EBOOK - INSIDE SENSUAL SURFACES

My new ebook is finished! "Inside Sensual Surfaces" takes an in depth look at four art pieces from my Sensual Surfaces Series. Forest Trail, Forest Trail 4, Forest Trail 5 and Bark 5 are the basis for this book. Images described in “Inside Sensual Surfaces” are created in Photoshop CS3. The enclosed images are broken down for viewing in layers, from selections, and then manipulated using filters and blending modes. Instructions on assembling, finishing, materials used and surface preparation are included in the instructions at the end of the CD.

The “Inside Sensual Surfaces” CD can be purchased on KathyanneArt 

Bark 5

Forest Trail 

Forest Trail 4

Forest Trail 5

CD Book and Internet Workshops

This is a preview of my new CD Book. Posted, is the book’s introduction, along with a look at some pages.

Entitled "Inside Sensual Surfaces", the book informs you how I started my Forest Trail and Bark pieces and what it takes to create them. The book gives an inside view on Forest Trail, Forest Trail 4, 5, and 6 and Bark 5. If you have any questions about the book you could contact me at Kathyanne Art. The book will be available at the price of $20.00 for a pdf download or $25.00 + $2.00 for shipping for an actual CD.


In January 2009, I will offer an internet workshop based on “inside Sensual Surfaces”. We will cover the technical aspect of the types of art pieces included in the CD. This workshop will expand on the basic information contained in the CD Book. The internet based workshop will take allow the participant to create an original digital image and learn some ideas for manipulating images. Printing images on various surfaces and delve into the multitude of techniques that I use to finish one of these textural pieces.


For details as they are available, sign up for my newsletter in the box on the right side of the blog page. Just enter your email address and I will add you to my newsletter list.

Printing on Aluminum Screen

I have been working with printing Aluminum Screen in order to get a good print on that surface. Here are some of my test prints. I really like this surface, where it will go from here, I have no idea.

I finished a tutorial ebook in Photoshop CS3 and in Photoshop Elements 6. The title is "Creating a Pattern from an Image" This and a few other tutorials will be available on my KathyAnne Art website probably later this month. These ebook tutorials are the beginning of a series of tutorials in the works.

Later this month I will also have a CD Book of my Forest Trail Series. This book will show the complete process from original image to completion of artwork from that series. The book will show how I create an image in Photoshop and then print cut and assemble the artwork from the image. After the first of the year, I plan to start my internet workshops and this CD Book will be one of the first workshops that I offer. That should keep me busy thru the Thanksgiving holiday.

What's New

Teaching some workshops outside of Ft. Collins Colorado was a great time. Met some wonderful women and loved the work and ideas they created. On Sunday the 19th we did a Textural Surfaces Workshop. I have posted some examples created- these pieces were done in 15 minute intervals, some in an hour. We worked fast with certain sets and variables for each composition. I was not able to put all the work here, but this is a pretty good selection. All sorts of materials were used in these pieces and it was inspiring to see the creativity expressed.

If you have a chance to visit the artists’ nook, you should check it out. It is in a scrumptious country setting, with a spacious classroom and Christine has some great products for sale. You could also go to her website to purchase products. What a nice facility! I loved spending time there. Give it a look!

I got back to my studio last Thursday and started working on some ideas that have been floating around in my head for a few months. It has to do with aluminum flashing and aluminum screen. Over the weekend I did some printing on these surfaces and was excited about the results. In a couple of days, I will post some pics of my results. Aluminum screen makes a great surface:)

Conference Call - Tuesday, October 7 th

On Tuesday, October 7th at 6PM pacific time, I will be giving a short talk and then answering questions on a conference call.

The topic for this month is "Printers and Coatings", I will talk about what printers I prefer for the many surfaces I generally use, as well as what digital pre-coats I prefer. After my 10 minute talk, you will be able to ask questions about this process. Your phone service long distance charges will apply, but there is no other cost to call in.

The number to call is 1-309-946-5200 the access code is 678225 please rsvp to
kathyanneart@mac.com

Please join me next Tuesday for an informative talk on the subject of printers and surfaces.

Also, don't forget I will be at the artists' nook in Ft Collins week after next. October 17th, during the first workshop, "Beginning Digital Printing on Fabric and Specialty Papers", you will learn all you need to start or continue digital printing with your inkjet printer. No experience necessary to take this workshop. All levels welcome:)

Digital Mixed Media Art Journal

On October 18th I will be teaching a workshop on using digital images in art journals. This workshop will be the second of 3 workshops at the artists' nook in Ft. Collins, Colorado. A fabric journal was started while I was thinking about this workshop. My inspiration is creating a journal using all sorts of digital images, printed on many surfaces and not using ideas that I have used before. Well at first this was going to be one journal, but with all the pages and thickness, I have split it up into 5 journals. I am almost done with the pages - only 2 more of the total 60 pages complete. Once the covers are finished I will finish the photographs of the journal pages.

