Paintings. I love people who can paint, people who have
control over their hands. I could never paint for anything. The colors would
run into each other, the paper would get extra wet, the table would get messy,
we would not have enough space, my mind would run faster than the pain and
generally, it would be a really bad job. And invariably I would do something wrong
and then try to patch it with something else and before you know it my
masterpiece is finished.
Jispa has been using Jasmine’s new smart phone (galaxy note)
to paint. She uses one of the aps to draw and color stuff. Once on the vacation
when I had time, I drew some stuff along with her. I tried to teach her different
ways to look at things. Some little imagination. Not that I am a great art
teacher. I am possibly a bad teacher but at least I could improve her tree.
After which I have been thinking about fiddling with my phone. Also in the
meanwhile I discovered Instagram and the fun you could do to pictures. And then
some more searching revealed the recently launched pixelexpress which lets you
fiddle around like crazy with the mobile phone. Many years ago V-inu and I had
been to the ardh-kumbh mela in Allahabad and we met a photo journalist. An absolute
brilliant photographer who only moved around the whole day with a camera with a
50mm lens and would shoot stuff. I was the amateur, while V-inu was the budding
enthusiast and Ben was the champion. The rule they had in photo journalism was
that once you click it you can tinker around it with too much. Cropping was ok,
but adding stuff was a strict no no. Ya sure. But now I am discovering the fun
world of cell phone timepass. I click, I edit, I add effects, colors and have
fun. Its opened up a brand new creative side of me that I knew existed but
never understood how to use. And I fiddle with two softwares to get the desired
effect.
After Jispa started using the phone to paint, I was hunting
for a painting software. I downloaded one a few days back. It’s not that great
and intuitive but it was pretty decent and once you get the hang of it you
kinda get used to it and the different stuff you can do with it. So o played
around with it entire day yesterday. I managed to paint something. Amongst the
little stuff I could paint – a sun on the horizon and a tree in the foreground.
Then I finished my painting and then used the photo editing software to fiddle
with it, change the contrast, add some texture, change the light, the focus and
the border… and voila… there is a ‘painting’ that I am proud of. It’s not that
great, but it looks like a painting to me. It’s what I wanted to paint. That is
it. It’s mine, all mine. My imagination, not copying anyone else’s or anything
else. It’s beautiful as I see it. Man I am so proud of it. I kept showing it to
Jispa. Jispa was like “you really like it, nah?” Yes of course. I love it. It’s
not the painting… it’s the fact that now I could paint. I could express myself
in some way. I could in effect create something. I feel like a child showing
off my first big painting. Yes I CAN PAINT!.. yipeee. This stuff is strong and powerful.
Its feels light and liberating. Here is the painting or should I say pic…
This stuff is likely to grow. You are likely to get more such
stuff done by simple people off the road. I always maintained that in the new
world you did need to know how to paint. Powerful softwares like corel or
photoshop will help you achieve everything you wanted to. But now I want to see
this – school children learning to paint on their tablets. No need to buy
colors or paint brushes and no remarks in the diary – ‘paints not brought’. Ya
my arts teacher actually used to write that remark. Just paint.
You know the real killer app of the software is the ‘undo’
button. I used it so much. I kept painting, kept undoing, kept experimenting,
kept undoing…. Wow. This is so cool. Now I think I will even take photos and
mash them up with the sketching tool and get something cool! It so unburdens
creativity. Now I guess I understand how Steve Jobs was so cool and how he made
a profound impact on the world as we know it. Design… the ease of use of
technology, the simplicity of applications… all these must be credited to him.
Yes. I use android but I know all this is a gift from him, his vision and inspiration
led to all of this. You have to give it to him. I bow to you. thanks.
