Flash to the Past – Letter Writing

I don’t know if it is COVID or all the hype regarding the post office, but it seems people are having a flash to the past and letter writing once again. Personally, I find letter writing to be a very personal, intimate way to reach out to someone. To hand write a note shows a concern and interest well beyond sending an email or text. You are sending a person a bit of your handwriting, however neat or sloppy it may be. It will be something that someone may cherish for a long time and perhaps if you have children and grand children the card or letter will be passed through the generations. I know I am still thrilled when I find a note or card with a message from my Mom. Something about seeing her handwriting is very comforting.

Taking all that into consideration, I have launched a line of Greeting Cards at my Etsy shop that I have written about in previous post. Recently, I have also added Greeting Card sets to increase your choices for letter writing. These sets offer a wide variety of cards from black and white to nature and architecture. I even have a couple of different and quirky sets for anyone looking for something more out of the box. All of these images come from some of my most popular fine art prints and stock images.

Edibles Greeting Card Set

These Greeting Cards are professionally printed on 60 lb matte paper. They measure 4.13 x 5.83 inches and come with a blank interior ready for your personal note or message. They make a great gift or awesome for personal use.

Nature Greeting Card Set

Nature Greeting Card Set comes with six beautiful nature scenes from rural barns to coastal landscapes and close up of cheery tulips and sunflower. Each card is packaged in a cello protector. All six of these scenes are horizontal orientation and come with silver envelopes.

Quirky Greeting Card Set

This greeting card set includes some unique and quirky images including the fine art images of “Golf Meeting”, “Female Studio Sound” and “Runaway”. Also are three other images from my extensive photo library, included an all time favorite “Horses Asses”.

I hope you too have caught on to the flash from the past letter writing craze. If not please consider making someones day by sending them a personalized greeting note card. I am sure they will be tickled. Check out my Etsy store to see other Greeting Card Sets and individual Greeting Cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fine Art Print Rolling Hills

This week I shipped out a fine art print “Rolling Hills”, number 5 in a limited edition series. This is a very vibrant green piece of art and prints beautifully.

I was extremely happy that my professional printer was working during this difficult time of the pandemic. They did a fantastic job as usual and delivery was prompt and undamaged. Hoping it arrives at it’s destination, my client, with just as much speed and care.

Rolling Hills

When printing I like to have an half inch to inch white border around the print. This allows for ample space for a signature and numbering and also easy handling.

This fine art print “Rolling Hills” was photographed in Washington state near or in Steptoe Butte State Park. This is a beautiful agricultural area and in June the rolling hills are lush green and a delight for the eyes. The year I was there was an especially lush year. There is also an abundant of old barns that are seriously fun to photograph and make for wonderful fine art prints for resale. Here is another post that shows other images from the Palouse area. It truly is a magical place.

I just wanted to share some good news during a the pandemic. It seems as though there is lots of negative news around and this sale helped combat it. So I am extremely thankful. I am also thankful for the support for artists and all others along the supply chain that helped my sale and shipping of the fine art print Rolling Hills to be completed.

Thanks for reading. More of my fine art prints can be viewed on my website or also at Saatchi Art.

Greeting Cards for Resale from Art Prints and Stock Images

Recently I started looking through my work for images that would convert well to greeting cards for resale. It was easy to find the obvious candidates such as my most popular fine art prints or re-pins from Pinterest. But, to really have a good inventory of note cards, I needed to look through my library of stock images to find some unique shots that would also work well on greeting cards and provide more variety in my inventory. Luckily, I was a little more organized than I thought so I was able to find a good assortment of images to use for greeting cards for resale.

Here is an example of a couple of greeting cards from my collection.

The next step was to figure out how to print the cards and what kind of paper to use. I wanted a fairly thick card stock with a matte or luster surface. I used the web to research card stock manufacturers/resellers and order a lot samples. Over the next few weeks I experimented with a variety of greeting card stock and becoming a lot more acquainted with my Canon Pro-100 printer. The Canon Pro-100 is a nice printer but it does have it’s limitations when printing greeting cards. Ultimately, I decided to have the note cards professionally printed.

I partnered with Modbox to help facilitate these batch printings of greeting cards with my images. In addition, they were interested in setting up a website selling the greeting cards also. Can’t help but feel I am on my way!

In addition to Modbox, I am also selling greeting cards at my Etsy store, so if you would like take a look click here. I think you will find some interesting content.

I still have a lot to figure out on selling greeting cards, but as my Mom used to always say ” by the inch it’s a cinch; by the yard its hard”!

I hope COVID time has inspired some new projects or hobbies in your world! For more inspiration check out my blog post on creating abstract images in your home or studio.

