Becoming Rembrandt with a Brushstroke

12 January 2019

#Travel  •  #Photography  •  #Art  •  #STEAM  •  #ProductOwnership

I downloaded the Brushstroke app by Code Organa a long time ago. I knew I could easily put it to use on this site, but, like so many other things, I simply didn't find the time to play with it.

Now that I've upgraded to the 2018 12.9 iPad Pro, which has a screen resolution superior to my 1080p high-def TV, it's time to revisit the app.

It's a total breeze to use. And it's a total breeze to slap photo files around; take the original RAW image into Photoshop and size it down to something web-friendly. Throw the image into the Photos app and then pick it up in Brushstroke. From there, socialize it or pluck it back out from the Photos app.

Brushtroke offers a large selection of painting style options, such as oil, abstract, gloss, experimental and illustration. Simply swipe left and right in the options palette to view more.
Additionally, swipe across the image to make adjustments to the application of the paint.

A portion of the canvas options.

A detail of the coloring effects.

A selection of the typical image adjustments — similar to Photoshop — such as vibrance and saturation.
Select a topic then swipe left and right across the image to adjust the category's scale of intensity.

Topping it off, there's even an option to sign the painting either with a finger or the Apple Pencil.

It's fascinating to see how the app transforms a live image into a painting and to see how certain elements of the photo take on a new significance. Time flies while playing around with all the possibilities.

So there it is. The technology to turn any aspiring painter into the next Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Lichtenstein or Warhol. All through the swipe of a finger.

Go ahead and flip through the gallery at the top of this page. The first image is a photo treated in Brushstroke, followed by the original photo. All photos (except for the last two) were taken with a Sony Alpha camera. The last two were taken on the iPhone 7 Plus.

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