Fwd: Very quick sketches on ipad done in life drawing class - post emailed from ipad

Ipad painting

Trying out one of my 16 painting apps in the search for a great colour mixer. Best colour mixer is Infinite Painter on my android phone. It will hopefully come to ipad in the coming year. For this painting i used artstudio and its smudge tool which really distorts rather than mixes. Perhaps i need to fine tune. Each art app has pluses and minus, some are better for watercolour, others pastels or oils etc.

Rough prototype of my home made Ipad Cover/stand

It was done on the fly, just sticking together pieces of cardboard from old certificate protector envelopes (will use thick stuff next time or double) with gaffar tape i had (£1.34 - need to check pound stores as B&Q want £7-8) as I saw what was needed.  Had seen some made on youtube.  I have seen lovely white leather  with brown interior leather one on amazon for £17 and I would buy this if I wasn't worried about security - although I could place it in my envelope idea below which would keep it clean too.  Maybe I will but for now am mad about not getting the Black Friday apple discount (could have save extra £26) so making cover makes up for this and is also a little more satisfying.

Will make some changes after seeing real ones in stores.  I don't want mine to look like an ipad for security reasons.  This one looks like an old paper notebook when closed.  All the following changes may not be done for some time as the current one works very well.

•  will add covering bit to hold ipad in when the cover is open and used as stand, instead of the elastic bands - the ones i have seen are sewn on with elastic on the sides in a few places so as not to cover buttons. 
• will add fastener to keep cover closed instead of the elastic.
• will add flaps top and bottom so ipad can stand in same two angles in portrait view without having to take ipad out of cover and turn it to stand
• will add flaps/something at top and bottom so  ipad can't be seen at all - will be great if i can make these look like the top and bottom of book pages.
• Make parts imoveable when closed so magnet doesn't turn ipad off and on accidentally
• I will make pretty fabric one based on same design.  
• I am working on on my original idea an old padded envelope for Oz.  Battered and uninteresting.   (see last pic) 
• I will make pretty one using book making processes, using pretty fabrics but based on the same flaps ideas.  Still look like a book of pretty box rather than an ipad.
• I may make a leather (have lots of leather and old leather skirts and bags etc) one if i can again make it look like a book

The full cover open, showing centre section, back section with 3 sections, and front section with 3 sections - i just kept adding section and dividing them as seemed necessary.  Luckily it just develped organically and I didn't have to change much.  I didn't cut neat straight sides or worry about bumps in tape as it was only a test.  I would have been more careful if I had known it was going to turn out to be so useful.

Standing tall with bottom/back section folding in 3.  This will also be good angle for life drawing class on table - last week i took footstool and lap cushion with the lower angle set on ipad cover as i sat on a chair,  as i din't realise class had mini tables.  This worked as well.

Standing flatter with top/front section folded in 3.  I use this the most.  At this angle I am able to touch type - need more practice.  This is also good for resting on knees while watching TV in the lazyboy chair with legs up - my usual usage place.

Cover closed with magnet section folded back so it doesn't accidently turn on ipad - to avoid this the cover would have to be more immovable.  

Magnet section in operation keeping ipad turned off - only use it like this on table not in hand bag where parts would move and turn it off and on all day.  

Magnet from old fridge picture stuck on top/outside of cover with yet more gaffar ape.

Magnet touching ipad - ipad off.

Magnet lifted away from ipad - ipad on.

This was my first go and I had put magnet on it.  Good disguise.  I was going to coat in clear PVA to keep it clean.   I may use same idea on old envelope or book pages or covers.  I may use this envelope purely to hide ipad, may rejoin the side so it is envelope again.

New ipad (mini?) supersentive Pen for taking notes and drawing released soon

I've been following these designers this year as they develop this pen and now it's about to be released.   Interestingly in their FAQ on compatibility, they mention the mini ipad?  What do they know?  Surely they needed to be in contact with Apple for future compatibility?  

rumours of ipad mini in october - 7.8" retina display

Could it look like this?

http://www.tenonedesign.com/connect.php

Add caption

It also has a great no-see magnet ipad stand.

Designers Block - Beautiful ipad docking station by Scott Eaton and a minimalist Japanese Bakery

 More great finds by designers block.

Soctt Easton has designed this lovely quirky ipad docking station.  His site shows his beautiful drawings and the design process.  It's nice to see the crossover between art and design.
Gives me ideas to make plaster/paper mache one - curled up cat with reading glasses or maybe wo/man's butt cheeks?

More at scott-eaton.com

2. also like the simple/minilimast Japanese Bakery - i must de-clutter my kitchen.

More of this from Designers Block

The Bakery's site

New Post digital printmaking book

Must go to bookshop  to look into this book - sounds interesting.  Will update this post then.  
Around £22.

The Blurb
This groundbreaking book establishes Post-Digital Printmaking as a distinct area of printmaking practice both technically and conceptually. Radically different from digital print production (inkjet on high-quality paper), Post-Digital Printmaking integrates Computer Numeric Control (CNC) devices such as laser cutters and CNC routers with matrix production for lithography, intaglio and relief. This contemporary practice incorporates the strengths of both digital and traditional, resulting in hybrid printmaking techniques.

A comprehensive and accessible technical introduction to this important area of printmaking, this book explains techniques and processes in detail, discusses the contexts within which Post-Digital Printmaking has arisen, and includes examples and case studies of artists applying these hybrid techniques in their work.

