A plea to those who digitise old newspapers for archival purposes

Newspaper illustration brings news stories to life. Take this article written by Jack Woodward about his war experiences - The original colour newspaper illustration done by my father Peter Stephenson in his role as a newspaper illustrator is paired here with the black and white scanned page. See how much art history and vividness is lost in a black and white scan? Imagine my frustration when I tried to track down some of his artwork in old newspaper archives, only to find them scanned in black and white. The Sunday Mail Colour Magazine and use of colour illustrations in the Courier Mail an advance in commmercial illustration which enhanced the look of newspapers. What a pity to not preserve it in colour as well.

Drawn to Art - the life and art of Peter Stephenson

Are you an artist who would like to put together a professional looking portfolio? Or a family member who would like to publish a "life in art" book for an artist? As mentioned in my previous post, there are some excellent self-publishing sites you can use to produce and sell a professional looking book. Recently I used blurb to put together a book about my artist father who worked as an illustrator for the Courier Mail newspaper in Brisbane. You can preview this book here http://au.blurb.com/b/4031969-drawn-to-art

Drawn to Art by Editor Anna Casey | Make Your Own Book

The software is free to download and there are numerous templates for page design. There are also useful walkthroughs and design tips on the site. Once uploaded you have a couple of weeks to order at least one copy, and then you can list the book for sale or promote it within a private group of friends. They can preview it on the site before deciding to order a copy. There are also ebook options. As with all self-publishing, the price is not cheap as chips, but there are volume discounts. I would be interested to hear any comparisons of other services for self-publishing.

Many people want to write and publish a book. Unfortunately for them publishers are extremely picky and most authors find their precious writing is rejected. This is because it takes a thousands of book sales to justify publishing a new book. For those who only want to publish a "proper" book for themselves, friends and family, there are new websites that are make this process very easy. One is blurb.com For my artist/illustrator father, his wish to publish a story based on his childhood has finally become possible. This is an example of an artist's book, written and illustrated by Peter Stephenson,scanned into free blurb software, and now for sale online in their store.

Bobby and the ...

Written and illust...

By Edited by Anna Casey

Book Preview

Women in art

Artists have captured some beautiful women's faces in portraiture over the years - and this would be my favourite morphing animation as a result

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gsZ_6JHZk
Digital art painted with Wacom tablet in Photoshop, then animated using fotomorph.

State Library of Queensland visual arts links

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/coll/visarts/psd

Margaret Olley interview on vimeo

http://vimeo.com/26936249
Take a look for some Margaret Olley reminescences about life in the art scene in Brisbane.