Genevieve waded into the icy waters of Lake Michigan recently! She started to shiver a bit, and to think. If you want to read her thoughts on this, click here!
If not, just know that she ended up getting used to the chilly waters, enough to swim around a bit, have some fun, and get a bluish hue to her lips!
As I stood there, ankle deep in Lake Michigan’s icy waters…I wondered. How in the world am I gonna get my whole body in this so I can swim? It’s so cold it almost hurts the skin. I took a step farther in, swished around a bit and kept thinking how this is so like my life! So much on the horizon–eldest daughter’s senior year, the search for college and resources for college, a new school year for teaching art to K-8th grades, son’s going into high school, fourth grade and a new teacher for Maddie, responsibilities, family concerns, friends in need.
As I inch forward, I wonder how I’m going to wade into these icy, unknown waters. How will I ever swim into and through all this? Will I drown? Freeze in the depth of it all? Overwhelmed by the vastness of all that weighs down on me?
A few more steps in, and I remember, flinching at the cold, that I am not alone. Husband, children, family, friends are not merely who I DO FOR, but are also a support…there to take my hand when the waters grow deep and say, “Hang in there!” I’m also aware that He who MADE the waters and everything on the horizon, will walk with me as well. He who created my future also HOLDS the future and ME in it.
The waters are feeling a touch warmer and I move farther in, feeling the water surround me and resist my gravity.
Yah. It’s cold. Scandinavian cold. But I soon realize the waters which struck fear and wincing, are now actually holding me up. I’m treading, floating, beginning to swim.
Yes there’s a blue tinge to my lips. It is evidence. Evidence that I’m actually out here IN IT, living, swimming, being upheld by the very waters which I feared. I’m no longer on the beach, watching everyone else out in the water.
How did I get here?
One step at a time.
A while later, I leave the waters to dry off, noticing that I’m actually refreshed and able to enjoy the sun, which was oppressive prior to my lake excursion. I realize that this is how I can face the horizons of my life, as I return to Kernersville…
One step at a time.
Our last evening in Grand Rapids, we went out to eat with some lovely folks we had met there during our two week stay. And for dessert, we went to Jersey Junction for ice cream. Now this isn’t your usual ice cream spot. This place is owned by the family of the author of The Polar Express, a fabulous children’s book we read to and with our kids every Christmas. The line of people was out the door and almost to the street. The line continued for at least an hour after we got our ice cream and ate it contentedly on the front porch. A perfect evening, watching the people, watching the Polar Express train make its trek around the ceiling of the shop, and watching the long twilight sky fade to indigo.
I sketched this little drawing after I finished my Chocolate Monster cone. Draw Free is SO fun! Have I told you that? And guess what? Just today, I got an update for this little app which now provides more lovely colors than I could have asked for!! Which I DID ask for just a few days ago in my blog post reviewing Draw Free and Auryn Ink. Can you believe it? Wishes really do come true! Well, some of them.;-)
So I got to thinkin’ as my husband and older two went off to watch the latest Harry Potter movie in 3-D…What am I waiting for? Artrage is only the price of a movie ticket (or less) at 6.99. (PLEASE see the NEWS below!!!!!!) And Maddie and I would have so much fun! And we did!
And we continue to! To say that a nine year old is much more able to figure out technology than her forty-something year old mom, is an understatement. But I’m happy to report to you that I did very well figuring things out as this is quite a user friendly app, very intuitive, (even for me), and even has a user guide that is very helpful AND accessible both on and offline! What is so amazing about Artrage is it’s loaded with every drawing/painting media you could possibly imagine! I will certainly not cover it all here in one post. I’ll just dive in with what I tried, a few fails, a few successes. It’s so fun!
So I tried to take a screen picture while I was painting something so you could see it in action. Just do a cartwheel as you look at the above image.;-) You have this wonderfully visual left-hand column for you to pick which art media you want to work with. It will collapse when you tap the corner image. You can then choose the “gears” icon to change the settings for your paint or brush or marker or pastel, or airbrush, etc. Oh, and BEFORE all this you choose the surface on which you want to paint!! Choose papers and canvases of ALL kinds, choose the grain, the texture, even the color of your support. Choose from an incredible palette of colors WITH EASE!! Much easier than Auryn Ink. WOW! Amazing.
There are two features that are absolutely brilliant! One is the ability to upload a photograph from your iPad photo gallery, and it will appear as a little photo pinned to your painting surface. You can see my photo in the first bear drawing. You can make it larger, smaller, twirl it around, place it anywhere you’d like while you work on your painting! then get rid of it when you’re finished.
