Coloring Your Home and Work Idea #2

Coloring Your Home and Work Series

Idea #2

by Patricia Tiffany Morris

Ideas for infusing color and beauty into your life.

Would you like to discover more ways to make your own photos stand out in the sea of the internet?

Photograph by Patricia Tiffany Morris and imported into Distressed FX App

Coloring Your Home and Work Idea #2

In the first post in this series, on March 11, 2021, I showed you how to use your art and photos as screensavers and wallpaper. But what if you don’t like art or think you can’t create or paint or draw? I suggested you find art online in various places. I wrote:

“Digital art is plentiful online. You can find it everywhere.”

But what about copyright and trademark issues with images you don’t own? There are many free photo repositories such as Unsplash or Pixabay, but the photos are also free to everyone. How many times did you find a perfect photo online only to learn it was also used on a fellow writers’ book cover or another bloggers post?

Perhaps there’s another solution to using your own photos and turning them into artsy originals. We all have phones and cameras on tablets. Why not explore the various apps that transform your photos to works of art?

No copyright or trademark issues.

An original, one of a kind photograph with your signature.

I’d like to introduce you to a few apps that allow you to modernize and artify your photos!

Procreate Apple App
For around $10 US you can purchase a design app for the Apple iPad. If you bring your personal photos into the App, you can transform them to various styles. If you create art, you have a plethora of settings to create any variation you wish. Blur, recolor, liquify, cartoon filters, grids, specialty stamps and brushes, and so much more. Check it out on the APP store for the iPad Pro.

Below, I created an artsy house painting with Procreate app and then imported the digital file into another app.

Procreate Art HOUSE Original Artwork with no background.

Procreate Art HOUSE Variation #1 DISTRESSED FX App

Procreate Art HOUSE Variation #2 DISTRESSED FX App

Procreate Art HOUSE Variation #3 DISTRESSED FX App

2. Apple’s Distressed FX App.

The developers have a paid version, but the free version is marvelous! There are approximately 40 different filters and if you combine 2 filters on each of 2 packs, you have over 400 variations in the free versions. Three of those variations are shown above.

ADVANCED FEATURES: Touch based masking, image sharpening, Save as png, changing blend modes, additional filter packs, and more.

3. Clip 2 Comic Apple App

This app allows video and photo manipulations. Import one of your own photos and turn it into a cartoon comic style. This app allows you to animate your photos or create videos in a cartoon-like comic book style. The only problem is time. Once you start experimenting, it’s tough to stop.

Original Lighthouse prismacolor pencils and markers by Patricia Tiffany MorrisDigitized and imported into the Clip 2 Comic App — Original Lighthouse prismacolor pencils and markers by Patricia Tiffany Morris
Digitized and imported into the Clip 2 Comic App

After importing to Clip 2 Comic - Lighthouse prismacolor pencil drawing by Patricia Tiffany Morris

4. Waterlogue App

Waterlogue brings a painterly quality to your photographs! You can snap a photo, import into this program, and watch the variety of painting styles impart sparkle and pizzazz to your photos. They have vibrant, bold, and luminous settings. There is a “It’s Technical” setting. And a rainy, color bloom, and so much more.

Below you will find an example with a photo I shot with my iPhone. My office desk space now appears as a work of art.

Desk Photo manipulated by Waterlogue APP by Patricia Tiffany Morris

Original Desk Photo on iPhone 7Plus by Patricia Tiffany Morris

5. Percolator App by Apple

Next look at the same office photo added to my favorite app called Percolator. Isn’t this funky? The settings are clever. Coffee brewing nomenclature such as grind, brew, serve, and more. Serve has sub-categories of Black, Light & Sweet, Soy, and Stirred. What about extra fine, full of stars, or circles. Here are a couple examples: