Thursday, August 1, 2013

Digital journaling (my favorite apps)

Happy August!
Some of you may remember that I started using my mini iPad to capture daily snippets way back in January. And would you believe it - I stuck to it, and now have captured memories for each day of this year. I call them "snippets", because that is what they are... little bits of days that weave together the story of our life. I love looking through them and seeing the big and small, good and not so good things that happened.
Since I know that many of you have iPads and might want to do something similar (I received email questions about it), let me share which apps I use. The main one that houses my digital books is called Noteshelf. This is how my "shelf" looks right now. I will start a new book for August this evening. If the stripes on the covers start bothering me, I can change them quickly. For now - they make me smile.
To create super quick collages (like the one below) I use an app appropriately called TurboCollage. I made the heart with Photo Stack (free app) and added it over the collage. 
Can you see the butterfly in my daughter's hair?
Most pictures I take are with my iPhone, so the quality is far from perfect. My favorite app for photo manipulation is PhotoToaster. It can do almost anything! There are many very artsy options, but I use it mostly to crop the pictures and pull out as much detail as I can (the ducks below are a good example of that, as they were not very close to me and were moving quickly).
One of my other favorites is TitleFx for it's amazing lettering capabilities. The example below is not imaginative at all, but I used it simply because I wanted to have this blue picture here, as it was really a happy, amazing day. The photo collage below is done also with TurboCollage, after I cropped the photos and added frames with PhotoToaster.
There are other apps that I use from time to time, but the ones I listed continue to be my favorites. I would love if you add to the list and suggest some of your favorite apps :-)
Cheers! Happy August!

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

101 BIRDS - Painting #33

I can't get enough color these days.... Layers and layers create texture that makes me smile :)
I started the painting without a sketch, just with a palette knife and bright colors. Then continued with the brush and some collage until it was done. I hope you'll enjoy seeing the way it started and some phases in between. 

Friday, July 26, 2013

101 BIRDS - Painting #32

Moving on with my bird series. I love having a set theme and size, but freedom to do whatever I feel like. Many layers of color on this one...

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Dreams

Run. Escape. Hide. That's what I've been doing in my dreams lately. Somebody, something is chasing me.... and it's not pleasant. I don't know why it's happening, but I know that I can deal with it through art. So I pulled out my big moleskine (16.5 x 11.5") and let the colors come out.
Zorana art, journal, mixed media, painting
Zorana art, journal, mixed media, painting
Zorana art, journal, mixed media, painting
I don't know why these two ladies showed up, or the moon/bird or whatever it is, but it felt good. Hopefully the bad dreams will stop and I'll feel serene as the lady on the right :-)

Friday, July 19, 2013

101 BIRDS - Painting #31

Quick watercolor paintings like this one are still the hardest for me to achieve. For some reason I am scared to practice them more (even though I love them). This guy makes me smile, so he deserves to be number 31 in my bird series.
Happy weekend!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

101 BIRDS - Painting #30

bird series, bird paintings, Zorana, Zorana art
This painting came as a result of watching Milliande's CAPI (Create Art Portfolio Ideas Course) series. I watched her videos and couldn't wait to jump right into it. She goes much deeper than one painting, and I hope to do too. It is fascinating to watch her progression from scribbles to a series of work.  I wasn't impressed with my sketches at first, but kept going and now I'm totally in love with these bird creatures. Here is the video that got me started. Maybe it is something that will interest you too!

Friday, July 12, 2013

Mostly blue

Blue as the ocean and the sky... not as my mood. I thought a month passed since I posted something, but it has not been that long. I really didn't do too much art, so didn't have much to share. Just getting back to my brushes. It feels like I forgot how to play, but I know I haven't, so I'm staying with it.
Is anyone reading blogs now that google reader has gone?
I'm posting my 'mostly blue' pictures to stay here as a reminder to a perfect day, and I'll be back with some art soon. Happy weekend!