Technique

You have to work in partnership with a fountain pen.. I hear a lot of children are not even taught cursive lettering. What a waste. My experience with handwriting and fountain pens says that it’s a skill well worth having. To go back a bit, my handwriting started to drift all over the place from using ballpoint and gel pens. So I bought a fountain pen. This was about five years ago. I bought a … Read more

Let’s start by looking at what a frame is. Pretty obviously, more than anything it is to keep the artwork flat against a wall and safe from being bumped or crushed. Yet in the act of framing, something happens. Whether we like it or not we have made a statement in relation to the artwork. Just to divert for one second – by artwork I mean anything that can be framed – a painting, drawing, … Read more

Chiaroscuro lighting, or ‘Rembrandt’ lighting as it is also called, is a technique used in photography and in painting. It accentuates the focal point of the composition by bathing it in light. That way the area surrounding the focal point disappears slowly into the darker recesses. The Italian word ‘chiaroscuro’ means light and dark. And the alternative name of ‘Rembrandt’ lighting comes from the painter himself. It comes from the fact that he used that … Read more

Learn how to distinguish prints from posters. Sounds good, but are they different in fact? When I wrote earlier about methods of printing used for prints, and posters, and photographs. I explained how with modern pigment inks, posters and prints will last for many decades. Seriously, with proper care they can last over 100 years. There was a time when posters were produced to be disposable, so the inks didn’t last. But now the quality … Read more

There is a world of difference between pigment inks and soluble dyes. The inks used in the posters we sell are pigment inks. And that is how we are able to offer posters that have archival quality. That means they will remain bright and vivid for many years. That is provided they are kept away from direct sunlight and cigarette smoke, advice that applies to all printed material. Before we get to that though, lets … Read more

Here are recommendations for submitting artwork to greeting card companies like ours, or to any other kind of company. From time to time we get requests from artists who wonder whether their style would be a good fit for our cards. And naturally they send us their artwork to look at. As soon as a see the email I know whether I like the artwork. But I also know whether I’ve got a problem with … Read more