Clarke versus Cline...

After the Great Clint Cline spoofed the Grand Exalted Leader of PIXELS about his "no Big Border" decree (and I, of course, couldn't resist jumping into the fray - see my earlier blog entry on this), Clint came out with an image titled: "Precipice" (image #1). Other than the fact that this is another fine example of Mr. Cline's creativity, what caught my eye was a comment he made about this image on iPhoneArt.com. He made what I thought (at the time) was an outrageous claim that this image was created using the iPhone application Tiny Planets. He, of course, explained exactly how it was done (in Tiny Planets), and I was left with mud on my face.

Not one to sit still for this sort of embarrassment, I immediately set out to create a similar effect using Tiny Planets. Naturally, I had immediate success (due, of course, to Mr. Cline's excellent instructions). My 1st thought was to create an image using this new-found technique. But, what to do? Wouldn't it be rather obvious that this new work would be easily spotted as a "derivative" work? I could simply justify it by following Pablo Picasso's line about "Good Artists copy; Great Artists steal". However, I decided to take the high road and give credit where credit was due. The result was image #2, which I titled: "What Clint Might Do (if only he knew how to do a dotted line arrow)...".

Clint, being Clint, took up the challenge. He came out with image #3, which is officially titled: "Tightrope", but is unofficially titled: "What James Might Do (if only he knew how to shade his cubes)".

When this image was posted on Facebook, my response was that it was a good effort, but it could benefit by having a shark added somewhere. Clint responded that he'd get on it, but had to watch his alma mater (the Air Force Academy) play football first. While he was doing that, I came out with image #4, which I titled: "What James might do if he were trying to do what Clint might do if he was trying to do what James might do".

After the ball game, Clint came out with image #5, entitled: "Surf's Up" (unofficially called: "What Clint might do if he were surfing with James...").

I wasn't quite ready to let this go, so I responded by challenging Mr. Cline to get busy & add some shadows to his images somewhere, somehow. In the mean time, I came out with image #6 called: "What James might have done had he come up with those cute little clip-art guys before Clint did...".

Taking up the "shadow challenge", Clint responded with image #7, which he calls: "Shadowcam at 30 meters...".

Not being one to let anyone have "the last word", I responded with image #8, called "Shadowcam in 3 dimensions...".

I think this will most likely be the end of this little "challenge", but Clint and I both agree that we both had some fun & it was great to be "pushed" a bit by a fellow Artist. I hope you enjoyed the progression of images we created as much as we enjoyed creating them!

My friend Shirley from Miami (the one who got me started in all this iPhoneography stuff), sent me this picture of Palm trees in her back yard with Turkey Buzzards circling overhead. One problem with any point-and-shoot camera (like an iPhone) is that stuff far away looks pretty small.

My first inclination was to put some bigger birds in there, but I didn't have any stock shots of birds. I did happen to have a nice shark image, so I went with that!

If Mondrian had an iPad #2

One never knows where that next "idea" will come from...

My earlier attempt to come up with an image that was mostly "black border" has led me in an unexpected direction.

While coming up with “No Wimpy Border Control Guppies Around These Borders” (see previous post), I used a drawing/painting app called ArtStudio. I had rediscovered this app recently in an attempt to create an arrow using a dotted-line pattern. ArtStudio, along with Decim8 led me to the basic image I needed. I might also point out, that these images are created entirely from iOS generated imagery (no photographic images).

I liked the basic minimal simplicity of where this was going, so as any good Artist would do, I went with it! The result is my "If Mondrian had an iPad" series, of which I present #1, and #2 here.

These images also mark the 100th, and 101st of my images to be published on pixelsatanexhibition, THE premier curated iPhoneography site on the web. A BIG thanks to Knox Bronson for encouraging (and, exhibiting) my new work in this extraordinary new Art Form!

I must admit, that back in my early days of iPhoneography (May 11th, 2011 was my 1st published image), I fell prey to the idea that images needed a "frame". So, after Knox "suggested" that I lose the frames on a couple of my earlier images, I did "see the light". I do agree with the idea that the addition of a big border to the image is unnecessary, and detracts from the image. The idea here, is that if you like the image, you should buy a copy and put your own frame on it!

Anyhoo, after the most recent "request" by Mr. Bronson to "bag the borders", one notable member of the iPhoneography community decided to have a bit of fun with it. Clint Cline came out with an image that was, shall we say...., a spoof on the "no border" proclamation. His image (below), entitled "Border Control" was more, or less... all border. I must say, that it did have a fish in it, but as per usual, it was/is a great example of iPhone Mastery by one of the best out there!

"Border Control" by Clint Cline*

So..., this leads me to the idea that I was a bit jealous that I didn't think to do this 1st! Not to be deterred, and responding to the fact that even though Clint's image was mostly border, it was not a black border (per Knox's proclamation). I, therefore, took it upon myself to create an image that is mostly "black". My image presented at the top of the page is the result - "No Wimpy Border Control Guppies Around These Borders" (per Clint's suggestion, I added a "fish" because he said "it worked for me").