Prints on Wood Blog

Not going to lie, I decided to review this app solely based on how sweet the icon looked.  Granted we've been conditioned from a very young age not to judge a book by it's cover, this is one of the incredibly rare occasions where it totally payed off!

A few weeks ago I reviewed Adobe's Photoshop Express and was disappointed.  Although it was a somewhat decent app, it lacked everything that I love about Photoshop and overall felt kind of cheap.  To put it lightly, Picsart snatches the baton from PS Express and runs a marathon with it.

The first thing, upon opening Picsart, you are welcomed by a collage photos from other users.  Picsart hosts its own community within the app which allows users to share images as well as enter them into peer-reviewed contests.

Picsart allows you to select pictures not only from your iPhone, but from your Dropbox, Flickr, Google+, Facebook, and Piccassa accounts as well.  I find this incredibly novel since I have many different digital assets strewn across several different devices and services, so the ability to draw from several different accounts is very convenient.

For this app review, I decided to snap a picture of POW's resident tough guy, Robbie.  Something about that grin is just… evil.  With the help of Picsart, lets see if we can smooth out Robbie's rough edges, shall we?

After selecting Robbie's photo, the first thing I immediately picked up on was the user interface of Picsart, it was just as clean and polished as it's icon.  Over the years, the look and feel of websites have clearly gravitated to an oversimplified style.  Modern Design now capitalizes on a "Less is More" approach by stripping things down to the bare essentials.  Picsart's UI completely owns and understands this.

Although boasting an incredibly sleek design, Picsart's tools and features are so layered and numerous, it'll take some dedication to harness the full command of it's abilities.  I've worked with Illustrator and Photoshop for 10+ years, and even so, I found myself getting lost at times working with this app.  Not lost as in an unsettling "Where did I put my car keys?" kind of way, but more in an Adventurous/Explorative kind of way.  Whether you're familiar with Graphic Design or not, it's only a matter of time until you're able to find your rhythm with Picsart.

All of the standard photo editing tools are present, but what really grabbed my attention is that where apps like Tadaa or PS Express leave off, Picsart is just getting started.  Picsart is so dynamic I could spend every week writing a "How To" about each tool available.  Instead, lets go over some of the more unique features Picsart offers.

Picsart allows you to isolate certain colors in your image with the Replace Color feature, which allows you to transform the unselected colors to greyscale, making your selection pop.  You can also use this feature to change the selected color entirely.  In both instances the transformation is incredibly smooth, devoid of jagged edges.  It should be noted the accuracy of this feature is on par with the same feature included in the desktop version of Photoshop.

My favorite aspect of Picsart was the Drawing tool bar, which offered wide selection of pens, brushes, shapes, text/fonts, and cropping tools.  One feature that really got me excited was the ability to create layered images, much like in Photoshop/Illustrator.

The Layers tool is worth the (free) download alone.  If you've got a lot going on with your photo in terms of editing and effects, layers can simplify the process greatly.  Picsart even allows you to change transparency of each layer with different filters.  Once again, much like the desktop version of Photoshop.

Poking around, I noticed more awesome little features like clipart (stickers), borders, frames, and effects.  On top of an already comprehensive selection of added effects/features, Picsart also offers additional image libraries for borders/clipart at a cost.

I know in my review of PS Express, I criticized similar pay features that app offered, so why is this justified now?  It's because the standard features offered in the basic Picsart app makes it feel like a complete, fully fleshed out application.  PS Express on the other hand felt like you got half up front for free and had to shell out money for the rest.  Also, the pay features offered in PS Express didn't look any more exciting than what was already available.

So now that I got a chance to monkey around with all Picsart had to offer, lets see how my final image of Robbie turned out.

How precious! All of these lovely additions really bring out Robbie's inner Popeye. Now let's see how this looks printed on Natural Gloss.

Wow, what a dreamboat! Move over autographed picture Scott Baio, this handsome Robbie print is going on my nightstand.

So all in all, what was my final impression of Picsart?

