bad cat
A year or so ago I had some fun coming up with a feline character with cattitude and made one small painting using this self-possessed fellow as the model. I never followed up until now (my life is a series of one distracting shiny object after another) when I decided to try my hand at using him in one of my negative-spaced mixed-media drawings. Helene, in her undying loyalty (and always-superb taste in art :), snapped him up. Before I knew it I was on a roll and produced Illustration Friday's piece and the two below. Appropriately, they are called BAD CAT and are over at Etsy.
I spent a good chunk of yesterday researching digital fine art and photo papers after driving into the valley to see a demo at Opus. Interestingly, after looking at prices, results, archival data and other technical info I decided that my favourite is Hahnemuhle 308 Photo Rag. After sorting through all the literature I brought home I was surprised and pleased to discover that Ontario expert John Jones agrees. Now all I need to do is find the elusive perfect print house, but that's more difficult than I ever imagined, so I'm leaning seriously towards investing in my own inkjet printer. I'm on a really strict budget and can't even consider it until after we (hopefully) get a tax return, but meantime, I'm looking at good quality but reasonably-priced pigment ink printers. Feedback on printers and shopping chez Andrea heavily encouraged.
I'm not sure into what psychological slot you can put my inertness (the 'lazy' category would be my guess), but I have totally stalled on my final Primal Landscape painting. Now that I have a few BAD CATs out of my system, though, I promise part three ... soon.
Labels: art, birds, cats, digital paper, drawing, etsy, fish, printers
posted by andrea at 8:17 a.m.
17 Comments:
andrea, i know nothing about commercial printers, but i'm a fan of canon. their printers are always simple and of high quality. for what it's worth.
you get another A for effort, and A for final result. these cats are way-cool, as are the colors.
Thanks, kj. I was really impressed by the quality-for-price of the little Canon iP 6320D I saw in action yesterday.
I am still a Neanderthallic 'cut and paste' guy so don't ask me?
I am pre Photoshop if you can believe it?
To be honest I am always ecstatic when my Hewlett will print a copy of my tracklist when I burn a CD.
It almost invariably reads 'out of paper' even though it is full and because I am so heavily influenced by Canada's answer to Thomas Edison..Red Green..and I am of the mind that you can fix anything with a hammer and duct tape...my input in this matter would be a great disservice.
hey there. i JUST bought the same exact paper from a place in vermont. glad to know that is "the one" to get! i will be using my hp with archival inks. but the prints will be small. ...
I love that bad kitty! I am a Epson gal myself. I use my Epson CX6400 for transfers,etc. As it has the Durabrite inks - which are wonderful for that type of thing.
I use an Epson R800 for the prints I put in my pendants and jewelry. It is amazing!! Truly an incredible printer!
I use my Epson R2400 for prints which I just barely started doing. It can print up to 13 x 19. I am floored by this printer! The quality is unsurpassed in my opinion. Both of these printers use the UltraChrome inks which are pigment based, archival and gorgeous. The R800 (5760 x 1440 optimized dpi) is just fantastic. Both can print on roll paper for longer prints. I purchased the epson r800 on Epsons refurbished site. It works perfect and I only paid $139.00. The R2400 I bought off Amazon for around $700.00 I think. It looks like there is one in the refurbished center as well for $500.00. . http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/BuyEpson/ccProductCategory.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=-13267
I have a high end HP, I don't recomend it for more than printing small stuff...and I paid a fortune for it. I am looking inot to large format EpsonR2400 as well and am amazed at the quality and the crazy price for a printer...argh!
Good luck to you on that.
The BAD CAT's are fantastic...love the way your mind works.
HE: Yeah -- but duct tape can fix ANYTHING. No dissing duct tape!
Susan: Why small?
Tiffini: Your input is very valuable since you run such a successful operation from your home. I want three printers, too! :) I have heard all kinds of back-and-forth about Epson printers though I do undrstand that it is THE favourite for art prints. Now that I have the paper thing figured out I need to do some serious shopping around. Thanks for the great recommendations and I will check these sites out.
HMBT: How small is the samll stuff and what's the problem with printing larger prints on your HP? I like a couple of the HP models I've seen on-line so your feedback would be really helpful.
My Hp is suppossed to be able to do 11 x 14...I don't like the way it comes out...sometimes they skip after a couple of prints, and sometimes they jam...I should say it jams every third print or so, so now I put the paper in only two sheets at a time, it's ok with regular papers...it's the speciality papers it hates, and it runs a lot of ink...alot. I took this model back twice thinking I had a bad printer, but this is the way this one is...and I hate it for doing something professional looking. So I am going even larger and I like the cannon and the Epson right now, I have been trying them out and doing a lot of research about them. The epson is pulling ahead, but the cost is crazy out of my budget right now...I need a few sales first then maybe. I will not by HP again, that's all I know...they look good for like home use...but for commercial use, they don't hold up.
I love cards like these. On my vacation, I spent a good deal of time in stationery stores looking for art prints, I could use for letter writing. I found none I liked so I ended up buying plain paper and cards and plan to do original drawings when I write letters or send postcards. Your creative ideas are endless.
Saw your card shop - way cool!
"...my life is a series of one distracting shiny object after another...
But that's part of what makes your art so magical, not so?
P.S. I've found that the Canon range is a pretty good bet (although I mainly use mine for photo printing)
You are one lazy cat. Not.
Did I misread something?
Why am I thinking of good wine that needs time to mature?
Why am I here?
I'm afraid somehow Yves Klein's aquarmarine blue got to me, yesterday at the museum, all soaked, like a sponggggeee.
Have a great Monday.
:-)
Very nice series!!!
This is too funny that I'm posting after Carla...I just met her in person yesterday and she showed us a note card that she printed at home using an Epson printer. She said she does use the Epson inks as generics tended to clog and wear out faster. Her printed card looked great! You'd have to ask her what model number she uses. I think she also sells prints of her work too.
I love your cat drawings-the cat has some great attitude.
cattitude is greatness!!
I love the cats! =)
I'm a bit of a duffer in the hi-tech world, but I can endorse any Hahnemuhle papers. I like Canon printers, although have no experience of the top end ones. My ISP chap is very much an Epson man.If I ever go that route I'd probably take his advice.
One thing I DO know is that as printers become slicker, so they become more tetchy about generic inks.Spend the $$ and always buy the ink made for the machine.And run the self-clean programme regularly.
Gosh! Aren't I the bossy boots!
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