Skipping Painted Stones
An entertaining art blog based in rural Iowa and written by author and artist Haley McAndrews.
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10/29/2024 1 Comment The Stories Behind my InkLove them or hate them, tattoos have been growing in popularity for a long, long time! I was 19 when I got my first tattoo, and nearly 20 years later I have... Hold on, let me count... I've been tattooed 9 times. So far. I haven't been able to secure an Artist Interview with a tattoo artist, yet, but it's definitely on my to-do list for this blog. I don't think anyone could argue that tattoos aren't a valid art medium. Yes, just like any other medium there's good pieces and bad pieces. Today I'm talking about mine. It hurts to get tattooed, a lot, and so every time I get tattooed I have to have a pretty good reason for it - otherwise it's not worth sitting through the pain. I'm not going to get too deep into the story behind each one, as I got many of them during some of the more emotionally charged times in my life. I can tell you that they are directly tied to the period of my life that I was in at the time (but feel free to psychoanalyze my dragon, I just got her done like a month ago!)  I love my family portrait and tree! My Family Portrait It's been some years now since I drew my monsters! I called them joyfulfigures, and for a while they were all I did! After my youngest was born, I painted a portrait of our family in watercolors, with each of us represented as a different colored joyfulfigure. Pretty much as soon as it was done, I knew I wanted it tattooed. I connected this one to a tree/knotwork band around my forearm. My tree represents growing up, as well as putting down roots, so it felt right to add my family there. My Swallow I'm not a sailor, but I absolutely love the symbolism in many of the designs. I have a stylized swallow with a bleeding heart flower in its beak on my left shoulder, and it's still one of my favorites. It was my second tattoo, but the first one I designed myself. I also have some nautical stars, and these tattoos all have to do with finding my way, safely, and finding my way home.  Now that's fresh ink! My Dragon My newest tattoo is a six-legged fluffy dragon, with lilies and bleeding hearts (the bleeding heart flowers reach back so it looks like my swallow has flown off with one) on my upper left arm. I've always wanted a tattoo sleeve, and this big line drawing is one step closer. It represents some of my passions: my love for fantasy, drawing, and plants/gardening. I also wanted this one to have a more feminine touch than some of my other tattoos.  A photo-realistic drawing of my tattoo, from my book Toaster Haiku. My Toaster It shouldn't surprise anyone that I have a toaster tattoo, but honestly this one's not my fault. Rach, my best friend of 25+ years, messaged me one day saying "I think I need to get one of your toasters tattooed." I said, "I'll get one if you get one - and I bet we could convince Mel to get one, too!" Sure enough, Mel was on board. I drew up a quick plain toaster template, so we could each customize it for ourselves. It was going to be amazing! I, of course, made mine into a demon-cat-toaster, as all my self-portraits are. I then went and got it tattooed on my ankle, saying "Okay guys, it's your turn!" ... And to this day, they've left me hanging. Now I just look like a weirdo with a demon-cat-toaster tattooed on my leg! Am I done getting tattooed? Absolutely not. I have two drawings set aside for my right calf, drawings that my girls did when they were each about 4 years old. Some of the absolute best tattoos I've seen are of children's artwork. The one Emma drew is of a person, arms held wide open, and Alex's drawing is of our garden with a rainbow shining over it. They are seriously the best, and in a few years I'll have them permanently etched into my skin. And I can't wait!
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10/15/2024 0 Comments How to Photograph ArtworkThere are many reasons an artist needs to photograph their artwork; maybe they want to sell prints of it, or maybe they need to include images of their work with an application to a show or event. Maybe they want to share it online, or just want to document the work for their own inventory. Regardless of the reason, I've got some tips for effectively photographing your artwork!  Oh, this hurts to see. Use a high resolution. I would not recommend a resolution - or ppi (pixels per inch) - below 150 ppi. Ideally, you should use 300 ppi for any images used for printing, but 150 ppi will still appear sharp when printed. The standard ppi for images online (websites, social media, etc) is 72 ppi. This makes the image file size smaller for faster loading and viewing, but you cannot print images at this resolution without them getting blurry or pixelated. For my book illustrations that I know are going to be resized, I scan them at 600 ppi - but the final print file is set to 300 ppi. Remember, you can always scale your images down, but you can't make a crisp, high resolution image from a low-resolution one, so it's best to just start with a higher resolution file. You can change the resolution in your camera's settings or in your image editing program.  Not only is there a flash, but also my hallway and bathroom lights, too! Use good lighting. Different kinds of lighting will alter the appearance of your artwork - changing the colors and tones (like making whites look yellow or orange.) Our end goal when photographing our art is to have an accurate digital image of our work. Interestingly enough, sunlight is actually the best lighting for more accurate coloring. But not bright direct sunlight, which can cause harsh, unintentional shadows, but rather sunlight on a cloudy, more overcast day. Unfortunately, we don't always have softly diffused sunlight at our disposure, so we need to work with what we have. You may need to move your art to different rooms or walls, or even set up a lamp or other lighting to get a good photograph. Try not to use your flash, especially if the piece is shiny or under glass, as the flash will create harsh, dark shadows and bright white spots of light.  You actually wanted a picture of this gray bar, right? ...Right? Make sure it's in focus. I don't want to sound condescending here - a few months ago we went to a wedding for some friends of mine. They asked me to take photos for them, and I did, but when I took pictures of my own family with the bride and groom... Well, they looked great in the 2"x2" camera screen at the time, but when I got home and loaded them onto my laptop, every photo I took of my own family was blurry! 