Tulip Time: Computer Generated Watercolor

Magnifique! I took this photo at Pike Place Market and I converted it into a watercolor print with the Waterlogue app I bought. Waterlogue is a marvel that creates computer generated watercolors from your photographs on an iPhone or iPad. I have high hopes for finding an online printer that can print this as a note card. Wouldn't that be the best?

Waterlogue: My Ideal Christmas Card

I want to remind you about my favorite app, Waterlogue. This magnificent piece of software can create a watercolor of your favorite image in minutes. There is really nothing more to say, except that I LOVE it and intend to use it to create custom Christmas cards next year. I want to take a pretty photo of our "new" living room with a decorated Christmas tree and use that as our card. We will be in a house again someday, right? For now I am enjoying this image immensely and wanted to share it with you.

Once your waterlogue watercolor is created, you can save it as a JPEG and then upload it to a holiday card printing site to create cards in volume.

This is the photograph I used to create watercolor above. I caved and bought a huge artificial tree at Home Depot (a Martha Stewart brand) and it is perfect. My husband loves Christmas too and I didn't want to be practical and buy a skinny nothing tree just because it would make sense.  This tree makes sense to us.

Merry Christmas! And order yourself the Waterlogue app! It is about $5 and you can use it over and over again to create "original" watercolors.  

Art in Leelanau County: An Alternative Day at the Beach

What a lovely day to paint! When my mom and I decided to spend an afternoon at the beach and we weren't playing volleyball. Have you ever painted a scene from your summer vacation?

This slope of land that juts into Good Harbor Bay is know as Whaleback, because the shape resembles a whale emerging from the water. I have photographed it many times and I knew that it would be a great landscape to paint.

Monet, I am not, but I did have fun trying my hand at the local landmark. I am going to mail this card out to Dan in Seattle. It's not wonderful, but it is definitely refrigerator-worthy.

Watercolor Painting: Worth Avenue in Palm Beach

Want an original way to remember your vacation? Make a Waterlogue "watercolor painting" of your best vacation picture, save it, print it and then hang it on the wall. 

Waterlogue is an iPhone and iPad app that quickly (and I mean in one minute or less) converts your photo into a watercolor painting that you can save and print.

And when I say an original way to remember your vacation, I really mean original.  No other painting will look quite like yours because the artwork is a computer rendering based on your original photograph. Plus there are stylized settings like "Mechanical" or "Vibrant" to make your watercolor images fit your aesthetic. I am in love with this app and could auto-magically turn my photographs into artwork all-day-long.  I know that this must have real watercolor artists reeling, but I can't help it. I love how my photos look as paintings and I will never have the skills to convert them myself with paint and a brush.

The location? Beautiful Worth Avenue with its palm trees and gorgeous shops in Palm Beach, Florida. We came here for lunch and an afternoon of window shopping and bougainvillea admiring. What a day.

Waterlogue: A Dreamy Christmas Card Can Be Personal Too

I am in love with this image. And why not? It is my very own living room all decorated for Christmas. Can I paint? Not this well! I used the iPad app called Waterlogue to transform one of my photographs into a convincing watercolor. It is very likely that I will make my Christmas cards this year or next from a custom watercolor image. The app allows you to choose brush stroke width, color depth etc. You make a few choices and then roll the dice to see how it translates into an image before your eyes. Don't love it? Just change a few settings and try again. I get lost in this app exploring the possibilities.

Because Waterlogue images can be saved as a JPEG (photo), I was able to save the image to my iPad and then print this image as an 8x10 and it hang on my refrigerator for inspiration. Every time I see it I think of other projects I want to try. Other images I want to convert into a watercolor. This technology is incredible and its a wonderful time to be creative. I highly recommend it.

Waterlogue: An Artist's Dream App

Would you believe that this is a computer-generated watercolor of one of my photographs? I am giddy as I think of all the possibilities.  I just purchased the $5 iPad app called "Waterlogue," because I have never seen any computer-effect that looks as fluid and convincing. My original photo is below.

The app is so easy to use - I simply uploaded/opened a photo from my iPad in Waterlogue and selected the "natural" effect. A minute later I had this original watercolor to share with you! Since the image can be saved "to your camera roll," it is a JPEG and therefore able to be sent to an online photo printer to make enlargements.  I want to make a few watercolors from my trip to England and then have them printed in 8x10.  I can frame them and hang these original pieces of art as if I water colored them myself - it is nothing short of revolutionary.  

Yes, real watercolors are incredible and I will still "paint for fun" in the garden, but my skills are far from stellar. I love being able to enjoy an "image" as I captured it with my camera...but in the whisper soft medium of watercolor paint.  Waterlogue, you are my hero!

Paint When You Can

There is nothing quiet as relaxing as painting.  My mom and I always make time to paint when we are at the cottage, we sit on the patio or in the garden and try to make something beautiful (and recognizable) with our new palette of paint. Did you notice what I'm mixing paint in?  An empty egg carton tray!  Often organic eggs come in these wonderful clear trays at the grocery store (even The Merc!) and I always save them to upcycle into art trays or bead holders.

I found this set of acrylic paint tubes at Homegoods for $3.99, including 2 paint brushes!  I also bought a 3-pack of canvas panels (4 x 6) that were on sale for 40% off at Michaels, so I think each panel cost about a dollar.  With supplies this reasonable, why wouldn't you try and experiment with painting?  

You see, I have a weakness for art supplies and usually can't resist the beautiful and reasonable watercolor sets that you can buy at Michaels. Have you seen them? I buy a new one every year and get the same feeling as you get from a new box of crayons.  Love it!

Let me be clear.  I really don't know how to paint.  I copy what I can with dabs of color and blurs of water.  I think it is fun and give myself a lot of poetic license.  I also throw away the ones that don't work out.  It makes me feel better to never see it again.    

This painting was inspired by an impressionist piece I saw in a photo.  The farther away you are from my version, the better it looks. Ha!  

I am planning on taking it to Michaels Craft store to find scrapbook paper to make into a pretty mat. Then I'll frame it, hang it on the wall in my office.  It will always remind me of a beautiful summer afternoon I spent with my mom.

Northern Michigan Flower Petal Art

This is one of those "scenic views" that means a lot to me.  It is the view from my parent's cottage and I never tire of watching the sun set over Lake Michigan. 

The sloping land on the left is called "Pyramid Point," because the edge is steep and dramatic like the slope of a pyramid.  The land mass to the right is an island called South Manitou (there is also a North Manitou Island out of the frame and farther to the right).

It was this view that prompted me to try my first painting enhanced by real flower petals!

I did a watercolor first and then I glued dried lavender along the shore and folded a piece of geranium petal to represent the sun going down.  Do you like it?  I framed it with a narrow lavender mat and then put my little masterpiece in an antiqued-gold frame. 

It is the perfect touch on my piano and reminds me that I've had a wonderful summer full of sunsets.