Archivable Prints…

So I started selling prints of my artwork on Etsy without thinking through the small details. I figure I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Well, I got my first order, an 8×10″ print of Michael Jackson. Immediately, I thought I would need to invest in a good printer that makes archivable prints. I have a Canon IP4700 printer, the one I use to make inkjet prints for my Banzai Chicks jewelry for sale on Etsy but I couldn’t remember the longevity of the prints. So off to the web for research. It turns out that using Canon inks with ChromaLife 100+ and Canon Pro Platinum Photo Paper can insure prints for 300+ years under ideal conditions (archival photo album). I imagine that means if you hermetically seal your print with an acid free matte under ultraviolet protective glass in a protective frame. So if someone wants to keep my art print that long, it should be good for a few generations.

I also did some research on having my artwork reproduced on a larger scale on photo paper. I found an output house that had an HP Design Jet z2100 Photo Printer. Using HP Vivera pigment inks and HP photo paper should insure color prints for 100+ years and 200+ years for black and white. So now I can offer larger prints for sale on Etsy. Looking at Epson, who used to be the leader in archival prints, Epson UltraChrome K3 inks have lightfastness readings of up to 108 years with color and over 200 years for black and white prints, so they are comparable to HP. My old boss gave me an Epson R1800 and after spending lots of money on replacing the 8 cartridges of ink, the printer had trouble feeding paper through. It took me over an hour to get one 11×17 print. I’m sure the inks are dry in that printer since that was 6 months ago.

Anyway, talking about archival prints is probably boring and only interesting to me. So I will leave you with an unfinished Steampunk Cinderella Painting I’m still working on. I’ve been delinquent about painting the last few weeks since I’ve been learning CSS to code my new Banzai Chicks site. I should be launching it soon.

Steampunk Cinderella almost done...

I just got some great news. Two of my art prints, (my very first Hustler pin-up and my cool Sexy Girl and Octopus pin-up also published in Hustler), got accepted to the International Erotic Art Exhibition Dirty Show to be held on February 10th-18 in Detroit, Michigan. Unfortunately, it is two weeks away, so I wasn’t able to create an analog oil painting for the show. I personally won’t be able to attend, but if you are in the area, please drop by.

A Happy New Year!

Wow…it’s 2012! One of my new year’s resolutions is to post more often. I’m still learning my way around WordPress and it’s blogging tools. So bear with me. I changed my landing page on my website and added a new jquery rotating banner. I also added a widget to my new etsy.com store. I’m going to sell autographed art prints of my work and handmade jewelry. Hopefully, I can garner some new fans on Etsy. So far I haven’t made any sales, but I get more views at my art store than my Banzai Chicks Etsy Store (shameless plugging of my Banzai Chicks brand). I also added a new mobile app to view my art portfolio for mobile devices. A cool tidbit for other artists is that if you become a premium member of www.artwanted.com which is a mere $39/year, they will put your gallery into a mobile app! How useful and code-free is that? I highly recommend joining just to get it and no, I don’t get any sort of kick-back.

Sandra Chang Etsy Store 

If some of you haven’t heard, I moved from Los Angeles to Sin City, Las Vegas at the end of September. My husband got a game developer job for Caesar’s Palace and I am now a kept woman (lol). I quit my graphic design position and am able to pursue art full time (YEAH)! I spent most of October unpacking and re-establishing residence in Nevada (registering the car, updating addresses, putting our LA house on the market, etc.). I did two more pinups for Hustler in the meanwhile. I will post small thumbs of the artwork here. Of course these pieces are censored in this blog. To see the originals, you will have to buy the magazines.

Hustler Movie Theater Pin-up

I actually painted this in August before I left. Here is a pin-up I worked on in November. For the theme, I wanted something more elaborate than a simple sexy girl, I wanted to portray two women in the court of Marie Antoinette. I looked at the Kirsten Dunst movie of the same name for reference. Saw a lot of photos of delectable desserts and beautiful petticoat dresses!

There are actually two women in this painting, but I'll let you figure out where the other one is!

I finally signed the contract for a 48-page Art of Sandra Chang book to be published by SQP Publications at the end of 2012 or beginning of 2013. It will collect some of my old fairy, mermaid and Hustler pieces for print as well as 24 new pieces. Here are two brand new paintings I made this year.

My homage to Gil Elvgren!Sexy warrior holding 2 deer horn knives

Sexy Warrior Princess weiding double deer horn knives

What I tried with the three new illustrations, the movie theater pin up, the Marie Antoinette pin up and the last one was to really concentrate on their faces and make them soft and as beautiful as possible. I spent a lot of time blending and softening the edges. Artists are seldom happy with their skills and I believe it’s the constant learning, improving your skills, and unending desire of pursing excellence that keeps the spirit youthful. I am far from where I would like to be (I still have a lot more to learn, such as environment design, fabric texture, etc). Otherwise, you would get complacent in your work and abilities and end up stagnant. So many great people have become caricatures of their own persona as they grew older: Marlon Brando, Nikola Tesla, Orson Welles…I think it’s because they lost the fire and passion of their youth (not to mention a refusal to accept criticism from others). Someone asked Kevin Smith why he doesn’t make another “Chasing Amy”, he responded that he wasn’t the same person he was twenty years ago. He got successful and began believing his own press. An artist friend of mine said that the passion gets lost and the art mediocre and you can not rekindle the drive as you age. I’m hoping to keep it burning (in painting and in kung fu…did I mention I am now training with a 32nd generation Shaolin Monk in Las Vegas…new challenges…especially when you have to compensate with an aging body that is not as resilient as when you were 20).

Anyway, if you would like to see the progress step by step of creating the warrior princess, I posted the process on my Facebook Fan page in my miscellaneous stuff gallery. You can see the work in progress of my Steampunk Cinderella piece…it’s almost done, but I got side tracked designing my new Banzai Chicks website. I will finish it soon. Become a fan and you can see the process of all my future paintings. I am going to make it a point of documenting each day’s worth of work.

Well, I should get back to coding. I’m tackling learning CSS and adapting jquery for the Banzai Chicks website, a helpful skill to acquire when you can’t afford to hire a web developer. I wish everyone A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR! Make those new year resolutions and pursue those goals! Keep the passion alive!

 

 

 

Sandra’s First Musing

This gallery contains 4 photos.

After a lot of prodding by fellow artists and friends, I finally decided to start my blog. I spent a large part of last year working on my Banzai Chicks brand. My tagline is “Fight apathy and lethargy and pursue … Continue reading →