Digital Artists Handbook: Publishing your work

Self publishing is not a new phenomenon. It is the publishing of all media by the author/artists of those works rather than by established, third party publishers. Although self publishing has been around since the beginning of publishing , it has seen a huge increase in activity with the advancement of publishing technology and the World Wide Web. PDF: Publishing your work

Digital Artists Handbook: Blender: Working with 3D

Once upon a time to work with 3d software you’d need a small fortune to get you started – a few thousand Euros for the software, and a few more to partake in a premium rate course or two to learnthe basics. Or you could save your pennies and buy a mute tutorial book, which would invariably goout of date as newer versions of your program would surface, and keyboard short cuts, terminologyand layout would change.   Now the world of 3D computer graphics has opened up and its anyone’s game. Blender potentially replaces the industry standards of Maya, Cinema4D and Read more

Digital Artists Handbook: Working with graphics: Processing

You might have come across the ‘made with Processing’  hyperlink on the internet or heard ofProcessing before. Over the past six years it has become a real phenomenon, allowing creative mindsto access the digital world. Based on a rather simple syntax and minimal interface, Processingsmoothly drives beginners into the scary world of programming.This article is not a tutorial, but rather an attempt to give you a global idea of what the programmingenvironment is, looks like and why it was created. Should you decide it is the tool you need, thisarticle will hopefully provide enough pointers to online and offline resources Read more

Digital Artists Handbook: Graphics

Image reigns supreme. From the thousands of films churned out each year from Nollywood, to the persistent recording of images by security cameras in London to the scaling of windows on your desktop computer, you are already a pixel pusher. But, how can you reign supreme over images? How can you become an active participant in the creation of graphics and move beyond passive consumption. While the distinction between amateur and professional is erased in the Youtube-record-a-video-get-rich-generation, the focus upon high-quality content controlling tools is key. What is the point of mastering verion 3.5 of Killer Graphics App 97’s fuzz Read more

Digital Artists Handbook: Pure Dataflow – Diving into Pd

This article introduces the possibilities of the software Pure Data (Pd), explains a bit why it’s so popular among artists and shows what Pd can be used for. The goal is to help artists decide if Pd is a tool for their own work. Pure Data, or PD for short, is a software written by mathematician and musician Miller S. Puckette. It  has become one of the most popular tools for artists working with digital media. Originally conceived in the late 90s as an environment to create sounds and to compose music, it was soon extended by modules to work Read more

Egg tempera on MDF

Eun’s Painting 2011. Support – MDF. Ground – One layer of handmade gesso:  Gelatine and whitening, with titianium white pigment. Paint – Three layers of each coloured pigment, 10 pigments in total Each pigment is mixed with a little titainium white to lighten the tone, as mixing with egg yolk, as well as three layers can darken the colour slightly. Binder – egg yolk and water The images show 1 cm sections of the painting. Sanded paint surface.

Plywood

15mm section of Birch ply.

MDF

15mm section of MDF.

Sanded gesso ground

15mm section of acrylic gesso surface. This surface shows three layers of acrylic gesso. Each layer is sanded to achieve a very smooth even ground for painting. The surprise with this image is the apparently rough appearance of the surface close up. perhaps it needs more sanding..

Gels

Impasto gels are thick gels used to create heavy impasto textures and to give colours more body and volume. They may be used alone, mixed with, or painted over with acrylic colours to impart different sheens and textures to colours. Impasto Gels are flexible and will not crack even when applied in thick layers. They have excellent adhesive properties. painting_materials_lascaux_gels

Acrylic size

Sizing minimizes the penetration of the priming and paint layers to the back of the canvas -making the canvas impervious before applying primer Hydro Sealer is used for sizing or preparing substrates ranging from moderately porous concrete to highly absorbent sand plaster before applying acrylic colours. painting_materials_lascauxproduct_size

Bookshops, a list of

UK Arnolfini Bookshop,16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA Artwords at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, 80 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX Artwords Bookshop, 65A Rivington Street, London EC2A 3QQ BALTIC, South Shore Road, Gateshead NE8 3BA Blackwells Art & Poster Shop, 27 Broad Street, Oxford OX1 2AS Blackwells, 100 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0JG Bookartbookshop, 17 Pitfield Street, London N1 6HB Camden Arts Centre Bookshop, Arkwright Road, London NW3 6PG CCA Bookshop, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD Dundee Contemporary Arts: One Five Two, 152 Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4DY Fruitmarket Gallery Bookshop, 29 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DF Hayward Read more

Exposure, The Zone System

  The  Zone  System is the simplest and best method yet devised for planning an exposure. Created by Ansel Adams and expounded by Minor White and others, it is more than just a shirt-sleeve approach to sensitometry; it is an elegant method of integrating all the decisions and techniques of exposure control. … PDF: Exposure, The Zone System   What is the Zone System? The zone system was invented by Ansel Adams, one of the most famous photographers ever. He was a master of technique, and had an eye for light that few are blessed with. His photographs were the result of a happy combination of comprehensive technique Read more

Filters

  Filter is optical device to remove or absorb selected wavelengths or proportion of all wavelengths. Types and description of special effects filters, close-up filters, trick filters, filters for b&w and colour. … PDF: Filters Description PDF: Filters Types   Other filters commonly used with colour film. … PDF: Colour Filters     PDF: Filters

