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raining-tulips · 3 months

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hi! i just found your blog :) love your commonplace book scans! if you don’t mind me asking, could you give a more in-depth explanation of what commonplacing is exactly and what your process is? i’m intrigued and considering getting into it but i wouldn’t even know where to start! thanks a lot xx

Absolutely! So my commonplace is specifically all movies, qoutes, articles, tumblr/Instagram posts, book excerpts, etc. that either resonated with me or I think I'll want to reference later. That is the heart of what common placing is - saving things for later physically rather than digitally.

Some of these just pop up in my feed, and I'll hit the like or save button. If it's an article, it usually first pops up as a preview on my Instagram and I'll open the full article on my desktop than bookmark it in a specific folder for common placing.

Sometimes, when I want to actively find something out (say, about if perfume is really bad for the environment, or I want to look at author interviews because I just loved a book) I will go out and search for that information.

Then, usually once a week I compile everything I'd like to print - i print the sources bc my handwriting is messy - into a word document formatted for two columns. I try and hold off printing until i have a full page worth, or two full page worth.

For images, I have another word document (these are printed in color, and i usually have to jigsaw to fit as many images on the page as possible, so different word document). Same thing, I try and wait until I have a full page to print. Usually x2 a month. I sometimes will print with an HP sprocket but the quality is really bad and the pictures are thick so, it's for when I'm out of printer ink or I think a photo will look okay with a sorta...uneven look.

I use just a Staples brand journal, TruRed. Cheap and easy. I draw a line at the top so I can write the date, and in the future if I want to tag it with a colored sticker or something, I can. My layouts usually include divided space on either the left or right of a page. The article goes in the bigger open space, and then the source (always write your source!!) and any commentary goes in the smaller margins.

Commentary is usually why I wanted to print it, what it reminds me of or makes me think about, etc. What I think the argument was missing, etc. Can be as little or as much as you like. As emotional and deep or as plain-jane as you like. There are no rules!

I trim printed text and images with a 12 inch trimmer bc I've got wobbly hands, but some people just use a little (blanking on the name) exacto knife? Any 12 inch trimmer will do mine is expensive but I also scrapbook so I use it all the time.

I paste things in using a tape runner (again, because I scrapbook and found a tape runner and my mom sells scrapbook supplies they're very accessible to me). Some people use tape, washi tape, glue sticks (liquid glue I've never seen).

And yeah, then I just decorate and play around. It doesn't have to be pretty. It can be really pretty if you want - I'm motivated by aesthetics, so, I like mine to be a little pretty.

If you'd like to see how I actually put it together and why I print certain things, my YouTube channel is the place to go.

Some people tape in movie tickets, receipts from where they shopped or ate, pictures from daily life. Some people mix common-placing and journaling, so including diary entries about their day or about a topic they love, or their thoughts and feelings (I keep mine in a separate journal, explained in this video). Some people mix common-placing with bullet journal or planning. Some combine all three!

At the end I just use a printer scanner (HP Envy 5500, cheap) and post them online that way bc I love the look.

People who have other styles you might try and look at are @petite-gloom (an OG who inspired me and many others) @fakelavender , @teddybearsticker .

#answered #commonplace #commonplace book #commonplace journal #journaling #journaling community #stubyblr

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paulgadzikowski · 3 months

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When I arrived at the rest home to visit today Mom started complaining of a sore throat and a headache. I know it only started then because as soon as the nurse assistant heard it she went for the nurse, and as soon as the nurse heard it she went for a test swab; if Mom'd been complaining before that, they'd've reacted this way then.

Mom tested positive for COVID. I tested negative. No one else in the wing is testing positive, verified by new tests this afternoon. The nurse gave me a pack of four tests to take home with me. (I've been ordering tests from the post office every time they're offered and used hardly any, but I've lost track of which ones are the oldest and which are the freshest.)

Mom asked me to stop visiting till she tests negative again which I wrote down and posted for her bad memory days in all the usual reminder places. She asked me how long before they'll know whether she's going to die, and I had to tell her it's different for everyone. She asked me to update my siblings.

The nurse gave her Tylenol for the headache and sore throat, and an antiviral that the nurse practitioner suggested. Fortunately today I had brought updated pages for the answers binder with the revisions Mom has asked for in the time since I first brought it to her Tuesday, which I printed this afternoon at FedEx because the driver for my new printer won't install on my computers though the scanner driver does. I told the nurse I'm planning to test myself daily, for at least two days (the box of four tests the nurse gave me says use two tests if you're asymptomatic), and to check in on Mom with the nurses every other day, and to not need anything I can't get by delivery or drive through.

