The Oh My of the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro

For years my traditional artist friends have talked about the failure of digital art to provide the sensory experience of traditional media.  I, of course, felt that the graphic sleekness, all colors available, lightening hot learning environment was more appealing from the moment I first began to work in digital art (I'm not the digital art advocate for no reason).  If I thought it before - well - I am now swooning over the new Apple Pencil and iPad Pro.  And the idea of using Astropad, a $20 app, to draw simultaneously on my Mac without a Wacon Cintiq (13" $999+) is pretty amazing.  Oh my, this really is something to look forward to!  

Lady Banks Color Theme

These are point and shoot colors seen last April when my Lady Banks Rose was in full bloom on a trellis on the side of my cottage.  This theme was captured by Adobe Color (previously)/Adobe Capture (now) on my iPad. So I can save these nifty themes to my Libraries in Creative Cloud, but how can I share them?  Not so easy.  I opened in InDesign and right clicked the theme and selected Share, whereupon it opens in Creative Cloud where I can make a public link or keep it private.  Note that I can't download it from CC, so I made a screen shot (Mac Command+Shift+4) which saves to the desktop as a .png.  I can open in Photoshop and convert to whatever size and file type I need (to post here I had to reduce the image to 7 in. x 1.458 in. at 72 ppi). And there you have it.  A lot of trouble, but being able to show color combinations has its benefits, especially when working on projects where the input of others is so important.  

One Perfect Place

I am a fan of Vern Yip whose HGTV Urban Urban Oasis 2011 caught my eye.  Here is a photo of my favorite design which would be the one perfect place for me:

More views panning the condo can be seen here.

Designing Attraction

Smashing Magazine published a thought provoking article entitled "Relationship Engineering:  Designing Attraction" by Thomas Giannattasio, Art Director at nclud.  Read it and think.  

Sweep

Beer Label

Compliments of Craig Gates. 

Digitext Designs

Here I invite you to imagine a digital design calling card and the world in which it might reside in your imagination.  Does a distant memory form or a desire for some thing more surface?  Can we still imagine like children?  Do we have dreams of beauty flicker in our eyes like the eyes of babies mesmorized by stained glass windows and symmetrical faces?  Can we dream our dreams like no one else's?  Tell me your dream, take me to your secret garden, and I'll share mine with you.  Doesn't creation encourage creation?

Digitext Designs Detail

I grow weary with the snobbery of artists who do not understand the potential of digital art, particularly digital text. Design is design, with or without the smell of paint permeating the creative process. Art offers an invitation to the viewer to come close and examine, to feel something one might otherwise fail to feel, to imagine a concept or subject matter that stimulates the senses and makes some slight imprint on the emotions.Whether the viewer is aware of it or not,when the design invitation is accepted, unformed stories flicker in the imagination like an almost remembered dream.  Have you had a dream lately that is worth struggling to remember? 

Pillowcase on a Wall

Some years ago my sister gave me a pillow, but I admit I picked it out.  It was very dear to me because she gave it to me, and I loved the color and design.  A few years ago I retired it from the livingroom because of dogs who wanted to use it as a bed.  Recently I had it framed.  I had planned to design a bedroom around the colors, and I might still, but for now the framed pillowcase is in the diningroom.  I like the unlikely combination of red, lavendar and celedon (pale spring green).  You see light reflected in the glass of the frame because I live in a house of arches.   

Artist of the Book

Every now and again creative ideas jump up, grab and shake the viewer.  Scottish artist Georgia Russell does just that for me.  She has the most creative idea I have seen lately using a scalpel and paper (books, sheet music, photos, maps, etc.) to make exquisitely delicate images that scream of originality.  "Memoire"   is a haunting image displayed in a bell jar and featured in February's American Style Magazine.    When I first saw it I fairly gasped at not only the expansive creativity, but the fine detail.  More of Russell's work may be seen at DesignDNA, designklub and at England & Co. Gallery.  I am particularly fond of her bell jar tree sculpture shown at DesignDNA.  Check it out; you will never forget it.