What Is DIGITAL Art?   It's Original... When we talk about art being "original", this means that it's not copied, either directly or indirectly from another artist's or photographer's work. True, we are often inspired by the work of other artists—their technique, their style, or their interpretative approach to their subject or vision, but if we sit with a copy of another artist's work in front of us and attempt to reproduce it, that's not original art. Even if we use real oils or watercolors, it's still not our own work. All the work on this website is work done without copying or scanning any other artist's work. As we created the work on the computer, we make our own choices about the work and its appearance. The instructor believed in providing encouragement and technical help (i.e., help with using the software and hardware), then letting us go to it! PRINTMAKING  A digital artist, instead of having a tangible completed canvas or quilt or sculpture has, when the work is done, a digital file. Humm... The finished artwork resides or exists only electronically! So what are the options at this point? Of course, the image can be emailed or used for wallpaper, but that seems anti-climatic, to say the least. And not very gratifying for a serious artist. Printing out the artwork "completes" the process. Experimenting with printing techniques is an art in itself. Remember if you see "pixels" on the screen in your artwork, they will be there in any printout. We have used a color laser printer to make archival prints of our artwork. And the price of color laser printers is considerably less than when we started eight years ago! But these printers are limited to printing on 8.5X14 maximum. NOTE: Color laser prints are considered "archival", that is, they have been tested to endure essentially unchanged for up to 100 years. If archival processes and materials are utilized when creating a print, then it will stand the test of time and can be considered "permanent." Incidentally, many people don't realize that prints made on an inkjet printer are not archival, and are not permanent. About four inkjet type printers are now rated archival by the independent rating laboratories at Wilhelm Research. Visit www.wilhelm-research.com. But keep an eye out! The inkjet printer manufacturers are hot on the trail of better and more permanent inks, including polymer/resin-based dyes.And, of course, prints should always be made on acid-free paper. So what about making large-size prints? Recently we've been taking digital files to or uploaded to photo printing labs and having them printed on "canvas" or "watercolor" paper, as well as glossy. The results are supposed to be equivalent to the permanence of color photographs. We usually work in files set to 180 resolution. Never use 72 resolution for digital art or manipulated digital photos, unless the image is only for email or website use. We've also discovered that it's possible to enlarge a digital art file as much as 300%, then print it "poster size" on a large format printer! We have had great results with the Epson large format printers using watercolor paper and the ultrachrome inks. You can't enlarge a digital photo that much and expect it to print sharp. And so the quest for the best print method and paper goes on! web page developed by Salinas Valley Digital Art Guild for Seniors All Artwork and Graphics © 2003-2009