A novice painter asked today  how to photograph her work to save the images for future possible reproduction as notecards or prints, so that she can go ahead and sell her paintings. I sent off a brief overview reply and then did a search to see what I could find online. The search - how to photograph art for reproduction - took several pages of results before anything informative showed up.

My reply and my findings (down below):

This is a complicated question, a huge topic,  that I unfortunately don't have the time to delve into now. It would make a good article for my website when and if I get the chance! Instead, I will try a brief overview:

Art used to get photographed. (Some art still does.) (There is a whole technique and science of how to properly photograph art for  accurate reproduction.) The resulting color transparency, whether 35mm or 4"x5", would then be scanned by a laser drum scanner to create "color separations" which were then used to create plates for printing.
There are now high-end and low-end flat bed scanners that create digital files of flat art. The work must be able to fit on the scanner. Scans can be of enormous 'file' size or much smaller file size. Art may also be photographed by digital camera. Whether by by digital camera or film camera, photographing art for reproduction needs to be done with  special expertise.

As for scanning - you can make phone calls to companies, local or distant, who provide such a service. Ask questions. In the beginning you will betray you naivitee and probably be treated that way. Take notes. Start a rubrik of the information you gather. As you get a bit of info here and there you start to get clues to what else to ask, and will be treated with more respect. Research online (what search led you to find my site?). Look for books related to this topic rather than the top of art or art instruction itself. Don't stop at just one source of information.

My experience in high school working on the yearbook taught me a bit of what was involved in printing. In art college I ended up as a printmaking major, where I learned a bit more. Years later I worked in the graphic arts industry, first as a receptionist at a color separation firm, and then at a sheet fed printer's doing office work, brokering, and production.  I learned on the job. Printing has changed enormously. I continue to learn by researching and paying attention.

I've been making my cards and prints for years by making color xeroxes (at the local copy shops) of my art, which I then cut out and glue onto card stock. It costs far too much to print directly onto card stock. I could never offer the array of work that I have otherwise. I've only been able to make a living from it (barely) because I have such a wide selection of local Maine scenes. And, time is drawing to a close on that chapter. The way I've been making cards is very labor intensive, but does not require large amounts of upfront capital. The labor, however, takes a toll on the hands, and, the glue is toxic. I have other priorities than scanning all that work into digital files, so I'm not sure what will happen next.

My findings:
I've skimmed through the articles found at the links below. They seem to be mostly in depth. One is a digital printer's site - just to give you an idea. I have not evaluated the articles for accuracy but  many are so in depth that I'm inclined to trust them.  At the first link here you should also follow up on the 6 part series on reproducing and marketing one's art work found in their sidebar. There is, however,  a problem with this website in my browser - the left hand margin is nonexistent, thereby cutting off the first letter or two of each line. I saved the articles by selecting the text and dragging to desktop. That way I can read offline. The last link is the relevant article of a 3 part series for photographers.

http://www.thevgroove.com/art-business-reproduction-printing-definitions
http://www.thevgroove.com/transferring-files-your-print-service-provider
http://www.thevgroove.com/
http://www.orisonsart.com/Giclee-Fine-Art-Reproduction.html
http://www.articlealley.com/article_593595_32.html
http://picturephotosoncanvas.com/?p=93
http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/graphicarts/archive/2008/07/25/fine-art-reproduction-part-2-what-you-need-to-get-started.aspx

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 2:17 PM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 1 October 2008 2:20 PM EDT

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Here are my demonstration  drawings from recent class:

Fox and skunk

Bear and bees.

Moose.

White-tailed Deer.

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 3:57 PM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 17 September 2008 3:28 PM EDT

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Press Release:

Rockland, Maine - Children, and those young at heart, are invited to explore farming, harvest, and fall themes in this fall's ongoing  drawing classes led by Catinka Knoth at Rockland Public Library, 80 Union St.

The "Let's Draw Together!" sessions are geared for ages 6 and up,  adults welcome. Children 10 and under should be accompanied by an adult.  Classes meet every Tuesday from 4-5 p.m. in the Friends Community Room. The workshops, sponsored by the Wellin Family Foundation, are free and open to the public, with all materials provided. 

Participants draw along with Knoth, who is known for her watercolors of Maine scenes and animal drawings and also gives watercolor workshops. Her work may be seen at catinkacards.com.

For more information, call Jean Young, children's librarian, at 207-594-0310.

Themes for September and October are:
09/02    "Let's draw Monarch butterflies & butterflies!"
09/09    "Let's draw farm scenes of haying and the fall harvest!"
09/16    "Let's draw cows, pigs, sheep!"
09/23    "Let's draw chickens, roosters, geese, and ducks!"
09/30    "Let's draw a visit to the apple orchard and apple picking!"

10/07    "Let's draw a visit to the pumpkin farm with scarecrows and hayrides!"
10/14    "Let's draw autumn  leaves and trees, and squirrels and chipmunks     gathering nuts!"
10/21    "Let's draw owls, bats, Halloween cats, and Jack-O-Lanterns!"
10/28    "Let's draw witches, goblins, and a spooky Halloween!"

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 10:09 PM EDT

Updated: Monday, 25 August 2008 10:49 PM EDT

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First we had to look at some rows of triangles and notice the differences between them, (see demonstration drawing below). The trick is to see that the braces in the walkway are triangles. To some extent so are the pylons. Because the walkway is set at an angle to us, the viewer, there is a certain amount of perspective needed to depict this movement through space. We practiced drawing a row of triangles that a) get bigger as they move along the row, and b) have one side longer than the other. We also practiced making a row of upside down triangles for the other side of the walkway and the top railing. In doing so we were working with negative spaces, though we didn't get around to calling it such. After we'd done the triangle rows and observed their differences, I asked the children if the photo had anything  like the triangle rows in the photo.  They all humored me and said they could see the  similarities. 

