Albert Seaman's Paintings, Drawings and Essays
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Article 1: CARD ART. This article was produced to accompany a live demonstration of the subject in 1999.ab CARD ARTA VERY PERSONAL FORM OF GREETING. COMBINING MODERN TECHNIQUES AND SOME VERY OLD METHODS. There is nothing new about the idea of using personal artwork to decorate a greeting card, an invitation or similar sort of product. In fact, until the advent of low-cost full-colour process printing, it was about the only way of creating such things. The standard of workmanship varied from simple and mundane, to superb works of art. A few fine examples of the latter survive today in some of the world's major museums. Enough has been said and written on the subject for further elaboration in these notes to be unnecessary. Whereas the production of cards and similar items was once a totally manual dedication, today we have unbridled opportunity for combining the charm and sophistication of traditional methods and materials with modern reproduction techniques to produce very acceptable results. The preparation of a personal salutation is no longer the prerogative of those with an abundance of time to spend on the task. Historically, the creation of a greeting card was a very personal matter. Today, there is a vast industry dedicated to the design and manufacture of an endless variety of cards, not only for the more traditional occasions but also for events and circumstances that were almost unheard of a generation ago. Although the commercial, mass produced products may seem to be expensive, the cost of making your own by hand could be much higher if the total value of materials and labour is to be included. Consequently, the justification for such an adventure must lie in reasons beyond the economic. Which brings us to the first and most important question: WHY DO YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR OWN PERSONAL GREETING CARDS?
SOME INITIAL CONSIDERATIONS. Having decided that you will be making your own greetings cards, hasty notes or similar products that will incorporate your artwork, there will be several points to consider before you get too far along the road. Some of the major items are listed here and expanded upon further into these notes.
STYLE AND DELIVERY. The principle restrictions to the style and size of the finished card will be determined by whether it is to be delivered by hand, or entrusted to the vagaries of the national postal system. Unless you are going to be making your own envelopes (not an impossibility), then the availability of commercial sizes in suitable materials will help to determine an appropriate size for your work. The first impression that the recipient will get from the greeting will be the envelope. A wide range of sizes will be available but not necessarily in a suitable quality of paper. Therefore, if you are not already familiar with what can readily be obtained, it will be worth the time spent in checking out the market place. The economics of mailing greetings cards are not as favourable as they once were. In addition to the relatively high (and constantly increasing) cost of mailing a package, there are some restrictions on envelope sizes that mean additional postage for anything falling outside the limits. Allowable sizes can be checked with the Post Office and informational leaflets are usually available for the asking. Also, it is easy to exceed the weight limitations for minimum postage if due consideration is not given to the size and thickness of the materials to be used. In the same context, you will need to know quite early in the game whether or not a liner for a card will push your work over the basic weight limit. If the style of your work is not in the common greeting card format, then the effect of delivery restrictions may not be an important factor. Mailing the piece(s) may be out of the question anyway and delivery by some other means more or less mandatory. Indeed, the general category of "Mail Art" can include some very unusual styles and features that would not permit it to be mailed at all! Some styles of Card Art can be virtually matted reproductions of the original piece. It is not uncommon to find such work ending up framed on the recipient’s wall. Other than the obvious issues of size and weight, factors such as the ability of the matting and backing materials to resist the delivery person’s overwhelming compulsion to fold the package in half can be important considerations. TYPES OF ARTWORK The two basic forms of artwork to be considered here will be:
It may be assumed that original art will be used as Card Art in very limited amounts. Perhaps the most common form would be hand-painted pictures on commercially available materials, which usually come packaged with their own supply of matching envelopes. The manner in which these materials would be used is self-evident. An extension of this concept would be the production of a card or cards from scratch in a suitable grade of watercolour paper. Again, the technique would be obvious and would display the characteristics of the individual artist. Contemporary technology enables the artist to reproduce artwork by several methods, most of which are suitable for use in Card Art. The choice will probably be determined by the size of the original. For practical purposes, there will be a well-established dividing line between works over or under 12" by 16". (In some cases, some accommodation of the 12" dimension may be required. More about that later.) REPRODUCING THE ARTWORK PHOTOGRAPHIC METHODS FOR LARGER WORKS.
