2018 Finger Paintings!

[Chad Weatherford]

Only about 30 percent ArtRage finger paint this time. I just wanted to block this in with larger texture brushes in Photoshop and finished it with fingers on the way to work. It is somewhat more challenging building texture in the ArtRage app for me, so this saved some time.

[Chad Weatherford]

Sketched this guy and his shop from across a Chengdu side street. He didn't seem to notice or mind.

[Chad Weatherford]

Trying out some of the watercolour tools in ArtRage for iPad. I had a 7 hour layover in Beijing so this sketch should have been more epic. Actually I fell flat on my face with another sketch that was only slightly more ambitious...there are always going to be those bad days!

[D Akey]

Chad, I'm curious since I don't work like you do, but I like it a lot, what do you mean by 'building texture'?
Are you talking about layering colors or dry brush or canvas tooth or mark variation?

[Chad Weatherford]

Chad, I'm curious since I don't work like you do, but I like it a lot, what do you mean by 'building texture'?
Are you talking about layering colors or dry brush or canvas tooth or mark variation?

Hi D Akey, thanks for the question. By the wa,y do you post any paintings here?

Regarding texture: It’s a combination of all those things but the variety of marks would have to be the most challenging for me in the art rage app, unless I rely on more serendipity. For instance, loading up the brush with different ‘pigment’ to get that streaky mixture in the mark is achieved only after laying down little dots of different colour from the tube and palette knifing a stroke. Also that texture where you stab into the surface with the bristles of a brush... I haven’t found an easy simulation of the effect with the brush set in AR so it becomes a case of manufacturing the texture with the available tools or resorting to layer blending trickery, much like trying to type a 3 page report with 2 keys. I guess it’s looking at building the surface from the standpoint of traditional media and coming up against the limitations of the program, which is actually very impressive for a painting simulation and does what it does very well. Maybe I am trying too hard to make it something it is not in this case, but I like having the extra tooth and variety in the surface of the painting. What appears like a 'surface', anyways.

[D Akey]

Hi. I don't post paintings since I don't really paint anymore. Making images for me is merely a thinking tool where a finished painting isn't the end result. But I like to dabble and see what people are doing. I played around with caricatures for birthdays and such (personal stuff), but because I'm rusty as hell and don't really do caricatures they took me an insane length of time to do. I've moved on creatively to other areas and until I have enough time, I will at some point do art again. I feel like I'm engulfed in a maze of learning curves.
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So on to what you're doing. I could be wrong, but wasn't there a way to import PhotoShop brushes? I thought it could be done in Painter. I seem to recall that many of the brushes were for the later versions of PS and may not translate from one program to another. Not sure if they can be imported into AR. Maybe I was just thinking of layers.

Back in the early versions of AR, I knew how to create a custom paper/canvas thing by making a BW image and loading it in as a choice of canvas texture instead of the usual weave. I did some really cool textures that actually responded to the paint application. I would think that if is was still possible to make a custom canvas tooth, you could just as easily make something that gave the effect of a scumbled stroke etc. And also I *think* that you can change papers in mid-flight. The concept is sort of like overlaying a garbage matte like for photos back in the days of Goth photos. Only in this case you would employ it as needed for the application of paint, not something as a final touch. I think the closest old school traditional analogy would be like doing a rubbing, only as a base, and naturally with more control. So that's just one idea to get where you seem to be aiming.

I also have heard that in AR you can customize brushes quite a bit. I don't know if you've explored that. I haven't, but I've heard doing so really blew the lid off for some users who commented in the forum here.

The other thing is that you're on iPad and I don't know what limits come with that.

Anyway, I use PS because I know it and it suited what I was doing, which was manipulating photos. I also still use it in my workflow for adjusting drawings I have done on the computer. Mostly post production and touch ups, so I understand where you're coming from.

