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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!  

HOORAY, it's Monday!

One of my favorite things about Monday right now is that no matter how much I have to do or what state my studio and work is- I go to an hour and 15 minute  yoga class at Bend Yoga here in Prescott.  They only opened months ago and since I love hot yoga and could take classes only when I traveled- I was really excited to see they were here.  So I started with 2 days a week, went to 3 and now a couple weeks ago added Mondays!!!  I am back in my studio now and ready to start my day and although I worked my butt off for a bit earlier- I am energized and flowing creative energy.

On the agenda, more writing-  I have started my book on digitally printing alternative surfaces. For today I will finish the chapter on my 6 printers so readers can see just how I use all my printing tools.   This book will be crammed full of all sorts of information on my digital printing process.  I will do complete how to's on surfaces I have been creating and sharing and some new.  There will be information on printing with all 6 of my printers so surfaces will be designed for non-art printers also.  Coming up when I have finalized my table of contents I will post it.

Front of a cheesecloth skin.  The image is a detail of one of my digital mixed media pieces on slightly dyed yellow cheesecloth.

This shows the back of the above print on a cheesecloth skin.  The yellow tone of the dyed cheesecloth is visible as the base of the print.

Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces

Don't you just love the internet?  I recently returned from teaching a 3 day workshop for the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists.  I was also the juror of their show "Fiberwerkes 2012 and I gave the keynote at the dinner "Untwine Your Mind: Beyond Fiber". It was a brilliant week and I was surrounded by all sorts of wonderful people.  It was a great time and recently a couple people blogged on the event.  Diane Sandlin who was my "angel" in the classroom and everything else.  Then Leslie Tucker Jennison who is in the 8 That Create group I am in.  It was great to meet Leslie for the first time.  When you visit the link that is attached to Leslie's name, go back and look at this link also- it is about the workshop Leslie too from Mary Ruth Smith.  Mary Ruth was one of the instructors at the conference.  She was also one of the artist's I juried into the show and her work is just awesome.

Diane and Leslie beat me to any blogging on the subject and I wanted you all to see their posts.  I know for myself that every time I teach a new group or meet other artists interested in digital alternative surfaces I get all sorts of ideas on pushing this process.  So many ideas came to me when working on my keynote and researching the artists for my keynote.  I continue to grow, get tons of new ideas and spark my creativity!!!

So today along with the other links I will show you how to access one of my new domains.

Digital Alternative Surfaces.  I am building content in a few new places which will keep me hopping I the blog category and keep me creating and pushing the digital surface.  This is going to be a great year for creativity, but aren't they all? 

Pushing Forward with Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces

Going forward there are so many ways to push digital printing on alternative surfaces.  This new workshop that will take place in my studio on June 16 and 17 this year will take ideas further while sticking safely inside the perimeters of current printers.  Here is the information for this workshop.

Pushing Forward with Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces

June 16 and 17, 2012 

9AM to 4PM

Kathyanne Art Studio

930 S. Cowboy Springs Trl.

Prescott, AZ  86305

Workshop fee of $375.00 for the 2 days $50.00 supply fee due at workshop.

Deposit of $190.00  balance paid 30 days before workshop.

Contact me for registration- payment by check or paypal

My In-Studio Workshops have a 4 person limit

In order for a student to participate in this workshop they must have digital alternative printing experience.  A prerequisite such as my In Studio workshop on April 28 & 29,  “Getting Started with Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces”.   If you have not taken one of my digital printing classes before, you can take my online course “Getting Started with Digital Prints on Uncommon Surfaces” from the KathyAnne Art site to prepare.  Contact me for details.

This workshop will focus on extreme surface preparation for alternative digital printing.  We will be experimenting rather then creating finished prints, but you will print.  Cutting edge surfaces will be the goal.  We will also experiment with after print processes like encaustics.  Sewing may be included, but I have several machines and plenty of supplies.

We will use altered kozo bark and pound it into amate bark paper, dry, coat and print.  Amate bark is an amazing surface for printing if constructed correctly.  This technique may be used with other fiber.  Surfaces will be built and techniques shown to make sure substrates will print safely.  Feel free to bring some prints or pieces of prints to experiment with some of the after process ideas.  Some of my prints will be available to use so that students will be able to experiment with some construction ideas.

This will be an adventurous and uniquely experimental day.  

A laptop will be helpful.  Images may need to be altered to fit the size and the look of your surface.  I will have jump drives to move and load images for printing.  

When building surfaces elements may be added that could affect the look of the final print.  We will scan and/or photograph these types of surfaces in order to create a print based on the substrate. 

Bring lunch since there is no place near to get something to eat.  I have water, diet soft drinks and ice tea and will have some snacks.  There are a few errors in some of the gps tracking for directions.  Let me know where you are driving from, so I can give you correct directions.  