Lens Performance, Getting the Most from a Lens

  Camera motion causes blur. Though some photographers claim to be able to hand hold a camera steady at slow shutter speeds-V” sec. or even slower-it takes only a slight amount of camera motion during exposure to cause a noticeable blur in an image. If a sharp picture is your aim, using a fast shutter speed or supporting the camera on a tripod is a much surer way to produce an image that will be sharp when enlarged. … PDF: Lens Performance Getting the Most from a Lens

Perspective How a Photograph Shows Depth

  Perspective: the impression of depth. Few lenses (except for the fisheye) noticeably dis­tort the scene they show. The perspective in a photograph-the apparent size and shape of objects and the impression of depth-is what you would see if you were standing at camera position. … PDF: Perspective How a Photograph Shows Depth

Lens Focal Length: Normal, Short, Long, Special Lenses

  Lens focal length is the most important characteristic of a lens. One of the prime advantages of a single·lens reflex camera or a view camera is the interchangeability of its lenses; the reason photographers own more than one lens is so that they can change lens focal length. … PDF: Lens Focal Length, The Basic Difference Between Lenses   Normal Focal Length The Most Like Human Vision A lens of normal focal length, as you might expect from the name,  produces an image on film that seems normal when compared with human vision. The image includes about the same angle of view as the human eye Read more

Choosing a Lens for Analogue 35 mm Camera

  With wide angle lenses covering be­tween 63° and 115°, there is some distortion on the wider angles. For a 35mm SLR, a 35mm focal length covering 63° may not be wide enough if your standard lens is 50mm; 28mm covering 75° would be a better choice. A 24mm covering 84° is going to extremes and, unless you particularly need this coverage with its risk of image distortion, the 28mm is the most sensible all-round choice. … PDF: Choosing a Lens for Analogue 35 mm Camera   Why Change Lenses? Altering distance and focal length. Each picture was taken with a lens of different focal length 135 mm format, but  the camera distance was Read more

Magazine Transfers and Lifts

  Almost any image from a printed source can be transferred to paper. The best source of material for transfers is a full-color Sunday newspaper supplement. The inks are highly saturated and freshly printed. The paper stock is a light­weight newsprint, and if you wish to transfer duplicate images, you can purchase cheaply several news­papers. … PDF: Magazine Transfers and Lifts

Toning Fibre and Resin Based Papers

  Black and white photographic papers can be toned with chemical toners. In the college you have the  following available. Sepia. Copper. Blue. The main formula for each type is as follows: … PDF: Toning Fibre and Resin Based Papers   Speedisepia Good tones are obtained with  normally exposed and developed conventional paper prints. Some modern papers even those described as ‘fibre’ are liable to give variable results and ‘blotches’. It is recomended that prints are given full exposure, and development, an acid  stop, fixed in a simple non hardening fixer, and copiously washed. Work only under subdued lighting. … PDF: Speedisepia

Solarisation

  Strictly speaking solarisation is reversal, or partial reversal, of the image due to gross overexposure. The effect discussed here, although described by photographers as solarisation, is the Sabattier* effect or ‘pseudo-solarisation’. Whatever the name, the effect is easily distinguished – the reversal of weakest densities, and the formation of a thin contour line around strong tone boundaries. It therefore contains some of the characteristics of the tone line effect, but is achieved quite differently. … PDF: Solarisation   Making a solarised print i)  Selecting an image – This should be a bold image with a strong pattern. The image could contain blocks of differing tone or strong graphic Read more

Manipulating the image

  The photojournalist generally responds to a situation, whereas the studio photographer creates a situation to fit a pre-conceived image. The ultimate control that the photographer has is the manipulation of the image itself. At its most sophisticated, the photographer can take on the role of an director. By combining studio techniques with photo-composites and re-touching, for example, you can achieve the graphic freedom of an illustration yet retain the basic realism of photographic images. Sophisticated image manipulation such as this is found mainly in advertising, where the commercial results justify the often high cost and lengthy  technical work. Combining images: by Sandwiching, Projection, and Multiple exposure PDF: Manipulating the image

Lith Printing

  The development time determines the amount of  shadow detail. As the development  progresses,  dark grains begin to appear in the shadow areas, clumping together to form the darkest regions of the print. It is  important to decide when to snatch the print from the developer by Judging the shadow density – rather than the highlight detail. … In order to make successful lith prints you must use a chloro-bromide based black and white paper. … PDF: Lith Printing

Liquid Emulsion Technique

  Many  photographers feel somewhat restricted by conventional, commercial papers.  Surface textures are limited and do not always suit the artistic vision of the individual. One way around this  limitation is by using liquid emulsions, which can be coated onto many surfaces: paper, fabric, stones, tiles, wood, metal, and more. … PDF: Liquid Emulsion Technique

Infrared

  Infrared, photographing the unseen (or simply create very interesting) images. Discover where a circuit board may be overheating  – where hot water pipes are buried in masonry – and where heat loss is occurring through a building’s’ roof.  This would be an ideal use for infrared film. However: let me quash this myth right  now! You cannot, under any circumstances, photograph heat loss with an infrared film. Infrared film can see the visible spectrum and also the near infrared up to just under 1000 nanometres. PDF: Infrared, photographing the unseen images   Infrared Alert Creative photographer are always challenging conventions and looking for new ways of coming up with eye-catching images. To kick off the Read more