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Monday, April 16, 2012

Taking Another Turn Around : Carousel and Sketchpad

 TWO SKETCHPAD DRAWINGS FROM TWO DIFFERENT APPS,


Sketchpad 3, iPad free download, was what I used for Saturday's drawing
and this one. This App doesn't have the sophisticated color range
 of Sketch Pad Pro which sells for a dollar. I kept it anyway.

This one is Sketch Pad Pro (SPHD) for one dollar.
Being able to clear the drawing with one touch and lay in fields of color are an
advantage, BUT the tool bar keeps disappearing--and that's annoying.

Carousel 2, 2012, watercolor on 140 lb. Reeves
I DID MORE INVESTIGATING BETWEEN LAUNDRY LOADS
 and found Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for sixty dollars. After a lot more practice and seeing just how much use I have for mechanical sketching, maybe I'll consider it? At first read, Autodesk seems to be quite the App.  It looks great for graphic artists. I am not one, but I would have liked to try it out online, but I couldn't find a way. I think you should be able to sample before purchase.

SATISFIED FOR THE TIME BEING, I WENT BACK TO THE REAL THING:
 I  warmed up for my oil session with watercolors, what else! I took another turn around  on the Carousel. This time I didn't use tube paints; I went back to the pads, which I think I prefer.  I can mix the colors easily with just the right amount of water. The colors are brilliant and go down clear. I don't need a big deal palette. And I can work fast. I started this painting yesterday with a wet on wet underpainting and firmed it up today. The carousel reference photographs are really making me think about doing a large acrylic.

21 comments:

  1. You're having so much fun with these sketch pads, Linda.

    Love this latest carousel. The horse in the foreground is ready to go. Love the dynamism and colours.

    Your dashing all these artworks off whilst I'm taking forever on my solitary project ... the word antithesis springs to mind :0) But we're both having fun in our own ways- the name of the game

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    1. That's what it's all about John, from here on. Fun. If I wanted to take art seriously, I would have done it right out of college. I didn't. I've always thought I'd keep my fine art efforts stowed away from the business world and all the garbage that goes with it; painting pictures for a living is a joy killer. Then a life threatening disease tapped me on the shoulder, and I got my joy stuff out of the cupboard and have been having a fine time ever since. Being a born artist has been a blessing. Sounds corny I know, but it's the truth. This iPad thing is a fun thing too.It kicks me in the brain just like computer and gets me thinking. Folks our age are making a big mistake not making an attempt to try the new and improved.

      Sorry about the bandbox. I'm taking my own sweet time too on the oil painting that is definitely now due, due to me having been paid.

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    2. That is the most brilliant bit of band-boxing I've heard for a long time {applause}. Drawing for a living, in the end, drove me so far away from art that I never really came back until now(ish).

      They wrote me off with a heart attack plus other nasty things so I stared making panelled ceilings ... and took two University degrees ... that surprised them ... I started that lot at 65. My granddaughter wants us to take a Masters together ... could be fun.

      Two of a kind, Linda, except you are an artist and I think I am an arty draughtsman (draftsman)

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    3. I am a draughtsman too John--but I've had enough of tight, drawing to scale. I want to let loose and simply paint my kids some paintings they might want to keep. Go for that degree with your grandkid. The time spent will be precious for both of you and you might learn something you never knew before?

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  2. Wow, Linda! Your watercolor is great...it's your look, fresh, energetic, colorful, and not at all overworked. Using pan watercolor is just the right thing for you. Also I agree, "seasoned" folks really are missing out on a lot of fun and mentally interesting toys by being fearful of experimenting with new technology. I hope I never succumb to that fear. Love your curiosity and explorations into all areas of life.

    Yours,
    Nanina

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    1. Nanina, I am so glad you think my art has a look to it. I wasn't sure it did. I've tried the tube watercolors, but I keep going back to the pans. I can control the water better and the mixing. Horror of horrors, I like to mix the colors in the pans--adding on to another till I've dirtied them both. But with one wipe with paper toweling and all is fine again. The pans are inexpensive and come with eighteen colors, which should be enough for anybody. If not, that's when you buy the tube. I've bought white, Payne's gray so far--and may add a violet--quinacridone violet. Pan sets keep watercolor simple--other than having to size the large sheets of good paper into a number of smaller sheets

      There's are secrets I discovered about computers that took my fears away: there is a back out arrow; there's turning it off and restarting; all the auxes in the back have labels and pictures that tell you what hooks into what. Discs have wizards who tell you what to do--so do the programs included.
      Often you run amuck, but then you just start over. When I tell peers this, they go I just can't be bothered. Dumb to think that way. Then the herd is going to leave you behind lady. Thanks for stopping by Nanina.

