The Creative process - Abstract art 2 #iPhoneArt

Here's another abstract, which may (or may not) give you some idea of how I've been feeling recently.

'The Ugly Underneath'

It started with FlowPaper and then I had fun for quite some time with Photo Studio.

The red effect was created by using the mask tool during one of the FX filters. Here's the sequence of images, starting with the original Flowpaper drawing.

Abstract art is a bit like marmite isn't it? Some people love it others see it as an illustration of what's 'wrong' with modern art. Though the word 'modern' is a bit of a misnomer isn't it? I dabbled in the simplification of form before the wonders of the iOS. (Like this.) but never created anything as abstract as the things I've made during the last 12 months or so. Especially since having my icky gallbladder removed. Somehow it releases my subconscious in a way that more figurative images just cannot.

Wikipedia says; "Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.^[1]"

I suppose abstract expressionism describes that side of my creativity better than just abstraction. In fact the Pollock app was the first creative tool that I discovered in the app store. (None iOS peeps can play with it online here.) Here's a piece from the master himself;

"Unformed Figure," oil and enamel on canvas, 52 inches by 6 feet 5 inches, 1953, Museum Ludwig, Cologne"

The Creative process - Abstract art #iPhoneArt

I keep aiming for a Sunday post and failing...but my life seems to be ruled right now by my digestive system and my Fibro brain and I suspect that the two aren't mutaully exclusive.

Previously I've focused on iPhone photos and I still have a LOT of images from my day down at the Dock that are waiting to be played with. Yesterday though was a yucky day and my muse tends to leave me alone when my body and brain have me at their mercy. Just before bed I started to play with Flow Paper.

This is a lovely app, @missypoem  (see her Posterous here.) has been doing some lovely sketches with it and a few iPA peeps do great things with it too. 

Find FlowPaper here.

Here's the final image -

'The Road to Nowhere.'

It started with me trying to achieve a smoky effect with Flowpaper. Then I used a few Scratchcam filters, Scratchcam can take a while, not because it's slow but because the filters are so random, though you can save your favourites. Then I started playing with some art effect apps - 

Artista Oil - I love this app and the variety you can achieve with it, but it didn't like my Flowpaper sketch this time so...on to;

Auto Painter - I tried both versions and this DOES take a while, but it's interesting to watch the process. Not happy with any of the results so;

Shock My Pic - I can't link to the iTunes store for this because iTunes search has decided they don't have it...I LOVE this app. SImple but effective and very easy to use. I got a few images that I like with this, for blending with, I tend to use;

HDR fix - Because it's quick and I like the slider to choose the degree of blending of one to the other. There's probably another app that does this and more, but at the moment necessity has made me a creature of habit. Plus when I tried to update apps on my phone last night, it said there wasn't enough room! *Gasp* Please hurry iPhone 5...

Next came filters in Photo Studio and more blending of the results with HDR fix. Then finally, another of my favourites;

Camera+ : Which is ON SALE at the moment, so snap it up if you haven't already got it. In this I used the 'Back light' filter and the framing option. Then I used my preferred Watermarking app;

iWatermark - (sheesh Apple, your 'search' tool sucks) Though the eagle eyed amongst you will know that I usually forget to use it...

Here are some of the images produced in the above process, created as usual with Strip Designer

The first black and white image is the original Flowpaper drawing.

Hope this made a change from the usual Liverpool Tourism advert ;)

NB - I only recently noticed that feedburner wasn't working, my apologies :( it's now fixed (I hope)

the Creative process - collaboration

It's entirely possible that you're fed up of hearing about the Appit! monthly challenge at iPA...but like the Muses' challenges there's something undefinable about working with someone else's vision. So far all I've worked with are photographs and as I write this it occurs to me that I'd like to play with someting that someone else painted. The place to start with that is where I started at in college I suppose, with some 'art' that's out of copyright. It's an old tradition after all.

So far I've not truly collaborated. I've worked with a photograph taken by somebody else and other artists have used the same photo as their inspiration too and it's fascinating seeing how differently we approach things. Or how similar the results sometimes are. You get a glimpse of the human condition...how we're socialised...the differences in perspective...how our past artistic habits inlfuence the directions we go in. Is it a good thing to keep going along the same track? Or follow your instincts? Or push at the barriers? I'm using art as therapy so perhaps the direction I need to go in will be different to someone consumed by their muse...I'm not drafting this and then editing it. Sorry dear reader, it would never get done if I did that. And I'm writing it in Posterous, which is dumb because I don't have the safety net of a spell checker. Not good. Hang on a mo...

Okay that's better. I'm in the safer embrace of google now. Where was I? Collaboration was the title, but my musings above reminded me of a conversation I had with Prof Kassabian, (who wrote this 'Hearing Film'. The cover of which she detests by the way.) We were lamenting the lack of value that society places upon the arts and humanities. She mentioned an article about Google , which I found here which is a little ray of light, but that was in my mind when I read a blog post via Twitter about how mobile photography is making vast numbers of people without artistic talent think they have a creative gift. When clearly they don't. But who says? (BTW I'm sorry I can't find the blog link, I'll go through my twitter stream later) Then a little later the same day I read this by Adrian Graham, lamenting how mobile photography is turning everything into a popularity contest and that the boundaries of photography aren't being pushed because of it. Even my fibro brain knows that these things aren't closely connected but it's started me thinking. Or trying to anyway. I've always believed passionately that if education gave the arts equal value in the curriculum that people would have more confidence and more skill at creating. And that the world would be a better and richer place because of it. 

I see the tools that technology puts into everyone's hands as a good thing. More people are creating than ever before. If mobile phones and iPhoneography sites encourage people to share tips and skills and develop a means of creative expression then I'm sorry but I can't see that as a bad thing. Artists have always needed to make the choice - do I create what I feel/want or do I create what sells? Who's to say that 'chocolate box' art that gives some people pleasure isn't valid? Yes there's a lot of dross out there, but then who am I to decide it's dross? Almost everything is subjective, the arts more than anything require the audience to make a value judgement. I also know that humanity forms groups and that groups make us resistant to change and can foster elitism...but it's a yin/yang thing and I see the benefits balancing out the negatives. 

So, yes the internet seems to be making Art a popularity contest, but I for one am getting a lot out of the potential it has opened up for sharing and learning.

I've not attempted to gather my thoughts in writing very often since fibro hit. My brain can't cope very well and it uses a LOT of spoons. If you've stuck with me this far, thank you. I'm not sure it's been worth your time but I at least have created some semblance of order in my head.

Here's this month's Appit iPhone photo, taken by the peerless Clint Cline (@clix2020) and the initial stages I went through with it.

Paper camera and possibly Segmentix where my first apps, to soften details and bring out form. Then I used Crop Suey to crop out the hand. I used Colour Shadow and then Percolator to give a strong graphic feel to the form.

Then I put the hand through Stripecam before using Kooleido to create a mandala. Then the hand went into Superimpose where I put the mandala onto the hand. Then the colour didn't pop enough for me so I used Camera+ to make it more intense and to give it a subtle border. Which is how I ended up with the image I posted yesterday.

I have a plan...to try to write each Sunday or Monday about what I've created and how and also perhaps to ramble a bit. Think of me as that crazy person that sits besides you on the bus and strikes up a conversation. It doesn't often make sense but sometimes it's interesting anyway. Maybe...