KathyAnne Art Website

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Here you will get the latest on what is new. 

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Digital Alternative Surfaces Site

Don't forget—Digital Alternative Surfaces—

What's Coming Up!

My new sites are currently under construction. Please remember when I don't post here that I have an entire new thing going on at my Digital Alternative Surfaces sites. My plan is to build up videos and all sorts of workshops that you can take online. There will be a new store for supplies where I will have printing plates, fabrics and all sorts of goodies that I come up with from time to time.

Starting in June 2013 my studio will be open for groups or individuals to come for workshops. Students will learn both Photoshop techniques and be able to print on my art printers, so they will be completely trained on all the phases of digital printing. My new Smart TV makes it possible to enrich students with visuals to enhance their learning. More about this soon.

Any of you in the St. Louis area will be able to take my Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces workshop this August 10-12, 2013 at Craft Alliance.  This will be a basic three day workshop for you to learn how to print alternative surfaces. More details on enrolling for the workshop will be available when the Craft Alliance brochure comes out in April.

For 2014 my workshop schedule will take me back to New York to Hudson River Valley Workshops in April of  2014. April 28 to May 2, 2014. This time we will go forward in a workshop that is entitled "Digital Printing Alternative Surface Unleashed". We will get totally creative with digital printing.

This is the part I love. Now that my book will be finished in the next couple of months my workshops will be going to the next level. What we do with the prints, getting students up to speed on how to use their printers, getting their digital prints on alternative surfaces integrated in the art they want to create. It's going to be a wonderful 5 days. Before the workshop I will consult with each student so they can bring supplies tailored to their process and where they want to go in digital printing. Very exciting!!!!

Don't forget I will be at the SDA Conference in San Antonio and the workshop "Digital Alternative —From Flat to Dimensional" will be the first of it's kind for me and will push the digital printed surface in new directions. In this five day workshop each student will be encourage to gain competence in digital printing on alternative surfaces. Along with taking their work to a new level in printing and assembling.

Looks like my writing for my book "Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces: the definitive source" will be finished this week. Then we have to get it ready for the first test print so my team and I can actually see the book in our hands. Five of us are going to read and edit for changes or corrections that need to be addressed. When that is done we will publish. Won't I love that!!!!

Working on my Book

This is soooooo much fun.  For those of you who don't know I am working on a book about - what else- digital printing alternative surfaces.  

My team and I are going to be doing a small test book of a couple chapters, so I am busily finishing several parts of chapters for us to use.  Today I am working on pairing images to surfaces for the second section of the Recycled Chapter. This section of the chapter is about melting plastics and this afternoon I will be precoating the surfaces and sizing images for printing tomorrow. 

I won't be sharing any of the pictures from the book here - you'll have to wait for a copy when my book comes out in the spring of 2013.

If you want to get my latest posts on digital alternative surfaces make sure you visit my Digital Alternative Surfaces site.

This is part of my sister sites Digital Alternative Journaling

and Digital Alternative Studio.

I will be publishing an updated version of my "Wrap it Up: Journals with Style"  The updated version will contain videos interspersed through the book.  It will be available shortly as an iPad version.  Stay tuned on the release!

Back to Blogging

Lots of work going on with my upcoming book.  Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces:the definitive source.  Just finishing the beginning of the chapter on recycled surfaces of which beverage cans are first  This is the set up for printing on my Epson R3000.  A video on placing the cans on the carrier sheet and printing them will appear in the iPad version,  The video is just about done.

Aside from my book I've been a bit busy lately in a good way.  An article was due for both Maggie Grey's Workshop on the Web (December issue) and also Digital Art Creation Magazine.  The DAC magazine is free to read on the web and is also available on the iPad.  iPad versions are free for the next one at least and then you have to purchase it to read it on your iPad.  The iPad version will have videos.  The issue coming out soon I wrote on digital printing on silk and the next one is about digital printing recycled plastics.

Spent some time in Taos and did a keynote and one day workshop for SLMM-the Society of Layerists in Mixed Media.  Pretty long drive from here, but I got to see some of the balloons from the annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta while passing through Albuquerque. Very nice.  No pictures though, just looking.

During my drive to and from Taos I listened to the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.
I put off reading it for a long time since I heard rumblings of how uncool Steve was.  He is one of my heroes, so I didn't want to get up close and personal with his dark side.  It was a pleasant surprise when I looked at his quirks in another way and was very inspired with how he changed the world.  I loved the book and am reading the actual book now.  He is still one of my heroes. He was truly one of a kind.

