New To All Of This

Welcome, George, and yes, the tab is called HELP.

George,

Welcome! Nice images. As far as getting your stuff here, here's my "tutorial" on using a camera, either film or digital, to copy artwork the correct way.

https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=917008

From looking at your work, which is good, seems that some of the images are a bit dark. If the background should be white, then they might be off a stop or so. If you have Photoshop or some other program like Photoshop, find an "eyedropper" icon and click it on the part that should be white and it will then correct the "exposure" of the image. Or send me a few small files and I'll play with them.

Also, I might raise my prices if I were you, especially at the larger sizes. Find the "Recently Sold" page and see what is selling, from a few artists and then see how they structure their pricing........

Good Luck

Rich

There was a discussion thread that's a FAQ for new members and for some reason can't locate it!

Rich,
Thank you for the help, comments, information and link.

I did find the "help" tab the other night..spent some time looking, then woke up and went to bed.

I will check out tutorial tonight.

Thanks again,

George

George

if you are not a photographer - buy yourself a scanner . Plenty of threads here (use search) that discuss which ones are most preferred.

It's the Oldbies here that are the most helpful through trial and experience.

Love that Couch potato kitty . Best wishes.

Janine,
I have tried a scanner a month ago, the problem I had was that "graphite" can be so reflective a dark spot becomes a highlight.
I may play around with the scanner again when I get a rainy weekend.

I ordered some trail prints here to compare to my originals for tone and clarity, any day now.

I may have replace some drawings here with better pictures off my Nikon in decent daylight.

Your work is great!...

Thanks for the tips..

Beautiful graphite drawings, George! Welcome and best wishes!

I don't think you're drawing on gray paper...are you? That is what the images say to me. And the muddy background takes away from your drawings, making everything one tone. Any highlights are just grayed out.

I would take Janine's advice and scan your drawings. You will get a true representation of your many tones. The key for good presenting of your portfolio/gallery is having your images look their absolute best. Also the viewer should not have questions in their mind such as "is that a gray background? I wonder." 😀

Oh yes, gorgeous works but I think you may want to adjust the "brightness" in Photoshop or something to get rid of the gray backgrounds on those.

Joy,
Thanks for the reply and comments, I appreciate any and all tips from experience. I have only been doing this a short time and try something new with each new drawing.
But am clueless as.how to get copies to look like masters
I was thinking my jpegs were a little..gray and fussy..will find out soon as prints should be soon.
Thanks again,
George

Rose
Thank.so much.

Never used photoshop...
George

there are no newbie boards. for drawings a scanner is your best bet. it scans it flat, its evenly lit, constant depth, and its nice and clean. from there you crop it out. you can also do enlargements if you increase the dpi from 300dpi (which is full size), to 1200dpi which is bill board size. if your photographing it, the camera is underexposing it, happens when you shoot something white. you'll need to increase the EV to say +1 or so. otherwise you'll have to adjust it in photoshop, using levels to brighten it up (easier than curves).


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

George, you need more contrast after photographing your work. Any free photo editing program will do. Just click on auto contrast or auto levels.

George,

Here's a download link for Picasa, which is a good FREE program.

http://download.cnet.com/Picasa/3000-2193_4-10160334.html

As I mentioned, when you get this look for the "eyedopper" icon and then on your artwork, an area that is white and click. Then the program will correct the "exposure" of the artwork. Works on neutral gray too, but for this. start with white. Then see how it looks and as Jessica mentioned, add some contrast and see how you like it,

Rich

https://picasa.google.co.uk/ :(

Picasa is no longer available which is a shame.

I made sure I had copies on all my computers before they did that.

Gimp maybe?

Rich,
I have picasa on my laptop with about 20,000 pictures...I'll Play with that, new photos and my scanner this weekend.


Thanks to all,

George

Hi George and welcome.

I use Adobe but I have to pay for it. I think they have a super inexpensive program for what you're interested in.

I don't like scanners and never have as my work is very large and a good camera gets the job done nicely. Having an accurate photo of art isn't necessary because I love digital art as much as original paintings. Adobe takes the original work to a new level almost more beautiful than the original, unless a person loves the rough shiny texture of my painterly originals and the price which is much higher than a print.

I sell originals and prints, and sometimes I purchase my own work as I love the products here on FAA.

I think your work is beautiful and using any program on your computer to lighten the photo will work, no need for fancy programs with your talent...unless you just love digital work and playing with your images on the computer.