The other feature I’m not a huge fan of, as far as tracing goes, but I do see some benefits for beginners, perhaps, as well as non-artists who just want to get the feel of drawing over top of a photo. This feature allows you to upload an image from your iPad photo gallery and it will appear very pale grey on your surface. This allows you to trace and paint over top of your image. I tried it here with this orchid, grew bored of it, abandoned the painting, but felt it might be helpful for you to see. I would definitely recommend you using YOUR OWN PHOTO if you use this feature. But why not learn to really draw? (I know some of you will take issue with me here, but it’s one of my convictions…do not trace…learn to DRAW!!)
BUT, here is a totally valid and helpful use for the tracing thing: I was at the art gallery on the Calvin College campus, and made a little sketch in Draw Free. I wanted to color it later, so I uploaded it into Artrage, then went on my merry way with color. Very cool, eh?
So you can see, way up there, I used pastel in the bear drawing (a favorite sculpture from the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park). The palette knife is the all-around blender and worked beautifully here with the pastels.
The watercolor orchid did not turn out as vibrant as I had wanted. It isn’t as “watercolor-like” as Auryn Ink. But you can still have fun with it.
The second painting from the top is an “oil” painting which I began in the wrong orientation and I haven’t been able to figure out how to switch it. Oh well.
And here’s another “oil” of my oldest daughter who is quite the photographer. She was having a heyday taking pics throughout the wonderful gardens and sculpture park.
I’m still working out a few kinks:
1. I do not think the top and bottom bars disappear at any time. This is frustrating, since it leaves your painting UNpainted in odd places at the top and bottom (you can see this on the above “oils”. So it left some UNpainted areas, or unfinished with blobs of paint left and not blended in (top painting).
2. I’m trying to remember to designate whether I want my paper/canvas oriented to be portrait or landscape FIRST! I kinda wish there was a way to change this mid-painting or even after you’re finished. Maybe there is a way and I just haven’t figured it out yet.
BUT my clever little nine year old suggested how I can remedy #1:
Simply make the painting surface a smidge smaller (by using your two fingers to zoom or diminish an image) and thereby keep the top and bottom bar off the page. Brilliant! It worked like a charm in the bear drawing!! Where would I be without her young mind?
So I know you’re just itching to have a go! Please do! And show us all at Everyday Matters what you come up with! The possibilities are truly ENDLESS with Artrage! Wonderful for drawing! Wonderful for painting! Fun to just play with or to create masterpieces!!! Speaking of masterpieces…you must, must, must check out the YouTube video of David Kassan creating a portrait in his studio, on an iPad, using Artrage, and a Nomad Brush (ooh, golly gee! I want one of those things!!)
You will be amazed!
*****NEWS!!! Someone from Ambient Design left me a comment yesterday…..
Nice detailed post. ArtRage for iPad is on sale for $0.99 during Comic-con thru July 27
EVEN MORE AMAZING!!!
You have seen, throughout our sojourn here in Grand Rapids, MIchigan, drawings (like the one above) made on my iPad with a free app called Draw Free. I have thoroughly enjoyed this app for the following reasons:
1. Very user friendly. I am notoriously techno-challenged, at best, and this app was simple and straight-forward enough for even me to get the hang of, almost immediately.
2. LOVE the variable line options both in color AND in thickness of the line.
3. Hardly any lag time between stroke-making and line appearing on the iPad. Other apps have a bit more lag time.
4. The simplicity of this app lends itself to quick, on site sketches, probably due to the fact you aren’t bogged down with tons of options as you will see in other art apps.
My one wish for this app would be a more extensive color wheel palette. I wouldn’t need EVERY color imaginable, like in Auryn Ink and Artrage (which I’ll be showing you tomorrow), but a few more options would be nice. I would love to have dark greens and blues, browns, etc.
But I was curious as to whether there were apps that would allow for more painting possibilities. I looked at YouTube videos of Sketchbook Pro and wasn’t terribly intrigued for some reason. I found Artrage pretty quickly on the worldwide web and YouTube, was totally drawn in, dying to try it, but put off getting it due to the 6.99 price tag. While that one sat on a back burner in my mind, I came across Auryn Ink. At 3.99 it seemed more reasonable, so I went for it. It wasn’t anything like Artrage, but had merits of it’s own.
Here’s what I like about Auryn Ink:
1. Simulates watercolor!!! Draw Free isn’t designed for watercolor, and Artrage doesn’t produce quite the watercolor results I get with Auryn Ink. I’ll show you how watercolor looks on Artrage in my next post.
2. Ability to adjust intensity of pigment, amount of water in strokes, a quick-dry button, a few brush options as well as options for paper texture, wonderful color options (although difficult to maneuver and adjust the color), and ability to adjust thickness of strokes as well. They thought of just about everything a watercolorist would need/want.