Lately I've been visiting Mom for a couple of hours a day five or so days a week, with an hour round trip, since she entered the rest home at the end of December, and before that she was in the hospital for a week. I'm wondering whether I'll have trouble keeping myself occupied while I'm quarantining.

#looking after mom #quarantine

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thepatchycat · 6 months

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Hi, I’m a real new shiny here (on Tumblr, but also at drawing), and it’s the first time I ask anything, so I hope it’s ok. I must say first that I love the way you draw TCW characters (especially the clones)! 😍 I just came across this sketch you made on canvas (if I remember correctly) https://www.tumblr.com/thepatchycat/729224397978828800 and I was wondering, if you don’t mind sharing, how do you get the perfect white background on non-digital drawings? I currently use a scanner app on my sketches and the results are always inconsistent and far from that white… thanks a lot in advance!! 😊

Welcome to the Tumblr crew, shiny! ;) And thank you kindly!

So my dirty secret for that sketch is... it actually is completely digital! I drew it in a program called Rebelle 5, which is designed to mimic traditional canvas/paper and pencils/paints. I picked it up for super cheap during a huge sale last year, and it's a lot of fun; unfortunately, it's usually pretty expensive, as many art programs are. I highly recommend keeping an eye out for sales though if you ever get into digital drawing--and if you'd like a free program, the one I use most of the time is MediBang. But those programs are really mostly helpful for digital art, not so much for scanning actual pencil sketches.

While I tend to stick to digital drawing nowadays, I definitely feel you on the scan cleanliness issue; phone pictures and even proper printer scans tend to end up either kind of dirty or faded. The short answer is that I don't actually have an easy and effective solution, but there might be some things you can try depending on what you have available. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already explored more methods than I have, and there are definitely people with better ideas and more experience than me, but I'll share what I've tried.

Long(er)-winded rambling under the cut!

So, I currently have an unfinished piece sitting in my files that began as a traditional drawing, one that I want to keep all the pencil details for. Here's the sketchbook page, scanned using a household printer:

Not terrible, but it'd be nice to have clearer contrast between the lines and the background. In MediBang, I can adjust the contrast by going to Filter>Levels (or Ctrl+L), which gives me a little box that looks like this:

I don't technically know the nitty gritty of how it works, but by my understanding, the outer triangles for the input and output indicate the range boundaries. Adjusting the input--particularly the darker boundary--so that the output boundary exceeds it basically tells the program to make the darker parts even darker, resulting in this:

Better! As you can see, though, the darker parts of the background also show up a bit more. Rather than relying only on contrast adjustments, what I actually ended up doing was carefully erasing the background around the drawing after adding a plain white layer underneath, and also going over some of the lines digitally. I did this first in MediBang (the only art program I had when I started working on it), then transferred the file over to Rebelle.

MediBang (left) has the pure white background, while the Rebelle (right) canvas settings I chose are a little off-white and more textured, which I think blends a bit better with the texture and shading of the image. It's possible to add textures and the like in MediBang, too, but Rebelle has it built into its design, so it's a little easier to figure out there; I'll likely finish this piece in Rebelle (whenever I get back to doing so, haha), since the canvas and brush settings will be easier to match to the texture of everything that came directly from the drawing.

Most of this is much easier to do with a drawing tablet/pen, unless you're a wizard with a mouse. As for traditional means... the best suggestion I can come up with is to try inking sketches, or at least darkening them further with a pencil. The more contrast you can get between your lines and the background, the more easily you can digitally tease that contrast out even further. I think most photo editors have at least some contrast, color, and brightness adjusters, and probably more useful functions I don't even know about--it never hurts to mess around with any program's filters and settings to see what happens!

Good luck, and happy drawing! :D

#Patchy Babbles #Asks #I love getting asks so it's more than okay!#Sorry the answer is basically that that sketch is a lie haha #Someone on the internet has probably figured out more effective tricks but that someone is not me #Also your art looks super good!#You have a great eye for detail~

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hms-tardimpala · 3 months

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Hello! I am a fellow (beginner) book binding hobbiest, and I had a couple of question for you,if that's alright!

