My First 'How-To' Article

Okay...this is my first "how to" article...
in quite some time
so...Please...bear with me...

It's about how to size
and print
an ACEO...
at least...how I size and print
my ACEO prints.

First....go into your picture program...
I've used Photo Impressions
AND
Photo-Shop
both....
since not everyone has PhotoShop.

Size your ACEO
to 250 ppi
for best quality print.
Ideally...if you CAN...I would advise that you
resize the print image
to 250 pixels by 350 pixels
AFTER
saving it at 250 ppi.. then.you won't have to do
much manual resizing
if any...

...I've provided an 8.5 x 11 template example
to show further
both ways that I do it.

If you are able to right click and save the above template
please go do so.
It should be sized at
816 pixels wide by 1056 pixels high
to get accurate ACEO prints.

This is how my ACEO looked
sized at 250 ppi...without resizing to 250 x 350 pixels..
it ended up at 625 pixels by 875 pixels.
I had to manually resize it
to fit inside one of the black boxes...
go to the corner of the pasted image
until you see the little <-> arrows
and then drag those until your
ACEO image is the correct size
to fit inside one of the black boxes on your template...
using your Paint program.
I've shown an example in the
image below.

My personal 'preference' is to
resize the 250 ppi ACEO image
to 250 x 350 and
just move those images
over the black boxes
for printing.

The following image is a 'side by side'
using the manually sized image
and the image
resized to 250 x 350.

Since I really do not like to waste fine art paper,
...it's pretty pricey....
I fill up every box with an
ACEO print and print an entire sheet of ACEO prints
....then I can just cut them out and
put them away
until they sell.

...hopefully this little 'how-to' didn't confuse anyone...
it's been a long time since I've done any
'how-to's'.

I am soooo open to any comments and
suggestions...
if anyone has an easier way to do this.
This is how I've been
doing it for a couple of years now...
and it is a little time consuming.

Splitting my time...

So..

I've been splitting my time

between my art

and some online courses..

since the beginning of the year.

I'm glad I made the decision

to do this.

Whenever I feel like I'm painting

something...just to have something new to list...

its time for me to take some time

away from my art.

It really got this way during

my eBay years...

I felt like something of a 'painting factory'..

and that isn't any fun.

Hell...a monkey could do as much!

So...to divide my time and interests

with something, totally unrelated has been

wonderful.

It gives me a

'new attitude' towards my art...

and while I won't be

listing as many paintings as I used to...

I think the ones that I do list...

will be some of my best work.

I've been working on a new website....

In October 2005

I was working with three of my children,

two 'children-in-law'

and my husband, as part of the

ZOA Group

and we built a group website using Yahoo web hosting.

The 'ZOA' stands for

Zatloukal Original Art..

and we sold our art...as a group.

It was easiest to work as a group..

with all of the treatments, hospitalizations..etc

because of my husband's cancer.

It was difficult for all of us...so much easier to do it as

one body.

Anyway...after my husband lost his battle...

the group pretty much went separate ways,

but we kept the group site going...until last week.

I had been debating whether to continue with the site...

but I couldn't justify paying more at this host

than I would need to elsewhere..

and I was the only one who could work on the site.

(And...I really didn't care for the sitebuilder.)

So...I decided to let it go and rebuild the site elsewhere.

So...I did!

At least...part of it!

For now...I'm going with the 'free plan'...

I'm waiting for the domain name on our old site

to become available...

for some reason I was unable to transfer it...

(my only option was to keep the site where it has been)

so I cancelled...and now I'll wait.

New paintings....

I FINALLY got some new paintings done.

The top painting...

'Two Hearts'

is a 12" x 16"

original acrylic painting.

The bottom painting...

'Rest A While'

is a 4" x 6"

original acrylic painting.

They'll be listed in the

Shop

Saturday...April 18th!

A Replay...

I know that I've showed this video

before...

...it features the art of...

myself...

my son, Patrick...

my daughter, Jaime...

and Jaime's husband...Mike!

Back in the 'day'... when we were one

big 'happy' group!

(We're still happy with one another...we've just since...gone our separate ways!)

WARNING!!!

Turn off the volume if you are sensitive to Explicit Lyrics...

the music is the 'explicit' version of Radiohead's ..'Creep'.

I won this spooky little Charm bracelet.

I am the

proud winner of this

very cute little charm bracelet.

It's from 'Spooky Hallow'

You can find

her blog here!

Classic Horror or Modern Psycho Thriller?

Call me 'old fashioned'

but

Freddy and Jason

just don't

seem to be

all that likeable!

They're angry

and 'hell bent on killing'!

I just can't 'warm up' to them

enough to want to

keep watching them.

The Classic Horror

characters

are a whole different matter.

Bela Lugosi

or

Christopher Lee

as

Dracula...

both of them were so charming

that most of

the lovely ladies were quite taken in...

long before they were..

'done in'.

And..oh my gosh...

how could you not just 'love'

Vincent Price???

He was just

priceless...(okay I made a joke:)

in

'The Fall of The House of Usher'

or

'Masque of the Red Death'.

I especially loved

these films because they ALWAYS

scared the 'crap' out of me...

A New Print Set In The Shop

I reworked

"Another Point of View"

and made it

'Another Point of View II'

and

teamed it with

'Wishing Doesn't Make It So'

as a print Set.

It's now available

in the Shop.