I have added two digital paintings to my Etsy shop. This painting is titled "Shopping". It was painted on my ipad using the Procreate painting app. You can visit its Etsy page here.
This painting is "Susie's Daytime Dreaming". It was also painted on my ipad using Art Rage and Procreate apps. You can visit its Etsy page here.
I was very excited and honored to see my tutorial, "Using an IPad for Help with Painting Design Decisions", published in the Spring 2014 issue of Somerset Digital Studio. In the article I talk about how I use the iPad for help with deciding the direction to take with paintings when I am feeling unsure about adding, changing, or deleting something.
The article is based on my blog post, "Tutorial - IPad And ArtRage for Help with Painting Design Decisions" which expands on the article.
Thank you Jana Holstein for publishing my tutorial in this beautiful issue.
Procreate - iPad painting in progress
There are a few iPad painting programs that either automatically record your paintings as they are created or that you can set beforehand to record as you paint. Procreate, SketchClub, Sketchbook Pro, are some current paint programs that allow you to create videos of your paintings in process.
In this post I'll talk a little about recording video in the Procreate app. While you are working on any painting in Procreate, Procreate is automatically making a video of your work in progress behind the scene. At any point, you can click on the little wrench (Actions) icon at the top left of the screen, then click on share and then send your video to email, Dropbox, ITunes, or even save it to your iPad Photos.
The video above shows an unfinished Procreate painting in progress. Watching the video, it is interesting and helpful for me to see my process. Sometimes I find a place where there was something I liked but got changed. sometimes I can go back and recreate it.
This painting started out in ArtRage, as do many of my iPad paintings, because I love to capture the oil brush and watercolor brush textures. Then I usually save the image and open it up in Procreate. Most of the ArtRage painting gets covered up, but I like to leave some of the texture.
The progress video shows me adding a second image on top of the first image and then keeping only parts of it. I used some copy and paste and transform in the painting. Near the end of the painting, I accidentally added a big green line across the girl's face when I was pinching out the screen to magnify the area I was working on. You can see me deleting it in the video.
I love using the videos as tools to help me remember my process and to help me remember how I got certain effects.
Procreate is my favorite digital painting app. The basic tools are easy to use, but if you want to delve into sophisticated, complex digital work, you can with Procreate. A 189 page handbook comes with the app and goes step by step through Procreate's various tools and techniques, including brushes, layers, iPad gestures for Procreate, transform (enlarge, reduce, or distort a layer), and selections (select area, then copy and paste).
When you open the Procreate app it brings you to the Gallery. Click on the plus on the top right corner. Pick the size canvas you want and the canvas view will open.
Below is the Procreate canvas with icons around the top and right sides. Clicking on Gallery takes you and your current painting to the gallery. Paintings are saved there with their layers intact. The second icon from the left, the little wrench is the Actions menu. Here you can import photos, export the painting, flip or copy the canvas, and get help with the app. You can also save directly to the photos app, upload to Facebook or Twitter, or even email a painting.
The next two icons, Select (lightning icon)and Transform (up angled arrow) are not needed for basic work, but are covered in the handbook if you want to explore using them.
Moving along the top of the canvas to the right, the next icon is Brushes. Clicking on it brings up a drop-down menu from which you can select the brush you wish to use. There is a large selection of brushes. Clicking on one selects it and a double click on a brush turns the menu over to an options menu for that specific brush. This gives you a lot of variety for each brush.
Next to the Brushes icon is the Smudge icon. Clicking on Smudge, then rubbing on a painted part of the screen will smudge the colors. The icon to its right is the Eraser icon. It uses the same brushes as the Brush icon and can vary size and opacity using the sliders on the side of the canvas.
After you select a brush, you can vary its size and opacity using the two sliders on the right of the canvas. The top one changes the size, increasing it as you slide up. The bottom one changes the opacity, increasing it as you slide up. Below the Opacity Slider is the undo arrow with 250 undos.
Clicking the colored square icon in the top right corner of the screen opens up the Color popover. There are hue, saturation and brightness sliders that can be adjusted to pick precise colors.