The techniques are many and since the final compositions for the pages were all firsts to me, it was quite a challenge. It will be awesome to share all the ideas to use digital prints on many experimental surfaces during the workshop at the artists' nook.

Upcoming Workshops at the artists' nook

One of the greatest aspects of digital printing is what can be achieved with a little experimenting with your work and some creativity.

On October 17th I will be teaching a series of workshops in Ft. Collins Colorado. The first of the workshops is “Beginning Digital Printing on Fabric and Specialty Papers” and will enlighten the participants on what can be accomplished with digital prints. This class is not only informative, but can also open all sorts of doors in expanding to another media.

In this workshop we will learn about preparing surfaces, getting a quality print and learning how to create digital prints on surfaces that you may not have thought about. We will also use prints that have been previously printed to create small mixed media compositions or journal pages.

I will have a small 4” x 6” format printer by Epson with me and will demonstrate the use of carrier sheets for difficult surfaces. We will be able to use that printer to print small pieces.

These pages posted here are from one of my notebooks. This one has examples of all sorts of surfaces that I have printed. Here is a list of some of the surface examples in this notebook-

Transfers from ink jet transparency papers on dyed burlap, watercolor paper, metallic crinkle paper, lace paper, canvas and others
Transfers from gel media and Golden digital grounds
Transfers from gel media, dyed cheesecloth and inkAID semi-gloss precoat
Transfers from gel media, Golden mica flakes and Golden digital ground
Transfers from gel media and inkAID white matte precoat
Lutradur
Lutradur distressed by heat
Tyvec
Tyvec distressed by heat
Lace paper
Airiel paper with pumice gel coated with inkAID
Pima tex cotton with Golden digital ground
Pima tex cotton with inkAID semi-gloss precoat
Dyed canvas
Painted watercolor paper
Aluminum
Etc…………

All of these have been printed after the surfaces have been properly prepared. Some of the surfaces are easily printed, but some take a little more preparation and assistance to run through a printer.

To get a complete explanation of all this, join me for the workshop. It will be worth it.

Digital Fabric Journal: the beginnings

Lots of work to do in my studio this week. One focus is a new journal using fabric as the base. Next month I will be teaching several workshops in Ft Collins at the Artists’ Nook and some ideas have been rolling around in my head on ways to combine digital media with fabric. Inspired by working new surfaces, I started to put together a journal that has a fabric base.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week I am teaching a workshop on digital printing on uncommon surfaces. Should be an interesting and creative week!

I am posting pictures of the beginnings of my fabric base journal. I love working and creating on new surfaces. Here is a description of how it all started:

1- I cut 15” x 11” pieces of muslin, silk and pima tex cotton.
2- I painted the pieces with acrylic paint
3- Once that was dry, I coated the pieces with Golden clear digital ground ( by the way the digital grounds from Golden are on sale through the end of September at Jerry’s Artarama)
4- I designed images to over - prints my fabrics in Photoshop.
5- I used carrier sheets to run the fabrics through my printer.
6- I cut the fabric in half the long way leaving me with pieces 15” x 5.5”
7- Using gel media around the edges, I put 2 printed pieces back to back with a piece of colored silk in between. One of the pieced pages has dyed burlap in between.

Using forms of digital media and surfaces I have finished a couple of the pages.

The first set of pages posted in pictures-

digital print on canvas, some of which has been cut and woven into aluminum mesh has been attached with gel media.

Second set of pages –

on the left is a printed digital transfer created with gel media, attached to the muslin surface with gel media. The transfer is distressed by tearing and pleating the transfer - rolled digital prints wrapped with wire and hemp cord have been attached to the surface. The right side has a digital transfer adhered to dyed burlap, cut and assembled on the surface.

Third set of pages -

on the left is an assemblage of lutradur printed and heat distressed, torn, layered with beads to float the layers before attaching to the surface. On the right digital printed transfer made from gel media and Golden digital ground clear attached to the muslin surface with gel media

Details views follow at the end of the pictures.

Art Journal Notebook

I just started working on a new art journal and this week Inspire me Thursday is about altered notebooks. Thought I would post my beginnings....

