by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Cool Apps, Work in Progress |
Oh my sweetums, something has come over me. Once upon a time, like last week, I was totally disorganized. Disorganized as in scattered, running around like the proverbial chicken sans head.
Like these folks.
Sigh of relief. You didn’t think I’d show a dead chicken video, did you?
The point is, I was running around flapping my wings and squawking (yes, squawking) about doing S.T.U.F.F when in reality very little stuff was getting done. Except the squawking. I’m good at that.
And then Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach and author of I’d Rather Be in the Studio, began having her way with my bad habits via her ecourse Organize Your Art Biz.
BTW, it’s a great book and no one’s paying me to say that. Buy it.
Back to being somewhat organized…I now have a office separate from my studio. And a clean inbox. And files, both electronic and paper that are shaping up and starting to make sense. Best of all I have discovered the elephant in the room…Evernote. And I am in luvvvvvvvv.
I will not go into all the details of Evernote here. Let’s just say it involves NOTEBOOKS! OMG, do you know how much I love notebooks? And those legal pads? I bet there are at least four on the kitchen table right now. But my EN notebooks are free from coffee rings and kitty puke because they only exist in cyberland. You can have as many as you want, give them each their own names, group them in related stacks and fill them with things you clip from the internet. Or notes you write. Grocery lists. Everything syncs between desktop, cloud and mobile. So if you’re out and about and want to save someone’s business card but don’t want to clutter up your wallet, take a photo with your phone and file it instantly in the right notebook in Evernote. And you can have Evernote send you reminders when something is due. So far my art ‘stack’ has notebooks for expenses, inspiration, artists to follow, ideas for classes, reference photos and submission deadlines. The notes within these notebooks had previously been all over my desktop and archived in email. Which means they were all but inaccessible. Forgotten.
Especially submission deadlines. I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve missed because the call to artists disappeared somewhere in the belly of the beastly laptop.
But not any more!
One of my newfound notes was a call to artists for large scale figurative paintings. Bingo! Some of those Women in Red that I did back in January on the iPad have been begging to live large on canvas. Well, now they will.
Which brings us to today’s work-in-progress. Ta-da… It’s a big puppy, 4×4 feet. This is early days, just blocking out the shapes.
I started with a canvas that already had some preliminary layers. I sketched out the figures with charcoal.
Then added the first of the color. Acrylic. Got a long ways to go but it’s a start.
Love to hear your thoughts on this. Have any great apps or productivity tips you want to share? Let’s get a discussion going in the comments below.
Meanwhile, remember this:
It’s turning into my new signoff, like Roy and Dale’s Happy Trails.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Cool Apps, Digital Art, Gardening, Photography |
Oh my sweetums, today I wandered in the garden. It was beautiful! Gorgeous! Came pretty close to being spectacular! The plants are poppin’. The temperature was perfect. And there were bunnies EVERYWHERE. Easter Jackrabbits en masse, reminding me again why it’s not a good idea to plant a vegetable garden.
Ever the multi-tasker, I had the phone with me and chatted with the kids while I was outside. Remember the days when phones were tethered to the wall, when you ALWAYS knew where it was? And when it wasn’t a camera?
Well, since I had my phone-which-is-a-camera with me, I not only noticed how the sun did magic things in the garden, I was able to snap a few shots.
And since I’m a painter I decided to throw them into a painting app and art them up a bit. Here they are:
Nothing says SPRING to me like a Dogwood in bloom. Nothing.
Except maybe Lilacs. I loves me my Lilacs.
This is my exhale spot, one of my favorite places in the garden.
Technical Info: All photos were taken on an iPhone 5C and digitally altered with Aquarella.
What’s your favorite photo app? I’m always open to playing with something new. Tell us about it in the comments below.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Cool Apps, Digital Art |
Oh my sweetums, today I’m going to share a SECRET with you. A bit o’arty advice. Pssst…come closer. I don’t want ADOBE to hear this but…unless you’re a fancy pants designer or uber photographer, you DON’T need Photoshop. Or even the elements version. Seriously, want some cool effects? A photo collage, some text? A file big enough to print or small enough for the web? Well, grab some bananas and head on over to Picmonkey. It’s free unless you decide to upgrade a few choices and go pro. Then it’s a whopping three bucks a month. I’ve been using it a lot lately, redesigning the websites. The header you see up above? Picmonkey. The sidebar dodahs–Picmonkey. Well, not the mailchimp button, that’s something else. Which reminds me, I’ve finally got Arty Life set up for email delivery to your inbox every week. Don’t leave here without signing up.
I’ll know if you do, I’m a mother, I have magic all seeing powers.
But back to Picmonkey. Let’s play with something, okay. And by the way, this is an unsolicited review. I’m not an affiliate and get nothing but good mojo from sharing this with you.
This little gem took all of 5 minutes to create. Yeah, yeah, I know it looks like it but I wasn’t going for art here, just wanted to show the ease of creating a little graphic using the program. And I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do. My indecision took up at least half of those five minutes. You can import your own photos but I just played around with one of the stock backgrounds. They have a lot of them. I’ve never even seen this one before. And they’ve got special effects too. And tons of fonts. You can make photo collages, facebook headers, posters and anything else your heart desires.
