Peter Gabriel Wisdom portrait Now Playing on iPod

My ghost likes to travel so deep into your space.

Simply drag from The Artist at Work to the Now Playing window, bottom left, in iTunes.

Iteration - 36″x48″ Digital media on canvas

Here you see the artwork "Iteration" on the wall space I’ve chosen for it. (There is an ordinary electric socket in the photo to give you an idea of its scale.) To the regular readers of this blog, "Thanks," it probably took a little longer to get here than you expected. If you are new, this is The Artist at Work: you can browse through earlier posts for an idea of how this painting was created.

I promised to show the process of transforming artwork on a computer into something you hang on a wall quite some time ago (in "Internet time" anyway) so, to make up for the time lag, I am doing it in "real time" today. I am stopping to make this post. I’ll be done later today.

Stretching digital print onto frame

This is a key stage of the process. The print has to be centered on the frame, one staple in the middle of each side. You should be able to see the characteristic diamond-shaped fold in the middle of the canvas. If you get this part wrong, the whole mount will be a botch job. I have done it, and failed. Isn’t it easier to just buy one of these things?

Framing tool kit

Once again, people who work only with their minds on a computer may enjoy a look at the set of tools peculiar to this low-tech task. Those canvas-streching pliers are an unusual item, even for a handyman.

Wooden frame for digital canvas

Most artists do not build their own frames. It is something I wanted to learn as part of the craft. When working with digital media, the work is necessarily framed or mounted, as one of the last steps. More like photography than traditional painting, some of the fine art competitions I have been involved with don’t even have a category for digital media.

Building the frame isn’t that difficult, and you can get ready-made "stretcher bars" from an art supply store. Making sure the frame is "true", measuring cross-wise (just as they do to determine the screen size of your monitor), is essential for the next step, which is stretching the canvas onto the frame.

Digital Media on Canvas

This is my largest artwork to date, 48"x36" digital media on canvas. Here you see the print, prior to mounting on a frame. At this point, it has been coated to protect it against humidity. The printer ink is "archival" and the clear coating is "non-yellowing." Like artists of the past, who used the materials of their day, I can only hope the work withstands time.

Work safely

The posts tagged "grunge" are about the hands-on aspect of this blog, whether software "hacks" or, in this case, just plain getting my hands dirty.

I use a painter’s mask when applying the coating. Although this blog is not a DYI, those who wish to follow in my footsteps are advised to take precautions when handling the materials of their craft. What you cannot see really can hurt you. Take care of yourself and your environment.

Iteration enlarged to 48×36

Over the next few weeks I will be showing you the process of creating an all-digital art print. We liked the Iteration piece, and noticed that you on the Web liked it too. So, I will be making a 48"x36" canvas.

At this point, I am working with uncompressed, multi-megabyte data files, and in my experience, even the world’s fastest computers feel like they slow down. (Now you know why it took a while to post.)

To convert a file that looks good on the Internet into a file that looks good as a large-scale print, you will not get satisfactory results if all you do is enlarge it. Compare right and left above. These are small cut-outs of the Iteration print, blown-up or enlarged. You need to look at these away from your computer, as if you were looking at an artwork on the wall. The cut-out on the right may look a little blurred.

The cut-out on the left has been digitally "sharpened." You might notice "halos", particularly in the red areas. If I were printing on paper, these artifacts would show up. However, my target medium is canvas, and the ink tends to "bleed". So, the "halos" should go away, and the final image should look sharper than it would have, if I had not compensated. We’ll see.

Cell phone photo before and after digital processing

Somewhere in cyberspace sites like Google and Technorati are cacheing these words in "digital stone". However, this is the artist at work. And I’m not finished with this post yet.

It started with a cell phone photo taken at Laughing Squid Decade 2, where Anita Cocktail and the Twilight Vixen Revue entertained the crowd. Cell phone cameras are cool because they fit in your pocket, and you’re taking your cell phone with you anyway, right? Mine can even Bluetooth images over to a computer. But, the pictures aren’t that good.

Two computer OS’s running two Web browsers each

Here you see the new blog design for this site in progress. Rather than take sides in the so-called “browser wars”, it’s best to surrender to the fact that one can never win that argument, but only stir up resentment. So, the front-end is being tested under Mac and Windows, running Firefox, Safari and IE. The UI is implemented using only CSS and DIV tags, no TABLES, however, I am not convinced that is the only solution.

The back-end is now powered by Wordpress, providing category tags, user comments and RSS feeds. Wordpress is a “classic” Web 2.0 app, based on PHP and MySQL, but don’t let that stop you if you’re interested in creating a blog, because it is actually very easy to install and use. (You don’t have to design your own theme, like I did.)

Tech geeks recognize that half of these are server-side issues, and what really counts is how it looks on your own computer, client side. The blog is being re-launched with the “quick & dirty” version of its own blog theme. That means the “look & feel” will be refined over time. If you have a recent Flash Player and Javascript enabled everything should to pretty much work without a hitch. Bug reports welcome.

Digital art print before framing

This is a print of Macbot Singularity being prepared for acquisition in Los Angeles. At 40"x40", it’s twice the size of the special edition recently on exhibit in San Jose. (That’s a painter’s mask top right, for reference.)

The subject of this painting, Mac Tonnies, is someone I’ve never met face-to-face, so you’ll find it interesting that Mac was in Los Angeles for "four days of fun in the sun" as this print was being made.

Mac’s blog has a good explanation of what is meant by the Singularity

[eWarrior]: I’m interested in creating some “contemporary” nudes and struggling (I guess) with what “contemporary” means anyway. Genetic engineering and the intersection of humans and technology are themes which I think I can visually convey.

[Mac]: I think the trick is how to convey these very important themes subtly, as opposed to the “in-your-face” school of transhuman art (which has always bothered me because most of it seems excessively fetishistic.)

[eWarrior]: Exactly. Something like this: the loteks in Wm Gibson’s old stories did things to themselves in a fetishistic way, like getting real shark’s teeth. In-your-face. Time passes, people get used to it, pretty soon some super-model is sporting the "next big thing." And she looks cute. It’s what the super-model does that I’m after.

[Mac]: I’m facinated by the whole supermodel thing, a minor obsession that resulted in an unfinished (but interesting) short story about genetically engineered fashion models. I think models are the Delphic oracles of the cybernetic age.

[eWarrior]: Poised, self-confident, and in control. See the same model, later on, "behind the scenes," and she is a "mere mortal" after all. Something else was there.

[Mac]: Right!