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Creating a New Yorker Cover On the iPhone
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue May 26, 2009 02:00 PM
from the eye-of-the-beholder dept.
from the eye-of-the-beholder dept.
Jaime Leifer writes "The cover of the June 1, 2009, issue of The New Yorker, entitled 'Finger Painting,' was drawn by Jorge Colombo entirely on his iPhone — a first for the magazine. Colombo, a New York-based artist and illustrator, uses the iPhone's Brushes application to vibrantly depict New York street scenes." There's a video recapitulating the creation of the piece, omitting all of the undos.
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Submission: Artist uses iPhone to create New Yorker cover by Anonymous Coward
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So what's the news? (Score:3, Insightful)
Artist using new technology is nothing new. I like Apple and the iPhone but this is just a plain "Apple PR News" story, nothing for nerds, nothing that matters.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Is a man not entitled to his own computer? "No!" says the man in Washington, "It belongs to the poor." "No!" says the man in the Vatican, "It belongs to God." "No!" says the man in Moscow, "It belongs to everyone." I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose ... Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
Artist using new technology is nothing new. I like Apple and the iPhone but this is just a plain "Apple PR News" story, nothing for nerds, nothing that matters.
It's not even new technology!
Re:So what's the news? Something subtle. (Score:5, Insightful)
sure, it's not the first time, but the point is much more subtle: why use a laptop or desktop computer?
What this is is the next level of miniaturisation, and it is an important one. There is fundamentally no difference between an iPhone or iPod and a computer - they all have input devices (keypads, sensitive screens, cameras), RAM, Storage, and output (audio, video, files).
an iPhone with a beefier processor, some USB ports and a mini HDMI port (a la Macbook) and you have your next desktop replacement device. Not only would you have phone calls, but with an HDMI - VGA adaptor, you have a screen to do world processing, image editing, video editing, audio editing, 3D, whatever.
It's the next big deal.
RS
Parent
Re:So what's the news? Something subtle. (Score:5, Insightful)
Calling an iPhone a communications device is like calling a computer a word processing device. Apple has made damn sure with all of their marketing that people associate more than communication with the iPhone, it's made out to be more like a PDA with a phone program than a phone. And I doubt this is the first time an artist has made "print-ready" work (for various definitions of "print-ready") from a PDA. This still seems like a piece of Apple fluff.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
an iPhone with a beefier processor, some USB ports and a mini HDMI port (a la Macbook) and you have your next desktop replacement device. Not only would you have phone calls, but with an HDMI - VGA adaptor, you have a screen to do world processing, image editing, video editing, audio editing, 3D, whatever.
This is a joke right? No serious professional is going to be doing image/video editing or drawing on a color-inaccurate 3.5" screen.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I've used the brushes app before. This was not edited outside of the iPhone. That application really does a good job simulating paint and brushes. And yes, you can do this with a WinMo device. The difference is the interface of this application, the accuracy of a capacitive screen, and the multitouch make the combination of this app and this phone seem natural. Zooming in and out is effortless by pinching in and out. And the speed and sensitivity is perfect. I have used paint applications on my Winmo, and t
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Re:So what's the news? Something subtle. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:So what's the news? Something subtle. (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed... just the fact that this piece instigated a "what is art?" debate, IMHO, shows that it is art.
There are a lot of folks on Slashdot who try really, really hard to hate Apple and iPhones, but I think this story really is news for nerds, and really does matter. If you disagree, go click on another story.
Parent
Re:So what's the news? Something subtle. (Score:4, Informative)
an iPhone with a beefier processor, some USB ports and a mini HDMI port (a la Macbook) and you have your next desktop replacement device. Not only would you have phone calls, but with an HDMI - VGA adaptor, you have a screen to do world processing, image editing, video editing, audio editing, 3D, whatever.
This is a joke right? No serious professional is going to be doing image/video editing or drawing on a color-inaccurate 3.5" screen.
This is a joke right? No serious professional is going to be doing image/video editing or drawing on a color-inaccurate 3.5" screen.
