Laser Reproductions, Matting, and Feline Interference

"Galloping Draft"
pen and colored pencil
11x13

Last month, I created three pen drawings which are some of the best work I've done in a while.  This was following the encouragement of some of my affiliates who passed by and admired my work.  These three, along with "Two Horses" are the works which I am planning to display and hopefully sell at the florist.  My tentative price per framed and matted print is $25; maybe $30 depending on how I end up matting them.

I went to Staples on the advice of an article on how to make your own prints here.  It's written by an artist who actually works in my area by the name of David Sullivan.  His most well known work is that portraying the Bethlehem Steel Stacks in Pennsylvania, and he works mainly in pen and ink.  He writes:

 "...Using laser copies is probably the best method to use if you're just starting out. It allows you to get individual copies and not be committed to high numbers, and it allows you to experiment with several different drawings to see which ones will sell, and which ones won't (without going broke in the process)."

He also cautions that if you intend to sell laser copies as matted, framed work, you should limit the venue to small coffee shops and the like, as a large gallery will not take you seriously if you bring them laser prints.  Since I am just barely starting out as a professional artist, this is definitely welcome advice.

I had no idea what I was doing when I walked up to the copy center with a brand new USB and a beat-up school folder with my drawings.  Thankfully, the woman at the desk was patient and helpful.  She scanned the work onto my USB, reduced the images by 75 percent, and centered them on 8.5"x 11" card stock as she oo'ed and ahh'ed over my drawings.  The resulting images are roughly  6.5"x 8.5" (my wooden ruler is warped, and I don't remember what she said to me).  They look beautiful.

"Grazing Belgian"
pen and ink
11x13

I wanted them centered because my intent is to mat and frame them before finally getting over to Greens and Beans.  When I went to Michael's, I quickly rued not selecting a larger image size, as there were no pre-made mats cut to the size that I needed.  Thinking swiftly, I decided to purchase heavy black drawing paper and create my own mats.  I was thinking poorly after an exhausting (but fun, don't worry) weekend of family get-togethers and cooking a second Thanksgiving dinner almost by myself, and chose a not particularly standard size of black paper (9x12).  This would lead to difficulties when I was attempting to create a mat for a 8.5 x 11 frame.

I will learn to properly mat artwork again; I think there was a lesson on that in my high school freshman drawing class, but I remember almost nothing.  What I decided to do was to take the measurements of the scanned image, mark the dimensions on the heavy black drawing paper with a white colored pencil, and using a straight edge and an Xacto knife, cut out the opening.  Simple, right?

Well, not so much.  My cat, Arya, otherwise known as the spirit of mischief, kept leaping onto my drafting table and my art supplies.  This was very distracting, and resulted in many interruptions as I removed the tumultuous tabby from the desk and reorganized my work station.  My finished mat certainly was not as straight edged as I wanted.  But, not all is lost.  I may be able to salvage the roughly rectangular cut out and use that to create my mat templates.  Next time I do make copies, I will make sure that either I am much more proficient in matting or that I choose a standard sized image.

"Gypsy Vanner"
pen and colored pencil
11x13