Ann – winner of the recent photo contest, made me a happy girl when she decided she wanted to upgrade the prize to TWO 16×20 pictures.?? She couldn’t decide between the black and white and color version so she got both.?? :)?? Her pictures came in today (hope you got my email Ann), and I wanted to show you what they look like printed.

My friend Jennifer, a sports photographer in Mississippi, mentioned to me that fine art paper might be good for paintings.?? I pitched the idea to Ann and she decided to go for it with the color version.?? The lab I use has a paper called “Fine Art Velvet”.???? It is very similar to a delicate watercolor paper but it does have an almost velvety feel to it (and you know that I am the velvet QUEEN – that’s Jarrod’s nickname for me :).?? I LOVE it!?? Next painting I print for me personally will be on velvet!?? Unfortunately, I couldn’t really capture it.?? You have to see it and feel it to appreciate it.?? It is a lovely compliment for paintings though.?? Very delicate – no distracting lines – brilliant color – soft – super nice.?? I am really in love.

The velvet paper is more delicate than photographic paper so it was even more important to mount it.?? I used 2mm sytrene for the backing.

Ann chose a fine art canvas gallery wrap for the black and white version.

As you can see, gallery wraps extend over the frame so that you can hang them as is.?? This picture looks less contrasty than it actually is.?? I was having trouble with the way the canvas was soaking up the light and didn’t want to take the time tonight to retake it but you get the basic idea.

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The reason I took this picture on the above blue background is because twice this week I have been asked if I am digitally creating backgrounds such as the blue one that Tori was on last week.?? My answer is “no”.?? That is a REAL blue background and was not digitally created.?? I very rarely replace a background digitally.?? It’s very time consumming to get it to look right.?? I do digitally enhance backgrounds in post processing frequently though.?? I might deepen the saturation, change the hue or add a texture to it to give it dimension but that’s it.?? The above pictures have pretty basic cut and dry post processing done without any background enhancement.?? The reason that the blue seems to have such dimension is because of the way it reflects my studio lights.

Now back to Prescott…

She still loves her Wub a Nub.?? :)?? And no…I don’t have any “pacy fairies” scheduled for a visit anytime soon.?? I am completely fine with her affection for a pink horse, a yellow duck, and a red dog but if anyone knows where her black kitty is I would appreciate a phone call.?? I can’t find it anywhere.