Google Plus project 52 - Week 2 - Summer/Winter #iPhoneography

The little Christmas tree was week one (New year) here's week 2;

You can find the other submissions here

I almost chose this one instead;

Apps used for both were - Camera+, Scratchcam and Photo Studio.

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)

Doodle - red and gold

See the full gallery on Posterous

Another metallic doodle - and then I played with it in Photo Studio and I actually had the presence of mind to save as a preset any group of effects that I liked this time. Yay me ;)
Then of course the water my photo obsession kicked in and...
It's a free app and I like what it does, but the file size is tiny. I'd pay for it if it would address that.
And then lastly for no apparent reason I can come up with, here's a screen shot of my phone with one of my pink wallpapers...I like pink. Never used to. Odd that.

It's a tad disorientating going from a photo of a home screen shot to the home screen...most odd. Try it...

Free iPhone wallpaper / iphoneography textures

See the full gallery on Posterous

I need some coloured backgrounds for a project I'm working on at the moment, so have been experimenting with the textures in Photoforge 2 combined with the effects in Photo Studio.

Using Doodle I used the chalk tool to completely cover the work space.
Then I opened the image in Photoforge and added a texture to it. Next I used the various colour tools in photoforge to alter the colour and saved each different colour as I went along.
Finally each colour was loaded into Photo Studio and I added a sparkle frame and a water effect.
(The text watermarking was done with Watermarker.)

Feel free to snag one or as many of these as you want to use as wallpaper on your phone or as a textured background when layering images in iphoneography / digital art. Because I made them with the idea of wallpaper in mind they are small (around 300x400) but they'll do to play with when experimenting with adding texture to an image. Then you can make your own :)

Let me know if you use any...and if you do use them as textures or backgrounds I'd love to see what you create.

Water my photo...

See the full gallery on Posterous

Phase two of this image...

Dreaming #art #photoStudio

It's a new month, so there's a new Appit! challenge at iPA
This is my third image so far, MaryJane has given us a photo with lots of possibilities...well every person so far has actually. Hope I never win it, I couldn't match them ;)
I really wish I could remember how I achieved this effect. It was all Photo Studio, but what combination of choices I have no idea :( @artbymimulux has suggested I make notes, a good suggestion, at least for when I achieve something unexpected. I'm not disciplined enough at the moment to do that all the time.

Because I'd masked the image quite roughly in Photo Studio, which keeps crashing since the update :( I used the clone tool in Filterstorm to soften the edges and add to the background.