Painting On The Ipad, Looks Like Fun!

Discussion in 'Hobbies & Crafts' started by Yvonne Smith, Oct 26, 2015.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have been looking at some of the paintings that people have done using their iPads, and I think that if I study it for a little bit, and then practice as I go, I might just get the hang of doing this !
    Some of these digital paintings are totally amazing !
    I used to love drawing and painting with tempera water-based paints when I was younger; but after I had a family to take care of, it was hard to have the free time to just sit and paint somthing, and I pretty much stopped doing it.

    I did try the Artex paints which were in a tube with a ball-point (like a pen) on the tip, and those were more of an acrylic paint. I could use those to paint on most surfaces; so I decorated the kid's clothes, and did little projects like that.

    Now, I think that I would like to learn to paint again, and this time, I want to learn to do it with the iPad. I am going to attach a video that explains how the "Procreate" painting app works, and demonstrates making a painting using that program.
    I think that you would really enjoy doing this, too, @Ina I. Wonder !
    I know that it is a lot different from what either one of us is used to doing; but it looks like there are lots of good tutorials on youtube, and we won't waste any paper when we start practicing.
    To see more of the ipad paintings ( played back at higher speeds so you can watch them happen), just search for iPad painting on youtube.

     
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  2. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith, that was a very interesting video. I'll have to check out more about it. It does look like it might work for portraits as well. I can see that it would take many hours to learn, but we all know I have plenty of that. Is it just the one app called Procreate, or are than more than one that you've seen? Did you enter Digital Painting into youtube's search?
     
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  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    What I entered in the search was iPad painting; and there are a lot of videos there showing some of these paintings being created. The reason that I chose this one was because he actually shows us a little about how the Procreate app works. Most of them are just speeded up video as the picture is painted; but do not really explain anything about using the app.
    I imagine that Procreate would also have some tutorials on youtube to explain in detail how to use the app, as well.

    You are right, @Ina I. Wonder , it would take a while to get the hang of it; but I know that you said it is hard for you to decide what to do on days you are at home, and have the housework all done.
    I am going to watch some more videos and then maybe try one of the painting apps. There is one that was mentioned in one of the videos, and I think it was just called paint, or something simple like that, and it is an easy one for beginners to learn to paint.

    Here is the video showing how he does portraits, and I think this is the one that recommends the beginner painting app. In any case, it is intresting to watch.

    Also, all of these paintings were done using the existing iPads. Once the new iPad Pro comes out in November, with the Apple Pencil, it will completely revolutionize the capabilities of painting on the iPad ! !

     
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  4. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    My teenage niece is very good in visual arts, not only in drawing and painting but also in doing decorations. I once had seen her work in the computer, doing a digital design of a prairie. She said it is easier to draw using pen and paper because that's the basic but she can also do it in her computer. For me, no, thank you, I don't have the aptitude for the arts. Maybe I can cook a bit, do gardening a bit and my forte is actually shopping, hahahaaa.
     
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  5. Avigail David

    Avigail David Veteran Member
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    Interesting gadget. I like this one for me-- with my not-so-young hand that cannot hold a sketch charcoal pen anymore without shaking. But the screen glass is too slippery and touch-sensitive. Sigh. We do a lot of drawing and oil pastel painting here at home, my children will do better with canvas, paper, drawing pens and brushes. Real stuff. :)

    I'm also interested in StaffPad software. You can write, create, and arrange music using this application. Incredible! ;)
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have just been having fun with the painting on the iPad thing. I downloaded two new art apps. One is called Adobe Paint Can, and it is an easy way to turn any photo that you have into a painting. It does not change the colors; but you can fade out unwanted backgrounds, and make it look like a painted background of brush strokes.
    You also can choose how detailed you want each part of the painting to be; so if you want to highlight the face, and then kind of fade out the clothes, and the rest of the body, it is easy to do that as well.

    The second app that I got is called ProCreate, and I am still working on understanding completely how it works. I am getting a basic grasp of it, and this afternoon, I took a picture and then edited it with that app.
    Robin gave me a special Wacom pencil stylus that connects with the iPad through Bluetooth, and I can use that to actually draw pictures once I get a little more familiar with using everything.
    You can make fine lines like you would do with a pencil, or brush strokes like you would if you were painting.
    I used brush strokes to color in the background, and then feathered it around my hair in the picture. I even drew my hair longer, and it looks pretty real !

    image.jpeg
     
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  7. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Seems to take a talent I do not possess. Come to think of it, I never did have any talents. Got by somehow by the seat of my pants. But I'll bet you will like it.
     
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  8. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    @Bill Boggs , Your talent comes from your mind, and flows through the your fingers when you write. You paint such great stories. Now that is a talent I wish I had. The power to paint pictures with words.

    Tell os your favorite story Bill. Please!
     
