17.10.2010 computer trouble week

This is my first illustration for exercise one: getting the gist of it
. After selecting words in an editorial of the New Scientist, my illustration subject was going to be about global warming. We hear scientists' views and the public's ones too, but not the animals.


This week I wasted an awful amount of time finding how to use a scan from my all in one HP scanner/printer, and resize it for printing the size I want. This is essential for when I will send scans of sketchbook to tutor, or when I do a small sketch and want to print it big. (Quentin Blake works on a light box, with a sketch under his paper, I wanted to be able to do that-  and I needed the size of the sketch I made to be bigger, even if it was on many pages).
I also had made a drawing 100% bigger than I wanted for the finished product, so I could have details.

Anthony Browme

In the end, what helped was mostly fellow users of about.com painting. They directed me to the graphic software side of the site and someone called crayboat helped me. He advised me to get a picture editing software capable of overriding the printing software of the printer. My tutor also helped. I went for photoshop elements - free for a month.  Other free systems could do the job too, I'll just have to work it out. This is how I spent the best part of my week.  I also investigated the illustrations of Anthony Browne,   Oliver Jeffers, and Ralph Steadman.

Oliver Jeffers

Ralph Steadman - Animal Farm

I also looked at a book from the library about an international survey of illustration for children books from 1979 (the year of the child). It is called Graphis (4th international survey of children's book illustration) Ed. Walter Herdeg, Graphis press (Zurich), 1979.

This book is mostly in black and white. I liked the Russian Bilibin's illustration - pre-revolution most of all. A large part of the illustrations looked so dated, I guess because of the changes in technology either for making images or printing (or both).  I guess this is the only book on illustration I can get through the library. The other 2 I have reserved will probably never arrived.  (Typical I dare say). Bought a book on coloured pencil techniques. More on this next week. My sketches have been far and few in between this week because of the printing problem that took all my time and attention. Apart from polar bears sketched from the internet.

Bilibin (1876-1942) Watch the decorated frames! Also did Sceneries for Opera