Why is it a good idea to make prints of the art you do? Well, maybe you have your own way of making them, but here are my two cents.

Some galleries will argue that if you are “one of those artists” who make prints of your work, then you will not be offering your clients unique pieces, and therefore you should not get your work reproduced, so that when someone buys the original, it will be the only image of that painting that there is. To these galleries, I stick out my tongue, and say: TBBBBTH!

And after that I will follow with this: I say that an original painting cannot ever be reproduced, an original is exactly that, an ORIGINAL. To reproduce it you would have to paint it again. With paint! And whatever else you used to produce it, and even if you try, it will never be the same, it will be unique, therefore, NOT a reproduction. So there.

But what of all the people who cannot get the original? I think a print is a good solution. It helps also to have affordable art to appeal to a wider audience.
And remember, we as artists keep the rights to the image we created, regardless of who bought it.

I am a self taught artist and a lot of the things that I do have been learned on the go. I am doing the best I can with whatever instruments I have at hand. And since sometimes I don’t have 75 dlls an hour to have one painting professionally scanned (which can take several hours) I had to figure out a way to do it myself, so after a lot of trial and error, the following is the best I think you can do at home.

So here we go.

How to make prints of your artwork

1. Finish the art work (This is a very important step! and it means NO borrowing someone else’s art to reproduce, keep in mind that snatching images from the internet is very frowned upon by the artist community)

2. Do not try to make prints from a digital picture. Get a scanner. I use a CanoScan D660U which is an ancient scanner, but I liked it because you can scan negatives too, it's so cool.

There are a ton of scanners out there, some of them come with a fax and a printer, plus they are not as expensive as you may think.

3. Scan the painting at 300 dpi or more. If it does not all fit on the scanner bed, don’t worry, scan it in parts and save each one in different files, you can piece them back together in an image editor software later.

4. Save all your files in jpeg, this is a tricky one, there are several ways you can save your files, for example .pdf, .wmf, .psd, etc.  But I have learned that jpegs are compatible with many image editing software and are the easiest to convert, I’ve heard that these are “heavier”, meaning that they take up more space in your hard drive and can take some time to load, depending on the size of the image, but jpegs are the files that I’ve had less trouble with, please don’t send me hate mail about this one, I am only sharing what has worked best for me.

5. Once all your painting parts are scanned, open an image editor software, like Photoshop. (very expensive) I use a one called Pixelmator. (It was $59 dlls!!) It works almost exactly as Photoshop but was designed specifically for Macintosh and it’s really easy to use.

6. Open all the files you scanned and start piecing them together in one single file. Start by making the canvas size the same of your original painting, then copy and paste all the files of the painting on the first file you created, and be really careful with all the unions, zoom in as much as you can and try to get them to match perfectly, because if they don’t you will notice right away when you print.

7. Once all the pieces are in the same file, crop all the edges and save your file as a .jpeg, remember to save it at 300 dpi.

8. Now on to printing! You can print it at home with a color printer, but I recommend that you find a place to professionally print your file to the original size of the painting (I go to a place where they have big pro printers to make signs and posters).

You can take the files to them on a CD or send them the file by email, call them ahead of time and ask them if it's ok. These printing businesses should have a choice of gloss or matte as well as a choice of the thickness of the paper, I always try to get the thickest matte paper available. Some places can even print on canvas and staple the print on a stretcher frame so it looks like the real thing! Some places even give you a free massage with your order, but these are really difficult to come by.

9. Number, date and sign all your prints with a pencil. Also, do a small run of prints and if you decide, for example, to only make 30 prints of one painting, number each one like this 1/30, 2/30, etc, so you can keep track of them and of how many you have sold. It is a good idea to make a small run of prints, 50 the absolute maximum.

10. Keep each print in a separate plastic sleeve to protect them from sticking together. (very important because the humidity and the weather can affect the inks).

And that's it! There are also other methods of doing this, like glicee prints which is basically the same thing but way more expensive. (Because of the professional scanning, color correction and more expensive printing with those fancy inks and all)

I hope these steps help you make your own prints and if you see something I've missed or have more comments, please let me know, thanks! 

Hi y'all (that's what living in the South will do to you!) I've received a few emails asking about what kind of papers I use for my paintings, so this post is only to share my basic supplies for collage.