First off, what paper do you print your books on? Do you use a specific weight/type/grain?

Second, what kind of printer do you use?

I've bound one fic before, and while it turned out lovely, I'm not exactly happy with the paper/printing method I used.

Thanks! Your work is beautiful!!

Hi! First of all, thank you for this lovely message, it brightened a tiresome day.

I print my books on ivory-colored Clairefontaine 80g/m² paper most of the time, and plain 80g/m² copy paper when I want white paper. Clairefontaine is a french brand, but I think you'll find an equivalent wherever you live, it's nothing special. Here's a link to the french amazon page for it, if you want a closer look.

I know that I should pay attention to the grain, but honestly I don't. I use and fold paper without minding the way the grain is going and it has always worked well.

My printer is my new darling. I bought it recently, it's the Canon MB2150, and it's a semi-professional machine (I happen to sell printers for a living, lol). It's an inkjet printer that uses high yield cartridges, it does double-sided printing (of course) and can handle paper up to 270g/m² in terms of thickness. It also has two scanners: the flat one and the one on top where you can put several pages at once (but that will only scan one side!).

It's still very easy to use and to set up for a non-professional, and is, in my humble but professional opinion, really not expensive for all it does (at least at the price it's sold for here in France). The only real drawback is that it's a big bulky machine that takes up room.

I don't know if you intend to bind books often, but I can tell you that if you do, a cheap home printer is likely to die on you. They're made to break if you do more than a couple hundred copies a month. Also, HP are thieves. Their cartridges are very expensive and they do all they can to stop compatible cartridges from working on their machines.

Sorry if I got carried away there, I couldn't help it!

I hope this answered your questions, thank you again for asking them. Have lots of fun bookbinding! It's such a fun hobby, you're always learning things, book after book, and it's a delight to make progress.

Be well <3

#answered #my bookbinding #bookbinding

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yutaan · 2 years

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Hi,

I love your papercraft and drawings. It’s always wonderful to see your work. I was wondering what you use to achieve your work in a digital format? I’ve used scanner attached to printers and for the most part all is fine until I scan something green. Most of the time the green becomes more yellow or faded compared to its in-person counterpart. Even with a lot of color manipulation or adjusting the scanner settings I can't seem to get a close rich emerald green that's on the actual painting. Do you have any tips or suggestions?

Hello! Thank you so much for enjoying my work! :D

I also use a scanner/printer combo - just a basic Epson home printer - and it tends to scan artwork much duller than it appears in person, save for red, which for whatever reason it blows way out. I also don't have much luck with adjusting the settings on the scanner itself, so to clean up my papercraft scans, I bring them over into Photoshop and adjust the colors there. PS is the art program I'm most familiar with, so I can't speak to what other programs might be best for this, but I believe most should have some way of achieving detailed color adjustment!

I first sharpen the image, then digitally clean up any dust that scanned in, then play around with levels and exposure until the piece's darks and lights look accurate to life, then go in and adjust the saturation of individual color. It takes a while, but by the end the scans do look much more true to life!

Best of luck! May your scans all look glorious.

#art talk #askbox #scans

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faerie-starv · 7 months

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Deviantart Anniversary/Story

I forgot to post this two days ago so here it is. Warning, it's a long story so I hope you have a free time to read.

I created my very first social media account was Deviantart on October 6, 2007. I was living in Orlando for attending college and it was my first time being away from home, renting an apartment, and creating my own account. I started college in July 2007 and was majoring for Multimedia Design(which changed into Digital Media). A week after I started my second quarter, I decided to create my DA account. Quick note, here's the link of what Deviantart looks like back in 2007 by using Wayback Machine so you can get the idea.

Before I made my account, I first discovered the site back in early 2006 when I was browsing through Kingdom Hearts fan site and went to the gallery page section. It was showing fan art from other fans with links of their social media sites(MySpace, Deviantart, etc.). One pic I found was none other than the artist is called Keysha-chan as she was a huge Kingdom Hearts fan and drew them as cute chibis by using Copic markers. I checked out her DA page and I was amazed of her talent as she's the same age as I am. She not only drew KH but she also drew Final Fantasy, Fullmetal Alchemist, Jax and Daxter. She even made her own manga by creating her original characters, Elemental Goddess. She's no longer on Deviantart as she's now active on Instagram(which I follow her) and changed the username to KeyshaKitty.