Yeah. So the guy that just created and SOLD the cover of the bloody NEW YORKER on the iPhone is not a "serious professional", right?
Matter of fact, in my field, thousands of working photojournalists (those in the top ranks among them) work with similar (color-inacurate) screens and no color correction. The color differences are subtle in 99% of the cases, and don't matter in 99.9% of them, especially when printed in newspaper and/or magazine papers.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Does anyone here have any doubt that the artist was paid by Apple to create the work on the iPhone? I think it's a smart move by Apple to do this.
Kinda Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
This is kinda cool. Not so much that it was an iPhone, but that it was a handheld device. How much longer until these phones replace a laptop for most of our day-to-day computing?
Much of the appeal of a laptop is the screen real estate. You can use your iPhone as a laptop, and you can can use your laptop as a phone, but seriously. Use the proper tool for the proper job.
Re:Kinda Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
The minute we can get proper monitors in our sunglasses and data plans free of ridiculous limits.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Kinda Cool (Score:5, Interesting)
For a lot of what I do it already has. I am always up to date on reading my email and much faster on sending high priority replies. For low priority replies I still wait until I have a proper keyboard in front of me. When I'm lunching by myself I do a lot of surfing on the phone including slashdot. When laying on the couch, the screen navigation features are good enough that if I have a quick surfing need, I'll just pull out the phone rather than walk to my computer.
It's not a complete replacement, but it's way more of a replacement than I imagined it would be with such a tiny screen and no keyboard.
Sheldon
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
How much longer until these phones replace a laptop for most of our day-to-day computing?
As long as it takes them to create one with a real keyboard, and a monitor that is at least as big as the one on my Acer Aspire.
The idea of a phone replacing your computer is probably really great if you're speculating from behind your iBook while sipping on a Mocha Frappacheeno, but for the people actually USING their computers? The ones traveling? The ones doing more than updating their twitter status?
Phones will not EVER replace their laptops (they will[do] supplement them).
Umm.. never? (Score:2)
Take a look at the blurred and aquarelle-like picture [photobucket.com] in TFV and compare it with other New Yorker covers and then think about what you wrote there.
While you are at it - try writing a memo on your phone.
If it is an iPhone there is probably an app for it. Or two. Or 183.
I hear that there is an app for EVERYTHING on iPhone.
Colours for the DS (Score:3, Informative)
A PSP-sized device with that kind of capability would be a pretty great portable drawing device. The DS is a bit too small for me.
Watching the drawing process (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
HTF does a wikipedia link to "tablet PC" get "+1 Informative" when the person they're replying to says "... a tablet laptop" right there in the comment?
*sigh* indeed.
Re:Kinda Cool (Score:5, Funny)
I forgot something [wikipedia.org] in my response?
Parent
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
a group of 30 4 year olds using a magnetic refrigerator alphabet wrote all the features and articles in the same magazine. In un-related news the New Yorker seems to be having financial problems as fewer and fewer people read the garbage they publish.
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Insightful)
In their defense the articles are often pretty good, generally 20 pages longer than necessary, but the writing is good. Now the New Yorker cartoons are simply indefensible.
I've been going through one of the New Yorker desk calenders this year and it is about 1 out of 20 strips that actually work. The rest are simply lazy. I mean am I supposed to create the scenario? Is that how it works? Is that why it is so clever? Because it makes me feel like I'm smart? That isn't a joke, that is the sound of an armless man masturbating.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/resources/2007/07/BadNewYorkerCartoon.jpg [gawker.com]
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
That is the best description for a bad comic I've seen in a while. Nice!
iPhone Has No Pressure Sensitivity? (Score:4, Interesting)
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think one important issue with the capacitative screen as used in Apple's phone is that while it does support multitouch, it does not support different pressure levels corresponding to force applied against the screen? To get pressure sensitivity similar to a Wacom-style pad, you'd need to be using a Palm/WinMo handheld which, with resistive screens, can support different pressures applied by finger or stylus. Is this correct? If so, then it's remarkable that he managed to produce quite a nice cartoon given the limitations of the device he was using. But you have to wonder how much more efficient a similar artist could be with a more artist-friendly approach. I assume that this brushes application lets you create a swipe, then click it afterwards to increase or decrease the transparency/strength/brush effects. That's got to be a lot less intuitive than just pressing your finger/stylus more or less to get the same effect. In effect, a single gesture dimensioned using pressure has been elongated into a mutli-step gesture dimensioned with serial, semantic twiddling.