Stay safe everyone!

To Mask or Not to Mask During A Pandemic

I have to admit just writing that title “to mask or not to mask during a pandemic” gave me a weird feeling in my stomach. Yet, there is quite a bit a controversy over this topic. I like to think of myself as having an open mind so I listen to what people are saying on both sides. The Webster definition of pandemic is “a widespread outbreak of disease.” We have heard from Dr Fauci and other Medical professionals COVID-19 is highly contagious. This only makes me want to wear a mask more when in public, especially any indoor venues. Especially with the increase in number of cases.

Obviously, my number one reason I wear it is to make every effort to protect myself and others from COVID-19. I also strongly feel I have a civic duty to provide this protection. It is the one very small thing I can do to help contain the virus and help society reopen, heal and move towards being fully operational. I fully believe masks and social distancing is the path to recovery for our economy.

masks for pandemic

In addition, I can’t forget and I hope you won’t either all of the doctors, nurses, EMTs, medical and hospital staff and the other essential workers. They put their lives on the line for us throughout this pandemic. Wear a mask for them and so they do not have to go thru what NYC did. Wear it for your local hospital if you won’t wear one for yourself.

The reasons not to wear one are varied and on several I agree. Sure the mask is uncomfortable and it often fogs my glasses. Sometimes I do feel stupid in it. And often I have a little stuffy nose after wearing it, but that is a small price to pay for helping society and the economy.

Thanks for reading and more of my work can be viewed on my website.

COVID Update – Hope

Like everyone in America and throughout the world everyday we cope with changes due to Covid. We fill our day with work, research and projects that are on our lists. After awhile watching TV becomes old, worry becomes exhausting and making masks boring. This is the time to get creative.

Going thru my WIP folder, I found a photo project named Hope, I started six months ago that got derailed by other projects. Happily I had a piece to complete and exercise my creative muscle.

This piece shot in studio used a macro lens and studio lighting. The concept is to create a repetitive patterns of objects that can be easily found. However, I also want depth of field, so multiple images were taken using different focus spots. Keep in mind, the height of the objects is only one inch or less so attention to detail was important. In post processing, my favorite stacking software was used, Zerene Stacker, to merge all of the different images.

This software is easy to use and does a great job lining everything up and permits edit of the stacked composite image on the different source images. Of course, use of a tripod to shoot all images helped tremendously.

After the stacking process, I took the image into Photoshop for my final edits and to apply the different colors to the different squares.

Here is the image I call “Hope”

Colorful abstract fine art print.

I love this piece because I was able to combine many of my favorite aspects of photography. One is working in the abstract with a physical subject and the many technical considerations from lighting to composition. Another is being in the studio, where I have all my toys and tools available. And of course the post processing is vital step and truly makes each piece unique.

If interested, you can view more of my work at my website, Etsy or Saatchi Art.

Please everyone stay safe and well! As always, thanks for stopping by.

Graffiti Art Prints for Any Decor

Prints of graffiti art when used for home decor can be very interesting. Throughout my travels I am always on the lookout for graffiti to photograph that will translate well into art prints. Some of the criteria I look for is an interesting subject matter that is relatable to the viewer which would be me, vibrant colors and also somewhere I can access. I am not much into climbing wire fences or walls that may line a freeway to photograph graffiti art.

There is one place in St Louis, just south of downtown, that I often visit called the wall. It has been around for decades and often some very interesting images can be photographed there. Initially, a single layer of graffiti was on the wall but over the years graffiti artists have painted over other art on the wall and now it is layers and layers of graffiti that often yield interesting art and relatable stories. I like to capture it because to me it appears so fleeting changing each time I visit. And much of it is very unique and interesting.

Here is a photo of the wall taken many years ago.

Graffiti wall in St Louis, Mo.

The image below is titled “Female Studio Sound” and it recently sold it again. As you can see it is very vibrant and tells a story. It is an interesting piece of art that would look good hanging in any home or office.

“Female Studio Sound”

Another popular print is “Neon Teddies”. Very fun art to hang on the wall.

“Neon Teddies”

Just remember to keep your eyes open for graffiti art, especially in urban areas. It could be worth your stopping. If you are looking to add some prints to your collection, please check out my portfolio at https://susanmcanany.com.

Thanks for stopping by!

Create Abstract Work In the Studio

As the doldrums of summer set in I am once again in the studio. Today I am experimenting with macro work and combining water and oil. I have worked in this medium before and find it to be really helpful for creating abstract work. In addition, it also strengthens my technical skills.