As I mentioned at the start of this article, I downloaded this app on a whim and thought it was going to be a stinker, but was completely blown away once I got the ball rolling.  The UI is incredibly smooth and responsive.  Given the large scope of features offered in this app, I'd definitely recommend trying this out on iPad.  Working with the iPhone was fun, but felt a little claustrophobic.  Out of Tadaa, PS Express, and Picsart, I highly recommend downloading this app first.  Although the learning curve might be steep for a first-timer, once you get the hang of it, there's definitely huge potential for fun.

For more information on this app, please visit: http://picsart.com

Ahoy me irish laddies! Tis be ah foine daye ta sayvin sum green, ya hear? (I know, I'm sorry... me writing in an Irish accent is almost as bad as me trying to speak in one.) It's that time of year again where everyone pretends to be Irish as a flimsy excuse to get wasted, but instead of doing something you'll regret this year, why not do something a little more memorable?

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, why not order a wood print and get drunk off of some memories! From March 7th thought March 18th, Prints On Wood has decided to celebrate St. Patty's Day with 25% off all custom wood prints!

Back by popular demand, here's a 30 sec cartoon of Owly the Owl jabbering about our awesome St. Patrick's promo!

Wood prints of your children don't have to be a picture of something incredibly embarrassing. Sure, you think it's cute to immortalize that picture you snapped of them dumping a bowl of spaghetti on their head, but when they grow up, they'll secretly hate you for it.

Kids are only cute and adorable for so long, then before you know it, they grow into a sweaty awkward teenager that smells like a cheeseburger.  Instead of something that makes you laugh, why not remember something nice... something the two of you can look back and laugh about together?

SPOILER ALERT: He didn't draw that.

Why not make a wood print of your kid's art?  Kid Art allows adults to see the world through a child's eyes.  What they're thinking of, what they're going through, and most importantly, what they want to be when they grow up!

Me too kid... me too. :(

Speaking of kid art, this week we donated a few very special wood prints to The Centennial Guild of Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

The paintings used for these wood prints were created by the children at the hospital. This beautiful series of wood prints will be auctioned off at the The Centennial Guild's upcoming charity event: BLOOM, taking place March 14th.  The proceeds from this event will be donated to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

Here's a modern art masterpiece by 12 year old Matt, how profound. Regardless of his circumstances, this young boy was able to capture the beauty of the world around him with a paint brush.  Gets me right in the feels.  It almost makes me feel kind of silly when I think about what I was doing at the same age. (Playing NBA Jam on Super Nintendo)

So order a custom wood print of your child's art today, we promise it will look WAY better on your wall than it does on the fridge.

Why do I own a Mac, enjoy the films of Luc Besson, and listen to Refused? Because I have a "Cool Older Brother"... or at least that's what he would say if you ask him. When we're not arguing over who's stealing who's jokes, he's usually reminding me how incredibly lame my life would be without his guidance.

While the urge resist these claims are deeply embedded in my "Lame Younger Brother" brain, I'll have to admit there's a slight modicum of truth to his claims. If it weren't for his constant ridicule, I'd probably be driving a raised truck while blasting Kid Rock on my way to pick up a new Famous Stars & Straps belt-buckle at Zumiez.

Enter Eric Fan, a man who is quite literally the world's Coolest Older Brother. This week we were able to speak with Eric as he discusses his telekinetic relationship with brother Terry, and offers the insight and wisdom of that only an older sibling can experience.

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POW: While doing research on yourself, I discovered that you work a day job as a driver for a construction company, and that when you draw, it's during your free time. Do you feel that having a normal day job encourages you to maximize your efforts when illustrating since your free time is incredibly limited?

ERIC: Yeah, definitely. It's tough sometimes because after a long day at work my motivation is sometimes limited to "What should I watch on Netflix tonight?". It's really only weekends when I can accomplish anything significant because you need a kind of mental firewall from your work week to get into a creative frame of mind (at least, that's how it is for me). Once I find that headspace I definitely try to capitalize on it and stay there for as long as possible, sometimes to the detriment of my living space which typically falls into ruin if I'm working on something in earnest. I do wish I had more time to work on art, but who knows... maybe if I had unlimited time it would create a new kind of paralysis.