Re: (Score:2)
It could also use time. Drag your finger over quickly, it uses X% opacity. Drag slowly to get completely opaque. Or vice versa.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, a big problem with capacitive screens is... you can't tap accurately. Instead of a sharp "point" on a resistive touchscreen (within the accuracy of the analog side and the ADC), you get an area. Things like controls (buttons, fields, etc) tend to have to be larger and spaced out on a capacitive screen because getting an accurate point is extremely difficult.
It's like trying to draw using a mouse vs. a touchpad. It'd doable, just a bit more difficult.
Adding fine detail to a photo is extremely hard
WOW! (Score:5, Funny)
Apple, thank you for finally enabling us artists to draw in the dark. Only Apple could pioneer this astounding technology.
how ironical (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
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"Making of" as a new genre (Score:5, Insightful)
The video of the process is a work of art all its own, capturing the evolution of the scene. There is a sense of change and even of loss, which you wouldn't get from the finished work alone.
Re: (Score:2)
Bob Ross? (Score:2)
Is that you?
I know it's unfashionable... (Score:5, Insightful)
to refrain from complaining about a kdawson post, but I saw this early this morning and thought it was cool as well. So sue me. Yes, people have been drawing on computers for a Long Time with lots of different input devices; and no, it's not the best tool (portable or otherwise) for drawing with. And I detest all the often-unmerited love that Apple gets...but this was cool, it is an example of how, even on a converged device that can't touch dedicated devices, technology has become accessible enough that people are able to do real worth with it, no matter where they are. It's similar to Chase Jarvis and his iPhone pictures. It's not the best camera, not even the best camera phone, but it's both a demonstration of how art isn't about the technology, it's about the artist; and it's a demonstration of what we could each accomplish with even these limited tools if we had the talent and discipline to use them to their fullest. It's not, to me, about it being an Apple product, it's about art, talent, and the progress of technology.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not trolling here, but why does it seem like the buzz is often about apple products then? I don't see much about people creating art with their blackberry or their palm. Or is there a lot of this going on and I just missed it?
If someone asked me, I would say that it's a combination of Apple products marketed well and that they make pretty good products to begin (e.g. easy to use) -- I don't th
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not trolling here, but why does it seem like the buzz is often about apple products then? I don't see much about people creating art with their blackberry or their palm.
The art was created by a third-party app. Apple did not write Brushes but they made it possible for a developer to not just create it but easily put it in the hands of customers. So, it's not strictly an article about Apple products.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Coincidentally, Chase Jarvis commented on the New Yorker's cover in his blog yesterday:
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/ [chasejarvis.com]
Cool process (Score:2)
Working with more natural subjects (Score:3, Interesting)
The big story is (Score:2)
Artist can create art on almost any medium while my biggest achievement is a stick figure pictured below ;)-
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Given that I'm reading Slashdot from an iPod touch, from my deck, while grilling, I'd say they already have. The only trick here is that they have gotten a lot, lot cheaper than your average, non-netbook laptop. If you can't beat them with horsepower and features, you will always get them by being the cheapest ride in town.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, you have some elaborate fantasies about me. Maybe we should cyber, it seems like you want me pretty bad. Been a naughty boy? You like it rough, want a spanking or something? I could work that into my schedule.
Happy Troll Tuesday (Score:2)
I know you. You are my little pet stalker, aren't you? You write just like that AC from a while back. It's nice to know that I have fans that care about me so much. Please, do go on, I find your interest fascinating.