Friday, May 22, 2009

iPhone Artwork

Okay, so maybe I still can't stand the word 'ap', but I did have a chance last night to see a cool one in action. Marc, the artist/illustrator I met at the Draw-a-thon invited me to pose for his drawing group last night. Everyone who attended is a working illustrator or illustration student, and the level of skill and talent was impressive. It was an inspiring environment too; it looked like one of those Italian villas people are always renting in Henry James novels (okay, so it was a former schoolhouse, with fourteen foot pressed-tin ceilings in Williamsburg, but I still felt like I was in Wings of the Dove). For the final hour long pose, Marc switched from colored pencil and paper (old school) to his phone (cutting edge, baby!). If you go here you can see not only the image, but you can also see a short video of the process. Scroll down for more artwork, including another iPhone sketch and video. I'm particularly fond of the pencil sketch of his sleeping wife a bit further down.


I have to say, just in the last year the art modeling has gotten me into some of the coolest spaces in the five boroughs: rescued mansions, 19th century renovated school rooms, the occasional church; oh wait, the churches were usually for rehearsals, not art modeling. So I wasn't always naked in those settings. Not always.


ANYway, go see Marc's iPhone sketches; apparently David Hockney has taken Marc's lead.


I'm still not gonna say 'ap'.

10 comments:

Birdie said...

Is this the artist whose portrait of yours recently sold? There is a similar dark quality to the work. (A quality, I might add, that is pure fiction.)

Patrick said...

Birdie: no, the artist who recently sold a sketch of me is David Kassan. I linked to him last summer when he posted a video that condensed a three hour drawing of me down to seven minutes. The effect was similar to this iphone process though, so that might be what's making you connect them. Marc did the 'mad-hatter' sketch of me that I linked to last month.

Greg said...

Wow. Now this is a cool use of new technology, eh? I just love these process/time-lapse video things.

Hey, is that a goatee on you, or just a shadow?

Marta said...

that was soooo cool!

and i actually love the word "ap" so much that i almost want to get an iphone just to be able to say it over and over and over.

ap ap ap ap ap ap ap

patrick, my dear, maybe this isn't going to work out after all, sigh. and it seemed so promising!

Jess said...

Doesn't the phone have a camera in it? Wouldn't that be so much easier?

Yeah, I'm a Philistine. I know. ;)

Joe Jubinville said...

I like and admire Marc's style and have commented on it before, but I'm amazed that he got that kind of detail on the touch-screen. Did he use some kind of stylus for the final phase? You look remarkable and moody.

GMA is doing a story on an iPhone artist as I type this. He did a New Yorker cover. Seems the finished work can be saved as a digital file. I guess there's an ap for it ,-) So cool.

Patrick said...

Greg: no, that's just a shadow, I'm not presently sporting any facial hair.

Marta: ah my dear, you have seen through my protestations! Hearing the word 'ap' is likely to trigger an attack of echolalia in me, either a string of Pekinese yaps as you wrote, or a single sustained, nasal, blaring-car-horn a, snapped off with a percussive p that can be heard in three counties. Either response comes almost involuntarily, usually interrupting whatever else the speaker was planning to say. I honestly don't know if I'm doing this because I actually like the word, or if I'm emphasizing it in as annoying a fashion as possible, so people stop using it. Clearly there is more ambivalence than I let on.

Jess: good point.:) But then again, I charge more for photographs, so this was probably a more economical way for him to use the phone.

Jeaux: that's a good question, I can't remember if he used a stylus or not. He did mention that the technique required a relinquishing of control, that he had to make his piece with less detail than he typically would. I find that pretty interesting, since this seems like an image with plenty of small details, but maybe that just indicates how well he's able to use the limitations.

Marta said...

ambivalent about the word "ap"? there's an ap for that!

Beth P. said...

Patrick, I loved seeing you magically appear before my eyes! Lovely portrait of you.

Patrick said...

Patrick here, posting a comment from the artist: apparently the interwebs was cranky about letting him post directly. Don't know what THAT's about. Anyway, this is Marc.

Hi all,


Thanks for the nice words about my work!


I don't use a stylus. I use good ol' finger and thumb. You can zoom in when you want to drop some smaller strokes and get details.


It's a great app.


(app app app...)

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