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Creating a New Yorker Cover On the iPhone

Jaime Leifer writes "The cover of the June 1, 2009, issue of The New Yorker, entitled 'Finger Painting,' was drawn by Jorge Colombo entirely on his iPhone — a first for the magazine. Colombo, a New York-based artist and illustrator, uses the iPhone's Brushes application to vibrantly depict New York street scenes." There's a video recapitulating the creation of the piece, omitting all of the undos.

8 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Kinda Cool by s73v3r · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is kinda cool. Not so much that it was an iPhone, but that it was a handheld device. How much longer until these phones replace a laptop for most of our day-to-day computing?

    1. Re:Kinda Cool by clang_jangle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How much longer until these phones replace a laptop for most of our day-to-day computing?

      The minute we can get proper monitors in our sunglasses and data plans free of ridiculous limits.

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      Caveat Utilitor
  2. Nothing new by Yetihehe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Peaple are drawing Mona lisa in MS Paint. THIS is an achievement.

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    Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
  3. "Making of" as a new genre by serutan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The video of the process is a work of art all its own, capturing the evolution of the scene. There is a sense of change and even of loss, which you wouldn't get from the finished work alone.

  4. Re:So what's the news? Something subtle. by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 4, Insightful
    An artist did print ready work from a communication device, rather than a laptop or desktop computer, that's the news.

    sure, it's not the first time, but the point is much more subtle: why use a laptop or desktop computer?

    What this is is the next level of miniaturisation, and it is an important one. There is fundamentally no difference between an iPhone or iPod and a computer - they all have input devices (keypads, sensitive screens, cameras), RAM, Storage, and output (audio, video, files).

    an iPhone with a beefier processor, some USB ports and a mini HDMI port (a la Macbook) and you have your next desktop replacement device. Not only would you have phone calls, but with an HDMI - VGA adaptor, you have a screen to do world processing, image editing, video editing, audio editing, 3D, whatever.

    It's the next big deal.

    RS

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    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  5. I know it's unfashionable... by eyrieowl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    to refrain from complaining about a kdawson post, but I saw this early this morning and thought it was cool as well. So sue me. Yes, people have been drawing on computers for a Long Time with lots of different input devices; and no, it's not the best tool (portable or otherwise) for drawing with. And I detest all the often-unmerited love that Apple gets...but this was cool, it is an example of how, even on a converged device that can't touch dedicated devices, technology has become accessible enough that people are able to do real worth with it, no matter where they are. It's similar to Chase Jarvis and his iPhone pictures. It's not the best camera, not even the best camera phone, but it's both a demonstration of how art isn't about the technology, it's about the artist; and it's a demonstration of what we could each accomplish with even these limited tools if we had the talent and discipline to use them to their fullest. It's not, to me, about it being an Apple product, it's about art, talent, and the progress of technology.

  6. Re:So what's the news? Something subtle. by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Calling an iPhone a communications device is like calling a computer a word processing device. Apple has made damn sure with all of their marketing that people associate more than communication with the iPhone, it's made out to be more like a PDA with a phone program than a phone. And I doubt this is the first time an artist has made "print-ready" work (for various definitions of "print-ready") from a PDA. This still seems like a piece of Apple fluff.

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    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  7. Re:So what's the news? Something subtle. by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A "real artist"? I don't even know what to say to that. You must have been living under a rock for the past 4000 years. If there's such a thing as a "real artist" it's the artist who challenges conventions, like by presenting a finger painting as print-quality commercial art. Art is all about expression, and I can't think of anything artsier than noticing a poignant urban scene and sitting down on the spot and spending a few hours capturing it. Not a color-accurate, realist perfect reproduction but a blurry finger painting just enough to communicate what the artist was feeling.