ESCAPE by Eric Fan

POW: As we all know, your brother Terry is also an artist as well. Being a (little) brother myself, I recall several instances where I was not allowed to touch my brother's belongings, while he had free reign to borrow/break any of my possessions whenever he saw fit (at least that's how I remembered it :P). Although the two of you seem to be very close, did you have any similar experiences with Terry when the two of you were growing up?

ERIC: Haha, we're actually only a year and a half apart in age, so growing up we never had the typical older brother/younger brother dynamic exactly. I'd liken it more to being twins since people would sometimes mix us up and we had that close relationship, psychic mind-meld, that twins seem to have. I think in part that's because we moved around so much when we were younger. It was hard to make friends since we were never established in one place for very long and so we tended to rely on each other. It's funny, but in some ways that rootless existence probably influenced both of us in terms of fostering our early imaginations. I remember we developed this very elaborate alternate world when we were kids that we would talk about, illustrate, and draw maps of. Not to get too psychoanalytical, but looking back I think it was partly that lack of a constant "home base" that inspired us to create an imaginative one that we could carry around with us from place to place. That became our constant. Our first collaboration, in fact, was when I was around four or five and we transformed our bedroom into a proxy of this world by covering the walls with drawings.

AUTUMN CHAMELEONS by Eric Fan

POW: Both of your styles definitely seem to compliment each other. In regards to the steam-punk/old-timey style that you and Terry embrace, did one of you create that style and the other followed? Or was it something the two of you built upon together?

ERIC: I think I was the first one to go in that direction. It's definitely an aesthetic we've both always been attracted to, but I think I was the first to start actually drawing stuff in that style. Terry's work at the time was a lot different than what it eventually evolved into. I remember him doing these crazy, Gary Baseman-like drawings that were actually really cool. Around the same time I had just started doing t-shirt design and my first printed design was The Helium Menagerie, which had that vintage, old-timey look. After that Terry started doing some t-shirt designs and employing some of those same signatures, but I've subsequently taken a lot from him as well since then. It's kind of a back-and-forth of seeing what the other person has been doing and getting inspired by that, and vice versa. Maybe the twin mind-meld is still at work.

THE CHAMELEON COLLECTOR by Eric Fan

POW: In addition to working with your brother, you have collaborated with several different artists as well, one of them being POW artist Viviana Gonzalez. I find this very interesting because she is in Chile and you're in Canada. Could you please describe your collaboration process with us and what steps are necessary to complete a piece of artwork with another artist?

ERIC: In the digital age it's pretty easy, actually. I was already Facebook friends with Viviana and always admired her work, so when she approached me about doing a collaboration I thought it would be fun, and interesting to see how our styles could possibly mesh. Her only instructions were that she wanted a character riding a penny farthing, so I drew the character and sent her the layered file and she transposed it into some of her imaginative environments. It was really as simple as that. Not every collaboration is that easy but it's nice when the person you're working with has a clear idea of what they want and you can trust them to do their thing without any interference.

MUSIC MAN IN THE WOODS by Eric Fan and Viviana Gonzalez

POW: I've read that the recent surge of print on demand businesses over the past couple of years (such as Prints On Wood) rekindled your passion for creating art. In your opinion, why do you think these websites are beneficial to up and coming artists, and what advantages do they offer?

ERIC: I think the beauty of print on demand sites is that they offer artists a great platform to showcase their work to a wide audience that wouldn't have otherwise been available to them. The internet has really thrown open the door for artists to a global market, which is pretty unprecedented and amazing when you stop to think about it. For an artist like me who enjoys working on their art without any deadlines or having to meet the criteria of a client's brief, it's been a godsend. I know some artists who thrive under that pressure, I've just never been one of them. Print on demand sites allow for enormous autonomy and creative independence, and I love the communities that tend to develop around them, with the opportunity to interact with other artists you admire as well as getting to know the people behind the sites themselves (like Prints on Wood) who also tend to be creative and passionate about art. It's incredibly inspiring and motivating to be a part of that.

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Thank you Eric, we're glad to have ya!

To learn more about the weird wonderful world of Eric Fan, please visit his website at: http://www.krop.com/opifan64/

Every angst-filled teenager knows that happy music doesn't make sad people happy... sad music makes sad people happy!

