Say What!

I was sitting here yesterday munching on some fruit and it suddenly hit me how everything these days is catalogued and bar coded. All the fruit in front of me was labelled with bar codes and product numbers to help the grocery stores figure out what they were selling. I just wondered what people did before all this technology took over and what they would have thought about all these stickers and bar codes on their produce.

Well inspired by my friend Brian and his "So I Noticed This" blog I pondered some more and thought about where this was all going. Today those annoying stickers, tomorrow why not Genetically Engineered or Modified produce. Why not grow the produce with the bar codes right in the darn food and save having to print and stick on all these tags. LOL

So after having a break from sketching and painting for a long while, I thought this would make a good piece to practice on. So I got out my blue Mont Blanc fountain pen ink and sharpened up a handy chopstick. The sketch was all done in ink with only the stick as an application tool. I kind of enjoy doing this as the stick and ink are hard to control and it makes me concentrate but keep things relatively simple. The single colour helps me concentrate on hard and soft edges.

"From Bar Coded Stickers to Genetically Modified Produce"

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Urban Sketching

I have known about a group of Urban Sketchers around the world for a couple of years but only recently saw this article about Urban Sketching. "http://spacingvancouver.ca/2012/05/01/headspace-author-gabriel-campanario-discusses-the-art-of-urban-sketching/"

Vancouver Contemporary Artists Group

At the Sketchcrawl 35 event I met a number of very keen artists that came out to sketch. About 10 of them belonged to Meetup! The Vancouver Contemporary Artists Group. I decided to sign up as they have some very interesting ways of meeting, discussing art and drawing. As of today I have not attended any of their events but intend to do so.

"The Vancouver Contemporary Artists is a group of active professional and passionate visual artists, (The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as painting, ceramics, drawing, sculpture, architecture, printmaking, photography) who work in their studios and would like to get together with other artists alike to talk about art, their work and other artists' works, who would like to have studio visits for viewing, discussion and critique, and who would like to be actively involved in the art community (opening exhibition, gallery visits)."

Sketchcrawl 35

Today is Sketchcrawl 35 day an here is my first sketch of the day. This is my first attempt at doing an Arist Trading Card (ATC).

"Cactus Cub Cafe" - English Bay

"Artist Trading Cards - 1"

"Artist Trading Cards - 2"

"Sketchers at the Laughing Statues"

"Vendor at English Bay"

Reports of Sketcher Gangs on Skytrain

There have been reports of Sketch gangs roaming the Vancouver Skytrain on Sunday nights. Apparently these vicious gang members blazenly whip out their sketchbooks and draw unsuspecting Skytrain riders. Is the Skytrain safe for the public to ride anymore?

Strangely these unsuspecting riders do not seem to mind having their profiles and poses sketched as they head sleepily home.

Now each Sunday evening starting at 4pm, members of the Vancouver Skytrain Sketch Group meet at the Waterfront Station (main concourse) under the big blue T - they wait for 15 minutes for the group to gather then hop on the Skytrain for for a few hours of serious sketching.

So if you have the urge to just go out and draw, go and join this group on Sunday night and have fun. All are welcome.

Thumbs up for the Vancouver Skytrain Sketch Group. :-)

For those interested there is also a rival gang in Toronto called the Toronto Subway Sketch Group

Displaying Art Prints

Last week I started putting some of my prints up on the wall in my apartment hallway. Still a few more pieces to be hung, but this is a start. It gets them off the floors :-) where the rest of them are sitting. These  prints are the ones mentioned in an earlier blog post that were digitally printed on Cold Pressed Watercolour paper and mounted on aluminum composite panel. See how thin this sturdy panel is and how it hangs cleanly on the wall without glass or framing. A bit of a change from the traditional method of hanging art.

"The First Three Prints Hung"

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"Another Angle"

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Christmas in March

Yesterday it felt like I was getting ready for Christmas. I was wrapping and packaging 10 paintings ready to be sent to their new homes. Now all I need to do is take them to the courier or post office :-)

Each package was personally inspected by my little furry buddy as she had to lay down on each package and sniff each one. I think she has some kind of brown paper fetish :-) No there are no drugs in the package and no she is not a drug finding cat working for the DEA.

I thought I would just impart some words of wisdom about shipping un-framed watercolours.

