It felt like a busy and productive week. But the important question is, how did I do on last weeks tasks?
Take some simple shots of of frames against some neutral backgrounds to test out the feasibility of making my own mock-ups.
I took a handful of these photos. This may be a feasible option, but it will be an afternoon’s work, possibly with setting up some shots in different parts of the house to get the some natural light. When I use actual frames it seems to be difficult to get the frame straight enough. Also, I need to brush up on my clipping masks in Photoshop Elements so I can streamline the process a bit. Here are my results:
Purchase a frame mockup from Creative Market, to see what how easy it is to work with.
I bought this one for $5 and it actually works fine with Photoshop Elements. It is super simple to use. You can also change the frame and wall color so at $5 it was totally worth it. Here are some of my results:
Identify 50(!) works that I can add to Etsy as digital files.
I think I knew this would be an unrealistic number as soon as I chose it. I did however, identify 20 images, and I am still seeing a lot of limitations as far as resolution. I seem to do a lot of digital sketching and playing around without considering the end result. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s part of my artistic process. But it has left me with lots of sketches and not enough finished work. Moving forward I am going to have to start creating at a minimum of 4800 by 6000 pixels. That would result in a file that could produce a 16 by 20 inch print at the best resolution (300 dpi.)
In addition to working on my goals I came up with these Chrysanthemum images that I know I can use, but not sure where:
I created them with the Amaziograph app and colorized them in Procreate. They could be used as procreate stamps, graphics, art prints, etc. Either way, it was very enjoyable working on them and I’d like to do a whole series. I have a feeling they are going to lead to something else.
Tasks for this week:
I am scaling it down this week; identifying 50 images was completely unrealistic. This time I’ll finish 10, combine them with the frame mockups, and post to Etsy.
I will develop more procreate brushes and start building a library of painted backgrounds for procreate. When I do eventually put together the procreate brushes, I would like to offer textured, painted backgrounds to go with them.
These two things will keep me very busy but I’m also going to add one more thing. As a graphic design project I am going to make a chart of popular print sizes in inches, matched with the proper pixel resolution for printing. I think it will be useful to have it posted in my work area so I can be always be reminded of the optimal end result: something that looks good in print!