Purchased at Michaels, the heavy weight paper pages measure 7” x 10” and are unlined. Originally the notebook contained a total of 125 or so pages. I glued 2 or 3 pages at a time, so now there are 58 pages. I painted the pages that I had glued together. Because I am rather impatient it took me 1 & 1/2 days to get the pages glued and painted. Just couldn't stop once I started that part. I love the way acrylic drys quickly in Arizona's dry environment.

Next....using my digital images, I printed on: lace paper, tyvec, matte paper, canvas, ribbed drawing paper, lutradur, a substrate made from gel media- cheesecloth and golden’s digital ground, and finally a transfer created with gel media and golden’s digital ground. I also used pages from a dictionary, dyed burlap, wire, hemp etc for collage. I tore some images, cut others and started creating some collage and writing. I still have 22 pages that consist of paint only waiting to be collaged before journaling on them.

For the cover I used heavy weight upholstery fabric. For the front and back outside cover I cut strips and pieces of the fabric, and then pieced them together with large stitches. Next some small circular gathered pieces were added. I anchored all the pieces with embroidery thread. Then I glued the front and back outside pieces to the cover with gel media. I added a strip of crocheted cotton yarn to the left front. For the inside covers, I found a piece of fabric that waspieced long ago with digital fabric. I used gel media to attach the scrap piece to the inside back cover and added smaller pieces of the upholstery fabric to fill in some spaces.

So here is a view of some of my almost finished notebook.

BRANCHING OUT WITH DIGITAL PRINTS

This months (and next) Cloth Paper Scissors arrived in my mailbox today. Although I knew it would be there, I was excited to see my “Branching out with Digital Prints” among the articles. The staff does such a great job with CPS magazine in publishing interesting articles, inviting visuals and some great “how to” information. I love looking through their pages every time it gets delivered. It is always a pleasure working with their editors. Be sure to pick up the September/October issue:)

Currently I am focused on writing some “how to” information in the form of ebooks. The ones in the works are about using Photoshop Elements to create interesting images for art journals and mixed media art.

Next year during Art & Soul Retreats in Hampton Virginia I will be teaching 2 workshops in Photoshop Elements. On April 30, 2009 the workshop will be “Photoshop Elements 101” and on May 1, my workshop will be “Creative Digital Scrapbook pages with Photoshop Elements”.

Although most of my work is created with Photoshop CS3, I love working on Photoshop Elements. The program is easy to use and although it doesn’t have some of my favorite features from the regular Photoshop program, it is user friendly. The learning curve for Photoshop Elements is less steep then CS3 and the price is reasonable.

The registration information on the Hampton Virginia Art and Soul Retreats will be on their website in mid September. I will put the link up when the site is ready.

New Journal Page Downloads

I'm at the Phoenix airport waiting for a plane to Buffalo. Our son coaches in the minor league system for the St. Louis Cardinals, so my husband and I are on the way for a visit to Batavia New York where his team plays. We will get to see Niagara Falls this trip, so maybe I will get some good pics for new digital designs:) Haven't been to the Falls since I was a little kid.

These are prints of the 10" x 22" digital pages that can be downloaded from my KathyAnne Art website. The link I put here and on the title will bring you right to the page for the new images.

I print these pages on Fabriano Artistico, hot press 140lb watercolor paper and then fold in half to make journal pages for a journal that ends up measuring 10" x 11". I loaded these images last week and if you want to try one for free, you can use the word awesome in the coupon box at checkout.

The prints are lightly colored, so that they can be written over in journals and then of course you can collage over them and create your journal space just the way you like it. I haven't gotten my examples photographed yet, but will post them in a future blog. Once you download, just size to your paper specifications and print.

Have a great week!!

La Jolla FiberArts exhibits Forest Surfaces

Catching up

A few weeks ago I shipped over 16 pieces to La Jolla FiberArts in La Jolla California. My show opened on July 28th with an opening reception on Friday night the first of August. The 3 days before I left for La Jolla I taught a 3 day workshop on digital printing on uncommon surfaces. Busy week and I am just getting myself to the bottom of the list that accumulated when I was out of my studio. At the same time, I have been scheduling several workshops and will be putting a list of these on my blog in the next week or so.

A big thanks to Lynn, Dan and Susie, from La Jolla FiberArts for the brilliant and wonderful job they did in hanging my show and putting on a beautiful spread for my opening reception. This work is a challenge to hang. I spent a great weekend at the gallery and appreciate all the work that went into the weekend to open my Forest Surfaces with success!

Contact Lynn or Susie at La Jolla FiberArts for information and sales.