Knowing how to work with digital images is increasingly important for printmakers – not only within printmaking processes such as photo etching, photo screenprint and cyanotype but as part of an artist’s profession: submitting and sharing work in a digital format for exhibitions and competitions, websites, portfolios and published catalogues.
The ‘Digital Imaging’ project delivered a series of heavily subsidized introductory and intermediate training workshops for members to gain knowledge in working with digital images in a wide range of applications.
Introductory workshops provided training in the photographing and scanning of artwork giving participants the skills and confidence to make a high-quality digital record of their artwork, and in the use of Photoshop Elements to package and present images professionally to potential clients and for submissions.
Intermediate workshops offered training in computer editing and image manipulation in order to prepare high quality images for use in printmaking processes. This was aimed at artists and printmakers already familiar with using technology in their practice as well as those taking part in the introductory sessions. The course was designed to cover: preparing images for digital print | making transparencies for cyanotype and intaglio type etching | working with layers to produce a multi-coloured screenprint.
The grant enabled us to update and improve our technical facilities, including the purchase of new IT equipment and software, for use by members during Open Access sessions. It has also given us the capacity to expand our range of contemporary printmaking workshops being offered in our annual Workshop Programme going forwards.
This project took place in 2010-2011 and was made possible with an Arts Council of Wales Training Grant.
