Archive for August, 2009

Depending on the work you are creating art can be an expository discipline almost like reporting. If you are trying to trigger an emotion or get an idea across its important to know your subject. Try taking out a pen and paper and brain storm a little.

This exercise is a type of brain storming technique that is useful for finding relationships between objects, life, and wherever your thoughts take you.

Take any object and list all attributes that are associated with that object. For example:

Your living room sofa:

Write down every attribute that belongs to this sofa:

• How big is it?
• What color is it?
• Is it soft?
• Is there a pattern?
• What is it sitting next to?
• Why did you decide to place it in this part of the living room?
• Is it next to a window?
• Is it sitting on a rug?
• Does it have a matching chair?
• Does it have throw pillows?
• Is there change in this sofa?
• How long have you had it?
• Where did you get it?
• Who was with you when you got it?
• What else did you do that day?
• Why did you pick this sofa?
• Is there someone sitting on it?
• Why did this person choose to sit here?
• What is that person thinking?

I can’t tell you where this will end. When you have finished a complete list of attributes for your subject- you now completely know the subject. You understand its purpose, its shape, its life span, its ideas, its future plans, and so on and so on.

Do you still see this object the same as you did before? Can you see this list transforming into a work of art? Good art comes from drawing what you see, and then drawing what you know- until you begin to see what you know. This is true whether the outcome is representational or abstract. Our style is what decides how
we express what we know. Knowing your subject is a very important element to creative expression.

This brainstorming technique is also valuable for generating ideas and overcoming creative blocks.

An artist will generally spend a great deal of time in their art studio. When reading an inventory list of the contents of an artist’s studio you might expect to find a list of brushes, paint tubes and various papers. But revealing the true inventory of a studio can become quite personal.

As a digital artist I continue to work on canvas but a lot of work takes place on my computer. Since I work on a laptop that I carry with me my art studio is technically a laptop bag and its contents. With that being true it makes sense that a portable studio would be easier to keep organized. I like to make sure I have things that I might need with me.

But even though my laptop bag is really just a laptop bag- I was amazed at the amount of stuff I managed to cram in there.

As I was going through my bag I had to smile at the neuroticisms that I must admit belong to me. There is nothing more intimate than revealing your studio’s true contents. Here is what I pulled out of there:

Contents:
1 Toshiba Satellite laptop
1 USB retractable mouse
1 Power Cord
1 Ear piece with microphone
1 Digital Camera (substandard but it takes pictures for the web just fine)
1 SD Elite Pro 2 gig memory card (goes with camera)
1 USB cord for camera
4 Rechargable AA Batteries
1 USB cell phone charger
1 Cell phone head set
1 Digipro 4×3 USB Pen tablet and Stylus pen
1 pack of Juicy fruit. 3 sticks left.
1 Tylenol (or rather half of one)
1 8 1/2 x 11 sketch book
1 Bottle of multi-vitamins
1 5 subject notebook- yellow (for jotting down ideas and taking various notes)
1 1 subject notebook- green (I don’t remember what I intended to use this for)
1 Walmart receipt (from when I bought the notebook)
1 Highlighter pen
2 #2 Mechanical pencils
1 Ball point pen
1 Red pen
30 or so post cards and business cards collected from various art shows and businesses
1 Nature Valley Granola Bar wrapper -peanut butter- (don’t know how long I have been carrying this around with me)
1 80 gig portable hard drive (contains source files from images being worked on or that still need to be rendered- also Bryce objects, Poser poses, Photoshop extensions and filters etc. And videos created, things I have written)
1 case logic USB memory stick holder
includes USB SD card reader (I don’t need this- don’t know why I carry it)
1 1gig USB memory stick (contains invoices, spreadsheets, password files, letters, diagrams)
1 1gig USB memory stick (contains client files such as logos, letterheads and such)
1 4gig USB Memory stick (contains web site files and images)
1 1gig USB memory stick (there is nothing on this one)
1 2gig USB memory stick (I just use when I need to transfer files from my computer to someone else’s computer or when I am not carrying my laptop- rarely)
1 black zippered case that contains a little notebook for checklists that I use to try and keep organized- includes a pen
1 leather bound journal where I keep ideas- includes a pen
1 zippered cd case where I keep software cds and backup files for drivers and things
1 DVD case with about 30 DVDs of images already rendered.
1 flashlight?
1 red 8 1/2 x 11 1 subject notebook ( I use this when I take notes at meetings)
1 retractable ethernet cord for when I need to hook up to another computer for internet connection
1 Strawberry chapstick
5 Cinnamon disk candies and 3 empty wrappers
1 USB Hub with 4 extra ports
1 retractable USB cord male to male
1 retractable USB cord male to female
1 retractable USB cord that hooks up to a printer
1 Creatacolor art set (contains various pencils, leads, chalks, graphite sticks)
1 Pencil Sharpener
1 Pink pearl eraser
1 package of wet wipes.
1 book of stamps- 7 left
1 Hair brush
1 Toothbrush
1 Tube Crest travel size toothpaste
…wow- I think there is more in there but you get the idea.

