Digital art isn't new. But when a friend told me that people are now creating art on their iPhones, I imagined that the art wouldn't be anything remarkable. Then David Kassan emailed me an example that he said he sketched very quickly from previous studies.

Like anything Kassan does, it was actually very carefully done. I'm hearing that a number of accomplished artists are experimenting with this approach, and I suppose that considering the popularity of the iPhone and the art-friendliness of Apple products, this shouldn't be too surprising.

I asked Kassan to send me his best example of iPhone art, and he emailed the below image.

early stage of the drawing

late stage of the iPhone drawing, from memory and from drawing studies

Kassan used the iPhone app (application) named Sketches, and a Pogo Stylus. He chose a grayscale spectrum and adjusted his "brush" setting so that it made the smallest mark possible—essentially, one pixel wide. He zoomed in (up to 800 percent) to make small marks, then zoomed back out to see how these marks worked in the larger composition, continually adjusting. He points out that although one can't change the "brush" shape, the opacity of the marks is adjustable. Kassan recommends that anyone interested in drawing on an iPhone remove any protective plastic he or she may have placed over the screen.

The New Yorker featured iPhone art using a color spectrum on a recent cover. Here's a link to a short video showing how it was done.

Is anyone out there creating art on an iPhone? We'd love to see your work. Please post here and share it!