Recently I found out about the Brushes app for the iPhone  (well “recently” meaning back in december of last year), which is not only a fantastic time-waster, but also an actual tool that you can use to make actual art.  On your iPhone.  Wherever you go.  Talk about great for a busride!

The Brushes app is a painting tool with a variety of features, including transparency, a decent color picker, import and export from your iPhone photos, and a bunch of preset brushes that really make this a fun little app.  The new version (which i have yet to download) supports four art layers, not just one, which promises to be entirely TOO MUCH fun… and a serious tool for art-on-the-go.

Last year during my winter trip to europe, i decided to really start teaching myself this thing, and i hit upon the idea of using pics in my iPhone as bases for paintings — yeah, kinda cheating to one degree or another, for you artistic purists out there, but a great way to teach yourself the app, and also give a nice painterly quality to the shots you’ve taken.  My first ones (seen here) had a much more painted feel to them than the later works, as eventually i began to accept the technique for itself, as opposed to a simple training method.  Keeping more of the photographic elements, while incorporating some of the physical brushwork, resulted in a very clean, yet interesting look.

So thank you to my overseas friends for putting up with me frantically scribbling away on a tiny touchscreen, i hope you like the results!