…listing the intangible items would involve more than one post.

My apologies…if you came here with the hopes of getting tips on how to organize your art studio…I may be worse off than you.

No matter what type of artist you are the issue of copyright will come up eventually. It doesn’t matter if you are using image editing programs or just painting it is important o understand these issues and how they apply to you.

Copyright protects original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. Copyright gives you exclusive rights to an image allowing you to sell it reproduce it and make derivatives of it.

You own the copyright the moment you create anything in tangible form. The copyright lasts for your life plus 70 years. You cannot copyright an idea but as soon as the idea is executed into a work of art that copyright is owned by you. It is the way you execute an idea that holds copyright and not the idea itself. You do not need to register for copyright it automatically exists. But in the case of copyright infringement than registration makes it less tricky. You can register for copyright here:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl115.html

If you sell a work of art you still own the copyright. Unless the agreement is to sell the copyright with the work. A good way to make sure that this is clear is to include paperwork with your art sold that states that you retain copyright. That includes commissioned works. Owning the art is not the same as owning copyright. You can create prints and derivatives of the original.

A copyright symbol is not needed but it does make the copyright clear for those who are not familiar with copyright law.

In the case of derivatives; if you are using another artist’s work as a derivative you may do so and claim copyright provided that you could hold the two images next to each other and clearly see that they are different. Your end result must be completely different than theirs.

You may not use photos taken by another person as reference for a work of art that you are creating unless the photographer has stated that their image can be used in its entirety. However information within the photograph can be used as knowledge received and then used in your own work. For example: texture in tree bark or the shape of butterfly wings etc… Just be sure hat you are using the information as reference and not copying the image. In that case then your work is a derivative of the photo and not a copy of the photo.

You cannot create works based on copyrighted characters such as cartoons or superheroes. Those are owned copyrights.

Copyright law covers collage. The easiest way to stay out of copyright issues is to use elements created by you or purchase elements created for this purpose. If you were to purchase collage sheets from Michael’s you do not own the copyright to the sheets but you do own the copyright of what you created using the collage sheets.

In general if you can see it can become part of your art.

You are within your rights to make use of public building in works of art. This includes schools, churches, office buildings and such.

You can photograph private property provided that you are standing on public property. Privately owned venues such as movie theaters and concert halls are still public.

You can also include in your work public figures, people at the park, and cars in the street- provided that these are in public areas. If someone from a privately owned public venue asks you to stop taking pictures they can do so but they cannot ask you for what images you have already attained.

But publishing or selling is not the same. If you have a human figure in your work then you must get a model release to commercially publish this work and claim copyright. Newspapers are not required to do so but it is a needed step for artists to take as a lawsuit is possible with out a release. With that in mind it is a good idea to obtain a release when including private property in your work also. That also goes for painting/ drawing people. You may do so but if the work is intended to be sold then obtain a release from the person to avoid a possible lawsuit.

There is no international copyright that will protect you.

The four most common image file formats are: TIF, JPG, GIF, and PNG. Programs like Photoshop and Elements support each of these formats.

These are not the only options just the most accepted. A web page requires a jpg, gif, or png because those are the file types that a browser can read.

TIF supports most color spaces and the file format contains many options such as the option to add tags to each image- but the biggest benefit is that a TIF file can be exchanged among platforms with no problem.

When saving a TIF file you can use the LZW lossless compression as an option. Lossless compression simply means that there is no loss of quality from compression. That means that you can always read back exactly what you thought you saved. Bit for bit with no data corruption. TIF files are generally very large. But the size is not a disadvantage because it just means there is a lot of detail saved within the file. A TIF should be used when high quality and archiving are a major consideration.

There may be times when quality is less a consideration than file size such as web pages or email- in this case choose a jpg.

JPG uses lossy compression which means that there is loss to image quality. But JPG was designed to be lossy to allow for major size reduction in the image. So when we open a JPG file the data expands so that we may view it and it is not exactly as it was before. This is loss of quality, purity and integrity. And it is unrecoverable. So depending on your image you need a good reason to use a JPG since its purpose is to create a smaller file. A good reason would be email or for the web.