The set up first requires the mixture of water and oil in a glass container. This container is then situated on plexiglass, elevated around 12 inches. Below the plexiglass is a multi- colored cloth or paper to create the colors in the water and oil mixture. To create the bubbles, the mixture needs to be gently agitated by either moving the container or stirring the mixtures.

My camera is on a tripod and a fast shutter speed is used to freeze the moving water and bubbles. Conversely, a slower speed creates more blurred or abstract images that can be very interesting also.

Thanks for visiting and happy shooting! More of my work can be viewed at www.susanmcanany.com.

Show Your Art In Room Setting

Showing images of your art displayed in a room setting is a very useful tool for on line sales. By placing your art in different room settings, you give a potential buyer a visual representation of how your art could look hanging in their home or office.

After doing a little research, I was able to achieve this with several on line sites where I sell art prints by using free and purchased room “mock up” images. Here are some quick and easy ideas for creating images of your art placed in a room setting.

Find some free stock images of interior room or room mock ups. Do a quick Google search and you will find many websites where interior room images can be found and downloaded. It takes some searching to find sites that are offering free images, but they are there. Often the author would like recognition for use of there image.
Purchase some images on line. There are stock images sites such as Fotolia, iStock Photo and others who offer images for purchase. Often the images from stock images sites require a subscription I wasn’t interested in or the per image price for me was too expensive. A good resource for per image purchase is Etsy. I found several sellers that sold interior room images or mock ups for a very reasonable price. Again, just search Etsy’s site for “interior room images” or “room mock ups”.

Interior room mock up image from Etsy with blank wall.

Once you have secured photos of stock images room interiors, you will need to use a photo editing software to place an image of your art on the wall and size it accordingly. I use Photoshop for this process and also I often place my art in a frame prior to placing it in an interior room stock image.

Interior room image with art on wall.

3. One last resource that is helpful is the website Oh My Prints. This site allows you to place an image of your art into a variety of room settings and save them as jpeg files. The only downside to this program is the image size the program generates. It is often smaller than recommended gallery sizes on several sites. But they do have a variety of great looking interior room images.

Thanks so much for reading and seeing just how easy it is to display your art in a room setting. View more of my work at my website, my Etsy Store or Saatchi Art.

Easter Stock Images Available

Easter is fast approaching and if I have some wonderful Easter stock images. These are high quality jpg images photographed in studio. The images are instant downloads and available as soon as your purchase is complete at my Etsy store. There are both religious themes and commercial bunny and egg themes.

Here are a couple of examples:

Assorted sizes and colors of eggs in Easter green grass

Multi-colored art glass in various shapes.

Downloaded image will be free of all watermarks. Because they are digital downloads here are my Terms of Use:

The image is a high quality Royalty Free jpeg (.jpg) file and may have the following uses: on your website, blog or in a creative or personal project. You may resize, crop, print or manipulate the image and sell it as part of a new product you create. You may not sell, resell, give, loan, share or transfer the image or jpeg file to any third party. Susan McAnany maintains the original copyright and is the sole owner of the image.

If you have any questions be sure to contact me.

I you get a chance, hop on over to my Etsy store and check out all the Easter stock images and other stock images available via digital download.

As always, thanks for stopping by. More of my work can be viewed at my website or at my Etsy or Saatchi Art sites.

Above all, have a wonderful Easter holiday and break!

How to Draw a Straight Line in Photoshop

Recently I had the need to create a straight line in Photoshop CS6. I wanted to see how outlining an entire image would look. So of course after pouring through the tool bar looking for a line tool, I finally found one under the box tool. Graphic artist are probably much more familiar with vector files and how to create lines and shapes in Photoshop. As a photographer, I am usually more concern with exposure, colors and composition. However, for this application I needed the line tool and found that in the tool palette.

line tool in Photoshop

Once the Line tool is selected you have the option to adjust the width, color and weight of the line. You could also assign the width and height. For my application I changed the color or Fill to black, used a 3 pt, and Weight of 05 cm.

tool bar for line tool

Once you have your parameters defined you are ready to draw the line. Photoshop will automatically create a new vector layer and place your line on that layer. This is great because chances are it will take a couple tries to get it looking like you desire. With the line isolated on it’s own layer, it is easy enough to delete the layer and try again.

To draw a perfectly straight line in Photoshop CS6, just simply hold down the shift key while drawing the line. Again, Photoshop will create a vector layer and place your line on the layer.

As you can see this is very easy and soon you will be an expert at drawing a straight line in Photoshop CS6.

Thanks for stopping by. To view more of my work, visit my website!

McAnany Photography

Blog of fine art photographer Susan McAnany.