Watercolor WIPs- Sharing and Learning

[Steve B]

steve, the Pen-Only ToolBar must be increasing your fun quotient if you can get glancing effects like this so quickly ... any chance it will ever come to the iPad? ...

Never say never, right? But the Pen-Only Toolbar is written in a language that isn't currently compatible with Macs or iOS, as far as I know. That's a mighty big hurdle.

There is another completed version we've been working on though, that I need to share. It's got some audio-feedback improvements for the visually impaired, as well Tool Tips, a completely revamped and infinitely-easier-to-understand Menu system, and (most interesting to me) an entirely new drag-and-drop method to make Hover Icons that is waaaaaaaay easier understand and manipulate. After the bar itself, the Hover Icons provide the greatest leap in general Artrage functionality, IMO. These new Hover Icons should allow a lot more to explore their usage more easily. I need to make videos though, so I'm waiting for some free time this week.

Life is actually slowing down a lot, recently, as I've removed a great many things from my plate (that I put there myself). I anticipate new AR videos in general over the next few months. The little YouTube channel has been watched a lot more than I had anticipated (200 subscribers, and about 15,0000 views!.... THAT'S COOL!), and clearly people find the videos useful. So, I'll probably share more.

[chinapete]

steve, that's all very good news! I'm a big fan, as you know ... well, I won't say never, but I'm thinking that a ToolBar could solve or go a long way to minimizing the lag problem on the iPad, and that would be welcome for AR users and I would think the AR dev team also ... the innovation you bring frees up the movement of the hand, and this, apart from being a technical UI improvement, allows the artist to connect hand (brush) and eye (mind) more immediately ... congrats on the YouTube channel success! ...

[chinapete]

steve, since I just posted something in mixed media, I'm looking at your "Bridge" painting again, and wondering how I would print it ... In my first blush comments I mentioned the texture and weight of the paper (and Gary, I think, called it out as Arches cold press), but although there is giclee for watercolor -- I think a spray technique is used there -- I'm guessing it wouldn't look right, and since it might not be possible to put Arches paper through an inkjet printer, would you consider (assuming you wanted to print it) using a lighter weight paper, maybe even a rice paper ... disclaimer: I use rice paper because I work in digital inks

[kenmo]

A very informative thread....

[Steve B]

Pete,
I'm a little confused. Are you looking to print the Bridge painting at home? or remotely (through a service)? Are you concerned about the AR canvas texture printing? I can remove the canvas texture background and repost the image sans that. I will say that this one was not done at print res. It's a small image currently-- 1280 x 800. More a doodle than a proper print dpi image. It's possible it could be scaled up though-- watercolors print better at lower res than oils anyways.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're looking for?

[chinapete]

hi Steve, sorry for any confusion ... I know your "Bridge" is mostly for display ... I was just speculating aloud how to preserve the delicate washes and the texture of the paper -- which is noticeable even in your low-res image -- if it were printed (assuming of course the image was print ready) ... Could it be done on Arches paper? Or would it be better to use an absorbent rice paper, for example, Chinese Xuan paper, some variations of which have enough tensile strength to allow gravestone rubbings -- sorry for the morbid reference
ps: I would at least have a chance of getting the Xuan paper through my Pixma iP100 printer ...

[Steve B]

Ahhhh... I see. That really depends on the printer, in my experience. For example, last year I bought an Epson Workforce 1100, and it's been a fantastic purchase for only 125$. I can easily feed it full 140 lb watercolor paper. It's wide format, so 12 x 18 is easy, plus the ink is water-safe and doesn't bleed. It's a great printer, though a bit finicky if not used regularly.

[Steve B]

Hey Pete,
what happened to your last post? I was talking to my wife about how you printed it out on rice paper. She wanted to see it, but the post is gone. Can you post it again?

[chinapete]

oh, okay ... after I'd posted it, I had second thoughts about messing around with your original (cropping it a little and so forth), but I really like the printed version, and am going to work with my somewhat limited Pixma iP100 and different papers to get something closer to your original, or at least as it appears on my screen ... anyway, here it is again ...

[chinapete]

Steve, I'm taking the liberty of posting this to your thread, because I think it exemplifies some ink-as-watercolor effects that can be gotten with rice paper ... Here, I'm just laying in the groundwork, the ultimate goal is to complete a Chinese-style horizontal scroll mountains and mists ink painting ... Everything was done digitally on the iPad, so this is digital inks on digital rice paper ...

I imported a special Xuan rice paper (with a greyish-blue tint) as ground; then created a second layer at 25% opacity for the gold-ochre washes in the sky, except for the whiter cloud areas; then a palette white is used at 25% opacity to blend the rough edges (at this point, the second and base layers can be merged); then a third layer is created for additional washes and whites; subsequent layers contain drawing overlays for calligraphic brush effects, and finally the darkest washes are applied ...

The main thing that interests me is the uniform, almost silk-like texture to support the washes ... I wonder whether you can see that too (you have to look at it for a while for the forms to emerge fully) ...