XEROGRAPHIC METHODS FOR SMALLER WORKS The quality of xerographic colour reproductions available today would have been regarded as pure magic a few years ago. Most print shops now have colour copying facilities in sizes up to 11" by 17". Some have fixed reduction (and enlargement) increments and others are infinitely variable. For Card Art we would normally be using reductions from the original sizes. The standard art paper size of 12" by 16" is something of a watershed in xerographic reproductions. Although the flatbed copiers that we would normally encounter have a theoretical size of 11" by 17", they are usually built to a metric size, which is about 3/8" greater than the 11". This means that if you can sacrifice 5/8" from either side of the 12" dimension of your original, the whole image can be copied. It is also possible to extract sections from the original on most copiers, providing that the whole work can be fitted onto the bed. The accuracy with which the extraction can be made depends upon the skill of the operator. Generally speaking, the accuracy of the copied colours is remarkably good. There is usually a slight increase in contrast for each stage of reproduction, but this is normally quite acceptable. However, if several stages of reproduction are involved (as discussed in the next paragraph) then some noticeable increase in contrast should be expected. At the present time, the writer of these notes has no information regarding the permanence of the colours, or their ability to withstand strong light. At the present time, the usual cost for one 8½" by 11" colour copy varies from about $1.00 downward. Twice the size – 17" by 11" – twice the price. Consequently, for Card Art, we would want to pack as many images as possible onto one piece of paper, which can then be chopped up into useable pieces for mounting on or in the cards. If, for example, your 12" by 16" (actually 11+" by 16") is knocked down to 5" by 7", (44% linear) a couple of copies (at $1.00 each) can be pasted onto an 8½" by 11" sheet for subsequent copying at 2-up, which amounts to 50¢ per useable copy. That will be less than a photographic print and probably of better overall quality. There is obviously an opportunity here for the adventurous spirit to experiment with copy layouts to keep the cost of the exercise to a minimum. COMPUTER PRINTING FOR SMALLER WORKS If you have the proper equipment and are smart enough to be able to use it to scan your artwork and print it out of your computer, then you don’t need to be told here how it should be done! Suffice to say that if you plan to print images suitable for Card Art straight from your computer, then you need compatible, properly tuned equipment with adequate technical specifications for the job. Scanners and desktop printers have not only improved in their technical capabilities in recent times, they have done so at increasingly lower costs. However, a job scanned and printed at less than 300 d.p.i. (dots per inch) in colour, is going to look far less impressive than a xerographic copy. Also, the capability of lower priced ink-jet printers to reproduce original colours still leaves a lot to be desired at the present time. If the nature of your artwork is compatible with desktop published results, then you certainly have the most economical means of reproduction at your fingertips. LITHOGRAPHY Some excellent results can be obtained by lithographing onto the covers of hand-made cards. (This does not refer to commercial offset lithography.) Every item thus produced is essentially a limited edition original. Consequently, the process does not fall into the category of "reproduction" in the sense that it is used in these notes. Also, the technique is quite specialized and one needs to be skilled in the art to use it. However, inasmuch as embossing may be combined with lithography to produce some fine Card Art, parts of these notes may well be applicable. CHOOSING CARD ART MATERIALS. THE COVER.
THE LINER. There will be many advantages in using a liner for your card design. It is a way of separating the message from the picture so that the words or greeting can be customized to suit the circumstances. The type and quality of the paper may be varied to suit the nature of the card, within the limits of compatibility with the cover. There will be a variety of ways in which the liner can be printed, or even endorsed with hand-written messages. The scope is unlimited. From a structural point of view, a liner can be used to provide back up support for the cover artwork if the cover is "windowed" to produce a matted effect over the picture. Although the choice of materials for the liner is almost unlimited, the weight factor will have an important bearing on what is to be used. Also, if the message or other copy is to be printed from a computer, or perhaps, Xeroxed, then the type of paper will be partly pre-determined for you. (If you get liners Xeroxed at a good commercial establishment, they will almost certainly allow for paper other than their cheap copy stock to be used. It needs to be discussed.) Even so, some delightful colours, finishes and surfaces are available from art stores, office supply houses and sometimes, print shops. But some of them are quite expensive, so before you get too carried away, give some thought to a good quality white stock. White is elegant, relatively inexpensive and readily available in both 8½" by 11" and 11" by 17" sizes in a variety of qualities. You will almost certainly be cutting the liners so that there is some waste, so select a size that will give you maximum utilization of material. MAKING DECKLED EDGES. If you are unable to obtain cover stock already deckled in the size, colour and thickness that you require, it is very easy to create the effect yourself. The result will not necessarily be exactly the same as you would purchase, but nevertheless will be quite acceptable. When paper is deckled as it comes off the manufacturing line, it is hand torn along a thinned-out line created in the web of material as it is rolled to thickness in the machinery. We cannot properly create a thinned-out line after the paper is dried, but we can simulate the effect with a little trickery.
