Waterlogue App Advances Digital Watercolor Ease-of-Creation

My friend, John Balestrieri, has released Waterlogue for iOS.  Waterlogue is compatible with both the iPhone and iPad running iOS 7. From the press release:

We wanted to come up with an easy and fast way for people to create images based on the kinds of aesthetic decisions an artist makes when he or she is painting.

The technology we developed for Waterlogue transforms your photos into spontaneous, unique, and brilliant watercolor sketches that look like real paintings. Waterlogue distills your environment down to its essence—just the way an artist would—and turns even an on-the-fly snapshot into something luminous and sublime.

We designed Waterlogue to create the most authentic and aesthetically true watercolor interpretations available, and we hope that as soon as you start using the app, you’ll start seeing the world differently.

I've been playing with Waterlogue for a few days, and I have to say: This app advances the ability to easily create convincing watercolor art from photographs. John and Robert spent a year examining traditional watercolor and have created a deceptively simple app that faithfully replicates all of the hallmarks of its traditional counterpart.

At $3.99 from the App Store on iTunes, this software is a steal. John and Robert have indicated that Waterlogue will continue to evolve with additional features to be added over time. Highly Recommended!

Between Flights

This is an iPhone image that I shot and played with in between flights at Denver International Airport. I shot the jet at the gate through a window reflecting the interior of the restaurant. I don't remember which apps I used to get to this version, but I like the way the dual reflective subjects integrate together.

For regular air travelers, this is the Cantina in the United terminal.

Moku Hanga: Outstanding Japanese Woodblock Print App

I recently downloaded the iphone app, Moku Hanga, by JixiPix Software. This app does an excellent job of emulating traditional Japanese woodblock printing. Moku Hanga is actually Japanese for woodblock. JixiPix also has iPad and Mac versions of their apps, so I downloaded the desktop version since I was so impressed with the iPhone version.

Moku Hanga handles high-resolution files with ease. I can even feed it Photoshop PSD and Canon RAW files with no problem. The app is supplied with presets for instant gratification, but is totally user-customizable. A set of paper backgrounds and edges fill out the app.

In the spirit of Japanese woodblock subject matter, I used a photo of a pagoda I shot in Sydney, Australia (of all places!). I did do a bit of prep work in Photoshop, using the Adaptive Wide Angle filter to eliminate camera lens distortion (see the original image below).

The best feature of Moku Hanga is the price: $7.99 (the iPhone and iPad versions are $2.99). JixiPix has several very nice image-filtering apps with highly reasonable pricing.

I have a feeling I'll be getting some more of these!