What I’ve Been Working On Lately – Part One

In a previous post, Beginnings, I discussed a Skillshare class that I took, as well as some of the art and daily art habits that resulted from said class. I have been creating artwork for much of 2017, and have been sharing my work mainly on my Instagram, but not so much elsewhere. So, I wanted to share some of my favorite works here and give a brief explanation on how I created them.

Piece 1 – Trying Something New, Posted February 15, 2017

Artwork, titled Trying Something New — Trying Something New, created using the iOS apps Uzu and Mextures.

This piece, Trying Something New, was created using two separate iOS apps. The first, Uzu, was where I created the general shapes. Uzu is described on its website as a “Kinetic Multitouch Particle Visualizer.” It “allows users to manipulate a fully dynamic art light show.” There are a number of presets that provide a starting point for the particle movement, as well as options for users to customize. The app allows for saving the visualizer paused at a moment in time.

The second app, Mextures, was where I added the textures, adjusted the colors, and generally fine-tuned the image. This app allows a user to combine an unlimited number of color gradients, textures, light leaks, grunginess, etc., and fine-tune them endlessly with opacity, blending modes, basic image adjustments, and different film emulators. The basic workflow description from the website – “Add a photo, layer up your image, add adjustments, and export your work of art.” Mextures also allows a user to save “formulas” which are presets that contain all of the layers, opacity and blending mode settings, film emulators, and image adjustments from a specific edit session. You can keep these for yourself, or share with others using a code generated within the app.

I have experimented with Uzu and Mextures quite a bit this year in a variety of different ways, and cannot recommend them enough. There really are an endless amount of adjustments and variations that can be created from both.

Here’s a variation on Trying Something New. It has the same basic shapes from Uzu, but different adjustments, layers, blending modes, light leaks, and textures from Mextures.

Artwork, titled Trying Something New Variation — Trying Something New Variation, created using the iOS apps Uzu and Mextures.

There are more of these interactive “particle visualization” apps out there. Others that I’ve used are Tesla Toy, Atomic Toy, Laser Lights, Cyclotron, and Particle Box, all by PDJ Apps.

These are a few other pieces I created using the Uzu and other particle visualization apps combined with Mextures –