness and the speed of your hand as you draw, creating fine spidery marks linking them.   There is a gallery of paintbrush, mark making options.  It's fun! I've got Brushes - as used by David Hockney - and Procreate, which I'm told is good but haven't seriously played with these yet.  I got hooked into the rich, decorative Christmassyness possible with Omnisketch. I have to say that the ip...