3. Oh, and even the option to spatter (by shaking the iPad!)
But here are the downsides:
1. I have difficulty getting a nice drawn line like I do in Draw Free. Yes, i can choose a very pointy brush, make the stroke width very tiny, but I get a kind of dotted line. This works pretty well for sketching out my design. But when I go to sign my name, it looks all pixelly. Poo!
2. I was left to figure this app out on my own! It does have a button to click for a User Guide, but I haven’t yet been able to access it. It is not accessible when you aren’t online, and even when I am online, it tells me it cannot connect. I’ve even tried typing in the URL given, but to no avail! They SO need a user friendly user guide so we can understand all the wonderful settings which I’m sure will expand my ability to appreciate all that Auryn Ink can do!
3. It may be because I’m so new to this app and because of a lack of technical support for it, but I kept thinking as I created these two paintings, “I could sure make these paintings in a lot less time than this!!” I’m not necessarily after speed with my iPad, but real-time painting with real materials is much easier in the sense that you can control variables such as water amount, brush use, etc without having to adjust the settings all the time! With that said, it really was FUN to create these juicy paintings on a tiny little computer…no water to carry, no paints to dry up on you, no paper buckling or drying up too fast on you.
With all this said, I will never exchange my watercolors, brushes, and sketchbooks for a simulation of it. I WILL however, keep this app and play with it from time to time. So will my kids! They love it!
I will definitely keep drawing with Draw Free…way fun, simple, easy, and I like the results. Of course, I will keep on drawing in my paper sketchbooks! But it’s so cool to whip out your iPad, make a little line drawing, and off you go.
You should try these apps too! Or maybe you want to wait until you read my thoughts on Artrage…the queen of art-creating apps for the iPad! It’s amazing…i mean really…they thought of everything! Tune in next time for what’s all the Rage!
P.S. The first drawing is of the melange of bicycles right outside our apartment here at Calvin College. The second drawing is Maddie creating a game to play. We played a lot of cards together these weeks and then she decided to create her own game…it’s pretty cool! The painting (Auryn Ink) of purple coneflowers is from our fabulous evening at the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. And the next watercolor (Auryn Ink), is of an orchid I saw there in the tropical garden space…more varieties of orchids than i had ever seen! And this final image is a photograph I took of a large rock that has been painted to say, “Goodbye Calvin”. The kids and I have tried to figure out why this rock is painted with these words?? The rock is situated at the top of the steps the lead from our apartments up to other parts of the campus. Or maybe, I should say, the rock is at the top of the steps that lead down to our apartments and thus out of the campus proper. At any rate, it is with a bit of sadness that we leave Calvin College tomorrow morning…it has been such a rewarding and rich journey.
This two week trip actually began two years ago, perhaps more. A dear friend of mine had suggested that Randy would really enjoy taking a seminar here at Calvin College. He wanted to apply for it last summer, but Maddie had recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and it just felt a bit too much to add far-away travel into the mix with learning the pump, etc. So Randy applied for this two-week seminar back in the fall of 2010.
Calvin College hosts The Seminars at Calvin every summer to promote Christian Scholarship. There are lots of different topics for the seminars…Russian philosophers, Chinese philosophers, worship, poetry, etc. The seminar Randy is a part of is Imaginative Reading for Creative Preaching. He felt like a kid who just burst the piñata when he was accepted and when the stack of books for reading came in the mail. And what a stack of books! The Kite Runner, Gilead, Silence, Wednesday Wars, The Grapes of Wrath, a book of short stories, books of poetry by various authors, Mariette in Ecstasy, and others. He read them all with relish and has loved discussing and unpacking them with Cornelius Plantinga and others, including, today, the author of Wednesday Wars, Gary Schmidt, a professor here at Calvin College.
So, of course, my husband is having a blast! But so are the rest of us! We continue to be amazed at how Calvin College has really created this whole Seminar for the families of scholar participants. They have fed us on numerous occasions, housed us, planned activities for our kids (both teens and elementary), and treated us to the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. That was last night and I’m still floating around from the amazing experience! I’ll have more on that later.
Needless to say, we’re thinking about when we can come back! This trip will be a wonderful memory for all of us. I heartily recommend it to any of you so inclined to enrich your scholarly pursuits. You and your family will love it!
P.S. These are drawings made of the Seminary here at Calvin College where Randy’s seminar group has been meeting. Other seminars are held in various other parts of the college campus. Behind the seminary is a gorgeous pond complete with walking bridges, waterfalls,and beautiful flowers…an artist’s haven! I’m trying not to let the heat and humidity this week keep me from drawing plein-aire. I think Monet and the rest of the original plein-aire artists would be amused (or scandalized) to see someone out sketching with an iPad and stylus.
