Title: The Arts and Crafts Computer : Using Your Computer as an Artist's Tool
Abstract: From the Book:
Introduction A FEW YEARS AGO I was asked to write an article about illustrators who began their careers with traditional art materials and later switched to computer graphics. None regretted the change, but most missed working with their hands. They felt a need for touch their art and tried to keep working with traditional media their spare time.
I feel the same way. I started out drawing and painting with real pencils and brushes, before the days of the personal computer. But I also did writing and publishing, so the first time I saw PageMaker running on a Mac Plus 19136, I knew it would transform the way I worked. When Illustrator, FreeHand and Photoshop came along I was really hooked. It became possible to write, edit, design and illustrate an entire publication on the computer! These powerful tools changed my life and made it possible for me to earn a living at home, doing work I enjoy. I started writing how-to articles for magazines and eventually wrote six books on computer graphics. The most recent, written with John Odam, is Start with a Scan: A Guide to Transforming Scanned Photos and objects into High-Quality Art, Second Edition, published by Peachpit Press 2000. Based on what I learned from illustrators over the years, it includes information on how to turn a scan of almost anything into an attractive illustration. The many tips and techniques make Start with a Scan a great supplement to The Arts and Crafts Computer. But after fifteen years of intense computer work, I feel the pull hack to traditional art materials. I want to draw with pencils, paint with watercolors, cut with scissors and paste with glue. That's how the idea for this book was born. I was especially inspired by the first class I took hook arts, taught by artist Genie Shenk at the Athenaeum Library of Music and Art La Jolla, California. I greatly enjoyed the folding and stitching involved with hookbinding. But I also realized that my Computer-combined with my scanner, laser printer and inkjet printer-were the perfect tools for creating some of the art I wanted for my projects and for printing multiple copies of it. So I set out to create The Arts and Crafts Computer to show readers how to have the hest of both worlds-digital tools for creating and printing graphic images, combined with the tactile, threedimensional and handmade qualities of the traditional arts and paper crafts.
When I began, I was thinking primarily of projects involving paper. But as my research progressed I realized that the market had exploded with new media for inkjet printers. It's now possible to print on cloth, plastic, transparencies, magnets, fine arts papers and stickers. Computer printed art can be attached to wood, metal, plastic, glass and cloth. The possibilities for arts and crafts appear to be limitless.
In writing this book, I've had three groups of readers mind: computer users who want to get back to crafting; crafters who want to learn more about computers; and students, teachers and parents who want to know more about both. Professional graphic designers have been immersed the digital world since 1985. As the Internet continues to grow and much design is seen only on-screen, the desire for art you can hold your hand gets stronger, doesn't it? I hope you'll find lots of excuses to try the projects this book and liberate the scissors and glue from the back of your drawer. Many of the ideas this book will work well to create promotional gifts and displays for yourself and your clients. Many people enjoy doing handcrafts as a hobby or for a living. More and more of you are coming to realize that a personal computer, along with a scanner and printer, can help take your work to a new level. If you've hesitated about buying a computer, or if you have one but feel awkward using it, I hope this book will help you feel more at ease the digital world. I am not a computer science major. I am self-taught and have built up my computer skills gradually over the years. Believe me, if you can sew a dress from a pattern or build a birdhouse from plans, you can learn to be a proficient user of computer graphics software. If you need more guidance, take a class or ask your children or grandchildren to help you. Eager students, from kindergarten through college, love getting their hands or computers. My own three children taught themselves to use my Macintosh and are fearless pushing its limits. Kids, here's a whole hook full of skills and projects yon can use to make fun stuff and change the world. Parents and teachers, why not offer a special elective or workshop compute arts and crafts? Arts projects teach compute skills an enjoyable way and help children express their interests and creativity. Here is your text book.
I HOPE THIS BOOK WILL INSPIRE all my readers to be creative-to gather your materials, rally your skills, think about the task at hand and then let the solutions swirl through your brain. What a pleasure it is to feel creative ideas emerge and then be able to execute them. A psychologist coined the term flow to express the peak experience that occurs when we are working on a problem that requires just the right amount of mental effort. When problems are too simple, we're bored. When they're too hard, we're overwhelmed. But when the amount of patience, skill, ingenuity, perseverance and work required is just right, then we're in the flow. I hope The Art: and Crafts Computer will be not too little and not too much, but just right for you.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-08-01
Language: en
Type: book
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 7
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