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This article is from 3BetaCopy Electronic2 newsletter on disk of the Coastal Mac User Group, Myrtle Beach. Rick Curran, the author is an active participant in the user group community and was the leader of the America Online User Group Forum. Today he's an active officer of the User Group Network!


Start with a scan3389 Characters 598 words

Start with a Scan

A Guide To Transforming Scanned Photos and Objects Into High Quality Art

Rick Curran


Many of the graphics we see in magazines and on posters, start with a scan. With this in mind, this book by Janet Ashford and John Odam explain techniques used to create such illustrations. You can follow along using their suggestions with Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator, Streamline, Painter, Freehand and others.

The first four chapters illustrate how to use some of the PhotoShop controls to maxamize your scan. You will learn not only how to scan, but how the scanner works, how to color correct, what Gama is, how to improve tonal range, what a histogram is and much more. They even go into a bit of scanner history. This section is an important part of the book because the rest of the book builds from it.

The next nine chapters show you how to be creative with your software and scanner. Each chapter has two or more topics. Each topic starts with basic, easy to understand information about the subject. This is followed by a finished piece of art and a step by step illustrated discussion of how the piece was produced. This part is very well done and should get your creative juices working. You will probably want to bounce through the pages and see how Janet and John did a particular technique and then go to your computer and play. Then back to another part of the book for some more things to see and play with.

Let me go through the chapters and their topics. Chapter 5 is devoted to the use of available clip art and old engravings. The book gives you sources for copyright free clip art and engravings. Once you get your artwork, you start with a scan and add color, use filters, autotrace to create PostScript images and much more.

Chapter 6 takes photos and creates line drawings and fills them with color. In chapter 8, you learn how to add and remove items from the photos. There are additional sections on morphing, working with color and textures, and adding color to black and white photos. Chapter 9 takes your photos and turns them into poster art. You can create posters using high contrast images, posterization, solarization, filters and montage. There is a large section on marbalizing paper.

Chapter 7 shows you how to create and use textures. There are many good suggestions where to find interesting patterns and textures (like the local piece good store).

Scanning 3 Dimensional objects is possible, and Chapter 11 will tell you how. Chapter 10 discusses how to start with a scan of old type faces and converts them into a type you can use with your computer and printer. By using scanned type, you can also produce some interesting effects using filters and color.

Chapter 12 and 13 explain how to use your scans in 3D illustrations and multimedia projects. It includes working on web page graphics and Animation.

You may think this is a reference book, but it isn't, it is an imagination book. It gets your imagination fired up and gives you the skills and techniques to do some very exciting illustrations. "Start with a Scan" has many ideas for you to expand on to produce some creative art work. It is written for both beginner and the accomplished graphic artist.

Bottom Line

If you are a graphic artist or want to learn to be one, this $35 book is full of good information, tips and techniques. Very well done Janet Ashford and John Odam

Start with a Scan
A Guide To Transforming Scanned Photos And Objects Into High Quality Art
By Janet Ashford and John Odam
Peachpit Press, 2414 Sixth Street, Berkely, CA 94710, http://www.peachpit.com
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This article is from 3BetaCopy Electronic2 newsletter on disk of the Coastal Mac User Group, Myrtle Beach. It may be reprinted in any Computer User Group newsletter, without change, as long as a copy of the newsletter is sent to the author.
Rick Curran
4767 Tarpon Bay Road Myrtle Beach SC 29577
Email: CMUGRick@aol.com

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