Now you have picked your brush type, size, and opacity and your color. You are ready to start painting. You can use your finger to paint with, or a stylus like the Wacom Bamboo stylus shown below. I like using a stylus, as it feels more precise than my finger and also lifts my hand up off the screen some so I can see the area I'm working on better.
The icon to the left of the color swatch is the Layers icon. Clicking on it brings up a drop-down menu showing all the layers. Your first strokes will automatically go on the first layer.
First strokes appear on Layer 1.
Here you can see the different effects you can get from using various brushes.
Here I painted with different brushes on the second layer. They appear above Layer 1 both in the Layers drop-down menu and on the canvas.
Here layer two has been moved down below layer one. It shows as under everything on layer one and now becomes the background. You can move layers by holding on the layer you want to move until it appears to lift up. Then drag it to the layer position you want.
Now strokes on Layer 2 are below layer 1 strokes.
Layers are very helpful in working in Procreate. I tend to use a lot of layers and like to keep backgrounds on separate layers and objects that are touching or on top of one another on separate layers.
If I am doing a face, I would keep the outline, the fill color, the face details - eyes, nose, mouth, and hair all on separate layers for working. Then if I want to change the hair, for instance, it is easy to do without messing up the face outline or fill.
When the layers are at a point where you are satisfied with them, then you can merge layers by pinching the layers together in the Layers drop-down menu or by clicking on the layer you wish to merge and click merge up or merge down on the Layers Options pop-up menu that appears. (Sometimes you have to click more than once for the pop-up menu to appear.)
A Few Tips for Working: Painting on such a small surface as an iPad makes painting details hard to do precisely. To magnify and get a close-up view, pinching out with two fingers works in the app as it does in Safari and many other iPad apps. I use this option for anything that needs precision.
Also a quick pinch together and then lift of two fingers sizes the painting to fit the shown canvas.
Have fun trying out Procreate. If you would like to show what you have created with it, you can leave a comment with a link to your painting.
This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Glow". This was created using the SketchClub app on the iPad. I saw Unihorse's wonderful Sketch Club app vector tool tutorial and have been experimenting with it. It's a lot of fun, but takes a little getting used to.
SketchClub has a recording feature that can record your painting as you create it. you can see a video recording of some of the work with the vector tool I did for on the "glow" painting on YouTube here.
This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “snow”. Digital drawing using Procreate app on the iPad.
I like using the iPad for decision making when I get stuck on where to go next in the painting process in acrylic painting. This technique can be used for any art medium. I I use either the ArtRage or Procreate apps. In this tutorial, I am using ArtRage.
To get the painting into the iPad, I take a photo with my iPhone or iPad of the painting trying to get close enough so the painting covers as much of the painting as possible.
I open a new painting in the ArtRage iPad app. Below is a screenshot of the ArtRage interface with a new blank painting. As you are working, the row of tools and the color picker will disappear when you click on the active tool and color giving you more canvas to view and work with.
Then I import the photo of the painting into ArtRage. Click on the second to right bottom icon to import the photo. It comes into the program as a tracing image at 40% opacity. To see the painting at full opacity, click on "Convert to Paint" under tracing options. Tracing options is the third icon from top in the same bottom icon. It looks like three horizontal lines one below the other.
Then click on the eye icon , and the painting will show at full opacity.
I add a new layer above the painting so I am not working directly on the painting. The fourth icon fron the right on the bottom of the ArtRage interface is the layers icon. I paint on new layers, keeping objects and new painted effects on separate layers. This way I can turn on or off the visibility for each layer to see what I like or don't like.
I generally use the watercolor or oil brushes, but may also use crayons and color pencils. Each brush has several settings for different paint looks. You can change size and properties of each brush by clicking the two left bottom icons. Both control different brush properties.
For this painting, I was unsure if I wanted to add a planter and flowers. I added a planter on the floor. Then I added flowers and a plant -- all on separate layers. I turned on and off the visibility on the various layers and saved versions or took screen shots of the various versions. Although the added objects will not look the same when added to the painting, they are similar enough to help me decide if I think they will be good additions.
Here is the finished painting. You can see that I did add the planter, but not the flowers and plant. I also experimented with adding layers of color to certain areas and did so on the painting itself.