• 300lb Watercolour paper just does not want to roll up and fit in a mailing tube. :-(
• So you need to ship the painting flat and rigid to prevent those pesky delivery guys bending, folding or mutilating your artwork. ;-)
• I elected to do the following for now, but may try to come up with a cheaper solution. I first taped the painting lightly to a piece of acid-free mat. Then put the painting and mat into a "Crystal Clear Bag" to keep the artwork dry and clean. I then taped the bag with the artwork onto a piece of high-density foam-core and covered it with another piece of the same foam-core. Taped the foam core sandwich together to form a rigid package. Then wrapped the foam-core sandwich in plain brown paper suitable for shipping. Finally I labelled the package with both a from and a to address including a telephone number for both addresses. I then clear taped over the marker written addresses so that the marker ink would not run if the package got wet. Oh.. re-inforce the corners with clear packing tape, 'cause that it usually where any rips in the packaging start. 
• Whenever possible send multiple paintings in one package  .. it's cheaper :-)
• Well we shall see how this works out when they get physically shipped. I have stuff going to various parts of India, UK , USA and Canada.
• I have a feeling shipping will not be cheap :-(

Okay I will let you all know how that works out. The delivery guys should be able to toss, drop-kick, and wet the packages without damaging the painting.

Okay so thats the originals sorted out.

So the next thing is what happens if the customer wants the high-resolution images for digital printing?

• Well, if you agree they get a copy so they can get prints done locally, then you need to get them the file(s) and this usually includes a high-res .tif file and a web-ready .jpg. Try and get your photographer to provide colour corrected image files that are 300 dpi at at the size of the original art. 300 dpi file for a 8" x 10" image is not the same a 300 dpi for a 30" x 22" image. If this is not right then you or the customer will be disappointed when digital print is made at full size. You can always make the file/image smaller but not make it bigger without losing resolution.
• The .tif file usually ends up being bigger than you want to be sending via email and lately there have been lots of issues with sending non-commercial CD's / DVD's through the mail or courier service. This is especially true when shipping internationally. There are all sorts of iCloud and ftp site methods for allowing the retrieval of these files. I have just recently begun using Drop Box. I set up a low volume free account which is fine for me as long as i keep the box clean. I just found out about the public box that allows non-drop box people to access individual files and download using their internet browser. You just send the recipient the individual file link and the he/she can retrieve the file through the browser and do a save as to keep the file. I tried it out and it works just great.

Cheers

Dave

Prints on Aluminum Panel

Today I also was finally able to get my aluminum mounted digital prints from Opus Art Supplies Downtown. I was delighted with the results as they were digital images of 5 watercolours printed on watercolour art paper CP mounted on aluminum panel and a light laminating film for protection.

The colours did turn out a bit more vibrant than the originals and the images are sharp and crisp. The prints were done at the same size as the originals. The aluminum panels are very thin but extremely tough and rigid providing excellent support. The back of each panel has a nice rectangular mall mount bar and hardware that allow the panel to be screwed directly to the wall.

As soon as I am able I will take photos of these 5 prints mounted on my wall.

Cheers
Dave

Lindsay May Latest CD "Shimmer"

I was presently surprised this week to receive a autographed copy of Lindsay May's latest CD "Shimmer" in the mail. :-)  The CD came with a wonderful thank you "David from one artist to another". A very nice touch.

Lindsay's new CD was just released March 8th and she has just headed off on tour. Last I heard she was in Edmonton.

Lindsay's thanks were for two ink and watercolour sketches of her singing outside on Granville Island in September and October last year. I had dropped off the two original sketches at Nimbus Studios in Vancouver where she was recording "Shimmer".

I have suggested today in her blog that when she gets back into town after her tour that I perhaps have a chance to do a few more sketches, maybe even a portrait. I think Granville Island is still a good venue as it is outside and it suits her music. Well we'll see.

For those interested, you can find photos of the sketches in this blog in the older posts.

Cheers
Dave

iMac Hard Drive Died

This week my system hard drive died on me :-( so until I can rebuild my main iMac intel core 2 duo computer I am limited to communicating and working with my little iMac G4 700mhz machine. Kind of slow but the little workhorse does it's job. Problem is the little thing is about 4 versions of OS behind and since it is non-Intel has the occasional fight with blogger and other internet applications.

Unfortunately a lot of my files, images and fancy software applications are stuck on the busted drive. I had some backup done but not all I needed. Hopefully I will be able to pry some of these off the damages drive :-(