Clip Art Press

Turning Online Clip Art Images Into Wall Art

Let’s all take a moment to look at our walls. Walls in our office, hallway, bedroom, kitchen, family room, heck even the laundry room. Aside from the occasional light switch plate, are your walls pretty much bare? The sad fact is that many walls go neglected because wall art is either expensive, so inexpensive it looks cheap, or simply not the right design for the homeowner. Stop the wall abuse! Stop walking around your home or office like a drone because you have no art to liven things up! With the abundance of free and inexpensive web graphics you can now create your own wall art that looks like it cost a pretty penny. Start an art revolution in your home and free your walls from their boredom.
Artwork is not just for the discriminating collector, enthused investor or crafty creator, it is also for the freelancer who works at home and is sick of bare walls, the half-drunk college student who needs posters to cover damage to apartment walls, and anyone who simply wants more color and interest in a room.

So, what are we talking about here? Are you suggesting you print out some clip art on your laser printer and tack one up on every wall? Interesting, but no. You must think “clip art” and beyond, seek out art prints, posters, paintings, images of framed prints abstract, impressionist, children’s art, figures, sketches, landscapes, photographs, art deco, old ads, old record albums, movie posters, pop art, vintage maps, seascapes, vintage, modern, still life, and classical images-just to name a few. If you can find copyright-free or royalty-free images, then you can use those images to create art for your walls.
The copyright on many vintage art prints has expired, which means if you find an image online (try a google.com image search) on a domain free of copyright restriction you can use that image. It is important to know that while the classic painting may no longer be protected by copyright, the digital image of the picture may be. Be sure to check with the website owner for permission if you have doubts. Libraries, museums, and art organizations are a good place to start. To give you an example of what you might find, the original WPA (Works Progress Administration) posters that were commissioned from 1936-1940 are a great way to decorate and most of the images are available online for free. You can easily download these bold, graphically hypnotizing images, email them to the local copy store, and create an instant poster. These posters are interesting enough and don’t need fancy frames. A $7 clear poster frame will do just fine. Reproductions of these prints sell for $30 to $200! And the originals? Forget-about-it!

Old Prints

Old books have old prints and decorative block text. Old children’s books have old children’s prints. Old historical books have old maps, See were we are going? Many books– images and all–are online for public use. If you find one without copyright restriction by the site owner, you can download images of maps, decorative borders, pictures and prints. You can create framed prints, posters, or use vintage designs as borders in a room. A huge design trend (as seen in all the decorating magazines and even Crate and Barrel’s catalog) is to frame portraits of varying sizes from old books. The originals are etchings from old books (1800-1825), usually of the monarchy or aristocracy. You don’t even have to download these images, just print them out on beige paper to give it an aged look. Go to garage sales, flea markets, thrift and dollar stores and buy wood frames in varying sizes to match your prints. Paint the frames the same color (such as brown or black) and add your new “aged” pictures. Group them on your wall over a bed or dresser. Expensive look-low cost. You can take this grouping concept, and use old prints of animals, pictures from old children’s books, images of vintage playing cards, covers of old books, you name it!

Vinyl Wall Decorations

Use simple images cut from vinyl to make wall decorations, which can then be perfectly integrated into your interior like painted art, and they’re removable. The picture to the right is an example of vinyl clipart intergrated into the interior design. Imagine how much it would of cost to have a professional artist paint this image on your wall. The cost involved when using vinyl would be about $20 for the decoration and you can apply it yourself or hire a professional. Either way it would be allot cheaper then having to hire a professional painter. See some fantastic samples from vinyl wall art.

Now for the grand finale: turning an online image into a work of art on canvas. This can be done easily and inexpensively. Find your desired image and then go to the local art or craft store and buy a canvas of the same size. You will also need some spray adhesive and acrylic gel. These items are very inexpensive. The first step is to lightly spray the adhesive on the back of the printed image and attach it to the canvas. If you need to realign the picture, gently peel the paper up and reattach. Next, use a soft brush to gently cover the image with the acrylic gel. This will add a polish to the image that makes it seem painted on the canvas. You can also create those lumps and bumps we often see on oil paintings. When the gel dries you can frame and hang your new picture!
Will you ever look at web graphics and clip art the same way now that you know how to use them offline? Use these ideas not only to decorate your home or office, but to redecorate inexpensively and often! You can even create gifts, or create a new business doing this for other people.

Have a creative day!

