By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
This time I'm showing you a couple of REALLY BAD examples of some things I made using another new painting app I found called ibisPaint. I was more interested in how the software worked than what I was actually doing...these were tests. The software was created by someone in Japan and their idea of "intuitive" is WAY different than mine! It took me three emails back and forth to Japan to get it to work! (Not quick or easy when they are 13 hours in a different time zone.... lots of late night correspondence.) And I'm still not sure what I did or if I could do it again.
There are a couple of things this one will do that the others won't.
It records all your key strokes into a movie. (at warp speed!)
It has a selection wand so you can select and modify areas of a picture. This is a tool that I use A LOT on my regular PC and I've missed it!
The really tricky part was saving it so that I could upload it here...but I THINK I have it now, we shall see, you are getting it as I am "getting it".
(EXAMPLE 1: uploaded from YouTube)
(Example 2: uploaded from PC...YouTube not necessary! YAY!)
HA! IT WORKED!!! Now, the next step is to figure out how to make that thing be of some value. Right now it runs too fast and there are only three settings that allow me to modify what you see.
You can show it with EVERY window that I opened to get what you see. That would be a wonderful thing if I could add sound and explain it, but as it is it is kind of like a strobe light flashing so fast it makes you sick! ..... (Example #1)
You can delete all the window stuff but you still see where I zoom in to get a close area to work in...again, too fast and nauseating!
Results only, no windows, no zooming ... (Example #2).
I was told that if I want to modify it further I would have to do it with different software so now that search is on!
OH! And I guess I should say that ibisPaint is FREE so I can't complain too much :-). Just so you know, there are actually two versions, one is free, the other is $2.99. I went ahead and paid the $2.99 in hopes of getting more control NOT!!! all you get is the same thing without commercials. So, if that that matters then you now know the ONLY difference in FREE and $2.99.
OK, so maybe Jesus didn't mean to wash each other's feet literally. I know that it was the custom then for the host to wash his guest's feet and we don't do that anymore.... Maybe he was showing that we should serve each other, whatever that looks like.... However... Have you ever actually washed someone's feet literally? I have and it does AMAZING, amazing things to/for both people. It is very humbling for both people and walls are broken.
About 10 years ago I went on a mission trip to St. Petersburg Russia. There were about 10 Americans and 60 Russian ladies meeting to prepare for service on a weekend retreat. We were all sitting in a circle very much "alone" individuals, not feeling "part of a team" because no one really knew more than one or two other people...even the Americans were complete strangers. The first thing the leader of "the team" did was go around the room and washed each and every person's feet!!! People started crying and hugging each other and we instantly became "THE team" God had gathered together to get a job done. AMAZING! I am convinced that if every Pastor would do that for their staff their church and "THE Church" would become new again! And we SO NEED THAT! Who knows, it may take someone like YOU to wash your pastor's feet first so he will see its affects??? Go wash someone's, anyone's feet and see what happens.
Today I decided to redo some of the doodles I have done in the past with watercolor pencils but do them this time using the iPad.
1. The original picture from Pinterest that I thought was too cute. 2. My original little doodle (9/11/2011) of her using watercolor pencils 3. My re-doodle of #2 on the iPad (4/28/13) 4. On this one I decided to be a little more detailed and I used the original picture as my "paint pallet".... You do that by having a small version of the original photo open and holding the stylus down over the color you want, that will change your current working color to the one you want....kinda like having a pallet of all the colors you need only still in the shape of the picture. Now THAT is why all those "color combinations" on Pinterest are so important!... you have a built in color pallet that has colors that go good together, less thinking and frustration involved. And, its really nice to have the reference there so close.
Are you starting to see why I am recommending the Jot Pro Stylus?! You get so much more control over where a thin line actually goes. I still try to draw somethings with my finger and the line never goes where it should. Now, the finger is great for big wide stokes, like when you need to erase big areas, so I don't rule them out!
I can not begin to tell you how much time I spent yesterday trying to create a "real" looking watercolor brush in Procreate!!! NOT POSSIBLE! (for me anyway)
So, I finally gave up and took the idea over to ArtRage. I'm still not happy with it but there are just too many varibles and percentages to play around with and too little patience on my part to bother!
*** NOTE *** See all that white space below the picture ^^^ , well, it isn't really there on the actual picture. BlogGo is adding it... it is a bug in the software that I have reported and "it is being looked at".... I really am liking BlogGo but there are definitely some areas for improvement! I have mentioned some to the developer and hopefully she will make them happen! I replaced it with Blogger
ANYWAY! Back on subject....
One thing I did do yesterday to help me see how things work in Procreate is to create a chart showing how changing a layer affects the layer underneath it.
Layer 1 is the solid green square
Layer 2 is showing how changing the layer to "Multiply", "Linear Burn", etc. shows up on that layer. I used the same color green as the big square and wrote what I was doing ... see how it affects the color?
Possible appications would be... if I draw a face on layer one, instead of coming up with a darker shade for contouring I can just create a layer above, use the same color and it will automatically produce a darker, or lighter version of the original.
Well heck, let's prove my point....
