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Thanks Denny - I find artists posting these greyed out pieces of work that I know would look so much better if scanned and cleaned up with a graphics program. Guess I'm just preaching to the preacher here, but it's important stuff cause it will make a world of difference.

Original Post: PENCIL SCANS MADE PAINLESS

As a pencil artist, I have fought and fought the variables that go into getting an original pencil drawing the way I want it. Several years ago, I would go around and around with my cameraman. I wanted more detail. He said you can't have white, whites without sacrificing your lightest gray pencil strokes. Or you can't have black, blacks without losing darker grays. I was never happy. I finally found my self years later sitting in front of a computer manned with a piece of equipment called a "scanner." No more fighting with a cameraman! But the fighting was hardly over. It was the beginning of another battle, just a different day. It was a "Showdown." It has taken me almost seven years to get my scans the way I want them. And, I have won. I am finally satisfied.

I am going to go through the steps of a "general" scan of a completed pencil as I would for publishing. Whether it be for a magazine story, numbered prints or for show here on the internet, the final save of the DPI (dots per inch) is the only difference.

I am an artist who draws with a pretty heavy hand. Most of my pencils are fairly dark and with a lot of contrast. But, I do have some really light detail that I want to be picked up as digital information. I want it all. I would rather get as much as possible in the scan and not have to rely on PhotoShop to "save my butt." I am not beyond fixing something in PhotoShop if it means being completely happy with the final result. As some of you have read somewhere else here in this forum, I am a "graphic artist", not a fine artist. I will do whatever it takes to produce a job quickly and efficiently.