Business Plan.

A few ideas.

Recently I received a letter reminding me that I should have a business plan in place, so I thought I would share some of my ideas with you.

One of the ideas I have is to get my art on to wood either by image transfer or by laser engraving. The best subjects that I have would be my Old Master trace monotypes – these would be ideal for using as panels for contemporary furniture or as vintage style table place mats (varnished or lacquered thin MDF with rounded corners). These items could be sold on Etsy or Not on the High Street.com. Another option would be to hand produce each one by doing a trace monotype straight onto the wood – these would be more exclusive as they would be one off works of art in their own right.

Another value added product would be a limited edition production run of tote bags – say 50 bags only of each design (the designs could be of different old master paintings – maybe the Impressionists revisited - see my Carbon Paper Trace Monotypes). Each bag could be personally signed by the artist (me) with permanent marker pen and then the bags could be supplied exclusively to either a department store or boutique (fingers crossed on that one!).

Going back to wooden panels, I have noticed that there is a gap in the market for a very niche product – namely reproduction Pre Raphaelite wooden furniture panels. These could be produced quite easily by first tracing a public domain Pre Raphaelite image onto a prepared wooden panel and then sprayed with fixative before painting in acrylics (I've chosen acrylics for the quick drying times and ability to varnish straight away unlike oils). These panels could be offered for sale to cabinet makers or even vintage/shabby chic designer/restorers. There is also no reason why I could not undertake a few simple projects like bedside cabinets or blanket boxes utilising these painted wooden panels. The painted panels could be offered for sale on Etsy, Facebook buy and sell, craft fairs or a dedicated website.

Speaking of Facebook buy and sell, I did have a go at selling some artwork not too long ago, but had no luck. I am going to try again with some 19^th Century reproductions - Carbon Paper Trace Monotypes of cats and kittens at play. I'm also considering producing copies of 19^th Century seascapes and copies of some of the American Ashcan School of artists who in my opinion influenced Edward Hopper.

An idea I would like to experiment with soon, is producing hand coloured prints by first doing a trace monotype onto stretched cartridge paper using Genesis Heat Set Oil paint and then hand colouring this once I've dried it using a Genesis Heat Set Drying Gun. I would like to see how a print would look using watercolours over the dried heat set paint, or maybe work the print up into a finished painting by carrying on with different heat set colours. The print may have to be done on the reverse side of thick watercolour paper if the cartridge paper proves to be too thin.

Another idea I had after seeing an advert online. A company is charging a very competitive price to produce the silk-screen screen needed to do printing from a graphic image (no tones). This would be useful for producing limited edition prints on paper – particularly the copyist trace monotype works I can produce using Genesis Heat Set paint.

I've talked about some of the more adventurous plans I have in mind, but there are also some more modest plans afoot. I am currently producing works on cardboard (cereal boxes) to keep costs as low as I can (we eat cereal anyway, so that costs nothing, the other costs could be paint, fine brushes if they splay, carbon or transfer paper, cheap frames if framing, or mountboard and mounts with cellophane etc.). There is a reason for this – car boots sales, craft fairs etc. People don't seem to have money to part with nowadays, so unless I become really famous, I don't see much need for archival substrates and the best quality thirty pounds a tube paint when the buying public are not able to pay ten pounds or even five pounds for works of art. Anyway there is method to my madness, the finished image can be scanned and uploaded to a company that produces Giclee prints and postcards etc. So you can sell your postcards for example at craft fairs and car boots or local shops may stock them for you - sale or return. The buying public isn't worried that your original work of art is on a cereal box – they have their postcard printed onto thick card that looks and feels professional, you make a small profit and everything's right with the world!

I did consider framing laser printed copies of my graphic b/w artworks at a cost of 15p for the laser printout and under two pounds for a frame. But I'm not sure how long a laser printed image would last – I could say it is 'laser printed wall art' or 'laser printed posters' if I were selling them on a market stall for example, and my son did get a laser printed certificate from Santa at a grotto this Christmas, so if it's OK for Santa to give laser printed certificates, then maybe it's OK for me.

Atmospheric paintings on sandpaper (tearing up the rulebook).

Sandpaper/wet & dry papers are ideal surfaces for painting landscapes.

They can be used with a single medium e.g. Acrylic or Gouache (or Gouache over Acrylic), or they can be used as a substrate for mixed media paintings using paints and either soft pastels or oil pastels on the top layers.

