Pixiq

Side Tracked

Life gets busy and being a creative person makes it even busier. I don't go to work 9 to 5 and then get to come home and play. I work all the time but for me it's also play. So I started down some new roads and they got me side tracked and I haven't posted in way too long on PIXIQ but now I'm back and with some new ideas and info.

Plus a reminder since it's gift giving season, we all love to get a gift. So my discount links and codes are posted here for you to get yourself something you have always wanted.

Digital Art on Acrylic Skins

+ Enlarge Image

I have many digital files of my paintings that have just been sitting dormant. To be clear, many of these are living, breathing three dimensional on canvas paintings. First I digitally paint them using numerous effects like Topaz, Alienskin Filters, and Nik Filters and Postworkshop 3 plus Corel Painter 12 and Photoshop. Then I have them printed on canvas. Next step is to paint on the canvas with wet paints to enhance and bring out the features of the digital file and then to get a high resolution file made of the original painting so I can reproduce the original many times over in other means such as gift items or matted prints. 

So there is always just ONE original the way I have been working. Everything else is a copy of it. I wanted to be able to create some smaller originals but using the SAME digital files of the originals. Sounds confusing, doesn't it? How can I do that? Took me a while to figure it out also, but I did!

Here is the digital file of a real acrylic painting I have done. It's called Sunset Terrace and the reference capture was taken at the Grove Park Inn Sunset Terrace restaurant here in Asheville,NC.

Sunset Terrace

I decided I wanted to make 5x5x2 Gallery Wrapped canvas boxes for future live and in person sales. So I learned the technique of making acrylic digital skins that can be printed on. Any color paint can be used to create these skins and it can be mixed, thinned or swirled. Using Golden Digital Grounds I can make the skin printable to go through a printer.

Here you can see another one of my paintings coming out of the printer. After it has been sealed and dried I can use it to make my boxes and then paint with more paint on the boxes and seal them to prepare for sale.

Notice that the yellow painting is not the same on the box. Like I said, you can use anything and the one on the box was printed on more bronze paint. Below is the finished box with the bronze painting on it.

These techniques are incredible fun to work with and there are so many substrates that we can use to put them on. I am playing with many materials now seeing what I like best.

If all of this sounds difficult, it isn't. It's just a matter of learning the materials and then you can do this with any of your files of your photographs also. Think beautiful landscapes that are printed on paint and then mounted to canvas or masonite and glazed over. More originals! 

I teach these methods and in May there is a very special workshop here in Asheville,NC for four days with myself and Suzanne Clem-Wheeler a famed artist from Atlanta,Ga. Jointly we are the best painting workshop combined with digital art and photography that is offered anywhere. And for the next three days there is an EARLY BIRD price on this incredible journey. ACRYLIC PAINT MEETS DIGITAL ART is going to be amazing. It is TWO instructors with only 6 students and it's half sold out already!

To see more or register go to ACRYLIC PAINT MEETS DIGITAL ART DETAILS to learn more. You don't need to know Photoshop or Corel Painter either. Just be a photographer with a creative soul and we will take you the rest of the way. The workshop also includes a Spring photography field trip to the famed Biltmore House to photograph their world famous spring gardens. Your day pass is included in your registration!

I did say I would remind you of the discounts and deals you can get with my codes so here goes. First this link to POSTWORKSHOP3 takes you directly to the cart to see the discount. You can search my posts here on PIXIQ to learn more about the software and how I use it.

TOPAZ FILTERS the discount code is MSHOLIN to save on them! NIKSOFTWARE the code is also MSHOLIN. ALIENSKIN is MSH0901 while you are lookoing at Alienskin check out my blog post there about how to enlarge your files. Blow Something Up with Marilyn!

I usually have a good selection of discount codes and info HERE 

Also don't forget to check out the FREEBIES in my Digital Paint Shop

Hope you buy yourself a beautiful holiday GIFT and don't forget the EARLY BIRD price on the workshop ends in 3 days!