🤷♀️ So take a few seconds to zoom in on your photos right after you take them to ensure you have a sharp, properly focused image. If you can't get a crisp image when holding the camera by hand, use a tripod to keep it still. It might not be a problem with unsteady hands, but could be a lighting/shutter speed problem (anything slower than 1/60th of a second is likely to have some motion blur when hand held - but I'm not going to get that deep into camera mechanics in this post!) Take it out of the frame/remove the glass. This won't apply to every piece, but if your art is framed under glass, remove it if you can. Glass can create reflections that we don't want, which leads me to the next tip...  Oh, hey guys! Mind the reflections. If you can't take it out of the frame, it's not the end of the world, but you do want to take notice of any reflections on the glass (or any other shiny surface on it.) Anybody else remember the eBay picture of the shiny metal teapot that showed the photographer's reflection - and clearly showed him in just a pair of underwear? Well, that's exactly what we want to avoid! Oh, and don't forget to clean your piece beforehand to make sure your shiny surface is clean and free of smudges or fingerprints. Use a scanner (if possible.) This, too, won't work for all pieces - especially 3D or impasto paintings. But if your artwork is smaller and flat, you may want to use a scanner to get a high-resolution image for making prints. I recommend scanning the artwork prior to framing, just so you don't have to remove the frame again later on. Crop it. Don't be afraid to crop your image! You can crop out the frame, wall, or anything else in the background. We don't want a distracting background to take away from our artwork. We also don't want our prints later on to have weird edges showing on them. If you can't crop it out...  It's slightly less chaotic when I don't have a 6' statue in the middle of it, I swear! Make sure the background isn't distracting. If your studio is a hot mess like mine, it's probably not the best place for photographing pieces that will have a background in the image. Find a blank, neutral, or complimentary/contrasting wall or background to use. If the piece is dark, maybe it needs a light wall - or vice versa. * An additional note under this tip - If your artwork is unframed or on canvas, make sure you can't see the stand/support through the piece. Some years ago I saw some photos of paintings on easels, and while the lighting and focus was perfect, you could see the wooden easel through the middle of the canvas. Don't be afraid to edit!
Cropping, adjusting brightness and tone, even tweaking the perspective - all of that is fine to do! As a reminder, our goal with the final image is to have an accurate digital representation of our artwork. I promise you don't have to be a professional photographer in order to capture great photos of your art. You don't even need a digital camera, because many newer mobile phones have cameras that can take higher resolution photos than even my Nikon. Keep these tips in mind and your photos of your art will turn out great! Many, many creative type people have day jobs in other fields – I know, because I’m one of them. My Bachelor’s Degree is in Fine Art Photography, but I work full-time in a corporate office. In a cubicle. In a room that used to be a large storage closet. That I sometimes share with… interns. (I say that jokingly; our interns this year were the best!) Most of the artists that I personally know are in the same boat – one job to pay bills, with their art on the side – or they are retired from their day job and can therefore work on their art full-time. But why is that the “norm”?  My mixed media collage, "She's An Author", 2022 I don’t think you have to look too hard to see that the arts aren’t valued as they should be in our part of the country. The summer after I graduated, my high school cut the funding for the arts in order to help pay for their new gym. Thankfully, people protested and the motion failed. As much as I hate it, I get it. There’s a lot of money in sports events, and I don’t believe I have ever seen a school art show get sponsored by local businesses.
Which is ridiculous, because employers want workers who can think for themselves, employees who can think outside the box, and come up with creative solutions. Where do you think we teach kids those skills? In the arts classes, of course! This isn’t supposed to be a depressing post, though, so let’s not dwell on whether our culture values our efforts or not. I hope you believe enough in yourself to make up for what society lacks. If not, please reach out to me, and I will encourage you in your artistic journey! Because I believe in you, and your art, and both you and your art are valid. In my early twenties I was fortunate enough to work as a Gallery Director at a privately-owned art gallery. The experience was invaluable! It really helped me to become active in the local art scene, to network with older, experienced artists without hesitation, and that’s carried with me ever since. After the building was sold and the gallery closed, I spent the next three years working in a tax and accounting office. I’m not sure there’s a less creative field than accounting. I enjoyed the clients and the work, and even designed some sweet payroll-calculating spreadsheets, but did it feed my soul? Not even a little bit. It did, however, feed my bank account. Jon and I have discussed the overall change in attitude towards work many times. In the past, you’d find work where you lived, and the pride you felt was from knowing that you were providing for your family. Now, we encourage our children to pursue careers that they are passionate about (except for art, because we want them to be in a field that makes money.) Can’t find an art job in your rural Midwestern community? Gotta move to the city for that kind of job in most cases. Even in a big city, the art field has a shortage of available paid positions. So we take other work, because we can’t rely on sporadic art sales when we have regular bills each month. I am proud that I can provide for my family with my steady paycheck. I’m also proud that my income from selling my art and books is enough to help contribute as well. Imposter syndrome can take a hike, because I’ve been building my art studio for over ten years, honing my craft and continuing to work. And that’s all valid, just like whatever your creative journey looks like. So I say to you, creative person in a non-creative field… I see you, I understand, and it’s okay. You are still an artist, even if you don’t make art as a full-time job. You are still an artist, even if you are too busy or tired every week to work on your craft. You are still an artist, even if you don’t sell any work. You are still an artist even if you only create for yourself and never share it with anyone. You are still an artist, and you and your art are both valid. |
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