Because there is a slight drag on the paintbrush as it's moved over the surface of the sandpaper, a broken brush stroke is created. When painting on sandpaper, the look is almost like a velvety pastel painting even though you have used paint. This creates a look that is hard to mimic using other surfaces if using paint (texture paste can be applied to canvas board to achieve a similar effect, but it may not cover uniformly).

If you are painting in black & white, then very realistic scenes can be rendered – especially the countryside with wide expanses and gathering clouds.

I have included an example of a small painting I did on grey aluminium oxide paper. The longevity of such a paper is obviously a concern, however if you want to experiment without having to spend out on textured pastel papers then this substrate is ideal. Also it is better to have a finished piece of art on something that may be to hand in the house, rather than wasting time phoning or going to the shops looking for textured pastel papers, that they might or might not stock. You could be thinking about producing art while waiting for your ordered paper to arrive, or you could actually get on with it!

Uphill near Weston-super-Mare. Copyright Antony R James.

Finally got around to testing one of my Christmas gifts from my wife!

I received a set of 6 Pitt artist pens with various nib sizes for Christmas from my wife and thought I would try them out at the local arts centre where I hire their studio one morning per week.

I had a go at sketching first, then went on to produce some semi abstract doodles.

The Beach At Troville - after Eugene Boudin with a Spaniel from a George Stubbs painting.

Conclusion: I was really impressed with these pens and I produced some really good images without any bother at all - they didn't smudge (easily done by me as I hold my pen differently), you can produce bold marks with the larger nibs and very fine detail with the smallest. It says on the pack pigmented India ink with three stars for maximum lightfastness, waterproof and permanent. Odorless, acid-free, pH-neutral. 6 nibs: XS,S,F,M,B(brush),C(calligraphy).

The pens could be used for pen and wash and in mixed media artworks. I scanned the doodles in and coloured one in Gimp 2 just to see what it would look like.

Images Copyright Antony R James.

Last summer's trip to Cheddar in Somerset, England to photograph the Gorge.

Mission - to climb up Cheddar Gorge and capture some photos to use as reference material for my artwork.

 

 Event - June 2015. 

Equipment: Compact cameras - nothing fancy.

 

Now I'm not the world's best traveller, and in the past I used to suffer badly from panic attacks, but I had the urge to go on my own to Cheddar (which is not that far from my home town in Somerset - by car that is.)

Anyway, I set off mid afternoon from nearby Burnham-on-Sea and I already knew where I had to go to find the way up the Gorge - the track is called Cufic Lane, opposite the National Trust Information Centre. Which I had discovered the last time I visited Cheddar; as I saw people walking down the lane and realised this would lead me to the top and enable me to look down on the Gorge.

I had imagined that it would be a gradual climb up to the top - quite leisurely - well I was wrong! Not far along Cufic Lane there is a gate leading steeply up a hill. I met a couple coming down who looked a lot older than me, they told me it was a very strenuous climb and they were right!

Lets say I was not as fit as I thought I was. Because I soon became really hot and sweaty and was very out of breath. A few times I had to hold on to trees as my head was spinning.

I managed to pick my way upwards over rocks and tree roots (good job it wasn't wet and slippery!)

This climb seemed to go on for about twenty minuets until eventually I reached the top where the trees thinned out and I was surprised to see goats walking around.

I followed the goats until I reached my destination: Mission Complete. Apparently you can take a route from here that will loop all the way around the Gorge and you end up on the other side. As this was only a reconnaissance mission for me I was not really up for a long hike and time was getting on as it was after 5.00pm when I reached the top.

Images Copyright Antony R James.

Carbon Paper Trace Monotypes

The Latent Image.

Antony R James (Artist/Printmaker without a press!).

There is a fascinating discovery to be made when producing Carbon Paper Prints: The carbon paper retains drawn information as a latent image - carbon is removed from the carbon paper and  deposited onto the blank paper placed underneath it when you trace an image. If you look carefully at the carbon paper once you have finished tracing, you will see a faint image (a negative).

This negative can be scanned onto a computer and developed like a photograph using image editing software such as Gimp 2 or Photoshop. This latent image is not always usable, however when it proves successful it can be very exciting seeing your image appear! The best latent images are obtained when tracing an image using plain printer/photocopy paper or thin cartridge paper.

Very complex images can be rendered and "stored" on the carbon paper. Handle the carbon paper with care when you have finished a tracing and place gently onto a home scanner to "develop" the image.

An example of a "developed" latent image is shown below.

Carbon Paper Trace Monotype: A Bar at the Folies-Bergère - after Edouard Manet.