I don’t think this one needs much explanation. I will say that I think about the vast differences between my life and the lives of men in generations before me quite a lot. There’s not really a word that sums up the mind-boggling amounts of unfairness, misfortune, and despair that so many experienced in the past.
I realize there is plenty of suffering and unfairness in the modern world – as I also realize there are likely much worse historical events that could be depicted here than the three I chose. This painting is just meant to start the thought/converstation – I’ll leave it up to the viewer what other dark periods of our history he/she wants to reflect on.

I don’t think i have a “series” title for this kind of things yet so I guess I’ll call it “Fantasy Scenes”. I’m sure this is my subconcious indicating it’s missing my beloved World of Warcraft – but like apps and painting … sadly there’s not enough time to do everything.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the full version will cost a few bucks and is only intended for people who will actually use it in the real world – everyone else can try the free version to get the jist. That said, if any of my friends/family want to try the full version, please send me an email and I’ll send you a promo code to get it free.

It’s probably no shock to most of you that I’m already working an updated version with some neat new features so it looks like I won’t be getting a break from this app just yet. I hope to push the new version out ASAP – I’ll post details about that here when it’s ready.

As I cryptically mentioned the other day, this project completely devoured every free minute I had for the past 4-5(?) week but it was a blast. It even had me getting up at 4:30 on weekend mornings (even on my sleep-in morning) to get it done faster! I was starting to think the app would never be finished because it seemed like for every 5 punchlist items I completed, 10 more would get added to the list! But eventually I came to a “finishing” point – well, really I just started moving all new ideas to a “Version 2.0/Maybe” project.

What is PocketSwatch?

In case the screenshot and app name don’t make it obvious, PocketSwatch is a color swatch creation and reference utility app – primarily geared towards computer-based artists, designers and developers – though non-computer folks might find it useful as well. In short PocketSwatch offers the user four things:

1. Color Mixer/Swatch Set Creation
2. Swatch Set Library/Reference
3. RGB, HEX and CMYK color conversion
   (Note: The FULL version even has Pantone support!).
4. Emails swatches! (FULL version provides an “ASE” Adobe Swatch Exchange file for download as well!)

The actual idea for the app came to me while I was working on another secret app (that has since been mothballed). The reason I dropped the app I had been working on previously to start this was because this idea, unlike 9 out of 10 of my typical app ideas, had an element of real world usefulness. The other thing I found interesting about building this app was that it had some very logical ways to make a FREE version and a PAID version. Unlike the Wooden Clock app, which was purely for entertainment and the fulfillment of a new year’s resolution, I see PocketSwatch as a serious tool, for some, so the “FULL” version actually deserves to carry a small price tag.

It’s a simple idea I know and while there are plenty of other “color” apps out there, I believe PocketSwatch is a cut above a fair amount of them both in simplicity/focus and the level of polish. But … I’m obviously wearing “parental” googles here so you all judge for yourselves!

One more thing – the app actually got released to the App Store earlier than I wanted – the current (pending release) versions of both the FREE and FULL app  are a bit nicer (plus I think there is a bug or two in the current FREE version). But – the base functionality is in the public/available one so folks can get the jist at least.

Demo Video

Here’s the official demo video showing the app in action for anyone out there w/out an iPhone. Make *SURE*  the HD button is “ON” before you start so you can see it in it’s full high-res glory!

App Store Stuff:

As mentioned above, there will be two versions of this app – a free/limited version and the paid/full version. The full version is still waiting to go through App Store review so that’s not available yet – but the free version is now available so folks can try it out and see what they think. By the way, if I was in this to make every possible penny I could I suppose I’d wait until the “pay” version was released before announcing the app. But while I will find it cool if some folks do find it useful enough to pay for, I did this for myself, for fun and to learn – everything else is icing.

Here’s the app store link to the FREE version.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocketswatch-free/id512413428?ls=1&mt=8

Here’s the app store link to the FULL version (Posted on 2012/04/01):
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocketswatch/id509958461?ls=1&mt=8

PocketSwatch@Facebook

Here’s the “official” facebook page that will serve as the support “portal” for the app:
http://www.facebook.com/PocketSwatch

Ok that’s all…

PS: Special thanks to Holly here for having extra patience when I was/am in full “obsession” mode on things like this.  Without her patience (and some good ideas) I wouldn’t get to make stuff like this. <3

Anyhow – I couldn’t help but laugh (hard) when I got this fortune cookie the other day – it really sums up the last few weeks for me.

I’ll be back soon with news/details!…

My artistic (in)abilities aside, Zelda Skyward Sword was a masterpiece of a video game and I had a blast playing (and winning!) it. This is my (humble) tribute to it.

For the trivia books, this one was partially inspired by my recent discovery of Bert Monroy – one of the best digital painters I’ve ever come across and one of the pioneers of Photoshop (he wrote the first book on Photoshop!). I would love to own a poster or two of his work but sadly he only sells them directly for $250 (and up) so I’ll have to wait till I have some spare cash to burn. Anyhow, one of the things Bert excels at is making life-like scenes – particularly with still life scenes, shadows, reflections etc. I am not great at those things but I tried a few new things in this piece after checking out Bert’s work. If you consider yourself a fan of art/painting you should definitely check out his stuff!…

If you’re feeling nice, why not stop by the app page and write a review… assuming you try the app out of course (or even if you don’t)!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago this app is super basic/simple – for the most part it was just my attempt to see if I could get something up on the App Store. That said, I have to say it was a very interesting (and fun) process to go through from start to finish – and I’m definitely psyched to come up with my 2nd app soon!