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  9. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I've seen those stylus' (stylii?) advertised before, and was very interested in them. I'll have to see if the Adobe Paint Can or something similar is available for my tablet. This is something I've been wanting to look into and try for quite a while. I don't have talent as far as drawing or painting, that realm belongs to my brother and mother, but maybe I can delve into it in this way.
     
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  10. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith , I have been looking at these apps too, and many really are astonishing, but I would like to see one printed out. Most of my customers are really into the texture of my portraits. Texture is one of the things that tells people it is hand drawn or painted, and that is much of the value of the works.
     
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  11. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I am pretty sure that the Adobe Paint Can app is also on Android, @Diane Lane . This is actually an easy app to use and you do not have to actually draw anything to be able to use it, you just find a photo you like and then turn it into a painting, using your fingers or a stylus.
    Here is a link to the webpage that tells about the app, and it has a short video of turning a photo into a painting.
    http://www.paintcanapp.com/#about
    There are some examples of other pictures that people have turned into a painting, and you can see that there are all sorts of styles in the examples.

    @Ina I. Wonder , the pictures are just going to look like a print when they are printed out. The only texture is going to be whatever is in the paper that the picture is printed on.
    For someone who wants to see and feel paint, this is not going to work; but it they just want a beautiful portrait or old picture restored, then it would be okay for that.
    However, even if you were not going to sell the pictures, this is an excellent way to repair some of the older family photos, add better colors, or even take out unwanted backgrounds.
    For example, the picture you have on Facebook of Michael and the grandchildren, you could take out the background, or change it, and then the emphasis would be on the people , and not just a snapshot .
    You would want to use ProCreate to do this, since the Paint Can app does not allow you to change backgrounds or colors, it just covers the background up with coordinating brush strokes.

    ProCreate is a much more advanced app, and there are some tutorials for it on YouTube. I watched a couple, and am going to watch more of them, so I can get a better grasp of what all this app is capable of.
    You can choose a brush stroke, and the type (whether watercolor, oils, etc), and the size of the brush, as well as the opacity. If you want to draw, then there are several pencil/pen strokes you can use, again with width and depth of the pencil line.
    Since you have a full color palette, you can draw or paint with any color you want, or match the color from the picture you are working on.
    When I was drawing my hair longer, I used matches to my hair in the original picture.
    You just touch the color you want right in the picture, and it then puts that color on your paint brush or pencil.
     
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  12. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I found a new painting and photo-editing app today. It can be used with both the Mac computers, and the iOS devices, although I would rather not try this on something as small as my phone, for sure.
    It is called "Pilexmator", and the app works with your photos and other photo-editing on the iPad or computer. I don't know if it is also available for Windows-based computers; but it very well might be.
    This app is designed to enhance your pictures, erase blemishes, or just stuff that clutters up the picture. You can change colors, fade things out, or blur the backgrounds. You can even copy a part of another picture and add it to the existing one, such as adding a bird flying across the sky, or making a double portrait from a single one.
    The app was first designed for the Mac, and there are a lot of information tutorials on Youtube.
    This is actually an older one; but it explains a lot in a short timeframe. Most of the videos were either too short to really give you an idea of how this works,or they were an hour long tutorial; and this one seemed to present the best of both worlds, even though it shows an older version from before it was released for the ipad and Apple Pencil.
    I think that anyone who is interested in art or photography would enjoy this app, and it seems like it would be reasonably simple to use once you watch a few of the tutorial videos, and I believe that @Ina I. Wonder will want to check this out, as well as the rest of us who like fooling around with our photographs.

     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Pixelmator is what I use. I have several others but that's the one I use most often.
     
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  14. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Awesome ! What features do you like best, and do you think that it is simple Anouilh for even us "non-techies" to be able to use, @Ken Anderson ?
    Can you show us some pictures that you have edited using this app, so we can get a better perspective on what it is capable of, please ?
    I just downloaded it onto the iPad Pro this morning, and I am going to watch some of the longer tutorials before I try using it; but this seems like exactly what I would like an editing program to do.
    here is the iOS link for anyone with an iPad who wants to try this out. It costs $5; which is not bad, and the ones that are free usually want to sell you something before you can use all of the features anyway, so you might as well have it all to begin with.

    Pixelmator by Pixelmator Team
    https://appsto.re/us/lUBh3.i
     
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  15. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I don't do a lot of fancy stuff but I need different effects for photos for web sites sometimes, and to create graphics for web sites. I had Photoshop when I had a PC. When I switched to a Mac, I used Gimp for a while, and still have it, but I never found Gimp to be very intuitive. Photoshop is, as I understand it, far more powerful than Pixelmator, as far as being something that the professionals would use but, although I used Photoshop for years, I never learned to do much of what it was capable of doing. The one you're discussing is for the iPhone or iPad, and I have the one for the iMac or MacBook. I don't know what the differences are, but there is a difference of about $35 in price.
     
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