Lisa,
This weekend I will play with some better photos and review on my laptop and/or desktop to see what I can get.

I really do not want to user a scanner for a couple reasons, one being limited size, the other graphite reflections.
Currently my drawings are all small- 8 x 5 and 10 x 8..I have a snow owl and other critters I am planning on doing but looking to do at least 3-4 feet wide..

I have been self taught this far and I appreciate all of you nice people giving me tips and gracious complements.

Thanks again for your time,

George

A scanner will capture details and is great for smaller art. I have considered buying one myself.

Enjoy Picasa while you still have it.It is getting no more upgrades and will not be available on new computers.
I'm still not able to do what I do on Picasa, anywhere else...and I've tried!

I have found a safe download http://downloads.techradar.com/downloads/picasa

Here's this weeks drawing...
I lighten this up a bit..need to setup scanner and trail that.

George,

Very nice! My question to you is this, is the area around the dogs head, the outside part, supposed to be white? It's a definite gray to me and I also see some color in it.......not neutral on my screen,

Rich

Rich,
Murphy's law..laptop will not boot up...(where picasa is)...trying to fix that.
I am using Strathmore Bristol 300 which is near white white....

Not happy with the gray...I lighten anymore and the whole drawing fades away...

Well this will be the before thread..because within a week I will have whiter grays...


Thanks again,
George

George,

Good, we're on the same page! Adding contrast to this image will also help with it "fading". Once you get Picasa working, tweak the contrast first and then look at the whites. Looking forward to seeing this finished!

Rich

Just received my first Faa prints, great quality...
Well the prints were exactly as my photography of drawings..gray..dark...
I am working on new photos and replacing the images as I get them finished.
I started with a better camera using a tripod and timer.
I then adjusted the contrast, brightened and converted to gray scale.
I just uploaded 3 of my previous "dark" drawings..
Sweet tooth, cold morning and chase.

Scanner next....

George,

Looks much better to me. Might look at the contrast again and see if pushing that helps. Not sure how the original looks, but certainly going in the right direction.....

Rich

Rich,
The cold morning looks much better..

Lynx is too light..

Hummer light also lost detail-contrast..

A few more samples and edits...

Thanks

slowly getting there...so many camera trials..this may be the best setup..

server slow..that looks like the previous image..see what it looks like tomorrow..

Well after several photo renderings, a broken Nikon and a new Canon Camera I tried a simple solution...scan.

I finally got a scanner Epson V39 for my drawings...

before



AFTER:
Scanned image only edit is cropping:



Still tweeking settings but this seems to be the answer (KISS)...now to redo 46 plus drawings...

Please let me know any feedback as every PC, tablet, etc has varied viewings, brightness,etc...

Thanks in advance

George

the after does look better. make sure to add tags on it, or no one will find it. i might make the whole thing a bit brighter, but its a million times better than the first one.

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Mike,
I only loaded this a temp image as a test and will replace all my images when I get varried feedback.
So far it's so much better and very close to the original and very simple 1 minute scan.

Thanks again,

George

scanners are great in that respect, especially for line drawings. a good photo scanner can do paintings as well. personally i wouldn't wait, i would scan them all in right now. everyone is doing 4th of july stuff, and you probably won't be getting that many comments (i can see about 5 others chiming in). scan, increase brightness by about 10%.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

George,

Looks much better. Are you using anything like Photoshop yet? If so, most have a "eye dropper tool" that you can use to click on a spot, especially one that is white and it will adjust the exposure of the image, to make the white, white! Gray also works and that's why that tool is there, so people copying artwork with different light sources, can click on a pure white or gray and the software corrects the color.

Usually, the scanner software will have that same tool, been years since I had a flatbed scanner.....

Rich

Thanks so much for the feedback, can't wait to redo all of these and load some of my first drawings as well.


I am scanning at 600dpi is this ok or should I go lower 300 dpi or higher.

I will lighten up my scanner setting as well as editor for whitening and contrast.


You all have been very helpful!

I re-scanned at 300 dpi, still slightly dark now that I am viewing on a few different computers, phone and tablet.

My new Dell laptop makes them look much lighter (whiter), need to calibrate that display back to reality.

Also a little grainy, but 10 times better than before.

Will redo again when I find some time during this very busy month...ugh..I just want to draw..lol