I've been engrossed in the versatility of the iPad2 apps the past two days; taking existing photos, editing, and then painting on and into them. I'm able to embrace two favorite passions at once with no clean up :) The two apps I used for the photo in this were
Snapseed and
ArtRage... I don't have enough words to describe how outrageously cool
ArtRage is. Simulated painting programs have been around since the late 80's -Fractal Paint- comes to mind, but the ArtRage knocks these earlier applications out of the park with its abilities to fine tune tool sets and behavior of paint (like adding intricate amounts of thinner, or having complete control over how you load a brush with paint). The final surfaces resemble painted textures of all kinds, and I've even imported hi-rez (300dpi) photos to work on with amazing results. This brings many possibilities into game, like printing and adding in additional mixed media. I've barely scratched the surface of what ArtRage can do, but am having a blast exploring. It's 4th of July, and I may have to have this thing pried out of my hands in time for fireworks. Click the image to enlarge and see the detail (done by hand on the touch screen of the iPad, over the photo.) I'll be posting more examples in the days to come, I'm sure :)