We tried a more foreshortened view as an experiment. I may have led them astray there, but at least they ventured into it.

These are my demonstration drawings. Click the titles for enlargements to print out, draw from and/or color. 

You will find lots of Maine lighthouses in this book by Courtney Thompson,  Maine Lighthouses: A Pictorial Guide

Marshall Point Lighthouse, demonstration drawing coloring page

Marshall Point Lighthouse - walkway, demonstration drawing coloring page

Children's Drawings of Marshall Point Light

Marshall Point Light drawing by Paul	Marshall Point Light drawing by Morgan
Marshall Point Light drawing by Madison	Marshall Point Light drawing by Luba
Marshall Point Light drawing by Zachary	Marshall Point Light drawing by Paige
Marshall Point Light drawing by Casey	Marshall Point Light drawing by Bradley

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 9:35 PM EDT

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Notes on grief and the loss of our loved ones: 

To be a world, to be a thing that we can touch and feel and love,
The pulse of life must go on and off as it ebbs and flows through our many cells
From the smallest collection to the greatest.
It comes in, it goes out
In everchanging patterns and flows.
It's beautiful, it's unpredictable.
We cannot know what will happen next, or perhaps we can know for a moment
and then not.
To know what came next would take the life, the joy, the mystery out of it.
It would become meaningless to us.

A cat will not play with a machine once it catches on to its predictability.
Nor will it believe the cat in the mirror is real for very long.
The cat knows there is no life there of the sort he wants (game, the hunt, the food), that he is made to want.
A man will play with a machine because a machine means something else to him.
He knows somewhere there are other men behind the machine.
He also wants the magic power of life to be his own power so badly that he is willing to believe  magic can reside in a machine.
He wants to fool himself into thinking the magic is in the machine out there instead of inside himself and inside of everything in existence - the great and infinite ALL
But this magic cannot be captured, or held, contained. There is no one thing that can hold it. It can only be in the ALL, through and through everything. It cannot be separate from anything.

Nature cannot be alive if it is not free to be both terrible and wonderful. We do not want fake Nature. We want real Nature. That means both extremes of the experience must fall where they fall. Can we know for sure that we go unwillingly to our 'fate'? What if some part of us does have some idea..

The fishermen go to sea because they love it.
They know the danger. It is part of what draws them to the sea.
They love to pit themselves against the challenges the sea brings.
They love the wildness and the calm. They love the ever-changing of it.
If the qualities of the sea were not real qualities, the experience would not be as meaningful to them.
They know the sea will take more of them than had they gone to work in other ways.
This is part of the thrill and drama for them.
We love them for it.

We love nature/animals the wildness.
That is the very essence of aliveness.
Man must have aliveness and wildness.
It is deep in our nature to need to be always in touch with that.
But aliveness cannot come with only gentle footsteps.
There must also be crashing lightening,  mountains tumbled by earthquakes, and babies pushing forth from wombs with the power to make grown women scream in agony. Few are the  mothers who begrudge their child the pain it caused when coming into being. This is part of the magnificence of life.

Do we assume that the highest value of being is existence in this realm? Can any of us know for sure that we are not in a dream? How can any of this be proven? It may seem like common sense, and since theoretically it would seem most logical, then it would seem to follow that the explanation of our existence is a causal one. But is that really enough reason to believe a thing? If it comes down to just a matter of believing something, no matter whether you believe in a purposeful universe or an accidental universe, then which belief will nourish you more?

Can we know for sure that our little rescued (animal) waifs were not about to return to their source when we crossed paths with them and took them home? Did not this experience of taking care of them greatly enrich our lives? But now it is time for both parties to be released to sail the seas and find other meanings, experiences, and ways of being. Every being must expand its being. It is the nature of consciousness. Nature can seem to be cruel and violent. The animals are at home in this. They understand it. That is also why they are so healing for us. Their presence always reminds us that no matter what is going on in the surface of nature, there is an underlying rightness of all things, there is a peace.

When we look at each other we think the face we see is that of a beloved, (or that of an enemy!). When we look in the mirror, we think we see our own face there. But perhaps we are not seeing deep enough. Look deeper and see that the face before you is but one of the many faces and voices of life, being, magic, call it what you will. That magic, that being, that life, can know no bounds. It is not contained by the face of the beloved, it shines out from the face. It knows no boundaries.

The most painful thing when I mourned the death of my cats was the idea, the thought, that I would not see them again. Then it hit me that I was holding onto that idea. What if instead of holding onto it, everytime the thought came to me, I replaced it with imagining the beloved as if she were coming to me to be petted (or whatever). This was so comforting it was astounding. It had an almost immediate healing effect.

A friend's family lost a dear pet in a tragic way the other day, which prompted these thoughts once again. The pictures of the St. George Fishermen's Memorial were taken earlier this summer. The monument is quite a moving tribute, especially to see the reflections of the sea on it.

Marshall Point light and the fishermen's memorial	The memorial and the compass.
Gary Thorbjornson and lighthouse building reflections	Two boats engraved on the memorial and reflections of the sea.
The Names: John Field, 1941; Maurice Simmons, 1950; Kendall Hawkins, 1957; Robert Powell, 1973; Michael Percy, 1975; Jud Miller, 1975; Eugene Bracy, 1977; Richard (Ricky) Waldron, 1977; Gary Thorbjornson, 2005; James Weaver, 2006; Michael Lord, 2006.

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 9:44 PM EDT

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