What I want for Christmas...an iPad

 

The Blog has been somewhat neglected , but that does not mean that I have not been busy. Having a studio Gallery has brought many challenges and lifestyle changes. Gone are the days where I would get out of bed and write something on my Blog and post pretty frequently. These days , all I can think of is catching a bit of extra sleep before I shower and eat and dash out the door to the Studio/Gallery. But I would not change a thing.

 Take last night for example, its about 4:30 and I am done for the day and I just want to relax on my easy chair and look at the traffic drive by before Jana comes by to take me to Michael Kent Murphy's ( our local esteemed architect ) office party. Just as I am about to sit down a gentleman walks in with his son. He wants to commission a family portrait with all his family members. After talking for about an hour we settle on a large painting to be started around January. What I find striking is that opportunities like these would not happen if I had my studio away from the public square. More and more, people are starting to know that there is a portrait artist in town and his Studio Gallery is at 843 Lincoln Way in Auburn.

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 So you want Santa to get you something practical for Christmas and maybe use it as a tax write off for you art business. Well.... why don't you  consider the iPad. Most artists hate painting from photos and unless you are really good at balancing the colors in photoshop what gets printed is often times not what you see in front of you. Its for that reason that alot of artists prefer painting from their monitors and laptops. The light that illuminates the video screen is purer and clearer than printed inks on paper.

 Check out the YouTube video below where Richard Schmid is painting from his Monitor screen as well as his laptop.



 Now, with the iPad you can have the best of both worlds and upload your photos into your iPad. The iPad is great for artists as it works exactly like a giant iPod or iPhone. Except now when your prospective clients want to see your great artwork they don't have to look at a small screen. I was sold on this when I was down in Tiburon and a client wanted to look at further samples of my work. I took out my little smart phone and went to my website but the images were so small. My buddy FX had his iPad with him and he said I could use it to show them my work. What a difference! It was like night and day. The client spent a good while looking at all my work. If you don't need the 4G model, then you can create photo albums of your work on iPhoto and then sync those into your iPad. Like an iPod, iPad is synced through iTunes .

 I bought the WiFi version as I plan to get the next generation iPad that is supposed to be lighter and have more power and hard drive space. My son is drooling to get my hand me down.

 You can also prop up your iPad and use it as a Digital Frame to show off all your glorious creations.

 What I like about the iPad is that I can hold it while I paint and I can squeeze touch it make the image smaller or expand it with the brush off my fingers. It truly has changed how I work from photos.

 I'm on my way to finish about 9 commissions. Most of these are small 11 x 16 paintings of loved ones that had died or grandchildren . Some of the reference was not good. But having a good scanner and then uploading the photo to my iPad has made a remarkable improvement on my efficiency and productivity. Where was this tool all these years? I love having something light enough that I can hold in my hand while I paint.

 So there you go. Tell Santa that it's gonna help you get more productive and it just might help you sell and get that next commission.

blessings