I have added two prints to my Etsy shop. "Circus Dreams"started with an acrylic painting for the background. It was scanned into my computer and transferred to my iPad. I used the paint app, Procreate to create the rest of the imagery. Then I used two photography apps, Halftone and Blender to get the final image.
The second print, "Girl with Saucer Flowers", is a digital print made on the iPad using the paint app, Procreate.
I like to use many layers and a variety of brushes to get depth and complexity in my digital paintings. I'd love to have you come take a look.
This week's Illustration Friday topic is "shiny". Mary's proudest possessions were her new shiny red shoes (and her bunny, Marlin.) Digital drawing using Procreate Ipad app.
After much frustration trying to figure out why I could not successfully blend a version of a photo that has been worked on in certain apps with the original photo, I found these apps actually reduce the size of the photo when they save it. Then when you try to blend the altered image with the original image, they can't be aligned. Although some of these apps create wonderful effects, their low resolutions decrease their usability. One such app is AutoPainter. Here is an easy fix for the problem. In this tutorial, I will be using AutoPainter, but the process will work with any app that reduces the photo resolution when it saves the photo.
I will use this photo of Boston townhouses and make a painted version using AutoPainter.
1. Apps:
2. IPAD or IPhone
3. Photo in Photos app Camera Roll
1. Open AutoPainter. Click on folder icon at bottom of screen. Select photo. Select artist style (or art style if using AutoPainter2). Here I have selected Benson.
2. (optional) If you want to mask area to retain more detail, click on the brush icon. You are taken to a masking screen, where you can use the brush to roughly mask in areas. You have a choice of three brush and three eraser sizes. When you are finished with the masking, click the check mark on the bottom right of the screen. You are taken back to the painting screen.
3. Then click the green circle icon with triangle. The program will start the painting in the style you have chosen. You can click on the "X" icon at the bottom of the screen at any time to stop the painting process if there is a stage you like. Here I let the program completely finish its painting.
4. After AutoPainter is finished with its rendering, click on the down-facing arrow icon at the bottom right of the screen to save the altered photo.
5. Now open PhotoSize. Choose original photo and write down the dimensions. Then choose AutoPainter photo and notice that the resolution has been reduced.
6. Open IResize. Click on Photos at top left of screen and choose the AutoPainter version photo.
9. Because you have resized the AutoPainter version of the photo, you can now go into Image Blender and both photos will be the same size for blending nicely. Click on the square box on the bottom left of the screen. Then select the original version of photo or the resized rendered version for the bottom layer. Click on the square box on the bottom right of the screen to add the other version.
9. If you want to mask part of the top layer or move it, tap the screen to bring up the pop-up mask/arrange window. Click on mask or arrange to go into the masking or arranging mode. In the masking mode, you can use an eraser to erase areas where you only want the bottom layer to show. In the arrange mode, you can move and resize the image. Here I am leaving the top image image as is.
10. As you are working in Image Blender, you have more options. If you click and hold on the screen you get another pop-up window with copy, switch, and flatten options. You can switch the top and bottom layers, copy the image you have blended on the screen, then flatten the layers. Then you can add a third image or add the copied image by clicking on the bottom right square. One of your options will be to select from pasteboard. That option will add the copied version. For this image, I am leaving the photos as is.
11. Moving the slider at the bottom of the screen will determine the opacity of the top layer. Moving it to the right will make the top layer more opaque. Moving it to the left will make it more transparent. Clicking on the Blend button at the top left of the screen gives you many different blending options. You can go down the list selecting them and saving the versions of any you like.
Here is my finished blended photo incorporating the original photo and the resized AutoPainter version.
Although there are several app options specifically for blending photos and creating photo collages with the iPad, I like using PhotoWizard in conjunction with PhotoForge2 because of the control and accuracy I feel they give me.
For this tutorial, you need:
1. Apps
2. IPad
3. Two or more photos in your Photos app Camera Roll for combining for the collage
4. Stylus - optional (my favorite stylus is the Wacom Bamboo Stylus because of its slightly smaller tip, but your finger will work also.)
I will be using a photo of a sheep and one of a man in a park. Here is a photo of a toy sheep I made with batting, pipe cleaners, and embroidery floss. I took the photo with my iPhone, then transferred it to the iPad using the Transfer Photo app.