After I created my DA account, she was the first person I watched. I saved the tutorials such as the markers and plushies. I learned some of it as I'm still learning how to use markers(you'll probably see some of them on my Tumblr page). She was the reason why I created my DA account. Back then, there was a lot of great art; fan art, original art, photography, CSS layouts, etc. There was no AI, people don't mind the 'cringe' art, no one accused you of being 'racist/homophobic/etc.', no SJW's, no walking on eggshells, and so forth. Sure, there was art theft and some trolls but nothing too major like what's happening on Twitter/X or on Facebook today.

I posted my first journal entry and introduced myself then went on following/faving spree.

I couldn't post my artwork till two days after I made the account because I didn't have printer/scanner back then and can only rely at college. It was Sunday when I first logged in and the school was closed. I couldn't upload my pics on Monday as I was starting my class and stay behind to use their Photoshop programs(back then, I didn't have Photoshop). I posted this pic on Tuesday as it was my OC's(which it needs some serious update and I'm making changes) while using some Photoshop. Please excuse my crappy pic as I didn't know what Mary Sue was or that the anatomy was way off. I am planning to remake the pic in the future.

As the date says, I was using the school's computers to put together my pic and it was before I made the account.

I later posted few more pics; two of them were my oil paintings I made when I was sixteen and one photo of Lake Placid, FL that my family used to go on weekends.

Later on, I watched another user who goes by Lily Pily and she was a big Nightmare Before Christmas/Corpse Bride/Kingdom Hearts fan. I read her crossover fan comics and loved her OC's which she became the first deviant to do an art trade with. I asked her if she can draw Emily from Corpse Bride while she asked me to draw her OC also named Emily. This is not my best pic of her as I'm still learning how to draw humans.

I'm also planning to redraw her as well. I'm hoping to follow Lily Pily's other social sites but I don't think she has any besides Deviantart. I still want to keep following her for her art.

I finally got around to post my first DA ID but I kinda traced the figure from the books so you can see how different it is(not proud of it hence why I later took it down).

My god, that pic looks awful! Tracing doesn't help either so it certainly does not make my pic better. The dress is so much cringe as it was based on my old Halloween fairy costume but the colors are just, ugh!!! The wings aren't very good and the pastel colors doesn't mix very well with the dress. This is why I took the pic down a year and a half later. This is what my fursona looked like back then before seeing the current version you see today. There's a reason why I don't like tracing nor using bases(like what I did on my ponysona for Neocities) because it just limits me from doing things. I want to be in control of things.

During 2007 and 2008, I didn't really gain any watchers except two who I know in real life. I also didn't get faves nor comments either until 2009. It was because of two things; one is that I didn't socialize with others nor joined clubs(before it turned into groups) hence why I lack of gaining watchers. Second is that my art was mostly non fan art and I just focused on creating my OC's but sadly, no one was interested in them. :( It wasn't until in 2009 is that I bought myself a digital camera from Walmart and started taking photos. Once I posted them on Deviantart, that's when I gained more watchers, comments, and faves. I still owned this camera to this very day.

Yeah, I used Adobe Illustrator to draw my camera. Loved that camera!

I took a bunch of photos mostly from theme parks and city downtown as well as flowers and birds. So photography is one of the reasons why my page is getting attention but another thing I've done is creating crystal orbs for fun.

Those gained a lot of popularity. Then I started to create my Fakemon, Faerie Mews based on the elements.

The first one was a Fire Faerie Mew(the other is the Chinese Fire Faerie Mew) then I created four more. I ended up making a final pic of four main elements. I really loved making them and I am planning to remake them in the future. I do want to finish the Chinese Elemental Faerie Mews as I only did one but didn't get around to finish.

I would love to post more of my old DA artwork here but I'll have to save it for other time as I can only limit on how many I can put in this post. I just wanted to post the story of my DA anniversary to share it with everyone.

If your asking me about my DA account, don't bother because I closed it back in January due to the site being overrun by AI and the admins stopped caring about the artists. I already removed my pics a year before they allowed AI(thank god I did that) to make it easier for me to clean up and deactivating the account. I've been on DA for fourteen years(fifteen if I choose to stay) before calling it quits.

So now I'm moving on here, Inkblot, Square, and Neocities to post my art. Hopefully you guys enjoyed my long ass story.

