Painting and Sculpting Tiki on the iPad and other crazy stuff

I have had a couple of threads here on Tiki Central in the past talking about using a computer to make tikis. I have recently (5 months or so) been using an Ipad to produce tiki designs. I have never been a great artist. I have done some cartoon work for t-shirt designs and some craft painting. But, I have always wanted to paint. I found an Ipad app called Sketch Club which is easy to use and has a great community to support it. There are lots of great artist on their site and there are a bunch of cool tutorials that I have learned from. I'll start by showing some of my first tries and then show some tutorials of my own showing how I use the app. This is a really crude first try of mine.

[ Edited by: Gene S Morgan 2013-07-05 19:34 ]

[ Edited by: Gene S Morgan 2013-07-05 19:35 ]

Digital drawing apps give you a chance to add nice effects that make even a poor image look better. I added some texture and a background to my tiki guy.

A kinda stylized modern tiki …. not so good but, colorful ….

This was a attempt at PNG tiki … Again colorful but crude …. It gets better hopefully ….

I experimented with lots of subject matter in my Ipad images, but I like imaginary portraits the most. Here this a lady I call “The Confused Tourist”. She has been on a long tour and does not remember what island she is on. The tiki kinda scared her.

One of the nice things about digital painting is the fact that you can work on an image a piece at a time and combine the parts as a whole image. This is another simple tiki.

Just a second image of the tiki with some subtle highlight additions. I'm going to get around to how that is done soon.

I'm trying to evolve my cartoon work into a more interesting style. I'll never be a fine art painter, but I hope to make more clever and and fun images. The tiki ended up as a bar decoration in the background. I call this one “Tiki Bar Romeo” …....

Still in a cartoon style, but with a little more detail. He is going to be another background detail.

OK, I hate to admit this, but I don't understand the chimp with a fez thing. I love ZeroStreet's fez guys. So I thought I would give it a try. Here he is ….. by the way, Robert has a cool Ipad app with lots of his great artwork in it available from his website. His work inspires me …........

(Edited for being overly blunt, as was not my intention to scare the poor guy away)

Gene please don't take my criticism as a personal attack
don't stop creating your art & don't leave TC because one person makes a statement your not happy with

But to tone down my earlier remark (it did come across as harsh) Sorry.
but these are just not good, keep working at it, you will get better

If you have read a bit on Tiki Central about our disdain for "Party City Tikis"
well your posted work looks like "Party City Tikis"

Do a search on the internet for Tiki Gods or here on Tiki Central for photos and use those as your inspiration
you will see what I mean & keep painting. :)

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2013-05-03 06:16 ]

ATP don't bite your tongue unless you are having a seizure! :D

Gene, I like the 2 human characters ~ especially Tiki Bar Romeo, he makes me smile. They must be done on the iPad screen with some sort of stylus?

Gene,

Everyone's a critic. For what it's worth, I really see how much your art has improved since you started. The style is definitely cartoonish, but it looks like that's what you're going for. I hope you continue with it and enjoy it!

So we are just hugging it out then?

I must say I am pretty concerned about Atomic Tiki's tongue .... When it heals perhaps you could direct me some 5 year old who could teach me to draw better ... I know how nasty some folks here can be ... That is cool with me ...

Thanks much Mike ... your comments are always welcome ... And thanks so much TikiTacky for your kind words ... This is early stuff and yes I am more of a cartoonist .... I hope it gets better ....

Hey, constructive criticism is always welcome .... Stay tuned ... my next post will be mostly stick figures ...

Mike ... I almost forgot, about the iPad ... yes I do use a stylus sometimes ... but they vary a lot in quality and break a lot, so I use my fingers much of the time ...... It is a fun way to draw and there are lots of art apps that are either cheap or free ....

:roll: :roll: :roll:

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2013-05-03 06:19 ]

Of course you can't bite your tongue any longer ATP, why would you when you have a computer screen to hide behind?

You would feel a lot better Swizzle if you pull that stick out.

I am just like this in person, not hiding behind anything
just not afraid to speak my mind and anybody who thinks that is a bad thing can suck it.

:lol: :lol: :lol: and a :drink:

(Edited for swizzle whom was pitching a fit over a mistype
as he has nothing better to do)

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2013-05-02 03:11 ]

Hey moron, alot is not a word.

On 2013-05-02 02:43, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

I am just like this in person, not hiding behind anything

And it's funny how a few of the TC members i met in person last year when i was in the U.S. said exactly the opposite about you.

You must be drunk posting again?

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2013-05-03 06:21 ]

On 2013-05-02 02:55, swizzle wrote:
Hey moron, alot is not a word.

On 2013-05-02 02:43, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

I am just like this in person, not hiding behind anything

And it's funny how a few of the TC members i met in person last year when i was in the U.S. said exactly the opposite about you.

Just a few? I must not be doing something right!

I can barley navigate through Tiki Central. You do really well with your I-Pad. I don't even know if that's a phone. Good Job, Wendy

Swizzle and ATP. Check your PMs.

Really sorry Gene this nonsense was on your thread.

I want to thank Hakalugi for coming to my aid. It is a shame that the site Administrator has to do that. I must say I was shocked that such hateful insults were thrown at me for just trying to start a new thread. I had pretty much decided to give it up and go back to not posting and just watching on this forum as I have for the past couple of years. I have absolutely no complaint about honest criticism. I was a musician for a couple of decades and have faced some pretty unfriendly audiences in those days. You gotta have a thick skin. But Atomic Tiki did not even bother to really look at my images before saying silly stuff. I was embarrassed for him.