Think about it... if you're in a funk and someone starts blasting "Shang-A-Lang" by the Bay City Rollers, more than likely you'd want to punch them in the face. (Although, in all fairness, I think that song makes everyone want to punch somebody in the face). On the flip-side, if you're bummed out and "Please, please, please, let me get what I want." by the Smiths comes on the radio, you start to smirk while feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

What in the hell does any of this have to do with Ania Tomicka and her paintings? Well, the way she paints is just as bittersweet and tender as Morrisey when he sings in that beautiful Kermit The Frog voice of his.

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POW: Certain elements of your work contain popular themes found in Manga, such as the delicate features and overstated eyes in your painted subjects. Would you say that your style is heavily influenced by Japanese animation/comics?

ANIA: My style is heavily influenced by american pop surrealism, like Margaret Keane, Mark Ryden and others. I believe that the entire movement is in some degree influenced by manga, so I should say yes, even if I am not a huge fan of japanese animation, although one of my heroes is Hayao Miyazaki with his melancholic animated films that I adore.

THE GIRL WITH THE IRONY MASK by Ania Tomicka

POW: I noticed that you post your drawing exercises onto Facebook quite frequently. For someone with an obviously huge amount of artistic ability, some people might question why a person like yourself would need to practice something you're already good at. Could you please describe what the purpose of these exercises are, and how do they effect your style if at all?

ANIA: Thank you so much, but I feel like I always lack artistic skills to do what I really want. This is why I love to study and watch tutorials, each one teaches me something new. I want to master the oil painting technique to be able to express myself better I can, I think is very important. Also I would like to show others that only with hard work, with learning and exercising you can obtain whatever you want and pursue your dreams.

Anatomy Artist Workout Day 2 by Ania Tomicka

POW: Not only do you paint traditionally, but you're also well versed in painting digitally. Some artists struggle when attempting to bridge the disconnect between illustrating on a tablet or mouse as opposed to more traditional methods. What were some obstacles you've experienced when creating art digitally, and how did you overcome them?

ANIA: I love digital painting, for me is something really relaxing. You can make a lot of mistakes and don't care much about it because you can fix all in 5 seconds, it's amazing!!! I was lucky enough to be able to do it without obstacles, because once you are able to draw traditionally, and your hand is used to it, digital drawing and painting came really easily! Well, I am not very good yet, but my plan is to improve in this field too.

Digital illustration created in Photoshop with the aid of a intuos 4 tablet by Ania Tomicka

POW: Most of the characters in your paintings appear to be incredibly morose. Is there any reasoning behind this reoccurring theme, such as a reflection of your temperament during the time of each painting? Or do you find joy in painting sad people?

ANIA: I believe I am a morose person, yes! Lol... just kidding! I love melancholy, it's something that makes me happy even if it's a quite sad feeling. I need to feel this way to paint, it's something that keeps my art going. Even in paintings of others, I love to see deep and sad feelings... well, it's hard for me to explain myself, I don't want to seem like a sad person, I am usually very happy.

LISTEN TO ME by Ania Tomicka.

POW: We've noticed that much like yourself, many of our Gallery Artists are international. Do you feel that Prints On Wood allows artists who live outside the US to grow a larger fan base? How has the response been so far?

ANIA: Sure, I had a nice response from your website, I saw that some of my prints were viewed buy a nice amount of people, so I am really happy about that!!! Also I am happy because I am among amazing artist and I am really grateful for this!

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Views? C'mon people, we can do better than that! How about showing Ania some love with a wood print or two.

Thank you Ania, your english is perfect! ;)

To learn more about Ania Tomicka, visit her website at: http://www.aniatomicka.com/

Born in the deepest darkest corners of my nightmares, Jeff Soto debuts his fourth Elemental Seeker: METAL. Though he has no eyes, METAL stares deeply into my soul... judging me silently with his blank soulless expression. Now you can hang METAL on your wall and spend many sleepless nights second guessing whether or not you closed that door before you went to bed (after waking up in a cold sweat). :D

This 6" x 6" / 0.75" thick wood print retails for $30 and will go on sale for a 24 hour timed-release starting Thursday, March 6th at 12:00 pm.  The timed sale will end on Friday, March 7th at 12:00 pm, where METAL will return to the dark embrace of the shadows from whence he came.

