iPad Brushes Animal Paintings

Since my post on my iPad Brushes portraits went down so well, I thought I'd post some of my iPad Brushes animal paintings. These were unfortunately not done from real life like my sketches of Fiance and my self portrait but from pictures. In art lessons I was told this was less artistic as the photographer has already made choices. In my defence, who has asked a lion to sit still for a picture recently?

This butterfly was at least a self-taken picture from Kew gardens I think. 

I posted this tiger a while back but it turned out really well. So I thought I'd show you the process that created it. One of the really great features of Brushes is the replay which lets you see your drawing process sped up. It's also helpful to see when your changes stopped improving the picture. 

Here is my initial sketch with one guide line.

 Blocking in colour and starting to add black lines which really make all the difference and is probably my favourite bit.

Again here blocking in colour. Its generally best to block in background colour earlier but I didn't start with the intention of including a background. I changed my mind because I need a coloured background to make the white hair of the tiger visible. 

The finished iPad finger painting. 

Here is my initial and very minimal sketch for a lion's profile. In fact its the background on my MacBook.

Blocking in the colours for the background and face.

With different shades added to create shape. I usually use only three brushes on Brushes - the first solid one, the second opaque but circular one, and the 5th circular but graduated towards the edges one. This last brush obviously creates the most subtle shading.  I also vary the opacity of the brushes and the size - ranging from one pixel to 20.

The finished picture. The colours actually look a lot better on the iPad's screen - less yellow but whatever I do it seems to come out yellow rather than orange here. Believe me - my colour pallet is more orange/beige - as you can see above. 

 So there we go. More iPad art in the making coming to a blog near you soon.

Brushes Paintings - Portraits

I once flattered myself with the thought that I was an artist. That was until I left art college and joined the world of advertising. Being an artist is a solitary pursuit. It didn't fit with having a boyfriend, or a demanding job, or friends I needed to keep up with. Nor did it fit with exhaustion and watching X Factor. But one of the wonderful things I have found about having an iPad is that drawing in the "in-between" times - on trains, on shoots when I'm not needed - has become a lot easier.

Here are a couple of sketches and paintings I have done on the app "Brushes" on the iPad.

These two are of Fiancé on a train reading.

This is a self portrait done by looking at the reflection of myself in a train window when it was dark outside. Look at my concentration!

 This is the gorgeous Drew or Drewby as we call him. He is my lovely cousin Ellie's son and he loves cars and trucks. I drew him from a picture on my iPhone.

More iPad Brushes art...by my own fair finger.

This is my version of a work by an artist called Minjae Lee.



This is the church across the road.

Brushes for iPad

This is my first 10 minute attempt at drawing using Brushes on iPad. It's a picture of the lovely Emma who I work with. Apparently Hockney is a convert and has switched from using the iPhone to using the iPad to create works of art to send to his friends. The great thing about it is that it is much easier than using a mouse to draw on a computer. Of course people who spend a lot of time drawing on their Macs and PCs have Wacoms - those lovely drawing pads. But these are expensive. They also aren't portable. The iPad means you can always have a drawing pad with you - and can whip it out to capture a scene if the fancy takes you.

Here are three works of art created by Hockney. What do you think?