You can use anything for a collage, paper, textile, thread, 3d objects, etc...

First, for collages with PAPER, here are a few of the things I almost always use:

Vintage (I hate that word!, I prefer OLD, they are, after all, OLD!) Tarot cards and playing cards. 

A checkbook from Mexico, circa 1950's (courtesy of my husband's grandfather) 

Postal stamps. I try to find rare stamps, I will only use one, max two for a painting and I try to find one that complements the story and color scheme of the painting 

Old legal documents from 1865. The paper is hadwritten with brown india ink! 

Banknotes from all over. Mostly old ones from Mexico, and no, I am NOT rich, Sadly, these are worth almost nothing if you take them to a bank.

How do you make it all stick together??

LIQUITEX Acrylic Medium. I use the matte medium because I like the finish. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use a brush to apply it, you will ruin your brush! Just use your finger to spread it on the surface you want to collage and rub it in.Rub and rub and rub, and make sure it's all soaked. Make sure to use a good amount of it on top as well, this will seal the paper and make it impossible to unglue itself with time.

I do not like to use GOLDEN brand because it's just very thick and cannot be spread as easily. Although there are a lot of collage artist who will not use anything else. (Claudine Hellmuth is one of them) It just rubs me the wrong way (wait... did I just said that?... I didn't mean Claudine rubs me the wrong way, I meant the golden medium)

Ok, so I am a little overwhelmed (In a good kind of way) of the response to  the last post. thank you thank you thankyou! to everyone who left a comment, sent an email and sent good karma my way, thank you. I am indeed very motivated and inspired to keep on keepin' on with the Found Art Tuesday project. (a.k.a. the NEW REVOLUTION!) It's so exciting! ooooh the ideas I've had this past day, the creativity is flowing again, and when she comes, she comes and makes herself heard, so I'm listening and taking it all in.

And speaking of creating, well that's something I've been doing relentlessly, I am not finished with all I wanted to do for the art fair, but I want to make art that I am happy with, and last night I finally applied the resin to a few cigar boxes I did last week, they needed to dry completely before applying the epoxy resin, and also I had to do it during the night after my kids went to bed, so that little fingers were kept away.  These cigar boxes are made with a few prints of my paitnings, and these are the project I was worried about turning out too "crafty" and not very "artistic" but I like how they turned out. Yes, it's true, there's a big "art and craft" feeling to it, but it's also something I haven't seen before, so I may have some points for originality. and they're so shiny, you just want to touch it. On the plus side, they don't need any plexiglass to protect the artwork, like a few other assemblage boxes I've made.

The epoxy resin can be found in craft stores, but I bought this one at Lowe's (the best hardware store I know) It is called Famwood Glaze Coat it comes in two separate bottles that you have to mix as needed. If you decide to try it, please read the instructions because there's a bunch of things you need to know, like the proper technique to mix it to avoid excess bubbleness (I'm declaring "bubbleness" a word) and also the amount of time you have to level it before it starts to set, etc. It's like doing rocket science, without the rocket... sort of...

 The music in the video is by Summer Pierre. She sings, she makes art, she draws, she's a creative extraordinaire. her cd is coolisimo...get it on itunes!

ok, so here you are, the little video.  So, my dearest five readers, this video was made just for your enjoyment and learning. (Ok, I have to confess it's so fun to make them, I just can't stop.. plus... it's so fun to see my old lady fingers painting, it's like an out of body experience, in a not that weird kind of way)

When I am working on painting I use a separate piece of paper to clean the excess paint off the brush before cleaning it with water and to unclog the pens and clean the tips of the pens to remove any acrylic paint it may have picked up from writing over the painting. Sometimes these doodles end up nice and sometimes they don't. I haven't thought of keeping them until today.
Today I bought a sketch pad to use as my "cleaning" pad and this way I can keep those drawings, It ill be interesting to keep it as a log on the color schemes that I have been using. I sometimes try the color schemes before painting anything on the canvas, and all these "notes" get thrown out.
I am terrible at keeping sketchbooks lately. This past year all the sketches and things I do end up as Found Art, and it's been great because I get to keep the online log, but I do really miss having a sketchbook too.
I'll let you see more doodles once I have some more!

Ok, so finally here it is, this week's found art for the topic of "Twist".