So now we come to what I have been doing besides traveling and working on my book for the past month.  I have been putting a type of kit together combining inkAID precoats, fabric that includes an instructional video.  There are 9 fabrics and you can read about them on my Digital Alternative Studio website.

My enews will go out next week between October 23-25 and all the details are in there.  I have combinations of the fabric for sale on my KathyAnne Art site currently, but my video and other information won't be ready until early next week.  If you are on my enews you will be notified right away. 

Feel free to peruse my new sister websites.  Starting with Digital Alternative Surfaces you can see the other sites from inside links.  Or you can just visit- Digital Alternative Studio and Digital Alternative Journaling.   

Printers

I have been receiving a lot of emails recently about what printers I suggest.  My favorite has always been Epson's and I have 7 Epson's in my studio.  Why so many?  Because I use them in different ways

Well of course I have my largest and favorite is the Epson 7890.  Beautiful machine and once you figure out the quirks with printing alternative surfaces it is smooth sailing, a pleasure to watch as it prints and even better are the results.  This printer prints 24" wide and is around 225 pounds on the palette when it is delivered, so this or the larger printers take some room and you will need help setting them up.  

The 7890 will print a paper thickness of 1.5mm.  Epson Ultra Chrome K3 ink with Vivid Magenta pigment ink.

The next one down from that is my Epson R3000 (printing beverage cans in the photo).  This is a wonderful art printer work horse.  If I don't need the wider width of the 7890 this is my next go to printer.  Again this is a beautiful machine and has never given me any problems.  It is also the printer I ship to workshops and it has survived students from all over the place and printed constantly for hours at a time in the classroom.  I print all my beverage cans on this one and there is no noise that could be scary.  Some of the reason I can print beverage cans is the paper thickness.  This printer will print a paper thickness of 1.3mm thick around poster board thick.  I always measure my paper thickness before printing.  

This printer uses Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid Magenta- pigment ink.  

The Epson R3000 is my choice for entry level art printer.  They have sales on this and the other wide format printers from time to time that could save you some money.

The next  printers currently on the market are in the stylus photo wide format printer category.  I have own one of these printers and do not recommend it at all!!!

The Epson R2880 would be my choice after the R3000.  It was the printer of choice before the R3000 came out.  It has the same inks that the R3000 has and will print a paper thickness of 1.33mm just like the R3000.  The 2880 will take roll paper and print the same as the R3000 13" x 44".  So if you want to save some money it would be the one to get.  

Next is the R2000- the ink is different then the other 2 R Epson printers.  It is Epson UltraChrome Hi-Gloss 2 pigment ink. Again the paper thickness is 1.33mm  I have never printed with the R2880, but I own an R2000. From my personal point of view- skip the R2000 printer.  I have clients and friends with the R2880 and they have never complained to me about the printer.  I think the differences would be with the feel for the printer when you use it. If you are looking for this class of printer that will print 13" wide and 44" long my best is the R3000. The R2880 is a bit less money.

Both the R3000 and the R2000 are wireless and I love that feature on my 3000.  One of the nice things about the 2000 over the 3000 is the change from matte black to photo black.  In the 3000 to switch from glossy to matte of vice versa, you have to purge the other black ink from the lines.  it takes ink and time.  

In the 2000 both black inks are ready to use.  For paper thickness reasons and the way the front feed is undependable in the R2000 makes it the one printer I DO NOT advise artists to buy. I would rather stick to black matte ink and never purge my tanks to do the switch then use the R2000 every day. 

If it were my choice I would choose between the R3000, R2880 and the R2000 I would take either the 3000 or the R2880. Like I said I do know artists that own the R2880 and really like the printer. 

The R2000 will not even print a simple thin cheesecloth skin from the top feed. It scrapes the entire time it is printing. I does not have a platen gap, so you can't change the distance of the print heads from the surface. 

I have not used any of the printers in the Epson Artisan series.  They use dye inks.  Dye inks tend to fade.  Pigment inks stand up. 

 If you want to do any type of quality printing on alternative surfaces.  Your best bet is to do the entry level of the R3000.

You can always contact me about printers, but right now this is pretty much what I would tell you.  

All except that if you notice these are all direct pass through printers.  You will definitely need that to print alternative surfaces.  And don't forget, whatever printer you buy you will be able to learn how to manipulate it for your purposes.

