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'iPhone Artist' Teaches Others How to Master the Tiniest Canvas

By Julie Shapiro | December 14, 2010 6:55am

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

BATTERY PARK CITY — In the time it takes most people to tap out an e-mail on their iPhone, David Stern creates a work of art.

Stern, 54, a German artist best known for his figure paintings, recently became fascinated with electronic drawing and uses his iPhone to create elegant portraits.

This week, he hopes to convert a new crop of digital drawing aficionados through a series of free workshops in the World Financial Center, sponsored by The Drawing Center.

"Drawing is not something that is just happening with your pencil," Stern told the four locals who attended the first workshop Monday afternoon. "Drawing is something that is happening in your brain. It’s about perceiving reality and abstracting it out."

As Stern draws, his index finger moves rapidly and precisely across the screen, leaving behind a trail of dots and curved lines that at the last moment merge into a completed image.

At Monday’s workshop, which focused on self-portraits, Stern helped attendees download apps like SketchBook and Zen Brushes, then set them loose to experiment.

"This is really fun," said Josie Yee, a Financial District resident who illustrates children’s books.

Yee said she creates all of her professional artwork on a computer, but she’s never worked on such a small device as an iPhone. The most difficult part was creating precise details just by touching the screen with her finger, she said.

Yee unequivocally considers the pixelated images art.

"It’s just a different medium, a different tool," Yee said. "it’s like using oil, acrylics, photography — they’re all tools."

Stern agrees, though he admitted he has yet to find a gallery that will display his iPhone drawings. Part of the problem is that no one has figured out how to sell them yet — Stern hopes to one day build digital screens that display a fixed set of images and offer those for sale.

Stern, an Upper West Side resident, is also working on a much bigger public digital art project called Pathways, which would place screens all over the city and encourage people to submit their iPhone drawings for display. He hopes to launch the project, and an associated app, within the next year.

Daniel Johnson, an Upper West Side artist who bought an iPhone a few months ago after a friend showed him the Brushes app, said at Monday’s workshop that he’s already hooked. Johnson spends his subway rides sketching fellow passengers and likes knowing that he has a virtual sketchpad on hand whenever inspiration strikes.

"You’re never without the means to create," Johnson said. "The challenge is to make it unique — it’s not about trying to copy another medium. It is what it is."

David Stern will hold free workshops in the World Financial Center courtyard Tuesday through Thursday from 1 to 1:30 p.m. The best drawings will be showcased on video screens in the World Financial Center on Friday.