Sitting on the back porch today trying out my new equipment before I take it on location. I’m using an iMount tripod adapter for the iPad and I’m painting with a Nomad Brush. Here’s what my setup looked like as I was painting.
Backyard Setup
I found I could sit comfortably with the tripod between my knees. The height and angle were just right so that I could use the lower part of my bifocal glasses to look at the iPad and the upper part to look at the scene. I like using the tripod because it frees up both hands to paint. I can use my left hand to choose tools and colors and my right to work with the brush.
After I was done, I took a reference photo with my digital camera.
And printed a 4×6 glossy photo with my new Epson PictureMate Charm portable printer. It works great. You get a borderless print in about a minute. I got the optional battery so I could take it on location, but I’m not sure I will. It’s a lot more to carry and usually I use a reference photo after I get home to refine a painting done on location.
I did the sketch in ArtRage. I made a template painting beforehand with 3 layers (background, middle, and foreground). To get started I duplicated the template. I used the roller to rough in some sky and tree in the background layer and then I switched to the middle layer and used the oil brush to paint in the rest. I used about 3 different brush sizes. I ended up not using the foreground layer at all. Total time was about 30 minutes.
I always have a hard time judging contrast outdoors. This time was no exception. The darks were not dark enough. After I came indoors, I used Snapseed to increase the contrast. Here’s what the original painting looked like so you can compare it to the one up top.
Jim