Mucking about in Photoshop

Since using Photoshop for the Shadows projects as well as having intended to play with it's painting tools and my drawing tablet for first time in years,  I did a little flower painting - more graphics than painting style.  It was fun.  I finally got round to sorting out the shortcut keys for tools so I can quickly change between, brush, eraser, colour picker and bucket fill - all inspired by the phone app.  I was never this quick when I used it before.  It was the quick mode of use of the app that inspired me to check out how I could use PSD more quickly.

Mint and Parsley

Colour Bar for transfer to phone

Regardless of what I said in last post (Colour - photos unreliable ), I am trying this as a quicker way to get close enough colour than having to open Sketchbook's colour palette all the time.

Colour - photographs unreliable

Just yesterday I had been reading an article in Artist magazine about why it is unreliable to paint from photos only.   The article is right and Hockney is too - the camera lies - about depth and colour etc - it's lenses can't do what our eyes do and it's colours are interpretive.  Though digital cameras a getting better and scanners too - in their millions of colours - that's still less than we see and it's heavily interpreted by lighting etc.  My experiment has really made this clear for me.

I had been using the colour picker in Sketchbook app on my phone to pick colours from photos to paint them.   I had also taken picture of a page in my Colour Mixing for Portraits book to pick colours from that.  So, today I tried it on my desktop.  I scanned in page from book this time to get better colour match than phone camera version.  Then opened in Photoshop.  My intention was to rearrange tiny patches of each colour down one side so I could use it on my phone - to overcome patches being painted over with my picture, therefore making it impossible to pick up the original colours.  But once I started roaming over just one colour square with Photoshop's colour picker it changed between about 10 colours at least - you could see why as the squares show different colours in the picture below - eg. you can see brown and ochre in the master skin tone recipe square.  I even scanned in at lower dpi but no good.  So even adding picture of say John to colour pick from means I am not getting of John but of a camera's limited interpretation of it.   Also, the squares of colour in the book itself have been interpreted by a camera, and in the picture below then interpreted by my scanner.  

I wonder though if the digital process is really picking up the constituent colours of the square that our eyes put together in a Gestalt way to see the whole colour - just like the impressionist put yellow next to blue dots or dashes next to each other so we would see green from a distance - not sure this is the case here but I will investigate further.

Photos are useful but it's still best to see the real thing at least a few times.

Shadows

My creative friend Kim thought I could help her with shadows on her quilt she is making.  Though it was great for me to learn more about shadows and use photoshop in more depth, it just served to show how little I know.  It does prove what my life drawing teacher told me - there's so much you can do with imagination but you also need to see figure in situ, even photos aren't as good as they flatten and never show the light and atmosphere accurately.

The trials of working out shadows without seeing the real thing.  Sun is suppose to be at 11am.
Tree is set back from children, not sure how far.

1. partically done by hand but shadows too long for 11am

2. shadows done with psd select to give more hard edge to shadows.  Angle of right side child not in right direction.  Shadows still too long.

3. Shadows shortened and right child shadow now in same direction as others but not sure it's right yet.

4. As always, drop shadows look better when combine with body shadows.  Still the right child isn't right and I don't know what to do with it after 6 goes at position, rubbing out parts, resizing etc.  Can someone go out and photo someone in 11am daylight sitting in same position?

5. there's nothing like a little distance to see what to change.  after going away and doing some sewing it just seemed right to make right child's shade bigger.  not sure if too big though?

 New right child shadow - process

1. select and copy child and save selection then fill in with paint bucket
2. flip vertically
3. rotate

4. position over child 

5. shorten, rotate then cut out what is not what is wanted - this is where i have the problems. - - this is where the problems begin - size, position and how much to cut.  i am having problems with photoshop resizing - have to work out how to use better - or get it near right then adjust by hand - maybe need to work out how to use it's perspective tool.

shadow shortened and turned more

shadow cut away but leaving shadow on feet

shadow then cut away from body fully

Using perspective tool:

 Shadow flipped horizontally definitely not right:

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Now I want to know more about shadows.  I have begun my research.

I also had forgotten about 'about.com' and since I want to write up some colour basics for John this link is useful for both.  about.com colour and shadow theory etc

 



Google images has some good tree shadow pics  tree shadow pics on google search





THE SAGA OF THE SHADOWS CONTINUES

In the end it was Kim who worked it out.  She enlisted the help of two models - her husband and a little manikin, spot the difference,  and two light sources to create the shadows - the sun and a lamp - ingenious.  Here is Kim's explaination of how the shadows at 11am really work with reference to her photos below.

'This was taken at the same time. Notice the shadow looks nothing like the figure. Also, how different the two shadows look, due to the compacting and extending of the figure.

It took until yesterday for the penny to drop as to what we were doing wrong. We were trying to make (and did make) reflections! It is so simple once you think about it. I knew something was not sitting right in the ideas that I and then you, were doing, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

We were looking at the figures sideways on, rather than from above. That is why the curved shape of the figures just didn’t sit well with me. You wouldn’t see the arching of the back from an above shadow. The shadow is blocked light, so all that is relevant, is that the light is blocked. The shadow then becomes the shape of the back area (or whatever extends from it) and would be flat.'

Thanks Kim for the lesson in persistence, investigation and really 'seeing' as an artist's basic tools.   I look forward to seeing the final shadows on the quilt.

More digital experimenting

I really liked the way my sky came out at tate modern, (post on this blog:  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5666531142704615592#editor/target=post;postID=46638880365825247)   so I thought I would try another one - sky landscape - from imagination -ie no photo reference.  Much harder.  Trying to capture layers of sky and atmosphere.  Won't finish this one, but will keep trying.  If I get it right, I will try with watercolour or other media.