Let’s play with it some more.
Is that cool or what–a FRAME!
Picmonkey, to sum it up:
- It’s free unless you upgrade. The upgrade is cheap but you can do fine without it.
- Large or small files, you decide
- No download to clog up your hard drive. It’s a web based photo editing thingie.
If you haven’t tried it yet run on over and check it out. Be sure to tell us about it in the comments below. And if you have another favorite photo editing program tell us about that one too.
As always–
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Cool Apps, Digital Art |
Confession: I collect arty apps like other people collect, ummm…other things. Imagine that! I’ve played with them a bit from time to time but have never been happy with the results. Everything always came out looking too digital. Like that one over there (arrow pointing right).
Go figure.
Well this weekend I had this AHA! moment, this flash of inspiration that said maybe it’s not the apps’ fault. Repeat, please…maybe it’s not the app’s fault!
Maybe I needed to treat them as any other art TOOL and not a toy.
Maybe I should learn how to use them.
Sometimes I astound myself with maybes.
So I decided to explore Procreate. This is a digital illustration app complete with layers, more layers and a full selection of mark making tools. But I ran into the same issues I’ve had with apps in the past…the end results looked contrived. Looked like cartoons. Nothing against ‘toons but that’s not the look I was going for.
And then one of the many voices in my head, one of the nice ones, said something I needed to hear. She said stick to your own style!
MY. STYLE. You know, the way I normally paint… scribbles and layers and textures and whatever else I throw into the pot. Approach it like one of my paintings sans air guitar and Da Boss. Instead of the studio I was on the sofa. My feet were up on the coffee table and the dogs were snuggled on either side of me.
AND THERE WAS NOTHING TO CLEAN UP!!!
Ohhhhh… I might like this digital stuff.
I have yet to watch a Procreate tutorial (of which there are many). I just dived in layer by layer. Because Procreate allows you to work in layers. Large, like 4K, the industry standard for high def resolution. And export in layered PSD files.
There’s even a free manual you can download. Can you believe that…an app with a manual!
Are you in love yet?
I had several false starts as I was getting a feel for the way it works. I’m still working on that, actually. This is the first image I was satisfied with.
Red Earth
© 2013 Susan Lobb Porter
Digital Art
Yes, you’ve seen this image before. Or it’s canvas cousin Red Bob. Red seems to be an ongoing theme of mine. But by starting with a familiar design, I was free to explore the tools. And after I was comfortable with them–
Glow
© 2013 Susan Lobb Porter
Digital Painting
–this happened!
Ahhhhhhhhhh…
Stay tuned, there WILL be more.
As always, I LOVE hearing from you in the comments below. Heart emoticon here. Lots of ’em.
xoxo
by Susan Lobb Porter | Life, Photography |
Winter is here.
Just look at all that white stuff. Brrrrr….
But I’m not phased, nope, not one bit. Because I HAVE NEW BOOTS. Bought them the day before the storm. They’re black. Nothing natural about them. Rubber and I dunno, maybe Neoprene? Waterproof. Amazingly comfortable. And WARM.
And on my feet they are MAGIC. They’ve turned me into a snow kickin’, ass kickin’ INVINCIBLE woman. Like Superman’s cape, only better.
So I can run around outside all day. Break ice in the horse trough with a swift kick. Dig through snow looking for the water shutoff box (the frozen pipe is another story). I can do all that because my feet are HAPPY.
So take THAT, snow!
But it’s not all about frozen pipes and stuck pickups (I didn’t mention the truck stuck at the bottom of the drive, did I?) Oh no, because for all it’s inconvenience, there is no denying the beauty of the white stuff.
And now for a mindtrip…think of all the bazillions of snowflakes in those photos and then try, just TRY to wrap your brain around this.
Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Back? Talk about MAGIC… Stunning. Breathtaking. Unbelievable. Each and every flake… I don’t know about you but I will never look at snow quite the same way again.
And now I’m out the door to buy Mr. Spouse a pair of boots just. like. mine. So he’ll quit whining complaining about his cold feet and enjoy what the universe has so generously shared.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Everyday Ordinary, Life, Photography |
Holy crap, yes. And they’re achingly beautiful.
All That Remains
I LOVE this time of year, when summer’s lush bounty is g.o.n.e. Dried up like so many flowers past their bloom.
Once They Were Sunflowers
When the gaudy colors of fall have fallen and faded.
Hidey Hole
And a few hardy new shoots live on underneath the decay.
Morning Shadows
When everything is stripped away and it’s the sheer simplicity of light and shadow and frost on the meadow
Baby Ponderosa
causes the breath to catch in wonder at the sight of a single tree.
I am so grateful for the beauty all around me. And for that I give thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! And if you live where this is not a holiday for you, I am more than happy to eat some pie in your name. Because I will do anything for my best best BEST beloved readers (smiley face emoticon here)
xoxoxo
Susan
Technical infor: Camera, iphone 5c. Photos edited in Snapseed app. Not rocket science, just arty fun.