P.P.S. On that note…my next post will bring more on my techno-journey into the world of iPad art. I’ve been playing with some cool art apps…it is incredible what can be done with an iPad!!! How’s this for a teaser: with JUST your iPad, you can have pens, markers, pastels, crayons, watercolors, oils, brushes, palette knife, brayer, every color possible, every technique of layering paints, airbrush….and tons more! Stay tuned!
Calvin College is lovely. The architecture, interiors and landscaping seem lovingly designed with an eye to shapes and colors. I’m really enjoying plunking down somewhere, anywhere, and finding so much to draw.
These are just a few. Flowers abound. Interior spaces are filled with unique furniture and colors. Even the walkway bridging the two halves of the campus is a thing of beauty. And all this with the backdrop of some gorgeous Michigan skies.
There’s more to come…keep stopping by. So glad you popped in today!
We are spending a good bit of our time in the amazing and totally awesome aquatic center on the campus here at Calvin College. The older two kids are taking diving lessons while the youngest is taking swimming lessons. Each of them wears a cheshire grin the entire time.
Maddie was signed up for her lesson prior to us getting here. The older two were captivated when they came to watch Maddie, by the diving lessons going on…”Mom, can we please?”. It’s been incredible to see how each of them has progressed in only a week…and they have another week to go! I just wish we had this kind of thing back in K’ville…I don’t know of any diving classes or opportunities there.
Not only are we here, at the Aquatic Center, for the daily lessons, but they also beg to come during the family swim times…EVERY DAY! I swim too…or knit…or draw on my iPad:)
It is interesting to note, when you travel, what things you miss and how their absence affects you. You only pack the bare necessities, and you find you can get along fairly well without so many things we take for granted in our own homes. To be sure, even the pared down things we squeezed into the Mazda 5, would be considered wealth in many countries! But what I found myself saying to my oldest daughter yesterday, is that I MISS COLOR!
College dorm apartments have never had the reputation for being colorful spaces. Ours is no exception. All walls are off-white and all trim is wood-brown as well as the cabinets in kitchen and bathroom. Even the furniture is brown, with an aged teal colored fabric.
I find myself longing for the cheery yellows, soft blues and greens of my own home. Color makes such a difference to me…almost like it’s a vitamin, or a lens for seeing my world, or, well… I can’t really articulate what it is.
But what I DO find, in the absence of color, is that my eyes go searching for it. A hungry hunting for spots of color so my eyes can zoom in and feast, or… snack. A stroke here, a splash there…in the umbrella, the shoes, the red button on the coffee pot. The lime green backsplash is wonderful! It’s the most color in the whole place! I think it may have actually been avocado from the 70′s and faded to this pale lime (which I have exaggerated here in the drawing). And the towels in the bathroom, we bought so that our kids could tell which one was their’s. I chose for each of them their favorite color. The bathroom makes me smile.
My oldest daughter asked me what “spartan living” meant. After a long and lengthy discourse on the subject (which should actually have been described more SPARELY), I began to think that COLOR might be one of the things I cannot live without. Of course, tops on the list are my family and friends. But I think, perhaps side by side with food and water, would be color.
It takes travel, spending time somewhere other than your normal habitat, to realize this for the first time, or all over again, as is more likely the case.
In traveling, when you arrive, you’re really just beginning. We spent two days traveling from Kernersville, NC to Grand Rapids MI and when we got there, the same flurry of activity that got us into our car, had to happen all over again to get out of the car and into our on-campus apartments. That’s plural…since we had to move out of the first apartment within an hour or so of arriving…more flurry.
I am not a creature who loves change, much to my own disappointment. For a girl who dreams of adventures and travel, you’d think I would sail through hours and hours of driving in a car, hotel overnights, living in on-campus housing, etc. What I find myself needing are some of the same things my life “back home” consists of: daily walks, time to think and write out on a deck, nature, knitting, and drawing. Oh, and trips to Panera for good food and wi-fi!
These things help anchor me. One might say they are crutches, but I prefer to think of them as stabilizers…activities which ground me in something of who I am, no matter where I am, and provide a sense of security, else I just might fly apart into a million pieces. No one in my family wants that.
These little iPad drawings are such fun, as well as being grounding. When we got settled into our second apartment, got a few needed groceries (from a grocery store so mammoth it made Walmart seem tiny) we were treated to a picnic for all the families attending the Seminars at Calvin. The above two drawings are of the fountain area where we had barbecued chicken, salmon, cole slaw, and gooey brownies. A great way to celebrate arriving and launch a beginning…two weeks of study for my husband, two weeks of swimming and diving for my kids, two weeks of drawing and knitting for me. I hope you’ll keep popping in to see what the iPad cooks up for you:)
The above drawing is from the outside looking into our apartment…Randy’s feet are propped up while he reads, getting ready for the weeks ahead.
