large scale artwork on a small scale budget
If you sit around like I do, daydreaming of museum-sized photographs filling your walls, then maybe you should try rasterbating!! (no… it’s not dirty, notice the “r”)
Rasterbating, also known as tiled printing, is a way to take a large image and break it down into smaller, page sized pieces, which can later be reassembled into a whole. So, instead of spending thousands on a 30×40 print, you can get an artful effect for the price of a new cartridge of printer ink and some photo paper. (really, you could use any sort of paper that suits your fancy, I just so happen to have boxes of glossy photo paper laying around my house so I went with that)
Here are some easy-to-follow instructions… clicking on the image will allow you to see the full-sized details:
- Fill an empty wall with large format affortable art.
- Choose an image or photograph from your collection of personal work. (click on this image for more information about rasterbating)
- Gather supplies: pins, small hammer, level, ruler, rasterbated images.
- Use the ruler and level to draw a straight line on the wall, where you want the picture to start (the top).
- Start hanging your images… click for more detail.
- Continue assembling the image, piece by piece, row by row.
- Secure the corners to the wall by hammering straight pins into overlapping sections.
- Working row by row, continue to assemble your image.
- Enjoy your rasterbation!! Comment, and show me your finished pieces.
Since I happen to be a bit of a tech-nerd, I did all of the image tiling myself via photoshop & imageready… but for the not so tech-savvy, there is this great website (although it looks like the website is down right now, so I might just have to write up some steps for the photoshop novice) that will help you through the technicalities.
