Prints and a new coloured pencil portrait

Something I have wanted to do for what seems like forever now is to turn my artwork into prints so I thought I would spend time this week working towards finally completing this goal. It certainly feels like it has been one long journey getting to the stage I'm at, believe it or not, with there always being something or other to sort out – anything from problems calibrating my computer to simply finding space to house my (huge) printer. I’ve been scanning, sizing, photoshoping and tweaking these past few days to get things set up and ready for the printing stage. Tomorrow I’ll spend the day printing proofs and making sure everything looks good – like the colours, image size, etc. At last I feel I’m getting somewhere.

My pencils haven’t been forgotten in all the excitement over my prints and I have been picking them up now and again to work on a portrait I started a while back. The subject for this drawing is very dear to me as she was our dog and, although no longer living with us, I still love her to bits. She was the model for this portrait, which reminds me – I originally wanted to make this into a print too.

Here are a couple of ‘in progress’ shots.

Patience - finished

Patience
16x12 Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

It’s been a while coming but here she is, finished and waiting for approval.

Nearly there

Patience
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Another quick post where I don't have a lot to say but do have an update on Patience to show you. The next post should see her finished.

An update

Patience
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

The work continues and Patience is starting to come together. I think I can honestly say that from the many portraits I've had the pleasure of drawing that this has been one of the hardest coat colours to get right – every hair seems to be a different shade of grey. Luckily I have enough pencils to choose from.

Scanner or Camera?

Patience
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about photographing and/or scanning artwork trying to decipher which method gives the best result. I’m assuming this would be a matter of opinion amongst artists with arguments for and against both. I personally always scan my drawings simply because I’m not very good with the camera, get lost when it comes to setting the right exposure and get better results with my scanner – although, as explained in my last post, I’ve never been totally happy with the finished images, despite playing around with them in Photoshop.

As it is about time I stop moaning about this and doing something about it I thought (to avoid personally emailing you all:)) I would start with a poll on my blog to see what your preferred method is. I’m interested to know how you get good images of your artwork - the kind that you would be happy using for such things as prints to sell, for use on marketing materials, website or for entries into exhibitions. In other words, good, clear images that remain true (as possible) to the original.

I’ll leave the poll running for a fortnight in the hope of getting as many replies as possible and hope you will participate. I also welcome any comments you might have on the subject.

The image in todays post is what I am currently working on. I’m really excited about this drawing as, although not my first horse, it is my first to commission. Here’s hoping it leads to more. This is the first stage and I should have another update soon.

All done

Charlie
16x12 Pencil on paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

It never ceases to amaze me just how time consuming all those ‘little jobs’ that need doing can be. Visits to the framers for mounts, wrapping portraits for posting, printing photos, paperwork, updating website, etc, etc – all need doing but is time spent away from the drawing board. My time planned with my camera and photographing artwork didn’t happen unfortunately but it will get done, and soon.

I did manage to finish my portrait of Charlie and get a scan I am happy with thanks to pencil artist Grahame Butler (thank you), who left a very helpful Photoshop step-by-step on my last post on how to get that background white without affecting the drawing. This is definitely a great starting point and something I can play around with and expand on in the future.

Pencils used in this portrait, for those who are interested, were Staedtler Mars Lumograph in grades 4H, 2H, H, B, 2B and 3B.

Nearly there

Charlie
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Not much more to go now but thought I would show another work in progress stage before unveiling the completed portrait which, all going well, should be finished tomorrow.

The more I look at this scanned image and those on my website (some of which are terrible) the more determined I am to find out how to get good photos, or scans, of graphite pencil drawings. Surely there is a way that isn’t too technical for me to deal with.

I like to keep a record of every drawing or painting that I do and that includes a good copy of the original, either scanned or photographed, which can be used on such things as my website, for advertising and marketing purposes, for exhibition entries or to be turned into prints. The image therefore needs to be true to the original in colour and detail and while I do need to work on photographing artwork as a whole I feel I fall way short when it comes to my graphite drawings. A bad scan or photo isn’t helping me and doesn’t show my work to it’s best potential.

So with the above in mind I’m going to dedicate a couple of days playing with my camera first and seeing what I come up with. I can’t help feeling that a lot of the work will need to be done in Photoshop – my Achilles heel – in which case it could take a lot longer than a couple of days to get right. My main problem, as I see it, are the white backgrounds that are a feature in the majority of my drawings and getting the camera or scanner to keep them white while keeping everything else in the drawing correct and true to the original. Large white areas can confuse the camera – not sure what happens with the scanner – and it should just be a case of getting the right exposure and light to take the photo in. Right?

I can tell this could take quite a while so any helpful advice would be gratefully received. And of course anything I learn on this journey will be shared here for all to see.

A quick update

Charlie
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Just popping in to show you more of Charlie and what stage he is at. As you can see he’s slowly coming together

German Shepherd

Charlie
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

For some reason or other I had it in my head that entries for the UKCPS Open International Exhibition 2009 had to be in by the end of March so have spent the past week panicking because I hadn’t started anything for it. Each year I promise myself that I’ll enter something to this exhibition but never do, mainly because I haven’t drawn something I've considered good enough. So you can imagine how relieved I was to find it was in fact the end of June – 24th to be exact – that entries had to be in by. Panic over for now.

I did find the time to start a new coloured pencil drawing that may or may not end up being submitted that I will continue to work on in between my commissions.

For now though I am working on a graphite pencil portrait of a German Shepherd called Charlie. I love my coloured pencils but love graphite just as much, if not (slightly) more. What I don’t like about graphite is being unable to get a good enough scan or photograph of the finished drawing. So much of the detail is lost and the support always ends up looking grey when it should be white. I do intend to play more with my camera to see if I can get better results with that but until then this is the best I can do with my scanner. At least you get the idea.