There are now hundreds of art apps on the app store along with ToonFX and SketchMee and apart from apps such as Brushes which do require an artistic input many art iPhone applications allow you to create visually stunning effects from your photos with nothing more than the click of a button!
Are iphone art apps killing creativity?
I started to review the iphone apps ToonFX and SketchMee (both of which are iphone apps that deserve more praise than they get) and found myself in a slight philosophical conundrum about the nature of art and you can't say that about many iPhone apps!
There are now hundreds of art apps on the app store along with ToonFX and SketchMee and apart from apps such as Brushes which do require an artistic input many art iPhone applications allow you to create visually stunning effects from your photos with nothing more than the click of a button!
Examples include:
TypeDrawing Draw with text. This fun app uses a single letter or phrase to draw with!
Artist’s Touch This app requires little artistic talent uses a variety of textures and paint tools.
PotteryWheel Create your own pottery!
ToonFX is one such app but it does create some fantastic images.
The effect is not unlike the 'rotoscoping' used in the Keanu Reeves flick 'A Scanner Darkly' (a 2006 animated film directed by Richard Linklater based on the novel of one of my favourite authors - Philip K. Dick. If you like Matrix like twists then read this guys books!).
As well as creating comic effects ToonFX iphone app also allows you to paint over the top of your creation to add a final creative flourish of your own! SketchMee also creates some stunning images!
Why apps kill creativity
My only problem with such iphone art apps (and computer art in general) is that they remove the sense of real achievement from the act of creation!
If we could all just click our fingers and thus were all instant artists able to paint as well as DaVinci suddenly the Mona Lisa becomes less than perfect as anything other than an historical document!
It is the rarity, individuality and dedication of artistic talent (in the world of comics too) that makes a work of art special.
Apps such as ToonFX and SketchMee are wonderful toys but as computers become more powerful at deconstructing and recreating the building blocks of various artistic techniques I feel sometimes this devalues the art itself as the end result contains nothing of the artist and everything of the computer (or in this case iPhone).
If all you have to do to create art is press a button is it really art?
In answer I would say yes (to a degree!).
The photographer is an artist and must use his knowledge and artistic eye to pick an image from the billions of possible images and then manipulate this to arrive at something different or pleasing to the eye which is easier said than done!
ToonFX can be used as a tool for the true artist or as a toy for the playfully creative so in the end you must decide which of these you are!
So should I get these apps?
These rather deep philosophical questions about art aside I still love ToonFX and SketchMee apps and Im sure you will too!
ToonFX is slightly more expensive that the average app $1:99 (£1.59) but it if you have any interest in comics, art or painting and like to get a bit more creative with your iPhone then this app is definitely one for you!
SketchMee is also slightly more expensive than our average app but worth the extra pennies or cents.
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