Sunday, January 29, 2012

Learning to Leverage my Art...

I first heard this phrase while watching an art tutorial video online, in which the artist was explaining how you can get more mileage out of your art work.As I understand the meaning, after creating a piece of art, on canvas, paper or even cardboard, you can then scan, copy or photograph that work, and print it out. This gives you an unending supply of your own original work, to tear, crumple, paint, tint, layer and paste to your hearts content. I find the concept intriguing. I decided to give it a try;
This piece will eventually become a background image for some of the tiny art I am currently working on for the Art-o-mat project. I have been learning my way around Pinterest, and got caught up in some posts using paint chips as art components, so this influence has made an appearance here.

 I am also just finishing up Traci Bautistas Doodles Unleashed Strathmore Online Workshop, so the colors and the free style are also making themselves known. What I didn't realize while working on this one, is how much it was also influenced by my current location, out in the Arizona desert. Mr. How2 took one look and said he loved my cactus picture! I never even noticed, but it does rather resemble a desert garden, doesn't it?
I guess you could say my mind is a bit like a crowded attic, the last thing dumped in there, is the first thing you see when you open it up!

Back to leveraging your art; I also came across this video, and the concept really started to come together for me while I watched it, thank you to the artist Zorana!
 When I get back to civilization, and can plug into an actual outlet, instead of a cactus, I will scan these backgrounds into my computer. From that point, I can print them out in pieces, in their entirety, in different colorways or intensities, and use them in a variety of ways. I wouldn't want to overuse the same art, but I can certainly do much more with it than just one painting. I am currently working on a full page of faces, and another of birds and flowers to use with these to create mixed media collage art.
So go ahead and look at your art again, but look in a different way. You may find a whole new world of art in there! Until next time, enjoy...

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful, Sally! I love what you're doing. I was introduced to the concept of using one piece for multiple things with Traci's class at TCC. Someday I'll put it to use!

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  2. Thanks for sharing this. First time I've heard it and I love it!

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  3. Thanks ladies! Janet, I think that might be the first time I heard the phrase as well, a little video clip of that event, or at least one that Traci Bautista was at. It really got me thinking. Carol, I had the same reaction, I had this great, "ah ha" moment and started researching the concept. One of the reasons I took the Strathmore class... Thanks for reading my post! :)

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  4. Sally- this is what I was talking about earlier. You can scan in your images, and then use them in so very many ways with photoshop etc. And after that, I print them out and draw/color/paint/foil/transfer etc on top of them. The issue becomes SPACE!! You need lots of hard disc space to store all those files. And make sure to back them up ;)

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  5. Ursula, I was pretty sure this was what you were talking about. I get the how-to of scanning, but I want to learn about how to layer and assemble digitally. I don't know how to make a picture, say a drawing of a flower, not have a white background, so I can layer it over one of my painted backgrounds...does that make any sense? I have seen digital scrapbook packages, even worked with a few, and want to give myself the same flexibility with my own art images. This is only one of the many things I plan on learning how to do in Photoshop... Thanks for the encouragement! :)

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  6. What a wonderful, resourceful idea!

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  7. Thanks, Sally! I did Tracey's doodles online class too, and she really has me thinking about diversifying my paintings into other projects as well. Thanks for the reminder. Going to watch Zorana's video right now!

    Jill

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