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Edit: Just for the sake of clarity, regarding the canvas texture, the black and white bitmap(?) or maybe even gray scale image that I put in created a relief onto which the paint would go and it kept the relief quality until the paint was thick (as I recall, its been years). But think of priming a canvas with gesso using a house painter's brush without sanding for this example. That's an example of one thing you could do. Then when drawing, the pencil line would hop and skip, and not go into the deep parts if there were grooves as from a brush. (so that's one example, but any high contrast BW image could produce an interesting relief to paint on.)

But you can do all kinds of things like creating blotches that might create a faux building up of the kind you mention. Fine or coarse etc. However without me actually doing it I don't know how it would work or if it's good for what you want to do.

None the less it's very interesting and had lots of potential. I think it was a matter of simply putting the BW image into the right folder so the program knew where to access it.

[Chad Weatherford]

Hi. I don't post paintings since I don't really paint anymore. Making images for me is merely a thinking tool where a finished painting isn't the end result. But I like to dabble and see what people are doing. I played around with caricatures for birthdays and such (personal stuff), but because I'm rusty as hell and don't really do caricatures they took me an insane length of time to do. I've moved on creatively to other areas and until I have enough time, I will at some point do art again. I feel like I'm engulfed in a maze of learning curves.


------

So on to what you're doing. I could be wrong, but wasn't there a way to import PhotoShop brushes? I thought it could be done in Painter. I seem to recall that many of the brushes were for the later versions of PS and may not translate from one program to another. Not sure if they can be imported into AR. Maybe I was just thinking of layers.

Back in the early versions of AR, I knew how to create a custom paper/canvas thing by making a BW image and loading it in as a choice of canvas texture instead of the usual weave. I did some really cool textures that actually responded to the paint application. I would think that if is was still possible to make a custom canvas tooth, you could just as easily make something that gave the effect of a scumbled stroke etc. And also I *think* that you can change papers in mid-flight. The concept is sort of like overlaying a garbage matte like for photos back in the days of Goth photos. Only in this case you would employ it as needed for the application of paint, not something as a final touch. I think the closest old school traditional analogy would be like doing a rubbing, only as a base, and naturally with more control. So that's just one idea to get where you seem to be aiming.

I also have heard that in AR you can customize brushes quite a bit. I don't know if you've explored that. I haven't, but I've heard doing so really blew the lid off for some users who commented in the forum here.

The other thing is that you're on iPad and I don't know what limits come with that.

Anyway, I use PS because I know it and it suited what I was doing, which was manipulating photos. I also still use it in my workflow for adjusting drawings I have done on the computer. Mostly post production and touch ups, so I understand where you're coming from.

-------------

Edit: Just for the sake of clarity, regarding the canvas texture, the black and white bitmap(?) or maybe even gray scale image that I put in created a relief onto which the paint would go and it kept the relief quality until the paint was thick (as I recall, its been years). But think of priming a canvas with gesso using a house painter's brush without sanding for this example. That's an example of one thing you could do. Then when drawing, the pencil line would hop and skip, and not go into the deep parts if there were grooves as from a brush. (so that's one example, but any high contrast BW image could produce an interesting relief to paint on.)

But you can do all kinds of things like creating blotches that might create a faux building up of the kind you mention. Fine or coarse etc. However without me actually doing it I don't know how it would work or if it's good for what you want to do.

None the less it's very interesting and had lots of potential. I think it was a matter of simply putting the BW image into the right folder so the program knew where to access it.

Thanks D Akey for the detailed description and suggestions. I do think the iPad app is fairly limited but it's worth investigating. Feel like I could possibly get some custom canvas into the mix like you mention but haven't poked around enough.
Fair enough about the painting. Hope you find time to get back into it but if you are finding alternative creative outlets that can be good.

[Chad Weatherford]

Aerial sketch approaching Vancouver.

[Chad Weatherford]

Another one about to stick the landing at the Vancouver airport.

[Chad Weatherford]

Day 37 (I think) Fellow bus commuter.