Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The potential of the computer in craft has been seriously damaged by the excitement computers have generated. A parallel can be found when the Russian novelist Tolstoy was given a dictaphone to help speed up his writing. After a few weeks he threw it out the window. His neighbor asked if it didn't work. Tolstoy's reply was "It worked fine, but I got so excited using it I couldn't write." For almost two decades a generation of designers have succumbed to the excitement and hype of the computer without significantly adding any real content or substance to their work under the digitized banner. It is time for that to change, and Janet Ashford is a winning harbinger of that change.
It doesn't help matters that most design software seems to be written by the left-brain dominant spouses of craft practitioners...well intentioned souls with no sense of the real kinesthetics of working color, form, texture.
Janet Ashford has navigated through the difficult middle course between technology and entrancement. She draws! She creates custom palettes in her application software! She doesn't hit you over the head or talk down to the reader. Perhaps her experience of designing for and with her daughter has given her the wonderful tone of teaching someone she likes, who is lacking in knowledge but not in ability. That is a prized gift in any teacher, and Ashford has it mastered.
She has maintained her enthusiasm, her innocent pleasure in sharing the joys of color and pattern, line, light and form. She is conscientious in gathering really useful resources together into a book that can pay off in serious fun the first weekend you get to use it, without resorting to false expectations. Buy the book. Use the example. You, and your craft, will be enriched without hype or over-simplification. Serious artists and craftspeople do not expect the tool to do the real work of creation for them. This book is written for the serious artists and craftspeople at any stage of their careers...from about 9 years old on up.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Arts and Crafts Computer: Using Your Computer as an Artist's Tool
The Arts and Crafts Computer shows you how to use your personal computer, scanner, digital camera and color printer as artist tools to create beautiful graphics and artful objects for your home, school and work. You'll learn how to: Understand the basics of digital image-editing, typesetting and graphic design. Gather the right tools, both digital and traditional. Use the new inkjet printing media including cloth, decals, stickers, magnets, transparencies and more.Work with art materials safely, avoid computer-related stress and find environmentally-friendly materials.Create unique greeting cards and envelopes, artist books, games, toys, home decorations and gifts.If you're a crafter looking for computer ideas or a designer or teacher looking for hands-on projects The Arts and Crafts Computer is for you!
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