Pixels to Paint: Mixing photography and printmaking yields beautiful results

To many, a physical print is the final step in the photographic process. But there are those who use photography as only a means to an end, not the end itself. One such individual is Ellen Scobie, a Vancouver-based artist who uses digital photography in tandem with her printmaking background to create beautiful pieces of art.

In this four minute video, we get an inside look at the workflow of Scobie. From the capture of the original digital image to the finishing touches on the canvas, we get to peel away her work, layer by layer.

In the video’s accompanying interview with Opus Art Supplies, Scobie shares her thoughts on the merging of mediums:

Lithography and being in the printmaking studio is about working with your hands and your muscles. You get to grind down the stone, mix your own ink, it’s really a physical process. What I’m doing now is sitting in front of a computer, it’s very clean, it’s digital. I think that’s why I like to go back and paint on some of my prints; it gets me back into the tactility of the piece, working with paint and connecting once again in a manual way.

Scobie’s prints often end up with over 75 layers of material, each meticulously crafted from her original imagery. It’s a slow and methodical process, but one that speaks for itself in results.

Scobie’s personal website appears to be down, but you can find plenty of her work over on Saatchi Art.