As we've discussed in the past, Prints on Wood allows you to manipulate your photos with Image Effects, or what I like to call, Photo(Wood)Shop.  Last time we discussed how to upload your image and use the Effects tool to change the color scheme of your picture.

After playing with several image apps/features for potential reviews, I'm over all the standard features like filters, brightness, red-eye, etc.  I'm craving something that requires creativity!  I want to play with something a little more "wacky".  That's why I'm going to show you how to use the Stickers tool this week.

First, lets upload the photo we'd like to use for our custom wood print. For this exercise, I'm using this photo of my friends and I at Comic-Con last year...

As you can see, just like my three colleagues, I'm thrilled to have my picture taken while drinking what obviously appears to be a cup of.... uh... "water."  (Sorry, my Boss reads this blog)  Sure, we're all incredibly young and good-looking, but that can't save this picture from falling a little flat.

So how are we going to spice this baby up?  With stickers, that's how!

Just like last time, after you upload a photo and choose a thickness, orientation, and size, click the green button on the right side of the screen that reads Add Image Effects.  Once you do, your screen should look like this...

Now, to access the Stickers tool, click on it's respective icon on top of the Photo Editor window.  It should look like the kind of guy who would tie a beautiful woman to a set of train tracks while wearing a striped shirt.

Clicking on this icon allows you to access all of the stickers we offer in our Photo Editor.  Oh Golly Jeez!  Boy do these look fun!

To apply a sticker onto your photo, click one you'd like to use and drag it onto your image.  The sticker should become framed by a black outline with an X in the top left hand corner and two arrows in the bottom right.

The arrows in the corner allow you to scale and rotate your sticker.  The black X deletes it.  Once its scaled and rotated to your liking, click the box/sticker in the middle to move it around your image.  After you agree on a location, simply click outside of the frame (anywhere on your photo) to make it disappear.

Now that we're familiar with the basics, lets get down to business.

The young lady to the right of me, Raphael, is a big Dr. Who fan (or at least she pretends to be on Facebook) and has a gigantic crush on both David Tennant and Matt Smith (I'm more of a Tom Baker man myself). So lets slap some 3-D shades, a fez, and a bow-tie onto this picture.

I dragged the stickers I'd like to use onto my picture, but they obviously need a little tweaking.  Using the rotate/scaling feature, I was able to scale and adjust these items to make Raph look like the Thirteenth Doctor.

Let's move onto my fabulous friend standing back to back with Raphael, Brandon. Despite that bad-boy glare he's shooting the camera man, he's a gigantic dork.  He tries his hardest to hide this behind his bedroom eyes, but with the magic of Stickers, the truth will come out of hiding!

HA!  LOOK AT THAT!  I TOTALLY GOT YOU BRANDON!  WHO'S THE DORK NOW!?

Aw man, what's this?  Brandon's hat is overlapping Raph's fez since I put it down afterwards.  Not to worry, clicking on a sticker brings it to the forefront of the image.  This comes in very handy if you're placing multiple stickers on your custom wood print.

There we go.  Niiiiice and dorky!  But let's not forget about Michelangelo on the far right.  If you've ever been in a bar and heard someone shouting "WHOOOOOOOOOO!" in an inebriated stupor, it's probably our good friend Mike.  Let's just say she has a preference for a particularly strong drink hailing from south of the border.  To best reflect the aftermath that occurs after she downs several of these drinks, lets throw some racially insensitive stickers on here, shall we?  (For those of you questioning the morality of this situation: It's ok, I'm Costa Rican!)

¡AY CARAMBA!

I feel like something is still missing here though.  I mean I spent 3/4 of this blog slapping stickers all over the heads and faces of my friends, but not so much on myself.  It almost seems a little unfair, doesn't it? ;)

Oh wait! I know how to even things out here!

Bubbles!  *Bloop-bloop-bloop*

There we go!  Wouldn't want people to think anything other than good clean fun goes on around these parts, now would we?  (Once again, my Boss reads this blog)

If you're like me, and you're satisfied with using the Stickers tool to mock your compatriots, click the blue APPLY button to the right of the stickers bar to save these effects.  If at any point you are unsatisfied, just click the CANCEL button to the left of the Stickers menu and your image is reset.

