What a mistake'a to make'a!!!

Well I haven't wrote my blog every night as I intended since last Monday, but I have been cracking on.....even if I have the look of death on my face!  Sorry for all concerned!  Today could have been another break point for me as things did not start out well, but thanks to my friends(who have enough on their own plates) gave me some positive words...and a hug which is always a good thing.  Cheers Jules and Phil.

The mistake of the day is a very important learning curve for me and should be taken note of by all.

After you spend hours creating your soon to be master piece, it is always wise to remember the media you are using, it's properties and it's downfalls.  I rendered until 3am my 1:500 using dry pastels.  Then after a couple of hours kip, walk the dog, feed Max a bottle, kick Lucy out to work to earn a good crust......I delicately roll up said master piece and bring it into Uni to be scanned.

After placing my drawing through the drum scanner and checking the preview, I am disappointed to note the quality of the scan is not good and there are many streaks running the length of the drawing.  Trying to be positive I shrug off this little problem and begin playing with the threshold settings and smoothness etc, only to find I can not improve this annoyance.  It was then I realised my mistake, but it was too late and the task which now lay ahead was a daunting one.  The lines were not scanning lines but many specs of dry pastel (dark brown of course) which having not sprayed and sealed my drawing were now happily running around the feed wheels of the scanner, smearing lovely patterns across my work.  Lines which of course if I wanted to produce that thin myself would be impossible!!

......three to four hours later of retouching on photoshop and I'm nearly there......!!!!!  Below is the first draft of the1:500 with annotation, still a number of things to do.  Dull down the blue of the water, because Eastbourne is not the Med!  Re-jigg position and content of some of the annotation and add a bit more texture in some of my detailing.  I'll email at the end of the week end how this plan and the rest of the work went. Oh, and thanks for your comments Lili, nice to get feed back and helpful words from a pro.

Tram lines from pastel in scanner

First draft of 1:500