I want to add it to this photo
1. First I import the sheep photo into the PhotoWizard app. Here you can delete the background, leaving a clean selection of the sheep.
PhotoWizard has powerful selection tools, similar to ones in Photoshop. Click on the little mask icon in the top tool bar to enter the Masking mode. A large tab appears at the right side of the screen. Tapping on the tab will bring up a menu with the selection tools.
Masking mode selection mode menu
The Magic Wand will select neighboring similar pixels to mask. Color Range will mask pixels that match the color of the pixels where you tap. There is also a lasso selection tool and both rectangle and ellipse selection tools. The lasso tool is also very useful.
2. Here I use the Magic Wand to select most of the background. Tap on Magic Wand to select it, then tap on photo in area you want to delete. The Magic Wand will select areas in the photo that are similar to the pixels you tapped on. These pixels will be masked and appear transparent.
If you click on the settings symbol at bottom right of screen, you get a pop-up box with settings for the selected tool. Here you see the settings for the Magic Wand. I leave the settings at the default to start. Then I can reduce the threshold as I get closer to the object to try to avoid masking parts of it. Reducing the threshold reduces the number of pixels selected.
Here I have started to tap on the background. A tap will select areas of the photo that have similar pixels to the ones you tapped and mask them so they don't show. Any areas showing the grey and white checkerboard have been masked. This selection method will pick pixels that are right up against an object giving a cleaner, more accurate edge than just using the brush by itself.
3. Use the Magic Wand until you start getting masked areas in places you don't want. In the photo below, you can see part of one of the front legs is missing.
4. Then click the Undo button (left facing curved arrow) at the top left side of the tool bar. Keep clicking the Undo button until the desired part of the image shows again. If you do too many clicks, you can click the Redo button (right facing curved arrow).
5. You can also use the lasso selection tool to draw around an area to mask. (See below.). This is especially helpful for large background areas that can be selected all at once or a background area with a lot of small patches of pixels to be masked. All pixels within the lasso will be masked. When I feel I can't use the Magic Wand any more without masking parts of the sheep, I try to capture large parts of the background that have little areas of still visible pixels with the Lasso tool.
Showing Brush settings in the Masking mode
Because I will be working up close to the edges of the sheep, I decrease the size of the brush and increase the softness. This gives me more accuracy and makes a softer, more realistic edge around the sheep.
I start brushing in the background using my finger or a stylus. Then I gradually move closer to the object edge moving my stylus in a parellel direction to the object edge. This way, when I get close to the object, I can gradually shave away the background until only the object is showing. I do a pinch out with my fingers to get a magnified view of the area I am working on. (A note - doing a pinch out usually takes you out of the brush mode, so you then may have to reselect the brush and redo any brush settings you have made as they will have reset to the default settings.)
7. After you are satisfied with your selection, click on the filters icon (looks like two horizontal slider bars) at the top of the screen. This takes you back to the main screen mode where you can save the photo as a masked ping. I use export at maximum size.
sheep mask complete
The saved photo will show in the photos app as having a black background, but the background will appear transparent in programs supporting .png transparencies.
8. Now I go into the PhotoForge2 app where I can add the sheep to the photo with the man in the park. I import the man photo.
A Brush and an Intensity icon will appear. These adjust the size, softness, and darkness of the Burn brush.
15 . Paint in the shadows. I added a shadow for the man, also. A low intensity makes a more realistic shadow here. When you are happy with the shadows, you can save the photo.
Here is the finished photo collage of the man walking his toy sheep in the park. You can use this technique as a start for more complex photo collages.
This week's Illustration Friday topic is Return. Serge and his family hurried to return home after a hard day in the fields. Drawn and painted on my iPad.
This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Swamp. Herbert was a swamp dweller, but this evening he couldn't find any of his friends.
This was drawn and painted on the IPad using OmniSketch and ArtRage.
The "highlight" of Josie and Ralph's day was sitting in the parlor together watching the boats come back into harbor before dinner.
I decided to do participate in this week's Illustration Friday "Highlight" challenge using my new IPad and some IPad art apps. For this little sketch, I used IDraw, a vector drawing program for the drawing and Art Rage, a paint program for the color. I'm having so much fun drawing on the IPad. Will write more about it in some future posts.