#deviantart #my art #old DA artwork

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rockmiyabideusexmachina · 1 year

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Hey there Miyabi! How do you get such high-res, beautiful, and professional scan quality? What's your process?

Thank you! I certainly don't think I do anything that professional, so glad you have been decieved into thinking that about them! LOL I started doing this scan of the day stuff just to bring better quality to a lot of the older contributions of mine floating around the web. Looking at them on here, the Megaman wikia and other places, they just felt small and dirty. Especially as basic technology had gotten better over the decade or so since I first scanned them. I have 2 different scanners, one of which is a fancier Epson that I bought specifically to scan film slides a year or so ago. Still use it for basic scans from time to time. But honestly, for the settei, I'm still just using my general home HP Envy printer/scanner combo. I always scan at 600 DPI. After that part is done and the bitmap image is scanned to my computer, it's really just doing some heavy touchup. As I have alluded to in some recent posts, some of these sheets will take me an hour to an hour and a half just to clean up, because they have so many artifacts and dotty garbage on them. Settei at auction are mostly just scanned copies themselves after all, so there's a bit of residue to clean up. Ever wonder why sometimes I don't post these at a regular time of day? That's why, I'm still working on touchup before I post (and probably off from work, so I'm not prepping the night before, like when I post at a scheduled time).

Let's use this recent Gauss sheet as an example.

The original scan was pretty messy. Probably can't see it as well in tumblr resize scale, so here's the original scan. But it is dotted all over the place, there's like a smudge line which goes through the whole bottom of the sheet, where the "Final Draft" stamp, character/episode number marking is, and through some of Gauss' headshots as well. You can also probably see some black on the edges, where the sheet comes to an end within my scanner.

The first bit of touchup I usually do is within my image viewer. I use FastStone Image Viewer to help organize and view everything. In there, I will adjust the brightness, contrast, and sometimes the gamma, to get the sheet background a bit lighter and the lines darker.

I just like the number 14. Is it always 14? No. But that's usually my baseline starting point. After that's saved, into the photo editing program of choice we go. I match my brush color to the background white and just paint over all those ugly dots and wipe those black edges away.

Zoom in at 100% to try not to miss those artifacts you don't notice zoomed out. Look at Gauss' speckled fingers. Ugh, cleaning that stuff up is hell. But I do it, so you all can see clean-ish looking art. Do I get everything? No. But I try to at least get the major issues out of the way.

Some things I take liberties on. The shading on his jacket goes outside the lineart. Should I leave it as is for authenticity? Probably. But if I'm cleaning it, I'm gonna clean it all. So you'll see in the finished version I posted, those shading lines are all inside the lineart only.

Some people are jerks and could easily resell these settei just by printing scans and claiming them as original. Another way I try to have a way to differentiate my edits without slapping a watermark on is my editing of the text boxes. See the top left and bottom right of it above Netto? There's almost always some overhang on the originals. I have usually taken the liberty of editing that overlap line off, so that the text box is a clean rectangle where the line stops at each corner, as close as I can take it. It's a dumb, but simple way for me to tell if it's my edit.

Otherwise, that's really it. Just a lot of added effort in touchup, honestly.

Cel scans are a little different, because most of them are too big for either scanner. Especially cels with backgrounds. So many of those involve 2-4 scans and then stitching them all together. Much less touchup that I do to them, but otherwise it's mostly the same. 600 DPI, and some brightness/contrast or slight color saturation adjustments to them, if needed.

And now you know!

#Ask #Ask Miyabi Anything #Scanning #Process

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winchester-reload · 2 years

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Hi!!!

First of all I want to tell you that I love your art, every single piece is beautiful and full of detail.

So I’m sorry for bother you but I have a question for you. I’m in a watercolor kick, I don’t paint masterpieces like yours, I’m sticking with flowers and abstract paints. I want to start publishing my art just for fun but I’m not sure what to use to digitize it. I guess I need an scanner but I’m not sure what kind and what should I look for when I check the specifications.

I hope you can help me since I’m completely lost on the subject.

Again I love your art…every time I see it, it brightens my day.

😀

Firstly, art is objective so don't discount your art simply because it looks different from someone else's. The great thing about art is that, if you're doing it right, it's gonna be something ONLY YOU could make, and that is what makes it a masterpiece.

But I'll get off my soapbox for a second to talk about supplies.

