April 1, 2001 Issue
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I can't believe how quickly the time has
flown by. I have received a lot of good comments on my web-ezine,
and some quite useful suggestions. Many of you have forwarded it
on to family and friends. Thank you.
As Spring days start earlier, and stretch
out longer, I find more time to play. (Shouldn't we all take that kind
of time?) With so much to see and do, a great pleasure is to
take my digital camera wherever I go. You just never know when a
photo opportunity will present itself and no sketch book or paint box is
handy! So, as April days warm the earth and warm our hearts, get
set for some marvelous opportunities to have FUN!
Next issue: Teachers and teaching |
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Some Tools Of My Trade:
From digital camera to Printer
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For many years I have
used a camera to capture a fleeting moment in time. "That will make
a great painting!", is the thought that goes through my mind, as I reach
for my tool; the 35mm Pentax camera loaded with color slide
film. The slides, when viewed on a screen (or hand held viewer) appear
three-dimensional and bring back that special instant. No matter
if the photo is not perfect, I as the artist, can fill in details or leave
them out in the finished painting.
Photographs or slides also give me an accurate
record of architectural details I could not possibly remember in toto.
Two years ago I updated my research tool by
purchasing a digital camera. Mine happens to be a Sony Mavica FD91,
which uses a 3.5 inch floppy disk to store the images. (For more
information about Mavica cameras go to www.sony.com). I purchased
mine at www.cameraworld.com. It is a good source to purchase the
one you choose to meet your needs.
I purchased a photo management software from
www.cquick.com called SHOWCASE that organizes by keywords all the pictures
I have taken, (as of today, over 21,000). I use these photos for
research. Of, course, I take personal family shots of children and
grandchildren, art shows and more.
I use Adobe Photoshop for color correcting
and manipulating the size and quality of the image. Once I have the
composition selected, and the color and quality I want, I will print out
a copy to use for a final painting. |
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My computer is a pc
built especially for my requirements. It is a Pentium III ,
933 mhz, with 768 megabytes of memory.
In order to get the best quality of reproduction
of a painting, I paint nearly always 12" X 17" (or smaller) watercolors,
gouache or pastels. This permits me to scan the image directly; thus
giving me control of the quality and color, which may degrade if there
are too many steps in-between. The scanner I use most frequently
is a Microtek Scanmaker 9600 XL, a flat-bed scanner that scans up to a
12" X 17" image at 600 DPI optical. My other scanner
is a Microtek Scanmaker 5, a flat-bed scanner that can handle up to 1000
DPI optical on an 8" X 14" painting. It also has the capacity to
scan 4" X 5" transparencies or 35mm slides at 1000 dpi optical.
Go to www.microtek.com for more information.
Once the image has been scanned and saved
into the computer, I use Photoshop to color correct the image to exactly
match the original art. The image is printed on a Hewlett-Packard
1120C on high quality bright white 80# cover stock with a neutral PH factor.
Hewlett Packard's website is www.hp.com.
The final step is signing and numbering, packaging
and presenting the artwork: but that's another story.......
In today's high-tech world, I don't know how
I'd get along without the tools of my trade.
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