Printing and paper

I'm becoming a real sucker for quality printing and paper as I'm getting in to all this.

Check out this letterpress print. Looks fantastic.

(via 64colors)

Linkety Links :: 21 Art blog links you shouldn't miss

I've just added a whole stack of Blogs to my blogroll, in appreciation of the cool sites that i subscribe to, find artists, and generally waste a lot of time on these days. They'll also give you a good idea about the sort of art / artists that I'm lookin for.

In the order of the alphabet:

• Art News Blog
  
• Arts Whore
• Creep Machine - (actually already linked to this one ... but it's probably my favourite)
• Curious Artist
• Days of Danger
• Design fckr
• Feed your wall
• Illustration Mundo
• Illustrativo
• Illustrophile
• k9pincushion
• Lines and Colors
  
• Little Chimp Society
• Lost at E Minor
• OMG Posters
• Paintalicious
• Robot Walrus
• Start Drawing
  
• Varshava
  
• We Heart Prints

Hope you enjoy them. And let me know if you have some other favourites that aren't listed here.

Finding Paper

I've had a great afternoon, finishing off a day's work with a visit to Image Science, who will be doing the prints for my gallery.

I'd heard good things from several people about these guys, and so organised a meeting to get things started. I've also been spending some time recently on their website, which is a very comprehensive resource to learn about Art printing and reproduction.

Jeremy talked me through the different type paper that they use, including Hahnemuehle Photo Rag 308, which I've heard good things about. He also recommended Crane Portfolio Rag paper for larger prints, as it flattens better after being unrolled.

There's also the option of printing onto canvas. Although I think to start with, I'll probably just be sticking to the photo rag paper.

As far as printers go, they use high quality Epson pigment ink printers, which ensure a long lasting, high quality print. The samples that he showed me were fantastic. But good image capture and colour management are a big part of the outcome, too.

Not sure if any of my readers have had any experience Image Science before. What did you think? I haven't had any prints done by them yet. But I have a really good feeling about these guys.

A great art blog find today ... my love for you is a stampede of horses.

Is that not the best name for a blog you've ever heard? It's also worth your while to check out.

A little update

Just wanted to give you all a bit of an update on how my online art gallery (Thanks, Liss) is going:

First, the boring stuff - During the week I received my ABN number and Certificate of Business registration, which means that I have now got an official business set up. I can't really explain why I'm so excited about this, but I guess it just makes the whole project seem a little more tangible.

Artists - As of tonight I have 12 artists that have signed up, and want to sell their work on my site. All of them are amazing, and I'm really pleased to have each one of them on board.

I have artists from here, the US, China, the UK, Sweden, the Phillipines and New Zealand. The truly amazing thing about the internet is that you can find so much talent in every pocket of the world. Of course, I'd like to get more local talent signed up as well though.

This has been the result of a lot of hard work over the last month. I think I'd like to have about 30 artists lined up before I launch the site though, so still plenty o' work to do.

The Website - I've been working with a local web designer and developer, and I could be more pleased with how that's all working out. We had meeting last night (via Skype, I'm such an internet nerd) to talk about how it's all going. It's really starting to take shape.

The idea? - Well, perhaps it's about time I told my readers what the site is, how it will work etc. but another part of me wants to keep it a secret.

Anyway, 2008 has gotten off to a great start for me - and I'm looking forward to telling you more about the site as I get closer to launching it.

The Decapitator

Via PSFK: An interesting street artist / culture-jammer in East London know as The Decapitator is making his/her mark.

Known as “The East London Decapitator,” an unknown artist has been lurking through the streets of London and cutting off the heads of characters seen in mainstream advertisements. With partially exposed spines and blood splatter, each piece displays a considerable amount of detail.

For those of us not in London, here's The Decapitator's flickr photos to see some more incredible pieces, like the one pictured here.

It's interesting that street-art has evolved so much in recent years. The quality of the work shines (compare this to the old-fashioned tagging and graffiti), and street-artists are challenging what is and isn't vandalism. This surely isn't.

I also think this is a really good example of one of the many new ways artists have to promote their art and themselves. By capturing the work on flickr, it makes it easier for art bloggers and journalists to spread the word about their art.

Tiny Showcase

I've found yet another fantastic place to buy good, affordable art on the web. Tiny Showcase.

The idea behind Tiny Showcase is fairly simple - to 'Offer up a tiny limited-run print each week for art enthusiasts to "take home...for around the same price as a CD, book or record..."'

Each week Tiny Showcase release a limited edition print that has become so popular they've been known to not only sell out, but sell out within the hour.

This week's print, "Send Joan of Ark Over", by Rachel Sumpter, is this week's cool print.

You can read more about Tiny Showcase here.

20x200 is a similar type of project, where each week they release one photo and one print, and sell a limited edition of 200 of each for $20.