Karen Sperling’s Blog

Artistry Clouds Backdrops Volume 1 CD

I was asked at my recent Artistry Retreat to create clouds backdrops, and here they are!

I’m pleased to announce the release of the Artistry Clouds Backdrops Volume 1 CD.

I handpainted all of the backdrops in Painter from photos I’ve taken everywhere from Newport, RI to Malibu, CA. Now you can add the painterly touch to photographic or painted portraits without all the work and for a fraction of the cost of traditional backdrops.

The Artistry Backdrops are 8″ x 10″ 300 dpi .tif files easily resizable as large as 30″ x 40″ and above and usable in all popular imaging software including Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop.

The Artistry Clouds Backdrops Volume 1 CD contains 24 images, multiplied infinitely as you edit and customize them for your images.

Here are all the images on the Artistry Clouds Backdrops Volume 1 CD

Here are a couple of closeups. All the backdrop images are paintings with brushstrokes and are offered license- and royalty-free.

And here’s an example with a photo. This is the original photo with a traditional backdrop:

And these are two examples of it combined with the Artistry Clouds Backdrops.

For more information and to order, click here.

Artistry Painting for Photographers Retreat and Artistry GARTEL Marketing Seminar

It’s time to start planning to attend the Artistry Painting for Photographers Retreat and Artistry GARTEL Marketing Seminars.

Here are the dates:

Malibu, CA

Friday through Tuesday

November 14 through 18, 2008

Monday through Friday

February 16 through 20, 2009

Miami, FL

Wednesday through Sunday

December 10 through 14, 2008

In the Artistry Painting for Photographers Retreat, I teach you how to turn your photos into paintings in Painter and Photoshop and in the Artistry GARTEL Marketing Seminar, Laurence Gartel shows you how to sell the results.

I invited Laurence to teach the class because he has 30+ years of experience marketing his photos and art and has had great success at it.

Here’s just one example of what I mean, here’s a release that Laurence just sent out:

FYI: LAURENCE GARTEL Digital Media Artist, on PLUM TV:

LAURENCE GARTEL did a four hour interview yesterday gearing up for a segment on PLUM TV.

The show will air during ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH as Mr. GARTEL is an iconic figure residing in South Florida and continuously redefining the culture in its cybernetic paradigm. In the interview GARTEL talks about the past, how difficult it was to create images with crude analog system computers but also where the medium is heading. In GARTEL’s own words: “It’s got to be multimedia video animation.” In the same breath he has taken his work back to ancient materials such as stone! GARTEL shows and tells us that now it is possible to work his images through computer programming and new hardware inventions to cut his work into marble! - Witnessing the results is remarkable. The possibilities are now endless for outdoor personal and corporate commissions.

Incidentally, GARTEL’s personal website is under construction and receiving a major make over. Stay tuned for GARTEL TV and GARTEL RADIO on his own site as well as a more thorough e commerce section. Those that purchased GARTEL work 30-years ago are all smiling. The dawn of the Digital Era is upon all of us.

I’ve learned a lot about marketing from Laurence, and you can, too!

For information about the Artistry Painting for Photographers Retreat and Artistry GARTEL Marketing Seminars click here.

E-mail Karen Sperling for registration and tuition details.

Painting for Photographers by Karen Sperling

I’m working diligently on my Painting for Photographers book.

Here are some examples of layouts:

Table of Contents:

Introduction:

Section intro:

I’m having fun making this both an informative book and also a beautiful one.

You can still preorder the book for $25 (Calif. tax and shipping and handling additional), a 36% discount off the cover price of $39.95.

But don’t delay, I’m going to end the preordering discount soon, so lock it in while you still can.

For more information and to preorder Painting for Photographers, click here.

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Well, not sure if they’re wooden. Took photos today in San Pedro, CA for my Painting for Photographers book.
Don’t know how many of these will actually get made into paintings in the book, but I’m having fun collecting the possibilities.

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Thanks to everyone for pre-ordering my book, Painting for Photographers.