This is a collage and acrylic mixed media thing, an "everything I have in my studio thrown together in layers" project. The support is a piece of cardboard I had lying around. I like the sturdiness of cardboard and it makes a great support for acrylics once you lay a little gesso on it. I also like the brown color of cardboard. I applied gesso and later the image of me drinking coffee. But of course it is not me, since I cut it from something I got from a Starbucks. But I think it looks like me, and I could be her, drinking coffee with such devotion! After the gesso I used watercolors, and I really recommend you try it because watercolors react so wonderful with gesso, they don't get absorbed by the paper so you can play more with the shadows. I also used colored pencils, black india ink, and little yellow papers cut from the same flyer from Starbucks.

The caption on it says: "It is always better with a twist" I was thinking of a coffee cup I had in Mexico recently, they have this latte with rompope on it. It was very good. 

Sometimes I think that there's too much coffee references in my work. Am I ashamed of it? heck, no! I wish I was discovered by Starbucks and asked to do some illustration for them, that would be my absolute dream job. Or maybe one thing I could do is sell some of my work to a coffee shop in need of some good illustrations? Do you know any?

 It took me so much longer to finish that what I had anticipated, and it may very well be because my almost 3 yr old little polka dot decided when we came back from Mexico, that he will no longer require "The Nap" and if you too have small children, you may understand why this is like a little end of the world, and I have no spare time AT ALL. We are all readjusting at this new routine, so until then, we kinda never know how the day will be.

I also took lots of pictures of the process of making this one, including me using the kemper pen, I have uploaded them in ipernity because flickr just doesn't like me, all they want is for me to get a pro account with them,  so I found ipernity and they are really fast to upload pictures, you also have a blog and multiple albums! yes, that's right! as many albums as you like! woo-hoo!

Have a great weekend!, and don't forget I will be announcing the new topic for next week in a little bit....

Thanks Kathy for participating this week! you are a trooper! 

Dear Kathy, this is a special post, in request of your question from  your last comment. I was going to write you an answer via email, but since this blog is for communication purposes between artists, I decided to answer here since the info may be useful to others too...

So, Kathy asked what instrument I use to write white letters on top of dark colors... like the "love" piece I did for my last commission, and here it is.. behold, the Kemper Fluid Writer Pen.

I came across this little thing after trying white gel pens one time and again, they all kept getting clogged or dry or something, maybe because they would pick up the acrylic or maybe because they are actually useless. I was convinced life was not meant to have white ink pens that actually work. Maybe I needed to find a small brush and draw the words, but that was too much trouble and too time consuming so I gave up after trying about 8 different brands of white gel pens. And then I was one day at Michaels browsing in the sewing section, I don't know why since I don't sew, and there it was, this little thing that looks like a calligraphy pen but with a little pouch for ink, it said it was for fabric AND that you could use acrylic ink on it, and I had one of those AHA! moments and thought that maybe, just maybe this was the answer for that problem... so I took it home and after trying it unsuccessfully before realising I had to use acrylic paint thinned with water or acrylic medium (I am not one of those people that actually read instructions, I'm too impatient!) I got the hang of it and now I use it in almost everything that I do. I love doing little dots with it, lines and lines of dots and hatches and little people and flowers. What I really love  about it is that you can use any color you want on it, and you don't have to buy a new pen if you want a different color. I do have to clean it every time I use it, otherwise the paint dries on it and it's really hard to clean. It comes with a little wire you can use to clean the inside of it, but I found that you can clean it with water and a thin brush and it works ok too.

I also use a white poster paint sharpie for lettering and adding details but the tip is bigger than the Writer Pen so it's harder to use in finer details.

Anybody else has one of these pens? If you do, please tell us how often you use it and if you have any more cool tips.

And before I forget...  Happy New Year! I am still in Mexico!!! yay! And enjoying every moment of it! Drinking coconut milk on big glass mugs with umbrellas. I am not even kidding. We come back on the weekend, and I am noticing that my English is getting rusty and my taste buds are gonna miss all the spice we have over here...  Have a great new year, filled with inspiration and great projects!

hey, I just had an idea... maybe I will start a new section on the website with "The instrument of the week" And take pictures of how I use them and such... I would like to see something like that on other artist's blogs too...