Minimalist Nude (4). Work like Picasso.

This video shows the great artist Pablo Picasso at work. He paints several minimalist pictures with just a few strokes. Lines in his drawings can be replicated in iWork with the Draw tool.



See previous posts here (finished work), here (steps) and here (video tutorial on curving lines in Adobe Illustrator). And have a look at the copy of Picasso's dog made in iWork.

The Dog. From Smooth to Wire-Haired (Changing the Shape's Outline)

Please read the article on how to draw Picasso's Dog here.

A reader writes:
Thanks for the tips on using the Bezier pen. I tried to make the jagged line, but was not successful, can you include any helpful hints? – Dawn


To change the outline of the shape (dog's coat) open Inspector and choose Graphic.


In Pages'08 there is only one suitable option – the first one in Graphic Inspector>Stroke>Picture Frame (the tope left one). 


Pages'09 greatly improved the choice of outlines, moving it from picture frames to lines: Graphic > Stroke > Line. Try whatever suits your project best. Here is what I got – all sorts of different breeds of Dachshund (read about them on wikipedia) from smooth short-haired to wire-haired. First, simple outline:

Next option, smudged line, more hair:

And a bit of avant-garde: 

And the outline curves fountain-pen-style:  

And a Japanese calligraphy style:

And a hairy wild dachshund:

And, finally, if you want to add colour, in Graphic inspector click on Colour Fill and on the colour well. When colour viewer opens choose colour (here it's Mocha from the box of crayons):

And remember, the same method can be used to 'write' exciting letters and numbers! Read these two articles on I Work in Pages:

Doodling Memorable Dates in Pages and Let's Design a Christmas Card in Pages

All images ©A.Anichkin

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook' (2012), follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages, like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook and add me to your circles on Google+ 

Doodles: Picasso's room

This is just a quick doodle I made in Pages while thinking about something else.

The picture is made of several shapes with colour fill, gradient fill and masked images. On the wall: a famous portrait of Picasso with bread buns as his fingers and on the door is a copy of his drawing Femme.
The door is an edited rectangle shape. Curved arrow on the floor is in response to a reader's question about drawing segments and curved lines for blueprints. Read more about this in the article 'Curving lines and shapes make them in Pages'.

Shapes are superimposed and continously moved backwards and forwards to achieve desired effect (under Arrange menu).

Please read a more detailed description of techniques used here:
'How to design a folder'
and have a look at Femme drawn in Pages with a description of how-to here:
Obama, Blues Brothers and Picasso: yes, we can

Simple tricks with photos: linked contents

Here is a list of links to articles about working with photos in Pages. All the tricks are easy to master with just the basic knowledge of how Pages work. The rest, as Albert Einstein said, is imagination.

Drag and Drop Direct from Mail
Preview Drawer trick: a quick way to select and import photos into Pages
Picasso's room: Simple drawings with photos, edited shapes and curved lines
Use Preview to update repeated formats

The Hughes Family templates: how to make collages and mosaics with photos
Happy New Year 2009! Drawing letters and images in Pages
Christmas graphics and clipart: a few easy tricks
How to change background in a photo
Remembrance theme: using background images
Obama, Blues Brothers and Picasso - yes, we can
How to separate people in the photo from the background
Remembrance poppies: make your own clipart
When picture wrapping pushes caption out of the text box
How to download photos
Blue conversions: a solution
Rose Cover: simple tricks with photos
Simple tricks with photos: fading from side to side
Fading out background image
Extracting photos back from Pages documents
No fuss with resizing pictures: use image fill

The list is updated as new posts are published.
Please come back to check out new tips and tricks.

Obama, Blues Brothers and Picasso - yes, we can

Like millions all over the Globe I was watching Barack Obama speaking in Grant Park, Chicago. I was crying, laughing, dreaming - and I started drawing doodles in an open Pages document.

I am a fan of the Blues Brothers, a musical comedy which was filmed on several locations around Chicago. One of the spots featured was the famous Picasso statue located in the Rt.Hon.Daley Plaza. In the climax scene of the movie, after running from the law the entire movie, they are finally approaching the tax assessor's office to pay to pay a Catholic orphanage's taxes - with the entire Chicago police force in tow.

Picasso! The Dove of Peace! The bullfights! And endless nudes!

I did a quick Google search and found La Femme - the famous Picasso drawing, consisting of just four crayon strokes. I pasted it into a blank Pages doc and tried to copy it with the Draw Tool from the Shapes menu in the Tool Bar.

I finished just when the mesmerised crowd heard the "Yes, we can" pitch from Barack -

Pages may not be a drawing programme, but a few simple things can be accomplished even when they are not meant to.

How to:

- use Draw Tool from the Shapes menu in the Tool Bar
- draw four curved lines over the imported Picasso image.

Use as many dots as you can and choose Smooth Path from Format>Shape submenu.

Please read these related articles on I Work in Pages:
Curving Lines and Shapes - Make Them in Pages
Creating Clipart and Original Shapes in Pages