iPad Art 2014

“Portrait of Paul”, 2013, created using Art Rage and Adonit Jot Touch stylus on iPad2 at the ideacity conference, Toronto

On this page I share a small sampling of my (mostly) iPad drawings and paintings I have made over the last couple of years. I performed live iPad painting at the De Young Museum in October 2013 for the opening of “David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition” (see my Inspired by Hockney page). I teach iPad painting workshops and classes. If you’re interested in learning how to draw and paint on your iPad, then please visit Paint on the Go! and The iPad Art Summer School. If you’d like to set up a portrait sitting please email me (jeremy@jeremysutton.com) or call me at (415) 641-1221.

“Still Life Study”, 2013, created using Art Rage and Adonit Jot Touch stylus on iPad2

“Mac at Cana”, 2014, created using Zen Brush and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

“Alison Wright”, 2014, created using Sketch Club and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

The portrait of Alison, shown above, is one of a series of portraits I drew from life on my iPad of fellow presenters at FOTOfusion 2014 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Alison is an amazing photo journalistic photographer who has captured portraits of people all over the world, including an extensive series of portraits of Tibetan Buddhists in Tibet and in exile (see her book Face to Face: Portraits of the Human Spirit). The following three portraits (below) were also created at FOTOfusion of fellow presenters.

“Lou Jones”, 2014, created using Sketch Club and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

As I drew Lou’s portrait we discussed his six year project in which he and his team photographed and interviewed death row inmates across the country (see his book Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row). It was an intense subject and that intensity was reflected in the portrait…

“Lawrence Gartel”, 2014, created using Art Rage and Sketch Club and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

I’ve known Lawrence, a pioneering digital media artist, for many years. This year at FOTOfusion he drove up in one of his Art Cars. I included a photo I took of his artwork on the car in the background of this portrait.

“J. Tomas Lopez”, 2014, created using Sketch Club and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

Tom, University of Miami Department of Art and Art History professor, sat for me for a few minutes at the FOTOfusion Awards Dinner between courses..

iPad painting performance at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, at the opening of the David Hockney: Bigger Exhibition. Photo by Stephen Somerstein.

Portrait of Sarah created live during my iPad painting performance at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, at the opening of the David Hockney: Bigger Exhibition. I used Brushes app (favored by Hockney) and an Adonit Jot Touch stylus.

Portrait of Meg created live during my iPad painting performance at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, at the opening of the David Hockney: Bigger Exhibition. I used Brushes app and an Adonit Jot Touch stylus.

Portrait of Lisa and Frank (with self-portrait) created live during my iPad painting performance at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, at the opening of the David Hockney: Bigger Exhibition using Art Rage App app and both the Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus and the Adonit Jot Touch stylus.

iPad sketch of author and historian Lawrence Weschler giving a talk, “Love Life: David Hockney’s Timescapes”, at the de Young, being watched by filmmaker Bruno Wollheim, who created the documentary portrait “David Hockney: A Bigger Picture”, created with the Brushes app and an Adonit Jot Touch stylus.

Over the last two years I have taught iPad painting and given iPad painting presentations in North America and Europe, including at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, (see William Dutton’s blog post) and at the magnificent flagship Apple Stores in central London (Regent Street), and San Francisco.

“Portrait of Tony”, 2013, created using Sketch Club with Adonit Jot Touch on iPad (created on Southwest flight at 30,000′ altitude). I like the recording feature in Sketch Club that also allows you to easily add your choice of music to the replay.

“Life Study”, 2013, created using Sketch Club with Sensu Brush on iPad2.

“Seated Man, after Diebenkorn”, 2013, created using Art Rage and Adonit Jot Touch stylus on iPad2 at the de Young Museum

Caricaturist Jon Casey and I sketch each other at the Coffee Bar outside my studio in San Francisco, Jon using pencil on paper and me using the procreate app on an iPad with a Sensu brush (see What’s in my studio). For a summary of the different iPad painting apps I am exploring, click here.

“Sketch portrait of Jon Casey”, 2013, creating using procreate on iPad2

In March, 2010, I came across artist Roderick Smith sketching on his iPhone in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, using a PogoStick stylus and Brushes iPhone app, the same one David Hockney started with when he began sketching on his iPhone. He kindly let me have a go. When I got home I ordered a PogoStick and experimented with sketching in Brushes and Sketchbook Pro on the iPhone. It didn’t quite click for me. The iPhone screen felt too small and restricted, and the brush stroke styles too flat and uniform. I preferred sketching in my regular sketchpad.

The iPad introduced a significantly larger painting area. That summer in 2010 I sketched my first iPad portrait from life of one of my students at my Amsterdam Painter Workshop on his iPad (see iPad Sketching in Amsterdam). A year a half later, in January 2012, I went to see David Hockney’s Bigger Picture exhibition at the Royal Academy and was impressed with his display of huge prints of his iPad drawings, as he referred to them, in the spacious galleries of the historic and esteemed institution. For me that was the ahaa moment when i knew iPad art had arrived! On returning to San Francisco, I immediately bought a Nomad brush at Macworld and purchased all the cool iPad painting apps I saw they had on their demo stations, even before I’d purchased an iPad! I then got painting on the iPad in earnest, leading to my teaching iPad art workshops and performing live iPad painting at special events, including the Hockney show.

Lyana sitting for her portrait at an event organized by the Monaco Government Tourist Office. Notice that her name is in the structure of the brush strokes used to portray her. The next two portraits (below) were created at the same event. All portrait subjects received both a JPEG image of their portrait plus a video replay of the painting process of their portraits so they could watch it unfold brush stroke by brush stroke!

“Kyle” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 

“Shambhavi” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 

“In Thought” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 

“Simon Playing Double Bass” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 

“Tuyen Playing Piano” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 

“Key West Patio” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

Rosa, created in Inspire Pro on the iPad, 2013