Artist Profile Barbara Schneider

Fiber Artist Barbara Schneider 

"My ongoing interest in the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi, finding beauty in things that are imperfect, impermanent and incomplete is at the core of all my artwork.  I try to capture the essence of images made of light and movement, images that are in infinitely variable.  What does the eye see? What does the camera see" What does the mind see"

My Leaves series is an exploration and interpretation of natural images by enlarging and reshaping them.  I collect leaves, pods, flowers, grasses and look closely at their structure and shape.  In particular, I like to collect these natural objects at the end of summer when they have begun to wither and fragment.  Enlarging them in my work process allows me to see them as sculptural objects.  I look at the play of light upon surfaces and shaping the pieces introduces a new element-light and shadow interacting with the undulating surfaces."

In the first week of July this year Barbara Schneider spent a week in my workshop in Greenville New York at Hudson River Valley Art/Fiber Workshops.  It was an incredible group of woman who gathered to learn and experiment with digital printing alternative surfaces.  The artist's present were like sponges with the plethora of material thrown at them and the results were many awesome alternative prints. Barbara was no exception as we printed one of her leaf images on several substrates.  

One of the things I loved was the time we had (the workshop was 5 days) as I was able to spend a nice bit of time with everyone in the workshop while their images printed which included time with Barbara, her surfaces and images.  When you start to experiment with alternative surfaces a great place to start is trying the same image on the various substrates.  When you switch images you don't really get an overall view of what can happen in printing the variables. Above you can see Barbara's image on many substrates. Of course it is always hard to see in pictures, but the textures and impact of the image can still be seen.  Barbara made some notes about precoats and surfaces as she worked.
(If you click on the images you will be able to see more detail in the print) 

With her fiber art, Barbara has developed 2 processes that she uses to create her leaf pieces.  These processes and some background on how the concept developed and fits into her overall aesthetic is the content of her new DVD "Three-Dimnesional Fiber Art: Shape & Texture, Light & Shadow"just released.  You can view a snip of her dvd on the same page here.

The video workshop is available for HD and for Standard Video.

You can visit Barbara's website to see more of her work.  It's worth a visit to see her different series and the scope of her work. 

It was wonderful to meet and work with Barbara Schneider.  Her work is interesting, her attention to detail is inspiring and it's exciting to see her DVD first hand!  

Making Videos on Your iPhone

Making videos on my iPhone seems like a great idea.  I know when I want to capture a certain image as I am out and about, my iPhone is usually there and I can take the shot.  There are many apps for photography on your iPhone and Adobe even has a Photoshop Touch app now that is truly excellent to manipulate photos right on your iPhone or iPad.  Last month on my KathyAnne Art site I posted a workshop on Blending Images using the Photoshop Touch app for the iPad.

So I ask myself why not videos on my iPhone?  In my classroom in Texas in February I tried an experiment had some of the students shoot video from my iPhone, so I could edit them and post them for the classes private viewing.  This enabled me to be able to leave the participants with more information then would have been available in class handouts.  In another classroom situation the videos did not turn out as well, but it taught me a lot about how to go about it.

CLICK HERE

Recently I met Jules over the internet on a webinar about his program iPhone Video Hero.  If you click the link in the last sentence it will take you to his site.  It is a bit of a sales pitch, but I have taken his course and it has some really great content.  Plus Jules is accessible and answers email promptly.  If you are interested you should check it out on the CLICK HERE link above.

Here is a short clip of cutting beverage cans from my upcoming book on digital printing alternative surfaces and a video workshop series I am working on.  It's a practice set up from my iPhone 4s.

My Blog Hop Winners

Thanks to everyone who visited and commented on my blog during my part of the Sketchbook Blog Hop.  Remember it's still going on and all you have to do is go to Sue Bleiweiss's blog and see who is doing what next and what prizes are still up for grabs.  I chose randomly from all the entries from 3 blog posts the 2 here and the ones on Inside KathyAnne Art.  That was all due to technical difficulty on the morning of the 27th:) Tanks to all of you for hanging in there with the technical gliche.

I am happy to announce the Nancy won a years membership to KathyAnne Art and Jewels won the Alisa Golden book.  Congrats to both of you.  You'll get an email with details.

Thanks again for playing here.  Come visit any time!!

Sketchbook Challenge Blog Hop Take 2

For some reason my comments aren't working and I am not sure why.  My comments are working on www.insidekathyanneart.blogspot.com  Until I can figure it out follow that link and leave me a comment.  I apologize for this and will keep working on this, but since all the settings are correct I am just not sure what is happening.  Read the blog post below for details on the Blog Hop!!

And another update.  Seems like the comments are working fine here so go ahead and leave one:)

For all of you who were trying to figure out how to comment to my actual blog hop post- it is working now.  Look below for a free workshop on KathyAnne Art and how to find the coupon code.

Kathyanne