My goal here will be to show some fun stuff I have figured out doing digital graphics. I have had threads before where I have attempted to do that. I have to say that some of coolest artist here have made very nice and helpful comments on what I try to do. Again, I am not among those very good artist. I just do cartoons and designs. Not great at it, but I sell some of those designs on CafePress, and folks all around the world are wearing my designs. I guess there are some people who don't think my images are the work of a 5 year old.

I'm very sorry to have to write these last couple of paragraphs. I'm gonna keep showing some stuff I have learned on the iPad and will be using my somewhat stylized tiki related images to illustrate. There will be more things I do some of you will not like and feel free to let me know. I'm old but still learning. But please be a little nicer about it.

Wendy I was really happy to see your nice comments on this new thread. You have always been kind in the past about my attempts to illustrate what I do. I am sorry that I don't comment much here on the forum. I think I come across badly. I guess this last little mess on this thread illustrates my lack of likability. I want you to know that I do follow your thread even though i do not comment. You are a talented and just as important a nice artist.

Just to answer Wendys question and make it clear what you see here, I do this all on an iPad. I don't know how people draw on a phone. I am old and don't see good enough for that. So here goes with more iPad fun .....

Another simple tiki guy. He is done using vector graphics, which is a little different than drawing or painting. The image is created by putting together vector shapes, kinda like cutting shapes out of construction paper and pasting them to a base image. I have a little tutorial coming up to illustrate that a little better. I added some brush shading and highlighting to give it some shape.

Same guy with a green background.

This is one of the biggest advantages with working digital rather than real paints … Other than not having to clean up afterward …. You can change the image after you are done … You are never really done actually … I changed the size from long and narrow to a standard 9 by 12 …. Guy got fatter ….

Then I made it 10 by 10 because I wanted to use it for a tile design. He got even fatter.

I used him for a t-shirt design …..

Well said Gene! Im glad your not going away. Keep on truckin digital and exploring what you can do.
I too enjoy all the artist here in other crafts exploring and experimenting with traditional tiki boundries.
I dont reply as much as I should, but I do enjoy checking in and getting inspired by all the great artists.
Tc seasoned artists and brand newbies!!!!!! Bottom line is, its always important that people are exploring art
no matter what style or media. Lets see some more! MP

Thanks for the comments MP ... I agree, exploring all the possibilities that creativity leads a person to is what being human is about. I have never had the choice ... My crazy brain drives me to exploring ....

I'm just giving some examples of the possibilities that iPad painting allows. As I said before, some folks may not accept what I do as tiki. My cartooning is stylized, impressionistic, and somewhat abstract. This is purposeful on my part. I have studied lots of tiki art and as many island examples that I could find. I made a decision to not copy what I discovered, but use some aspects of what I found and try to develop my own style. The key issue is that I am a cartoonist at heart, much of what I do involves humor, satire, and social comment. This mini tutorial that follows uses a method that is far removed from carving style tiki, but to me it is very tiki in spirit.

OK, now I am going to show one of the ways I have learned to work in the SketchClub app. I have been trying to paint one picture a day since I first started using this app in October. I have almost 200 images done at this point. I did this one a few months ago and I think I have improved since then. This was the first image that I saved steps. (or WIPs also known as work in process) I started with a rough head shape and some basic shapes.

This first step is not a drawing, but a buildup of vector shapes. For a really good example of this method done by a real artist check out the “Wahine Moon And Fire” image by Zerostreet. You can find it in his forum thread or his website. He uses Adobe Illustrator, but there are several Ipad art apps that can do vector. There are a couple of freeware PC programs that are vector based as well. My favorite is called Inkscape. Here I have added a few more vector shapes.

Almost got a face now. Not a good one, but kinda like a tiki …..

Time to get out the airbrush and add some shadowing. Up until this point I have used the mirror mode of the program to produce symmetry in the image. Now going to painting tools I will need to be a little more natural with the brush work.

With the smudge tool I softened the edges and smoothed out the lines.

With a texture brush I added some mild highlighting.

He could easily be done in clay and made into a mug. Have you ever worked with clay? Wendy

Wendy .... It is funny that you should notice .... I thinks lots of my images look like clay ... Way back in the 70's and 80's I was a sculptor and potter ... I became a musician for a couple of decades and got away from clay ... When I retired from music I got back to clay, but that did not last long because of some health issues ... That is why I love following your thread, but why it makes me sad sometimes because I miss getting my hands dirty and opening a hot kiln too soon because of being too anxious to wait ... So now I do digital ....

Gene, I know its not the same thing as slinging real mud and using a kiln, but have you tried working with sculpey clay? It's pretty fun and versatile and can be baked right in your oven. If you miss the real sculpting a lot you may want to give it a try. Unless of course you are having too much fun with the digital painting. :wink:

tigertail ..... Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I have used polymer clay as well and you are right, it is really fun. I used to make jewelry out of sculpty and as you say it is easy to do and very versatile. I am afraid I had to give it up too. I have a bit of a problem with most kinds of chemicals including the vapor from polymer clay. Due to some health issues I can have a bad reaction to many environmental and chemical agents. I do like digital, but would love the chance to get back to real world crafts. I been following your studio building project. I looks real cool . Gonna be great when you get it done ..... Gene

Another cool thing about digital painting is that you can get a glaze color effect by just adjusting color and saturation of the image. Too strong of colors but I will fix that soon.

Added some more color.