Robert Gillen

http://www.graphicsfactory.com

List of vector clipart editors

A list of available vector clipart editing programs. Created for people that want to learn how to edit vector clip art. I have been asked so many times about how to edit vector images and what program to use that I decided to make this list. I hope it helps you in the time of need. By using a vector editing program you gain total control over your images. You can change the colors, the line curves (bezier curve) and size with ease. Vector images are resizable to any size needed and they enlarge without distortion. You do not get jagged edges when enlarging vector illustrations and they print with fantastic clarity.

Bitmap Vs. Vector

.JPG Bitmap image enlarged 10X it’s original size.

.EPS Vector image enlarged 20X it’s original size with points and Bezier Curves shown for example.

Vector clipart is very different from bitmap images as you can see from the examples above. You can enlarge vector clipart to any size needed while bitmaps (JPGs) are limited and can not be enlarged without making them look jagged and distorted. Each image format has it’s advantages and dis-advantages, you just need to know when and how to use them.

What Are Bitmaps?

Bitmap images are pictures made from a bunch of tiny dots called pixels and are mainly used for Photos and for Web images .GIF, .PNG, .TIFF and .JPG are the most popular bitmaps. If you’re dealing with photographs (images with millions of colors) then you should always use a bitmap (.JPG) format, when saving clipart (images with not so many colors) for the Web you should save them as .GIF or .PNG. The difference in format could save you allot in file size, which means the images will load faster for your viewers. Just remember save as “JPG for a lot of colors” and “GIF or PNG for not so many colors“.

What are Vector Clipart Images?

Vector clipart is created based on mathematics (points, lines, and curves). Vector images are great because of the control you have when editing them. You can change the colors with a single click, you can change the curve of a line, and you can break images apart to rearrange or remove unwanted parts. Vector images also print at 300dpi even when you enlarge them. They are resolution independant so you will always get a crisp and clean print when using vector images.

The biggest problem people have when trying to edit vector images is the program they are using. Most computers do not come with a vector editing program commonly referred to as Drawing Programs. You need to make sure you use a vector capable Drawing program that supports the format of the images you’re working with. Below I created a list of vector editing programs so you can see at a glance the different options available.

Please leave comments if you have suggestions or questions.

Common Vector Formats

• .AI – Adobe Illustrator
• .EPS – Encapsulated Postscript
• .WMF – Windows Metafile
• .CDR – Corel Draw
• .SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics
• .PDF – Portable Document Format (can contain vector images)

Most Popular Vector Editing Programs

• Adobe Illustrator
• Corel Draw
• Xara Xtreme

CorelDraw Graphics Suite X3 (Windows Only)

I haven’t used this program for years (like 7 years) so I can’t really say how well the current version works, but I do know it’s a very capable vector editing program. I would not recommend buying it if you don’t have it, but If you have it already you’re all set, it will do everything you need and more probably.

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FreeHand MX (Windows and Macs)

Freehand is a good vector editing program and still is, but unfortunately is has not been updated for several years, ever since Adobe purchased Macromedia. Adobe has no plans to continue development to add new features or to support Intel-based Macs and Windows Vista. Adobe suggests you upgrade to Illustrator CS3, which is a great option if you can afford it.

If you happen to already have FreeHand MX you’ll be good to go and can edit vector images.

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CanvasX (Windows and Macs)

CanvasX is a very powerful program that can edit photos and vector clipart. You can import, view, and save in over 100+ file formats. The price is $349.99 as of writing this so it’s not the cheapest program, but it is a powerful package and affordable when compared to PhotoShop and Illustrator, which cost $1000+ depending on the package you get.

Using add-on modules you can view complex scientific imaging and GIS for mapping, within Canvas.

You should give CanvasX a look and try it out, it may be perfect for your needs.

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Mayura (Windows Only)

This is an interesting program that looks like it could be pretty good. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet so I can’t say for sure. It’s only $39 and they have a free trial version. The only download I see so far is that it doesn’t support .EPS import. That means you would not be able to open .EPS images with it according to their Web site.

Mayura may be a good solution if you need a quick fix and are strapped for cash.

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EasyDraw (Macs Only)

This is a draw program created just for the Macs. I have never used this program and can’t say much about it, but if you have a Mac you might want to try it out.

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Those are the most developed and ready to use vector programs I could think of and find. If you know of any others that should be listed here please let me know.

Happy Editing!

Tags: clip art, clipart, editing, graphics, images, software, Vector Clipart Editing Software