So have some fun, try it out, and if you order a wood print using these effects, take a picture and let us know!

Ever been so excited about something that you just can't stop talking about it!? Well, that's exactly how we feel about our newest timed-released: The Crystal Waterfall by Tara McPherson!

On sale through the week and ending on Friday, February 28th at 12:00am, this gorgeous crystal blue half-inch thick wood print stands at a monolithic 15" x 25" and is ready to hang right out of the box!

What a babe! I've been staring at this print for so long I can still see it when I close my eyes! Retailing at $175, kiss that new Xbox One goodbye and get something that will actually impress the girl you like when she finally agrees to come visit. (A man can dream, can't he?)

Time is running out, get yours today!

So far we've primarily reviewed photo apps for the iPhone, but if you've browsed our website, then you know we also sell fine art prints as well. I've noticed that more traditional artists struggle when trying to make the transition from a finished painting/drawing into a digital image. Most of the time the image is scanned into a computer, and if you're really old fashioned, sometimes it's photographed (hence the printing term "camera-ready art").

Sure you can create an illustration entirely in Illustrator (or Photoshop if you're a sadist), but if you're more familiar with pens, pencils, and paint brushes, trading them in for a mouse and a keyboard forces you to confront a soul crushing learning curve.

That's what I love about Paper, it's perfect for artists who want to dip their toe into the ocean of digital illustration. It's even fun for those more well versed with creating vector based illustrations (like myself). Paper includes all the fun of drawing with pencils, pens, markers, and paint brushes just minus all the mess. Using your iPad as a canvas, Paper is basically a digital sketchbook.

When you open the app you notice a series of sketchbooks. The first one reads like a "How To" displaying all the wonderful possibilities this app can offer. The rest are blank. Paper allows you to name each sketchbook, and customize the cover with an image from your iPad's camera roll.

As you can see, I've barely opened the app and things have already started to get fancy! After creating a Prints On Wood notebook, it's time for us to test this sucker out.

Since I haven't drawn anything yet, my POW notebook is blank, but that's about to change very quickly. The base app is free, but only allows you to use 2 tools at the start, a fountain pen and a eraser. Paper offers several add-on's such as a color-mixer, pens, pencils, and paint brushes you can unlock at $2 bucks a pop.

Even though I'm normally turned-off by pay features in an app, Paper had so much promise I gladly handed over my money to unlock these features. All-in-all unlocking every feature rounds out to about $8. I know that might sound a bit steep, but once you see all the fun there is to be had by unlocking these tools, it feels like a small price to pay for such a dynamic app.

For this review, I'm going to draw a picture of myself. I'm going to start with the Pencil Tool and select a very light grey color to sketch out a rough draft of my ugly mug.

Unfortunately, I left my stylus at home the day of this review, so I had to use my fat finger. I felt that I was at a disadvantage getting started, but I soon realized that the controls are incredibly smooth and responsive. The only problem I experienced was having an incredibly sore finger/hand after a few minutes, so I definitely recommend using a stylus.

Now after getting the basic outline of my abnormally large skull drafted out. I selected the Outline Marker to sketch a fat black line around my fat head.

After using the Outline Marker, I used the Fountain Pen to illustrate all the unflattering details in my drawing.

After getting the screen of my iPad nice and smeary with all the wild hairs I drew on my homeless sailor beard and skull bush, I decided it's time to color this bad boy in.

Although I was unable to capture it, Paper has a handy Undo/Redo tool that involves placing two fingers on the screen and swiping them in a counter clock wise motion to Undo unwanted actions. If you're like my brother (who's master of the Over-Rewind technique when watching movies), rotate your two fingers in a clockwise fashion to cue up your drawing to Redo anything you might have undone accidentally.

Now lets take a look at my finished illustration after using the Watercolor Brush and Color-Mixer.

Wow... now I know how many a disappointed girl felt. It's like you can almost smell the Axe Deodorant!

Paper allows you to share your final images on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, in addition to saving the image on your iPad or sending it in an e-mail. The only downside (if you want to call it that) is that Paper's final images aren't incredibly hi-rez,. The largest wood print you're going to be able to print at is about 8x10.