I don't have a specific scanner I can recommend because I haven't scanned art in a long time. I imagine just about any mid-range printer/scanner you can get your hands on would do a decent job of capturing your image though. Then you can use a photo editing software to toy with the levels and saturation of the image to do your best to match it to the original. The frustrating part about capturing watercolor is that it never does look quite as good in a picture as it does in-person.

Personally, I like to take a photo of it with an HD camera (I use my iphone) in indirect, natural light, and that usually does the trick. It's difficult to do, but it can be done that way, and it is the preferred technique for professional art capture—I recommend getting used to it if you ever plan on painting anything too large for a scanner to capture.

However, if you're set on getting a scanner, maybe some of the wonderful people who follow me here can drop their recommendations? 👇

#asks #art asks #wonderful people

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abandonambition · 1 year

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Ko-Fi Commission for KayFay

Ko-Fi commission for KayFay! They requested a custom horse design with a body similar to a clydesdale but markings closer to that of a different horse, rearing up. Clydesdales aren't famous for fully rearing up, so I references a few different horse photos and blended features together. The inking was done with india ink with some white crayon to block out those white spots, and I'm really happy with the results! This was also my first time using a light table, which I know is art 101 but nothing I've ever had on hand before. Now that I have my own office, I can fill it with as much art supplies and junk as I need. It's such a game-changer for making clean inking lines, which I love to do, and in the past did directly over my sketches and then erased, resulting in faded or slightly smudged lines. This looks so clear in person it's amazing. Next up for me is to invest in a better scanner. I've limped along with my printer/scanner combo since I mostly did traditional art, but between my linos and new inking techniques, I should upgrade here, too. You can learn about my ko-fi commissions at https://abandonambition.com, but please note that I'm closed for the moment. Join my newsletter to learn when I re-open!

Thanks for enjoying my work! Your comments are appreciated. Learn more about me at AbandonAmbition.com.

#art #artwork #drawing #illustration #animal #animals #creature #creatures

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acaseforpencils · 2 years

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A Case for Scanners.

Non-artists often assume that once a drawing is completed, the art process stops. As most professionals will tell you, that's not the case! Capturing an image for reproduction, and making sure that it represents the original work well, is oftentimes an art form of its own. Since this topic isn't something that has been given a lot of air time on here, I thought it would be fun to ask some folks who do a lot of non-digital work, with (seemingly little) processing, if they had any hard-earned advice on how to get a final image!

I hope everyone is having a nice summer, and that you all are making lots of art! —Jane

Roz Chast

Find this print here!

How do you get images of your work? For reproduction, I use a basic Epson scanner I got on Amazon a few years ago (my old Canon one died). Cost maybe $175. My only complaint is that it only goes up to 8.5 (maybe 8.7) by about 11.5 inches. If the image is bigger, I scan it in parts and put it together. The Epson scanner is excellent. You can scan up to 1200 dpi which was useful when I did drawings that were 9 by 12 inches and they were blown up 9 by 12 feet, and they looked FAB. I was amazed. I also once scanned an embroidery that the NYer used on a cover and it worked fine.

But for just sending someone a quick pic of something, or posting to Insta, I use my camera. Oh, and for pysanky eggs, I use my camera. LOL, wouldn't be good to smash them flat in the scanner.

What are your best tips for getting a good image? If the item you want to scan is a little rumpled or wrinkled, press down hard on your scanner lid before scanning. Also, I use Photoshop to optimize the image--mainly brightness and contrast and to remove patch shadows etc. And for embroideries and pysanky eggs, I use my camera and photograph them in natural light outside. Not in bright sunshine or dark shade-- in between.

Does your method differ when capturing a colorful image vs something black and white? Not really. But I do adjust for brightness and contrast with Photoshop, no matter if it's in the scanner or the camera, b & w or color.

Joe Dator

You can find this print and more here.

How do you get images of your work? I scan my images. Ever since The New Yorker stopped accepting original artwork, the cartoonists have had to scan their own work and send it as a digital file. It's been a source of some frustration for me, as I used to rely on the top-of-the-line scanners at Condé Nast's imaging department, but now the quality of my published work is dependent on whatever modestly priced scanner that I can afford to have at home. For a while I was using a Brother and then an Epson all-in-one printer/scanner, though neither were very good at capturing the nuance of wash shading. I've now got a Canon 300, which is a dedicated scanner, and is somewhat better, though not by much. It's adequate for its very low price, I suppose. All of this has led me in some cases to scan my work as line art and then add the grey or color areas digitally, or sometimes to bypass scanning entirely and just create digital art.