This studio is in a rural area on a dirt road.  I do have animals around including a cat in case you are allergic.  

Be sure to wear comfortable clothes that won't matter if you get some type of product on them.  If you want to wear gloves while painting or applying products please bring them.

Come with your imagination, questions, ideas and desire to explore.  We will deal in what if's while we create extreme surfaces that safely print on my printers.  Any questions feel free to call.

Digital Printing Fabrics and Beyond in Austin Texas

New workshop scheduled for May 18-20, 2012.

Dragonfly Gallery at Rosedale will be hosting my "Digital Printing Fabrics and Beyond" in Austin Texas this May.  

Digital Printing Fabrics and Beyond

This workshop is designed to be your complete guide to digital printing on uncommon types of substrates.  We will prepare and print fabric, specialty paper, substrates we build ourselves, beverage cans and metal mesh.  During the course of this workshop you will be introduced to many ideas for you to continue your exploration of the alternative digital printing process once the workshop is over. 

For a better understanding of this type of process and how images print with different substrates and precoats, it is recommended you use one image throughout the workshop.  Images that work best are all over prints without strong dividing lines such as a floral scene.  If you have any questions about suitable images, please contact me.

Exercises on color correction, size and resize and printer profiles will be available for students to understand how to create quality prints.  The current Photoshop CS will be used for demonstration, but instructions will also be printed using the current Photoshop Elements program at the time.  

Dragonfly Gallery is on Marathon Blvd in Austin Texas.  For workshop registration contact Nina Mihm. 

Art Unraveled 2012

It's wonderful to be back at Art Unraveled again this year and teaching Explore Digital Printing.  My workshop at Art Unraveled 2012 will allow all the students to get a jump start on digital alternative surfaces.  Everyday I am creating ways to print on uncommon surfaces and now am continually designing surfaces that can be printed from a regular Epson Work Force printer.  It is amazing what can be done on a regular straight pass through printer.

I will include the workshop description here and links for access.  There is a short video on youtube to see a little of what the surfaces look like.  As with any of my workshop I strive to give the latest and greatest to my students and by August there will be tons more latest and greatest.  In any event we will also play with my printed surfaces so students will get an idea of what they can do with printed surfaces.  It will be informative, interesting and lots of fun, so if you are planning to be at Art Unraveled this year, check it out.

Registration is open on January 17th, so get ready.  We will be using my Epson small format printers and if we can print on them you can print on any pass through printer.

Explore Digital Printing

One of the amazing things about digital printing is the amount of surfaces you can use to print images for your artwork and journals. In this workshop students will print surfaces that have been prepared in advance. There will also be complete instructions to prepare surfaces for future printing. We will explore printing on fabric, lightweight metal, cheesecloth skin, tyvek and watercolor paper.

During the workshop we will use 2 Epson small format printers as everyone prints the surfaces from their kits for hands on experience. Learning how to use these 4” x 6” format printers prepares students to use other direct pass through printers to print alternative surfaces in the future. This workshop is mostly a process workshop although participants will make a small project of a mini journal and/or artist trading cards with some of their printed images. Additional materials will be available for students to use to experience working with printed surfaces to create mini journals or artist trading cards.

Each student will receive a CD containing a pdf of information about the digital printing process on alternative surfaces including printer profiles, sizing and resizing images, supplier information, a description of precoats and step by step instruction for applying precoats. See my youtube channel for a look at the surfaces we will print- 

Art Unraveled 2012 Explore Digital Printing

Art Unraveled 2012, Phoenix Arizona July 30 to August 7, 2012

Amazing Digital Printing Weekend!!!!

Well it's Monday and after such a wonderful weekend, I'm ready for a fabulous week of working in my studio.

Some professional photographers were here to take my "Not Just Digital Printing" workshop.  They created surfaces to print on 2 different metals, metal mesh, layered paper, 3 types of skins, dyed silk, collaged watercolor overprints and did test strips of inkAID precoats on organdy on pimatex.

During the workshop we took a look at how to use regular plastic bags (recycling these) melt them together to prepare to print and then printed the surface using iridescent red  precoat from inkAID.  Now this surface is still experimental and the texture is awesome while it creates a beautiful print.  I have other ideas on how to push this recycled surface further, so that will happen in the months to come.

I am not posting images from the photographers, but every time the prints are finished by the end of a workshop it is exciting to see what everyone has created.  They had some brilliant images. Here are some links you can visit to see their work.   Southwestern Photos and Dudley Bacon.

Now that major cleaning was done to my studio to have a workshop in uncluttered space (which ended up being extremely cluttered throughout the weekend)  I took some pictures of my studio wall which is coming along nicely.  I added a chalkboard painted into the joining wall on the right.  That will be one of the next walls I move to along with one in the short hall to my computer and printer part of my studio.