Making of '...finally'

It all started when I came across this document which claimed your drawing will improve just looking at these portraits, really awsome stuff, one I shared in my previous post Inspiration(http://roadmaps4soul.blogspot.in/2013/03/inspiration.html)

Captivated, i decided to take it further, hoping that actually drawing this will improve me even more. Moreover I'd been fascinated by idea of drawing on mid tone paper and wanted to see the effect it creates.

...finally finished

Drawing on plain white paper you have range from whitest white (no pencil ) to darkest black (darkest pencil mark). On the other hand, drawing on midtone paper provides a 2x range of tones, from whitest white (whitest white pastel mark) to midtone (no pencil) to darkest dark (darkest dark pencil).

I really wanted to get started fast and so found a large brown envelop and got going... ( Next time I'll get a good quality paper).

My experiences with chalk were really sad. Not much control and sad overall effects. A walk through the art supply supershop (Himalaya's at Banjara hills, Hyd) gave me what i was looking for, a white pastel pencil that you can sharpen like a normal pencil, allowing for all the control you want.

I started out with 'no deadlines' mood. As usual I ran out of enthu in middle.  

Starting enthusiastically 

Breaking all rules to see effect of chalk on paper

Wait a minute, graphite produces awful scan, redo with charcoal (ugh!)

At this point I ran out of steam 

I kept it unfinished on display in living room. People visiting me told she's looking good, which drove home the point that She's not done yet. And her accusing stare was enough to get my bum moving and finish.

Returning after almost a fortnight; enthusiasm's up again

There was turbulence on personal and professional front and she gave me comforting escape for many days.

She's got the 'Bathed in light' effect that I want but she has a unnatual ghastly look about her.
Better tone down!

Fixer spray discolored the paper, what to do. Ready for scanning!

Its all over now baby blue, good bye!

In the end after I sprayed with fixer, scanned and put her away in store, I missed her at her usual place in living room display. 

It'll go away in few days, I told myself, its the same thing with all drawings I do.

Few days back my wife (god bless her)  as a gift got her framed and back in the living room. 

Some love stories do have happy endings I guess ...

...Finally

Post scanning processing for artwork

In the good old analog days life was really uncomplicated. You think about what you need to draw, gather material (or whatever is available) and draw. Work on it till you are satisfied with the outcome and then take a chai/smoke break. If you really like it, you frame it. That's it.

All this changes when you scan it and enter digital world. For starters the scanned images hardly comes close to what it should look. Main pain points are:

1. Image brightness /contrast
   
2. Color tones.
3. Image sharpness.
4. Image size (large size convey more details but is difficult to store.)

In other words we need to figure out

• Which image editing features to use
  
• How much of these features to apply for best effect
  

To illustrate I'll use a recently scanned drawing Keef. It was done with charcoal, graphite and a bit of chalk on blue toned heavy pastel paper (I think).

The original raw master looks like:


Using Auto enhancement


Auto levels tool


Manually adjusted levels


Adjusted using curves tool


So far so good. Now the tough part, which ones look good and which ones don't?

Thats where you are needed, please share your take on which actions actually enhance the piucture