Ah, yes. Rain. I live in Oregon, and yet I forget about the rain sometimes. We’ve had a good run of not-so-rainy weather and you know how I know? I had forgotten about puddle paintings! Until yesterday, when I was walking into work and the reflection of trees in puddles on the parking lot surface caught my eye. Really, it’s not like it’s been that long since it was rainy. I think I just have a short attention span!
Last night when I looked at the photos I was inspired to create this piece:
And then the rain came…
I’ll show you how it came together for this week’s Paint Party Friday post.
It starts with the captured image of a tree reflection in a parking lot puddle. I now use ProCamera for capturing most of my iPhone images. I like that I can switch between 1:1 and other aspect ratios in app and can easily separate the focus and exposure when needed. The “Anti-Shake” shutter is also really nice for avoiding blurry pics when the light is low… like if we have an overcast day or I’m in a shady forest or something. (Um, yeah, that’s pretty much all the time for me anymore.)
Then I pulled the photo into Snapseed to rotate and add some color and texture. I felt a bit blue yesterday.
From there, it was into texturing apps to play with textures and see what happened. I liked this one, from Distressed FX. Hey, my blue turned to green! But I really liked the effect.
I could have stopped there, but it was not quite as abstract and painterly as I wanted. So into the painting apps… Glaze, the Autopainter apps (HD, 2 and 3) to see what I could do with it. It’s interesting how some painting apps really work well for one type of image, and then don’t work at all for another. That’s the part about this whole digital painting thing that is full of play and experimentation. There is no precise process in this medium… it just doesn’t work that way.
Out of all of that play, I started with the output from Glaze as the base in Image Blender. I like to start with Glaze output as the base when I can, because the base sets the resolution for the final image. Since I save out of Glaze at the highest resolution (4096×4096), my final blended image is saved at the same resolution, which is larger than the native resolution of the iPhone 5 camera. This means I can print the final image as large as I might want.
From there, it was just blending of the different images I had created while playing in the different apps. I really can’t remember what I was blending with what, or the blending modes I was using. That’s all play too! But I’ll show you the intermediate blends so you can see how it progressed to the final piece.
Blend 1:
Blend 2:
Blend 3:
Final Image:
And then the rain came…
I love the abstraction of the final painting, the watery feel and the depth of color. Even though I started out in a blue mood, the green in this makes my heart sing.
I definitely don’t mind rainy days this winter. People have been wishing for spring, but I’m not asking for it to come yet. I am inspired by the reflections found in puddles, and the blank canvas provided by a grey sky. I’m getting out to hike regardless of the weather, or maybe because of the weather, as the rain and mist provides such atmosphere to the forest. I am grateful, every day, for this wonderful art form that inspires me so much.
Here’s a happy song that resonates with me right now. Enjoy!
Kat, how do you manage to be everywhere?! You are here putting up your photography, on Flickr giving a course and checking things out regularly!
My favourite shot above is actually the black and white one!
The song is very cheerful for a rainy day, I especially like it at the very beginning!
We’re getting mixed snow and rain here today. The result is the same: WET!
Thank you for your encouragements on “Fuel Your Creativity” which I’m really enjoying!
I’m obviously in sync with my creative energy cycle, Sandra. 🙂 I love what I do and that’s how I do it all! I’m so glad you are enjoying the course. I’m having fun too.
It’s also interesting to hear you like the BW version the most. That’s what’s fun about sharing these sequences – hearing what everyone thinks, and how it’s so different for each of us.
It’s really amazing what you’ve been able to create! I think all of these are beautiful! You could print them and hang them in a grouping together!!
I love your final result, and it reflects how I’m feeling too. It’s still raining here, we do need it, but I could use a little sunshine about now. And I love the song…what a great song for me with the rain…so catchy and I’ll probably be humming it all day now! 😉
I remember after such a long drought here in Texas, when we finally got a light rain for the first time in a year, I went outside with no umbrella and danced in it, literally, and it was so liberating!! (it was summer so it wasn’t so cold)
Oh what fun! I LOVE this painting, Kat! Thanks for taking us through all the steps and letting us see the process. I do like the final product best.
My fave is the blue one. Glad to hear what you’re using for aps. I totally need to start trying out my iphone as camera, but kind of don’t know where to start. Kind of like switching from auto to manual, but I jumped into that with both feet. Perhaps I need to do the same.
You’ve got some great results here. I think they would make a nice 3 or 5 piece set. Hope your class is going well.
I love watching the image evolve from its beginning to your final result. Such an amazing transformation! A watery wonder.
Kat, What a wonderful tutorial – I’ll be back, that’s for sure! (And I like the idea of “puddle paintings.”)
lovely…and I know how you feel about the rainy days
It is so much fun to see the process and then the final! Love the textures and colors.
Beautiful WIPs!! It doesn’t rain often where I live, but I love the light after it, makes it special for photos!
‘And the rain came’ is truly beautiful. Great final effect and very, inspiring. Great title as well. Have a very happy PPF!!!
I do not know that I would image, are all great.. Saludos
This is so beautiful, thanks so much for showing the progression of the painting.. Happy PPF!
Thank you for sharing this beautiful artwork. Happy PPF, Annette x
Love the softness and freshness you have created here, beautiful! HPPF!
Kat I am so fascinated by your process and the gorgeous results you get each time! Happy PPF!
What a beautiful and intriguing piece!
Love that you inverted the composition!!
Clever!
♥♥♥
Happy PPF!!
Mary
I so enjoy coming here and seeing what you are doing and how each week its like you move on to the next level of this. I’m also super inspired by how inspired you are by this artform. Its like fuel for my creative fire – love it! And, really love what you are doing.
Love your rainy paintings…so moody…green! HPPF!
This is just fabulous. It would be cool to see in lots of different colors…
I love how this turned out…so beautiful!! Digital art is amazing….wonderful apps….love it. Fab color too….as for rain…I’m just outside Vancouver bc I can relate!!
Hugs Giggles