iPads and Smart Phones: Great Resources for Art

Amy Bryan, "Sisters Portrait", Ukiyoe iPad app, 5/2013

I got my first smart phone in 2009 after noticing, while teaching Art History at Dillard University, how students were able to use them to find class images.  For example, one student found an image of the Rosetta Stone.  Since I had very small classes, students would pass around their phones after finding the images.  Since then I have encouraged students to use their smart phones in class for that purpose.  I decided I had to get one too, mainly for educational purposes.

I became interested in the iPad during fall 2011 when I was teaching as an Adjunct Instructor at Delgado Community College in New Orleans.  A colleague and a student talked to me about the wonders of the iPad for doing art. 

My colleague said she loved doing iPhone painting and she really wanted an iPad.  The iPhone helped her as a busy working mother to still do her art.  She could use it while her kids were in dance class, for example.  Although her true love was painting, the iPad was close enough to it to bring some satisfaction.  The only problem was that it was too small and the iPad was a better size.  That semester a Graphic Design student in the drawing class I was teaching also talked about how there where a lot of iPad apps. one could download.  Then I was sold on getting one. 

In March 2012 I bought an iPad and I have been using it for doing art ever since. I use Brushes, Procreate, Ukiyoe (my favorite), and other apps.  It's like playing a game and so frees me from those art rule voices associated with the academic art world.  I started out with images from my "Ghana Series" and have now moved on to my recent interest,"Portraits".

Amy Bryan, "Woman and Baby Sitting", Ukiyoe, iPad app, 2012