Photoshop and other image editing programs will allow you to choose a quality setting when saving a JPG. Always use the highest setting.

When using JPGs you must also realize that each time the image is opened and then saved again it further compresses creating more data corruption. Each time it is rotated or added to- it is further compressed and more data is lost. Opening and viewing the JPG file is no problem. But every time you perform a save operation more data is lost. You can begin to see that this compression is leaving artifacts (or blurry spots) in your image over time by zooming in by 300% and the data loss becomes apparent. Over time these corruptions will become apparent when viewing the image at regular size.

So rather than continuing to edit and save a JPG file you should just begin with an archived Master TIF file and begin anew.

When using a camera that uses JPG files you should immediately save the image as a TIF and keep that as your master as you can then feel comfortable that there will be no quality or data loss with in the file. From the TIF file you can create JPG copies if needed. Keep in mind that you will not gain quality by transferring your JPG images that you already have to TIF format. But you can feel secure that you will not lose anymore quality. So if your JPGs already contain data corruption they will keep these if transferring to a TIF format. Which is why saving to a TIF to keep as a master copy that you will never rewrite is the first thing you should do if your camera does not support TIF files. Save any new changes to a different file. Never rewrite over your master copy.

The small JPG file size is great but it comes with a price.

GIF has no real value in photo quality images and is best suited for the web. JPG is a much better choice for the web for both quality and file size. However if your image has any transparency then use a GIF or PNG file as JPG does not support this. PNG will produce the better quality image but GIF is still the better choice as Internet Explorer does not always read the transparency information in a PNG file as other browsers do. So although I don’t feel that GIF is the better choice for quality it is the better choice for browser compatibility.

PNG supports lossless compression and is well suited for master copy like TIF files. It will also create a smaller file size than TIF. But TIF is the undisputed leader for image quality. When nothing less than maximum quality is required than always choose a TIF file to save your images. TIF is also the most common file asked for by commercial printers.

Image resolution is very important when using any sort of digital imaging program. It is what decides the print dimensions and quality of your image.

Printed dimensions and quality are measured by dots per inch (dpi). 300 dpi will produce high quality for any size image. Once printed it is referred to as ppi or Pixels per inch.

Many home printers can produce quality images at 150dpi but most companies will ask for a 300dpi image.

Printing is done using four inks, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. There are four separate dot patterns for each color. Dots per inch refers to the number of dots in a square inch.

At 300 dpi all of the dots in each square inch are next to each other with no space between them. An image at 150 dpi has 150 dots per square inch. With that in mind you can begin to see how a lower resolution produces a lower quality or how an increased image size becomes a lesser quality image.

Suppose you took a 300 dpi image at 4in. x 4in. and increased the size to 8in. x 8in. You only have the beginning 300 dpi per inch at the original size. That means that you have taken those dots per inch and stretched them to cover the 8 x 8 area and have significantly lowered the dpi of the image to 150dpi. Because of this it is better to decrease size than increase- as decreasing an image size will actually increase dpi, as I said before you have the original 300dpi to work with. So basically changing an image size changes the dpi. So if you decreased a 300dpi 4in x 4in image to 2in. x 2in. you have just changed the image to 600dpi because those dots have just moved closer together rather than farther apart as I the first example.

But…

Printing at higher than 300 dpi will just take longer to print as the dots begin to overlap and it is only needed for the dots to be next to each other. Unless you are planning to upsize an image there is no need to go higher than 300dpi.

Photoshop has a great image resize feature and will allow you to adjust or add dpi so that upsizing an image will retain quality. There are also a variety of Photoshop add ons that will help with this.

Some printers will tell you that all they need is 200dpi. Other times newspapers or magazines may go as low as 100 or 85 dpi. Lowering dpi for images is safe as you are simply eliminating dots that already exist. But raising dpi can be dicey as Photoshop or add ons will need to add dots per inch to give you the desired dpi. If the upsizing is not drastic Photoshop does a pretty good job. But if you need to significantly increase the dpi and size than ultimately image quality is still lost even though you still have a 300dpi image because Photoshop is taking the information in the image and simply doing the best that it can in deciding which dots to add. And as good as that may be, it will never be as high quality an image as if those dots came from the actual image rather than placed there by Photoshop.

300dpi will produce a higher file size but because of everything mentioned, if file size is not a factor than you are better off having the largest size image at 300 dpi and sizing down as needed.