Cover painting and design by Karen Sperling from a photo by Felicia Tausig.
I can’t help using an Olympics metaphor–I feel like I’m writing and illustrating the book for the “team”–all of you who have put your faith in me to create this book by preordering.
If you’re reading this, and you haven’t pre-ordered, please go do it by clicking the above link so that I can get the book printed and so that you can get the book for the pre-publication discount of $25 vs. the retail price of $39.95.
Thanks, also, to everyone who has offered photos to me for use in my book.
I’ve been taking photos for over 30 years, but I don’t sell photos to clients, and therefore don’t consider myself a professional photographer.
And just like it takes time and training to learn how to create art; to learn how to write and design books; and to learn to use and explain Painter and Photoshop; it takes time and training to be a professional photographer. I choose to concentrate on creating art, writing books and using Painter and Photoshop. I love to take photos, but I have to draw the line somewhere, there are only so many hours in a day.
So rather than put the time into studying photography and learning to take better photos, I’ve decided to show some of my own photos in my book and others from professional photographers.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed your beautiful photos so far.
I’m enjoying turning them into paintings, and appreciate your support.
If you’re reading this and haven’t submitted photos for me to consider turning into paintings in my Painting for Photographers book, would you like to?
I’m mainly interested in photos with 1 person, head to toe, and with good areas of contrast with highlights and shadows.
In exchange for the use of your photo, you will see a tutorial in Painting for Photographers about how to turn your specific work into a painting in Painter or in Photoshop.
You will also receive credit in the book and on my web site for the photo.
Photos are accepted based on tutorial considerations, not on the merit of the photo, so if your photo isn’t accepted, please don’t take it as a criticism, it just means it didn’t fit into what I’m showing in the book.
To submit photos for consideration, please email a small file, 5 x 7 at 72 dpi in .jpg format to me at ksperling@aol.com. If you have several photos for me to consider, please send them together in a zip file. If it’s easier for you to send a CD, please make the photos 8″ x 10″ at 300 dpi in .tif format so that I can use them right away and mail the CD to me at the following address. Please be sure to include all of the following information: name, address, email address, web site and telephone number. If you want the CD returned, include an SASE (stamped self-addressed envelope).
Please don’t email large files.
Karen Sperling
PO Box 57516
Sherman Oaks, CA 91413
Thanks! I look forward to seeing what you send!

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I took some photos for my Painting for Photographers book tonight at a concert by Rossi Music, a band whose sound blends classic jazz, Latin, Smooth Jazz and R&B, and is led by Grammy-winning saxophonist Rick Rossi.

Rick has been nominated for a Grammy three times, winning in 1998 as a featured soloist on Brian Setzer’s The Dirty Boogie. He is a performer, composer and arranger who plays all of the saxophones, flutes and clarinets. He has composed and arranged music for film and television soundtracks including Monster-In-Law, and The Wedding Crashers as well as for various artists, bands and CD projects.

Thanks, guys–great concert!

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I decided to photograph some gardens to turn into paintings in my Painting for Photographers book.
So yesterday and today I visited some local gardens and had a great time taking photos.
The first garden I visited was the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA.
I was looking for nice scenes with flowers, and got a couple, but I think there are probably more flowers to see there in the spring.

Then today I visited the Butterfly House in Topanga, CA.
The location is available for weddings and is a great backdrop for keepsake photos–or paintings!

I’m looking forward to painting the photos I took!

Photos by Karen Sperling using a Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro digital SLR camera.

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Welcome to the redesign of Artistry Online.

It’s the first redesign since 1999, so it was long overdue.

It’s hard to believe, but Artistry Online started in 1997.

It wasn’t really my idea, but my boyfriend’s at the time, who started a web-hosting service, and I was one of his first clients.

I just looked through my files and have some of the original design pages, though many are old faxes and now, 11 years later, are faded.

The technology was so new that I proofed pages by looking at faxes of them.

I didn’t even choose my url, artistrymag.com, a guy in the boyfriend’s office did. Artistry.com was already taken and he figured that since I was publishing a magazine about Painter called Artistry, that artistrymag.com made sense, which sounded logical to me, so we kept it.

The site was a couple of pages and I didn’t take any of it very seriously, I was just doing it for my boyfriend.

Back then, not many people had web sites. But people were beginning to see the power of the internet, and this guy was very smart to get in on the ground floor of the trend.

By 1999 he and I were history–don’t ask, but let’s put it this way, when you see a photo of someone you’re dating from 5 years before you met, and his hair is in the style of a mohawk, be concerned–and I moved my site elsewhere.

In 1999, a web designer named Greg Loring created the basic design of Artistry Online that I used for the next nine years until I started to redesign the site this week.

Greg created the original pages and I’ve expanded the site for nine years by creating copies of his pages, learning html and “manually” editing and updating everything.

For the redesign, I learned a little bit about css in Dreamweaver, but not a lot, but enough between that and html to get a good result.

As time goes on I’ll be updating both this blog and the contents of the Artistry Online site, so bookmark the site, add it to your links and come back often.

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