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  3. Linda I love these iPad drawings - I'm sure you know the "Brushes" app. David Hockney uses it and I have it on my iPhone.
    I still need lots of practice and the small screen is rather restrictive - so I'm waiting for the day when I have an iPad :)

    I love the real watercolour, by the way.

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    1. I didn't know that Carol, but I'm going to look it up and see how much I have to save for an App a notable considers satisfactory. --Trading the painting for the iPad was the great idea of my commission client after I told her she could just have it--it being my first attempt at oils in quite a few decades. Consider it. If the rent is paid, there's food on the table and paint in the studio, it's a good addition to an artist's bag of tricks.

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    2. I like your reasoning - rent , food, paint - then iPad - makes perfect sense to me.By the way the abstract watercolours on your latest post are great.

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  4. I love this watercolor, great prospective and the blur speaks of speed, wonderful how you filled the foreground with the horse , beautiful and happy colors, just the way a carrousel should be.

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    1. Thanks Jane. I think it came out well now that I've eliminated thoroughly planning what I was going to do. Getting rid of that approach to watercolour put a skip in my step and hop in my brush. Congratulations again on your prize--was that your painting of Hydrangeas--and your bottles I saw in the gallery window? It looked like yours.

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  5. The last one is beautiful. Have a nice day!

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    1. I like the traditional mediums best too Robert--watercolors, oils--but I like the possibilities acrylics offered when they came along when I was a girl--greater quantities of paint available for making larger works faster. The finish isn't as good when that of oils, but together those two mediums, one very old, the other a youngster, by comparison, work quite well together.

      Computer art will never replace the mediums I'm discussing. It lacks hands on, hands in the mix. There's nothing better than brush painting followed with a quick swipe of my finger or pouncing it across the canvas to balance a composition. I've even dipped my palm into the mix, moved the paint around, thought it could use a spray from the garden hose before tightening up. The joy of physically getting into the paints up to our elbows can't be replaced with an etch-o-sketch sitting on our lap. Getting into the picture is what artists do. Paint is in our blood as much as making pictures with it. It tactile.

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    2. I agree with you! Computer art will never replace the traditional mediums, but for a sick man like me is good.

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  6. Ciao, bellissimi disegni e dipinto, grandi colori e astrazione e...
    molto, molto vitali!
    Ciao, ciao, Floriana

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    1. Hi there Floriana. Yes, the colors are quite vivid with lots of vitality. With the second App, they can be toned down considerably--though I'm still looking for a range of warm and cool grays. But these two will do for now--and maybe always? I don't wait in doctors' offices that much--but I have done some waiting in airports. This App for this new invention of Apple's keeps the hands agile and the eyes sharp when traditional drawing gear might be out of reach.

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  7. Wow Linda, I like so much when a painter change subject/style as you did with these last paintings. I am always attracted by new and uncommon works. Your Carousel 2 is really beautiful, it is not an abstract, but at the first sight I thought it was. I like it! Ciao!

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    1. Both Carousel 1 and 2 is how I paint--that's becoming clearer the more I paint. I really do not want to pre-draw or determine the palette before hand. I work instinctively. I always have. The closest I come to planning is selecting the reference photos and cropping them. I jump off from there. I've never really been an abstract painter. Subject matter moves me to pick up the brush. What comes out on the canvas I hope is how I feel towards the subject matter. I use to worry (stopped yesterday, LOL) about how my style will change depending on how I feel about a subject. Other artists are always consistent. I've given that up. Different subjects bring out different emotions which I express differently. It's as simple as that. --You really made me think Tito. Thank you so much for that. I've been working these last years for such enlightenment.

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  8. Love the carousel paintings. The ipad drawings look like fun to do/learn to do; lots of potential to develop.

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    1. They are, but they won't replace getting into the real stuff. I don't know about you, but I'm hooked on playing in the paint. I like the tactility of the stuff.

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  9. carousel paintings are charming ..great i-pad sketches too .

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