paint by numbers w SA and REAL paint?

[David Kaplan]

has anyone ever tried to make a "painting" in SA, print it out onto real canvas or heavy paper, and then use it as a guide for manual painting with real paints?

[Synthetik]

We had a customer in Holland who was using Studio Artist to make action paintings, then sending the prints to Thailand where real artists then painted them on canvas using oil paint. So i know it has been done.

[Donna Kuhn]

this is a bit different but i have been meaning to take a sa image and use it in a transfer print onto canvas. thank you for reminding me. or make a collage of colored laser prints onto canvas.

[Synthetik]

People will sometimes do a Studio Artist print onto canvas and then manually paint on top of it with real paint to personalize it and give it additional texture. I'm not sure what that would do to the long term archival properties of an ink jet print.

There was also a service bureau in LA that at one point had a 2 step procedure for generating oil painting prints on canvas from digital files. they used a 3M laser toner transfer process to image a canvas with custom oil paint like powdered toner that was then subjected to second heat and pressure fusing pass to create a oil painting on canvas.

[mark g]

John, I am very curious about the process you mention '3M laser toner transfer process to image a canvas'..the 2 part process...
I have spent a lot of time researching to no avail, do you have any links/more info?

ps..it seems strange to make an action painting, then have it copied...sort of defeats the object.

[Synthetik]

i guess they had a market for selling 'original' oil paintings on canvas. So it was easy to put together great looking painted imagery using Studio Artist, and their approach to getting it transfered to oil on canvas was to use artists working off the Studio Artist print with a magnifying loop and copying the Studio Artist image with real oil paint on canvas. There is a long history which still continues today of 'famous' artists who design a painting and then have a team of 'assistants' do the actual work of painting the canvas.

Another approach would be to put together a process like a serigraph. You could use Studio Artist to build the images for the different screens used in the serigraph and then paint in the individual screen images by using the screen as a mask for real paint applied on canvas. Again, i know there's someone here on Oahu who works with serigraphs and i think he has assistants who do the actual fill in paint work using the serigraph screens even through the finished painting is sold with his signature as his painting.

I'll do some searches for the 2 step oil paint toner transfer process i was referring to. With the longevity of todays modern pigment ink jet prints on archival canvas or paper it's really less of an issue i think then it was 10 years ago.

[mark g]

thanks john..i would be very grateful

[Synthetik]

I haven't had any luck so far tracking it down. It was a service bureau in LA that was providing this custom service and that was 9 years ago, so it's unclear if they are still in business. Still looking however.

[mark g]

ok..i have researched 3M, but nothing so far..perhaps i should open the question to the forum

[liveart]

I have been pondering this question for awhile, now. Having the canvas hand-painted is interesting, but still just an approximation of what SA does. Further, existing print methods will only try to replicate the final image, not the process.

There is one technology in printing that can offer some hope to those wanting to lay down color in layers as the program does. UV ink printing which has the capability to print WHITE ink as well as colors. Now there would be some additional special requirements to match the printer to SA, such as print registration, and a special print driver.

UV printers are usually available in large to super large format and ungodly expensive $100-250k.

As it happens I have been working with a manufacturer to design a special purpose smaller footprint UV ink printer.

If anyone has about $42k to spend on a printer it would be possible to have a machine that can print multiple passes on an image pretty much as SA does.

I know that the price sounds high and that for the most part we artists can not imagine spending that sum on a output device. However, I offer it on the chance that someone or group might be interested.

[Synthetik]

Do you have any links to more information on UV ink printing?