More face fun

more digital doodling

More digital fun

Still playing away, decided to add some architecture for a quickie observational challenge. I'm enjoying using a reductive method in digital, kind of a virtual scratchboard!

Is it just me or is The Red Balloon one of those things that bores the snot out of you as a child and then as an adult you totally love it?

Doing the opposite....

I set up a challenge for myself - I don't usually doodle in a way I find visually rewarding, I don't usually use line or fail to use layers, and I don't tend to work in a very graphic way.

So: HB pencil only in my sketchbook.

Scanned, digitally colored - I was going for the look of a poorly registered print, somewhat.

Valentine faces!  Thinking of you (plural) - me plural making art, all my various visual personae duking it out to see whose style will actually win.

Print and Process - using the epson for hand-altered art variations

 

Here's one of my first prints - a mini print on a four inch MDF panel with rounded corners and hand-aged edges. Sweet huh?

Even sweeter is the way she came to be.  In this case, the evolution is right to left.

On the right, my original. Gouache and collage on a canvas, 6x8.  I know I want "more" in this image, it's not a finished piece, but if I had a dime for every time I added "more" to something I like and killed it, I would be a rich lady.  Now, with the epson and my stash of Somerset Velvet papers, I can experiment with much less potential artistic fallout. Whee!

In the middle: a hand altered print. This is a test print that misfired actually, cutting off part of the image. Waste not want not. I went back into her with more collage, more acrylics, intensifying and brightening -  and some stamping, even.

 (I'm such a hypocrite, the wide world of stamps opens before me, yay.)

Last, to the left is the mini print you see above.  The color fidelity is pretty good - I'm actually not a huge stickler for that, as long as it looks good and consistent among the final print outputs.  The only alteration here is a little distress ink aging and some light sealing. My original lives on to play another day and another way - let's see where else she goes!  

 Anyone else use their printer this way, not quite digital art and not purely analog art either? Comments are always welcome below!

Supply Side Fridays: The Epson R2000

I'll have a more unboxing-like feature on my printer at a later point.

Let's look at this quickly in overview.

I had some scratch, dedicated purely to a new printer. I knew I was going to get an Epson.  I went back and forth over which one, the 3800 or the 2000?

I realized that the 3800, while it is the better machine in terms of specs, is really just MORE machine than I need. My work - is generally small. If someone needs a large print, that's where I can enlist one of the outsourcing houses - I will probably never want to get into >22 inches for reproduction on an Etsy scale.

The footprint of my printer is pretty massive, and it has to live in my bedroom.  I can't imagine inviting the EVEN BIGGER 3800 in to stay.  The 2000 is a rollicking beast that vibrates like a washing machine, is picky about paper loading somerset velvet till you want to shout, and makes simply GORGEOUS archival prints that make you forget the pain immediately.

A printer is a tool, a medium, like any other, with a learning curve. I'm just getting started. However, one thing that also sold me on the 2000, is that a full set of ink can be obtained on Amazon for 30 some-odd-dollars.  That's the real Epson pigment inks - less than a refill on my crappy old HP all-in-one.  Wow!

One area of concern, is that the feeding process is kind of like hitting your head on the wall over and over. The art papers have to be fed through the back and the printer rarely wants to grab hold and play nice on the first try. I've heard that the feed issues are better in the 3800, but I'm fairly confident that this is NEVER a fun smooth process until you've lived with the machine a while.

As for inks? Man, they're beautiful.  And the detail that shows with a simple 600 dpi file is amazing. I think this machine is an incredible acquisition for any semi-pro or small scale pro and I am really glad I have it.  There is so much that an artist can do with this tool.  I'm going to be playing with the scrapbooking paper (acid free 2 side print capable) as a way to use my own works in mashups and collages and re-scaled formats, then reprinting them as ATC's and other works.

Here's to the beginning of a beautiful relationship.  The damage isn't too bad with the Epson rebate, either, keep an eye peeled for those.