Monday, 16 January 2012

Urchfont, WoW and I wish I was Hockney

Sorry about all the gaps - it's not me it blodspot. I've had so many emails about the give-away and would like to say thank you for all the kind words you've said about me and about how much you enjoy Workshop on the Web. I'm really touched. When we started WoW, I thought of it as being a continuation of the distance learning classes I was doing at the time - was expecting a few hundred people at most. Within a month we had thousands and were in a state of total panic so it was just as well that we got Fiona on board quickly to sort out the admin for us. Many wowies, I know, have been with us from the start, such loyalty. For our part we try to keep the costs low and £15.50 for around 30 workshops a year is good value, I think.
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Talking of WoW, we have put my interview with Jim from Urchfont College on the free taster http://www.workshopontheweb.com/ So much for all his talk about Wiltshire Council putting into practice Cameron's Big Society'!! Do email jane.scott@wiltshire.gov.uk (thanks Kaffie) to register your objection to its closing. They have my interview on their website so perhaps that could be mentioned.






Have you seen the fabulous stuff that Hockney has done on the ipad. I felt inspired to have a bash on my Galaxy Tab - not that I can come anywhere near a Hockney but I do think he has underlined the point that computer design is not cheating but is a perfectly valid art form. This was my starting point - a photo of me, sitting on the sofa. I took it by accident when I was pressing all the buttons on the tablet. It is such an awful photo that I'm not showing the original so here it is in negative. I used three apps for the following sequence and they were all free in Android marketplace. Most of them did negatives but here I used the Photo Editor program.
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Then I used a line drawing app which goes by the catchy name of C4LAa. It is very adaptable in the size and number of lines - just as good as a 'proper' image editor.























Filling the colour back in and adding some extra lines gave these images.















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Then back to Photo Editor for some colour swaps.
















Finally to an app called Picasso for some of my own drawing - painting over the lines with low opacity colours.


















Not very flattering but good fun.










Finally, I am humbled and horrified by love2cre8's minus 28. I loved my visit to Calgary but I'm glad I'm not there now.

4 comments:

gwyn said...

Hi Maggie, don't remember you looking like this in Scotland -- must be 'moving' effects!
Got my book today, and looked, but haven't tried yet. Am into trying to make sketch books, theme is fishing boats and nets at present, but am really excited about doing more with tissue paper.
Also knitting socks - we need them at -5 today.
Glad I have found my way back tp your blog.
Gwyneth

Julie said...

I shall have to look into these apps myself, Maggie, you've had a great time with them.

Diane said...

Honestly. Isn't it typical of councils and governments. It is doing well - lets close it down!!!! Same thing here in Australia.
I think I might have to move into a more modern cyber space world and get myself and ipad, try this and more of course.
I have started Lynda's rust project with some walnut ink and crystals. What fun. Now need to find some rusty stuff in the garage and move along with the 'real' rust.
Diane

Wabbit said...

In Las Vegas this weekend for some R & R... it just seems cold here with all the wind. Such is winter in the desert.

I haven't scratched the surface of art with my Kindle fire yet, though I've downloaded and installed one drawing app. More to come though!

At least here in the US, Amazon gives away a free Android app every day. You can get signed up to get an email about it every day. I've found great stuff here but you have to be patient. They choose just one to be free each day.