iPhone App Reviews

Posts Tagged ‘artistic’

Painting Scroll

Michael (Admin) | Mar 14, 2009 Entertainment

User rating:

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Just when you thought every iPhone app developer on the planet was hell-bent on winning the contest to see who can make the stupidest app, along comes a piece of work whose only goal is to show you something beautiful and educate you in the process.

Painting Scroll by Colorme Info Tech is a guided tour of ”Along the River During the Qingming Festival”, a 900 year old panoramic painting from China’s Song Dynasty. It comes complete with a relaxing soundtrack of traditional Chinese music and subtitled narration of what the painting depicts as it slowly scrolls from beginning to end. The entire ride lasts about 5 minutes, and during that time you get an interesting glimpse of how Chinese people rolled in the 11th century.

Even though you may have never heard of this painting it’s a pretty big deal in China and, according to the Wikipedia entry, it even has a nickname:

As an artistic creation, the piece has been revered and court artists of subsequent dynasties have made several re-interpretive replicas. The painting is famous because of its geometrically accurate images of boats, bridges, shops, and scenery. Because of its fame, it has been called “China’s Mona Lisa”.

At any given time during the scrolling tour you can tap on the painting and get a closeup view of the scene which is a really nice feature. You can also drag the scroll left and right as a kind of way to rewind or fast-forward, and there’s also a separate “story” screen that discusses the painting’s theme and history, but that’s where the features end which I guess is fine. Maybe it would have been nice to see the Wikipedia entry directly in the app, but when it comes to art history lessons I generally don’t expect much in the features department.

Painting Scroll is a nice app and I think even DaVinci would have to admit that ”Along the River During the Qingming Festival” is an impressive piece of artwork. However, given the limited “replay” value of the app, I’m guessing the only people who will want to pony up $2 for it are probably art history nerds, those who are determined to appreciate all things artistic, or those who are actually Chinese and truly understand the significance of China’s Mona Lisa.

: Laid out in real life, this painting is 17 feet (528 cm) long! Take that, DaVinci

: It might help to check out the Story screen before beginning your guided tour

: An early scene in the scroll

: Zoomed in view

: Wow, awesome bridge guys

: Look at the little dudes rowing that bigass boat

: This looks like the rich neighborhood

: No traffic, no pollution, no problem

: Tapping on "more" takes you to the developer's website

Tags: $1.99, artistic

MonstAr Maker

Michael (Admin) | Dec 2, 2008 Entertainment

User rating:

(3 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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I’ve reviewed maybe 150 apps on this site and so far I think MonstAr Maker is the first real “iPhone art project” that’s been submitted to me for review.

The idea is simple enough: shake your iPhone to create a character that’s composed of three different pieces of art produced by a group of diverse but obviously talented artists. It works like a slot machine with the character’s head, torso, and legs being randomly spun on three reels that move horizontally when you shake, and it’s all about showcasing different brands of creativity as you “create” something entirely new on your own.

Each artist’s work is distinctly different and you can come up with some pretty screwy combos… you’re not just mixing artistic genres, you’re also mixing skinny necks with fat torsos and all kinds of other goofy crap. When you see an element you like, you can lock it into place and keep spinning the other body parts.

I like what Escape Plan B is doing here, but right now the variety of artwork feels kind of small. Don’t get me wrong, the artwork that IS there is awesome and would probably sell for a small fortune in a gallery, but after about 5 minutes of spinning I felt like I’d seen just about all there was to see. Luckily MonstAr Maker’s creators are actively seeking new artists to contribute, so if you’d like to see your own creatures included in this app just go to monstarmaker.com.

In the end, I think this app is totally worth $.99 to anyone who likes and wants to support “the arts”. It also has potential as a kids’ toy, so consider that an added bonus. If you’re simply curious about MonstAr Maker but aren’t sure whether it’s for you, my advice is to pay the buck and think of it as a donation to the art community! That way you’ll be satisfied with your purchase no matter what you think of the app itself.

: Shake to Make is pretty much all you need to know

: A hillbilly elk wearing dirty underpants!

: This girl doesn't look pleased about having six limbs

: Lock pieces in place if you want to keep them around

: You can maintain a favorites list, but these should be email-friendly too (which they aren't)

: The artists responsible for all this madness

Tags: $.99, artistic, good for kids

Bright Lights

Michael (Admin) | Sep 26, 2008 Entertainment

User rating:

(6 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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A while back I wrote about an app called Light Show. At the time of my review, it was kind of messed up but it was the only pocket Lite-Brite around.

Bright Lights is the latest entry in the battle for Lite-Brite nerds. It doesn’t have quite as much space for placing colored pegs, but overall it’s nicely put together and should do the trick if you need to relive this part of your childhood.

These are the colors included with Bright Lights as of today:

Blue
Brown
Green
Orange
Pink
Purple
Red
Turquoise
White
Yellow

Not bad! That’s a pretty good variety. When you’re done with your dotted masterpiece, you can save the image to your camera roll, or you can reset (clear) the board and start over. A word of caution, though: it’s pretty easy to hit reset by accident. It won’t be the end of the world, I mean come on… it’s a freakin’ Lite-Brite so recreating your work shouldn’t be too hard… but one wrong tap can sweep your pegs off the board.

Something else you should know is that your work will be lost if you answer a phone call, so you’ll want to hit Decline if your mom calls while you’re in the middle of drawing hexagon-shaped boobies.

Otherwise, NinjaPirate Software has done a nice job on this Lite-Brite iteration. If your kids are bugging you to get them an actual Lite-Brite so they can leave the pegs all over the house, just pay the $.99 for Bright Lights. They’ll probably think it’s cooler anyway.

: Draw me Dogs Playing Poker!

: Push SAVE, not the button above it!

: I tried to draw a naked lady but this was easier

Tags: $.99, artistic, classic, good for kids

SpinArt

Michael (Admin) | Sep 23, 2008 Entertainment

User rating:

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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You long to be an artist. You have all this pent-up creative energy bubbling inside you, and you desperately want to unleash it upon the world, but there’s one tiny problem: you are a talentless loser!

Apparently Brian Smith feels your pain. He created SpinArt which gives pretty much everyone, monkeys included, the ability to splatter out some pretty cool abstractions on a spinning canvas. Just swipe your finger to set the canvas in motion, choose a color and a brush (splatter) size, and start plying your craft.

It really is that simple. With the canvas spinning, you can hold your finger in one place to make circles, you can drag it outward from the center to make spiral lines, and you can make up any number of other maneuvers that capitalize on the canvas rotation. Or you can just do your thing on a still canvas if circular motions just aren’t your style.

SpinArt is a nice app that I think a lot of people will have fun with. You can save your finished work to your camera roll and your work is always saved if there’s an interruption but, like most iPhone apps, I suspect it’s a work-in-progress. Here’s my wishlist of features for future updates:

Undo
Select canvas color
Import image
Non-splattering brushes
Maintain canvas spin rate (so that it doesn’t slow down)
More colors
Reposition canvas (so that circles can be made in other areas)

You’ll undoubtedly be pining for Undo in short order, but even without all of these features I think SpinArt is worth $1.99, especially if you have kids who like to play around with your iPhone. You’ll enjoy it, but the young ‘uns will probably have a blast with this app.