Fold the sheet along the line that you have chosen and crease it firmly but not hard enough to break the surface. (The tendency for the card to crack or otherwise become damaged will depend upon the nature of the material.) Next, open up the sheet and run a bead of water along the fold. You will want to let the water soak in to the fold for several minutes, the exact time depending upon the type of material. Flip the sheet over and wet the other side of the fold as well. In most cases, it is best to prop up the outside edges of the sheet so that a small bead of water, about ¼" wide, can be left laying in the fold for a while. When the wetted strip along the fold has obviously become soggy enough to allow the fibres to be pulled apart, remove any remaining water and gently pull the two halves of the sheet to separate them along the wetted line. Do this carefully, ensuring that the resulting tear follows the general line of the fold, but with some irregularity. With a little practice on smaller pieces of card, you will find that you can vary the line of separation sufficiently to give it the impression of a factory-made deckle. After separation, dampen the torn edges slightly and worry the fibres a little to heighten the appearance of a random tear, blot with paper towelling and leave to dry. EMBOSSING THE COVER. Embossing the cover of your card provides a distinctive, dignified and professional quality to its appearance. Embossing may consist of simple framing for the artwork or it may be artwork in itself. Whatever form it takes, some templates and tools will be required to produce acceptable results. The templates will be simple and easy to construct. The tools are the sort of things that most artists already have in their boxes of magic tricks. Let us consider a simple embossed frame around a mounted picture. (Under most circumstances, the picture would be mounted after the frame had been embossed.)
A template is essentially a throwaway item and does not require a sophisticated manner of construction. Some parts may be salvageable for use with other card designs, providing the dimensions are suitable and there is no damage in critical areas. The diagram at right shows the basic features of a template for embossing a ribbed frame around the picture area of a card. If the picture area is to be recessed only, and not contained inside a rib, the Outer Part of the template would not be required. The Stops are optional items. The card being embossed may quite easily be located by marks on the template surface. Use whatever method suits you best. The quality of embossing that you achieve will depend largely upon the neatness with which the apertures in the template components are cut. A good sharp knife against a steel ruler will cut plastic sheet cleanly and without too much effort being required. The resulting edges on the template will produce crisp, clean embossed lines. The results will appear very professional.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER. Once you have made the prints for the artwork, the cover for the card and finally, the plain or printed liner, it remains to assemble them. There are bound to be some accidents at this stage of the game so it is best to have a few spare bit and pieces available. If the artwork is to be mounted on the front cover (usually the case), it will be necessary to decide what sort of adhesive to use. Water-based pastes and glues are not usually suitable as they can cause the artwork to expand and buckle. If you don’t mind the smell and, according to some environmentalists the potential hazards, pressure-sensitive aerosol spray mounts work very well. But if you use them, be sure that you do so in well ventilated conditions. The very nature of these adhesives is that they cause the parts to stick together instantly wherever they touch. So, get it positioned correctly the first time as there will be no second chance! Attaching the folded (and presumably printed) liner inside the folded cover is easily accomplished with a fine line of white glue down the fold. Too much glue can cause the liner to buckle in an unsightly manner so be sparing with it. Any final embellishments, such as the attachment of metallic trim or other decorations, will probably be applied after the liner is in place. Once again, a suitable adhesive needs to be used to avoid damaging the component materials. In the final assembly stage, it is not unusual for some of the components to sneak slightly out of position. Consequently a final fine trimming with a sharp knife and a steel ruler may very well be in order. If you have a good quality paper cutter, that may also be used although they seldom like taking the very fine cuts that we are talking about here. Finally, admire your handiwork and send it off with all of the kind thoughts that you have embodied in its creation. IDEAS . . . However clever and accomplished you may be at producing Card Art, it is always interesting to see what others are doing. There are some specialty shops and artists' studios around that feature unusual or different types of greetings cards. Prices range from the commonplace to the unbelievable. It is worth investigating such stores to check out the marketplace. Albert Seaman. October 1999.
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