Techniques for Combining Inkjet Printing with Traditional Art Materials
Digital Art Studio
Techniques for Combining Inkjet Printing with Traditional Art Materials
By Karin Schminke, Dorothy Simpson Krause and Bonny Pierce Lhotka
Published by Watson-Guptill Publications, 2004
ISBN 0-8230-1342-1
Digital Art Studio is a book about extending digital printing, mainly inkjet, by working with unusual media, transferring the digital image and overworking the digital print with other artist’s materials. As
such, it reminds me of the wonderful books on alternative photographic processes, like gum bi-chromates and cyanotypes, that I used to love in my darkroom days.
This is a how to book for digital artists, illustrators, photographers and crafters who like to get their hands dirty. If you have become bored with the uniformity and repetitive perfection of the digital print, this is the book for you. Chapters include:
- Tools and Materials
- Choosing Printing Surfaces
- Creating Customized Surfaces
- Underprinting Digital Images as a Base for Other Media
- Overprinting Digital Images on Other Media
- Wet Transfers to Absorbent Surfaces
- Dry Emulsion Transfers to Non-absorbent and Dimensional Surfaces
- Gelatin Transfers
- Layering Prints with Collage and Paint
- Creating Three-Dimensional Work
- Printing on Fabric
There is also a useful glossary and resources section.
Written by three artists who have well established reputations as digital artists and print makers, the book is lavishly illustrated with their work. Step by step sections take you through each process. I like the fact that the book is not just limited to this step-by-step approach but also helps you to understand the basis of the process. This is essential, as everyone finds their own working process, this mix of a proven step-by-step approach plus a deeper understanding helps you to achieve this.
There is a good variation in the book from pretty simple processes to quite complex ones. All are handled well. You can read the book from cover to cover, as I did, or browse and dive in at random.
Who should get this book? I actually think anyone who is serious about their digital art and who works in print should get this book as a way to unlock your thinking, whether you actually use any of the techniques or not. Digital art students, design and photography students, crafters, art and photography hobbyists and scrapbookers looking to do something different should all buy it. I use it with my undergraduate (college) art, photography and design students to get them experimenting and thinking about alternatives.
Can the book be improved? Well, if they do a second edition, apart from adding any other processes the authors have come up with since this was written, I would like to see a section after the processes have been discussed that examines the aesthetic and conceptual thinking of an artist in how to decide when and why to use these techniques. The book is great, as is, at telling you how to do these things. I would like to see a section that discusses why to use them.