Painterly Mobile Artist - Jane Fiala

I met today's featured artist through her blog a few years ago. I was experimenting with Corel Painter and Photoshop and looking for tips to create painterly edits. That's when I discovered Jane Fiala's work via her blog. I abandoned Corel Painter to create with my iPhone and iPad. Jane has also jumped aboard the mobile photography train and has become one of my favorite painterly mobile artists.

Please visit the Painterly Mobile Art Flickr group to see more from Jane and all of the artists! Do you like to edit in a painterly style? Please join the group, we'd love to have you!

The Artist 

Jane Fiala - I come to mobile photography only recently by way of digital painting from photographs using a camera, computer, graphics tablet and using painting software - Corel Painter and Photoshop. Last February I purchased my first iPhone. At the time I was following a few blogs that featured mobile photography, Geri Centonze's for one, started taking a few photos, purchasing a few apps, and haven't looked back. The important thing for me was to find my own voice and style. I've always been interested in the rural areas in Minnesota and now spend many hours driving around the back roads "barn huntin". I'm especially fond of farmsteads that are in decay. This photo is of a deserted home on a deserted farm.

The Work

© Jane Fiala

Jane's Commentary

The photo was taken with Fotor HDR app, which takes two photos at two different exposures. I generally don't think about what I want to do with the photo until I come home and look at it for awhile. After merging the exposures, I transfer the image to my iPad mini.  What I want to do with this image, and with all my images is to create a sense of nostalgia or a memory; or to evoke an emotion of some kind. I need to create an atmosphere that isn't necessarily available when I took the picture, so I set about making that atmosphere by using the many available apps. I bring the image into Snapseed. I'm particularly fond of the new HDRscape feature in Snapseed, but tone it down a little. I will also use the Center Focus feature. I then take the image into ShockMyPic or Tangled FX then into Blender to blend with the previous version. Please note, that if you use ShockMyPic, you will need to bring the size back to its original with an app such as Big Photo.

I then bring the image into Superimpose and blend and mask with textures that I have purchased from Distressed Textures. From there I use Distressed FX app to apply more textures and then into PhotoToaster for some additional editing until I feel good about what I've created.

Find Jane: Flickr / EyeEm / Instagram / Blog


Links to apps mentioned:

Fotor HDR
Snapseed
ShockMyPic
Tangled FX
Image Blender
Big Photo
Superimpose
Distressed FX
PhotoToaster