The Arts and Crafts Computer : Using Your Computer as an Artist's Tool

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Many artists and crafters who are fully at home with their computers increasingly miss "art that you can hold in your hand." Others are only just now gingerly tiptoeing into the digital river. Still other folks have long been computer literate, but have only recently become inspired to try the visual arts. In The Arts & Crafts Computer, Janet Ashford has written a wonderful book for all of them.

You can, Ashford says, "have the best of both worlds: digital tools for creating and printing graphic images, combined with the tactile, three-dimensional and handmade qualities of the traditional arts and paper crafts." And this full-color book shows you how.

Ashford tells you the best way to scan a stuffed animal, how to make your computer-printed greeting cards richer and less "computery," and how to combine digital type, scanned images, and found paper to build one-of-a-kind accordion books. You'll learn how to make your own bumper stickers, discover Dover's great CD-ROM of '30s fruit crate labels, and make the most of that cool inkjet iron-on transfer paper.

We've just scratched the surface. This eclectic, fun book completely erases the artificial distinctions between "traditional" and "digital" -- and it's about time! (Bill Camarda)

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jersey–based marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.

Library Journal

Someone once said, "To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer." Whether computers will dehumanize art or free up our creative impulses remains to be seen, but these two books are worthy additions to the discussion. Illustrator Ashford's career was completely changed by the computer. The result was six books on computer graphics, including Start with a Scan: A Guide to Transforming Scanned Photos and Objects into High-Quality Art, written with John Odam. In this follow-up, she enters the arts-and-crafts world. She begins with an excellent chapter on understanding digital tools (bitmaps, PostScript, software for graphics, resolution, etc.), then adds sections on working with photos and scans, using type and design, and gathering the art supplies needed for projects. The second half of the book takes computer-generated art and applies it to the making of cards, small books, and other decorative projects. The book as a whole is packed with historic facts (on typefaces, the development of color greeting cards, and the politics of paper) and usable information (on computer safety and the varieties of binding methods). While Ashford has created images solely within the machine, Pollard and Little seek to use computer-generated images only as reference tools for traditional art media. The authors present over 40 demonstrations that show how to use image-editing software to improve one's drawings and paintings. Each of the 30 artists included uses the computer to develop photographs or sketches into fully developed ideas. They combine photos, apply textures, crop, and edit, and they vary perspective, color, and scale as they create studies. After working out compositional problems, each study is used as the basis for artwork in watercolor, pastel, acrylics, or oils. Each of these books can be used with a variety of available graphic programs, with either a Mac or PC/Windows. Both are solid additions to this rapidly morphing field. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.