What are your best tips for getting a good image? It's always better to go a little bit darker and then lighten the image after the fact, because that way you've captured the information that is there. You can subtract information if there's too much of it, but you can't add in formation that wasn't captured in the first place. I always take a very high resolution scan, 600 dpi, and then adjust the image in Photoshop, mostly with the Levels feature. I'll also go in very close to the image and go over it with the eraser tool, removing any dirt or blotches that I see. This is made much easier if I remembered to Windex the glass before scanning! Best tip: clean the glass first! I have wasted hours of time cleaning up images because I forgot to wipe the glass clean before scanning!

Does your method differ when capturing a colorful image vs something black and white? No difference in how I capture the image from the scanner, but the way I will clean the image up in Photoshop differs slightly, because for a color image I will use the Levels as well as the Hue/Saturation and Color Balance features.

Amy Hwang

Find this image here!

How do you get images of your work? Flatbed scanner

What are your best tips for getting a good image? I used the photo setting to scan my work. For watercolor paper that isn't completely flat, I'll weigh it down with a stack of copy paper and place a heavy hardcover book on top of that. I'll also weigh the sheet down with my hands as the scanner bulb moves under it.

Does your method differ when capturing a colorful image vs something black and white? No.

Ivan Ehlers

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How do you get images of your work? If it’s a work of ink on paper, I’ll usually do the ink drawing first and then scan that just to be safe in case I screw it all up with the wash/color. If I screw it up, then I will do a digital wash/color pass in Photoshop. If all goes well, then I’ll scan the drawing again and adjust digitally as needed.

What are your best tips for getting a good image? Take the time to figure out your scanner and to learn which values will get lost in the scan and how to deal with that, either preemptively on the drawing itself or digitally after it’s scanned.

While scanning, if it’s a black-and-white image, scan in black-and-white. You’ll get more of what you want without the scanner trying to make sense of random color information that may exist on the paper. And the higher the resolution, the better the image (and information within the image) will be.

Once you get that image imported, throw it into Photoshop and hit Command-L to mess with the levels. This is where you’ll find the sweet spot of making the lines/wash darker, the mid-tones lighter (if you want to erase the background) or darker (if you want to show the wash/paper more) and your contrast (again, if you want to make the background paper ‘disappear’).

Also, depending on how the work is showcased (digitally, printed small on newsprint, professionally printed on expensive materials), you will learn what matters and what really does not. If people are just going to see the image on their cell phones, it doesn’t matter if the image doesn’t look absolutely perfect when zoomed in 6000%. If it’s for print on newsprint, there’s a limit to how much detail will show and how much color information will transfer. It's easy to get lost in a spiral of saying "It doesn't look exactly like the original!" Look at photos of original paintings, then go see them in real life. It never looks the same!

Does your method differ when capturing a colorful image vs something black and white? Black-and-white images are much easier to capture/edit in that the amount of information is dramatically lower than that of a color image. When working with black-and-white images, your concerns are mainly with levels (see above).

When working with color images, you still have to deal with the levels but add to the equation a step of color correction (or color mixing for those who consider the term ‘correction’ inherently pejorative and indicative of an error).

Getting color right is the hardest part. It’s like trying to find the simultaneous determination of position and momentum of an electron—You can either get a good line quality and contrast, or you can get good and true color, but you can’t get both. (This is of course me being dramatic. You can get both, but you better have a much better scanner than most of us can afford.)

If you need to ask how much a really good scanner is, you can't afford it.

Carolita Johnson

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Scanners are great for flat work without ripples. I flatten my stuff under two very thick, heavy pieces of plexiglass and with a piece of paper on either side of the original against the plexiglass after a very light fine misting with water if it’s too rippled.

Otherwise I remember Andy Pilsbury at TNY used to take photographs of fine color art — especially if it had a lot of texture— in his special studio.

Jenny Kroik

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I use an Epson scanner. Mine isn't great, so I have to do a lot of Photoshop tweaking for color precision. I've been meaning to get a better scanner for ages! Get a nicer one, and you might not need to do as much color-correcting. (I got the cheapest one for like $70). Scan stuff at at least 600 DPI.

Also, my laptop has a retina display. I think they all do that now, I'm not sure.