Speaking of, lets take a look at the final image in glorious full color on Bright White.

Yeah, I know, I forgot to draw the double chin and about +40 lbs., but I'm working with an iPad mini here, so give me a break!

So how did Paper stack up?

Although the subject material was a tad... uh.... unconventional, Paper was an amazing app! The controls are perfect. There were little details that made every penny spent on each tool completely worth it. The Watercolor Brush would overlap naturally if you took your finger off the iPad and put it back to paint again, the Pencil Tool would draw a squiggly granite line, and the Fountain Pen would draw a thin line with a little swipe, and thicker, tapered line with longer swipes. Every tool available worked like it's real life counterpart.

When I come home from work, I like to unwind with some doodles to get all the silly ideas out of my head at the end of the day, and Paper makes me watch the clock anticipating that moment ever since I've downloaded it. In conclusion, Paper is a must have for anyone who can turn a sharpened pencil and a sheet of paper into hours of fun.

For more information on Paper, please visit: http://www.fiftythree.com/paper

Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo, and Raphael.

If you were born in the 80s, then those names might sound familiar to you. Granted we might not immediately associate them with the famous Italian artists that inspired these namesakes, but if there was a fifth Ninja Turtle, they would've been named Giulio.

This week we talked to Italian fashion artist Giulio Iurissevich. A man with a head of hair so gorgeous, he makes Jean Claude Van Damme look like Billy Ray Cyrus. Oh, yeah.... we also asked him a couple of questions too.

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POW: Your artwork is very chaotic and layered. When creating this style of imagery, does it help to have a thought process just as disorderly?

GIULIO: That's right, starting from the assumption that everyone's mind is disorder, with some exceptions, sometimes we think many things together, we associate one thing to another and we get lost in the fog: we speak with a person and think about what we will do later, wash the dishes and think about when we were 8 years old and went to the sea, and then we think about what we will do next summer... and so 'on... the mind takes us away... and life becomes chaotic, confused, often a repetition mechanical things... losing the beauty that generates all this .. that is the the source from which everything comes out, where there is silence and there is no confusion. My thinking is messy until I anchored in what I do... and all becomes silent. Inside, and I become what I do, losing myself in what I'm doing.

MORFAE by Giulio Iurissevich

POW: I feel that if we dissected your illustrations, each individual element would be strong enough to stand alone as it's own art piece. Why are you inspired to put so much into each image?

GIULIO: I think it represents the set of stories, of things, the patchwork of life, of people, of animals, of all the elements, which by themselves have a certain sense, their beauty, but they are always functioning at rest, and contextualized create new beauty, new meanings. Like the waves of the sea, which of course have their own sense alone, but are always part something more , that it has its own beauty, its own dynamic, so I think that alone we are no much more interesting. and all the waves of the sea are always part of something bigger.

ENVY by Giulio Iurissevich

POW: Do all of the combined elements in your artwork tell a story as a whole, or are they selected purely for aesthetic purposes?

GIULIO: Depends, everything seems to randomly assembled but nothing is random, as in life.

PN KILLS ME  by Giulio Iurissevich

POW: How did your artwork evolve over the years to reach your current style of mixing different images and mediums? Did you begin with one specific approach and then add to that over time?

GIULIO: My work has changed in a way it's true... has evolved from simple, clean lines to become this too. But I'm this and I'm that, and more and more without labels or fences... looking to meet me in my various aspects, unpretentious ...with different styles, identities, names.

MONKEY LISA by Giulio Iurissevich

POW: Through your experiences, have you noticed any great distinctions between the Italian and American art scene? Is one group more receptive to your work than others?

GIULIO: I do not want to be critical with Italy, for me it is a country folded back on itself, who wants to have everything but has nothing to give. Italians always give the best of them out of Italy, because they are valued. Because Italians are special out of Italy. This is all very sad to say, but it is a cultural paradigm. American art scene is a scene, Italy has not a scene today, has a group of artistic fragments who works outside.

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Thank you Giulio... fino alla prossima volta il mio amico!

For more information on Giulio Iurissevich, please visit his website: www.giulioiurissevich.com