Not bad for someone who is COMPLETELY CLUELESS about how things SHOULD be done and who is just making it up as she goes huh? I know I haven't discovered a new something, I've just discovered a new something FOR ME.
Almost 2 years ago I did a "Believe" by hand with markers so tonight I started out trying to "redo" that... only different. I started out natural enough...flowers inside outline on white...but it didn't take long for me to rethink the redo and go with black letters making the flowers pop. Then I decided to go with what I already had, the background I created for yesterday's girl (that's the bit behind the word). Then I played with the black boarder and this is what I got:
***IMPORTANT NOTE: I heard from an iDraw developer last night and you can, indeed, convert text to curves so that you can modify them so, no need for both iDraw and InkPad like I thought might be the case on the post I wrote on the 19th. I personally would go with iDraw....I THINK there is more functionality, but heck, the way some things are hidden ya just never know for sure.
I always have more fun when I learn something new. Today I figured out what is required to make a brush from scratch.... I decided that I want a brush of eyes so that I can add eyes to any figure with one click. The thing that I figured out is you have to create a negative or the opposite of what you want to create...like the thing that is WHITE is what will "print" and the black will show up clear... Example of a "brush" I made:
For some reason that kinda messes with my brain. It would be an easy fix on a regular computer, just draw it in black then reverse the colors... I don't think I have a package that will do that on the iPad yet so I had to start with a black background and draw in white. I used the mirroring tool in Sketchbook Pro so that I only had to draw one eye while the software drew the other....in white.
Anyway, you can see the eyes on my girl...easy, easy to modify once they are there. I LOVE IT!
I used lots of brushes on the background, some that came with Procreate, some I made.
I went back to fix a couple things that were bothering me and decided to make a cropped version as well, I think I like it better:
My long term goal is to make most of what I do on the iPad LOOK like I did it on a piece of paper and I can tell already that "real" watercolor is going to be my biggest challenge....so, I practiced that today. Even with "watercolor" brushes it isn't easy! A class would be really nice. This is actually a window I saw on pinterest that was really watercolored so I wanted to see if i could do it. (there was a mouse inside the window so this isn't a real copy). Anyway,I have looked at it so long that I can't tell if I got it or not??
Then I needed to put something inside the "window" and I went with the cat... I spent about 1/10th the time on the cat because I wasn't really "working" on learning anything with it.
The good news is that everything is separate so I can always use the window for something more watercolor-y later.
If you aren't a regular follower then you don't already know that I AM LEARNING!!! I blog what I know at the time ... I could be completely wrong in some statements I make so I try not to make any definitives. I have spent MAYBE 30 minutes with each of the packages I show below so I am clearly NOT AN EXPERT! But, I do have lots of opinions as a newbie so that's what I share. Please DON'T QUOTE ME! This is just to show what a total novice/non-artist can do with no training in only 30 minutes.
Today I played with several different packages
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... the first was InkPad. You use it when you want to create vector files instead of pixel based drawings. I won't go into the pros and cons of each because quiet frankly I don't know all of them...I just know what I like to do with them. I actually have two vector based packages, InkPad and iDraw. This morning I figured out why I have both.
The first thing that I LOVE LOVE about both is the ability to import true type fonts!!! YES! I honestly don't think you can do that anywhere else... and when you import them they can only be used in THAT package. While I quickly figured out how to do it in InkPad I couldn't use them in iDraw...I had to import them into iDraw as well (way harder to figure out...but I finally did). For both I had moved them into Dropbox (another MUST HAVE) and imported them.
Now, the thing I THINK I can do in InkPad that I can't in iDraw is convert text into curves so they can be modified. Both of the true type fonts below are ones I created (and sell:-)) MFH Polly-Wolly Doodle and MFH Sticks and Stones. The one on the bottom is the beginnings of modifications to each letter after I converted the text to curves:
Like I said, I don't THINK you can do that in iDraw but I haven't spent a whole lot of time using it so the functionality may be there...but it isn't as quick and easy to find as inkpad for sure.
After I modified the 'text curves" I started playing with color and layers:
Now, what I don't like about it is that if you import a picture, like my little bee, you can't resize it. She actually comes in much larger than shown above, and there's nothing I could do to shrink her....soooo, I copy/pasted the text into iDraw where I could import the bee and resize it. The grid background is also another cool feature of iDraw, there are some really neat background templates.
And then I played some more in iDraw by adding a layer/background I created using another package called ArtRage.
ArtRage is unique and cool because if you know what you are doing (which I don't) you can actually "paint" art that looks real... It starts asking what kind of "paper" you want to use...because we all know that the paper makes all the difference in how the tools we use on them work. Then you are given different art tools to use like rollers, paintbrushes, crayons, pastels, etc. I used the watercolor brush above. This one is going to take a LOT of practice because I AM NOT an artist and you really have to hold your mouth right to make it do what you expect it should do. But, I'm glad i have it.
Well, that's it for today, the moral of the story is that you NEED ALL of them! I think :-)
PS
If you have any Washi tape that you want to organize, check out my post for yesterday on my other blog.
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