Navied Mahdavian

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How do you get images of your work? I use an Epson V600 Photo scanner. I've used a few scanners and it's my favorite.

What are your best tips for getting a good image? I usually scan at 600 dpi for finished images. I use Photoshop to clean up an image and adjust black and white (make whites true white etc.).

Does your method differ when capturing a colorful image vs something black and white? I usually do black and white, so I'll use the greyscale scanning setting. If I do use color I just switch it to color. Otherwise, all the same.

Michael Maslin

Find this print here!

How do you get images of your work? An Epson V550Scanner....probably 5 years old, still works well.

What are your best tips for getting a good image? Don't have tips. I just make sure the image on the screen looks as close as possible to the original piece. As I'm dealing with a simple ink line with some pencil added on, it's not a complicated replication. Rarely have to do anything with/to what comes up on the screen.

Does your method differ when capturing a colorful image vs something black and white? For me, it's fairly simple as the drawing is an ink line with a small amount of pencil added. I've noticed that color pieces invite messing around with "saturation" and those other tools. I almost always end up liking the "adjusted" image better than the original.

If you enjoy this blog, and would like to contribute to labor and maintenance costs, there is a Patreon, and if you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee, there is a Ko-Fi account as well! I do this blog for free because accessible arts education is important to me, and your support helps a lot! You can also find more posts about art supplies on Case’s Instagram and Twitter! Thank you!

#how to scan art #how to draw new yorker cartoons #roz chast #joe dator #navied mahdavian #carolita johnson #jenny kroik #michael maslin #amy hwang #ivan ehlers

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sarasa-cat · 1 year

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Low key exhaustion on my end.

Putting the office/art studio back together again involves too much decision making and lots of assembly/set up of little boxes and little storage thingers that sit on shelves.

None of this is helped by the fact that for the first time in years my intermittent asthma is not being controlled very well— still haven’t recovered from all of the air quality assault from late Aug onward.

That said, after mostly staying in the house for a few weeks, I have gone out in the cold at night to do my daily (evening) 5k, alternating between sad attempts at a proper run on odd days and a pathetic mosey on even days. Damn this cold air.

I feel like a wet rag.

Current goal is to dig out enough work space by midday tomorrow such that I can organize (even if temporarily) some key equipment and supplies that I need to use. Ya know, like my computer, it’s monitor and other peripherals including scanner & printer. And some space for smaller painting projects.

Would like to get everything into a state of temporarily put away and then I can go more slowly and spot-organize each area while figuring out what other kinds of small storage I need. (Saw cool mini-file drawers in a photo of someone’s printing studio and I want them because they would solve one of the problems on my list).

Right now I just need to collapse.

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k00279204-student-lit · 2 years

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Workshop 2: Digital fabrication

For my second workshop, I learned how to work with 3D scanners and 3D printers. I wanted to create something that would link with our current project brief: Temporary. For the brief temporary I am exploring reflections. I have quite a few ideas of how to create the concept of reflections using 2D art but I struggled when it came to 3D. I was initially thinking of a window but I obviously would struggle to scan that and it would also give a more 2D vibe. So I then thought about reflective objects that I could hold. Holding my phone gave me so much room to expand on the project as I could paint or draw objects onto this 3D print of different reflections but also could put mirrors. (the list goes on of the various things I could do)

in this first image and video, you can see my hand and phone being scanned into the computer. it takes thousands of pictures per second and creates a 3D form.

once you have formed enough information for the computer software to read you can start to edit it. You can edit out parts you don't want to be included and make it watertight. This basically fills in any gaps and creates the rest of the form.

you then save it onto a plate and send it over to another computer next to the 3D printers. this is where all the scans get placed on a plate and saved to an SD card to be put into the printers.

we were shown how to turn on and select your file to print. The ability to build parts layer by layer instead of cutting away material means that there is almost no waste material. It is so interesting that this heated material cools and solidifies instantly as its printed. before these types of models would have been created using molds but can now be built up layer by layer in front of our eyes. In order to create these, you first need to think about a base, much like many structures, these 3D prints need a foundation layer in order to continue. this helps the printer know the boundary of the print as well as keep it held together.

here are some examples of 3D prints. What I found interesting was that you can change the colour of the material multiple times throughout the printing process.

My file didn't have time to be sent to the printer that day so when it is printed I will upload a picture.

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