AEDM: 17 Using your printer to simplify your art...

I decided to get tricky today and try something I saw on a YouTube video recently. The artist showed a sketch she had done, and when she got it just right, she made multiple copies in different sizes to use anywhere from ATCs to full size canvases. I thought that was a very clever idea, and tried it myself. On the left is the original sketch I posted here yesterday. I then scanned and printed it onto light weight sketch paper. It worked like a charm, fed right through! I didn't use regular copy paper, since I planned to color her in with pastels, and felt the paper should be strong and have a little "tooth". I hand colored the copy, saving the original for future color experiments, and sprayed it with a fixative. The hand colored copy can be seen in the middle. Then I scanned THAT in and played with the size. The far right is at 100%, the smaller ones are 50% and 30% respectively. Both the smaller ones fit an ATC, and surprisingly enough, they look better than the original. The printer gave them a softer color, and the reduced size hid some small mistakes. BONUS! The full sized I plan to use on a canvas, which was the plan from the beginning. I am pretty happy with the way these turned out, and here is a scan of the ATC I created using the 50% copy.

I wouldn't want to use the exact same image over and over, but it is nice to get a little more mileage out of a favorite piece. I hope this gives you some ideas on different ways to use your own work. Enjoy...