Technical Notes:

• It will take a day or so to show up in standard iTunes/App Store searches – but if you use the link above you should be able to see it either in your browser or in iTunes via a direct link.
• I also just realized that the sound effects are all “off” by default so if you download and try it make sure to go into the app’s settings and turn on the ticking and hourly chimes to check them out
• The app takes a few minutes to download/install from the App Store right now but I’m guessing that’s just standard weeknight/evening bandwidth/traffic (?).

The weird pink donut thing was my initial idea for my Dribbble invite contest entry. I ended up going vector for that (here) but I figured I’d finish it (ish) and save it for old time’s sake.

For anyone interested, here’s a link to all the paintings from 2011:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-emerson/collections/72157628671395099/

I still don’t know what kind of painting I’ll be doing in 2012 yet – but I guess we’ll see in a week or two…

2011 Resolutions Review

1. Resolution #1: “365 Project: iPhone-Painting-a-Day…(or Week!)” | Grade: A-

   As soon as I got my iPad (~March 2011) this quickly changed to “iPad-Painting-a-Day/Week” – hopefully that didn’t disqualify me for this resolution. It is interesting to note that I went through 3 different painting “apps” in addition to moving from the phone to the tablet – so the paintings this year crossed quite a spectrum.  There were a fair amount of weeks where I just worked on one painting (instead of 7) but other than a few skipped days during the Christmas card project time period I kept up with this pretty consistently. I posted all my paintings for this on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris-emerson/sets/72157625724352098/with/5801934265 - go take a look to see the whole batch.

2. Resolution #2: “Submit an app or game to the Apple App Store” | Grade: A

   This was a long-term/long-shot considering where I was at the start of 2011. I did have some basic knowledge of the technologies available to make mobile apps then but I really hadn’t had any opportunities at work (or in my own, scarce, free time) to build an actual mobile app yet. Anyhow – as 2011 progressed I explored the mobile app development landscape further at work and in my own (did I mention scarce) free time. My initial assumption was that I would end up using PhoneGap but for various reasons I ended up using Adobe Flash instead. The main reason for this was because Adobe made great strides in 2011 in staying in the mobile app game – specifically around playing well with Apple – plus, in an ironic turn of events, Adobe actually acquired PhoneGap later in the year – which I wasn’t expecting. Anyhow, as some folks may not know, even though Apple doesn’t allow Adobe Flash to run on their mobile devices, Adobe has created a way for their developers to “export” standard Flash applications to run as legit, native Apple applications (i.e. not Flash) – so that’s why/how I was able to use Flash. Just for the record, I am still a big fan/follower of PhoneGap – and thanks to my job change in February I have had the opportunity to build a few PhoneGap mobile apps at the office this year – so I’ve been able to get some experience with both technologies.

   Earlier in the year I started a few “game” projects that were fun – but they both lacked the time and structure that those kind of games would need to be successfully pulled off – so I ended up leaving them on the cutting room floor for now. I may revisit them in the future but here are a couple screenshots showing the proof of concepts I put together for them – all of which were running on the iPad.
    
   

   This won’t be a shock to some, but my final “app” idea was too complicated  for the time I had left in the year to build it. So in mid-November I decided I had to simplify it to a drastic bare minimum if  I was even going to attempt to finish and submit it to the App Store before the end of the year.  I am holding out hope to still build my original app idea so I won’t say what that was, yet – but the app I built for this is called “Wooden Clock”. It’s as simple as it sounds by the way – it’s just a wooden clock that tells the time. No bells or whistles – other than a ticking sound, hourly chimes and a pendulum. Aside from the pain of letting go of my original app idea, the only challenge to getting Wooden Clock built was keeping the app running smoothly. It’s not as smooth as I’d like but I think it’s good enough for now.

   There are of course (literally) hundreds of clock apps on iPad and iPhone – so this app certainly doesn’t get huge points for originality. That said  I would say a good 75% of all those clock apps are pretty ugly (IMHO) – so I take some solace from that since I did try to make this one prettier than the average clock app. But – the goal for my resolution here has always just been to simply get an app or game submitted to the App Store so I probably shouldn’t analyze it too much – it is just a clock app. On a related note, I couldn’t justify actually charging $ for this given the already over-flooded “clock app” market – but if I add more bells and whistles eventually to it I may think about charging a buck or two for it… we’ll see.

   In standard “over the top” fashion, I whipped up a single-page website for the app – you can view it, and the eventually working download link here: http://apps.chris-emerson.net/woodenclock/. The app was submitted to the App Store a few days after Christmas – I’ll post an update or comment here if it ever gets put on the App Store or not (there’s no guarantee it will get posted… unlike the Android store heh). Special thanks to some of my pals for providing me some “pre-release” customer quotes for the website

2012 Resolutions!

1. Resolution #1: “365 Project: Weekly or Daily iPad Paintings”

   Based on this past year it seems like my tendency is to paint one painting a week – so I figure I’ll just shape my “365 Project” to expect that. There may be times where I do one thing a day, but we’ll see. The bottom line here is that I really like painting on the iPad so I will continue doing it until I get sick of it! So here’s to another year of digital painting.

2. Resolution #2: “Submit another app or game to the Apple App Store and Android Store”

   Pending my success at getting this year’s app into the App Store I aim to get a 2nd app completed and submitted to both the Apple App Store as well as the Android Store. Whether or not my app will be my old idea or a new one is to be determined!

3. Placeholder for Resolution #3

   Two resolutions just seems too easy since I’ve done that for 2 years now… so I’ll come up with a 3rd soon…

Ok that’s all for now… happy (almost) new year everyone!