Rhetorical question to self...

[ellenmillion]

...why do I even bother trying to paint with blue? It never scans!

Anyway, you'll get the idea...







I'll be re-scanning her before I post her more officially. May even need to buy a stupid scanner for it. This $20 Dell POC is just not cutting it.

Comments

[renatus.livejournal.com]

O_o You're trying to get good scans out of a $20 scanner?! Good lord, no wonder you're having problems. :( I just bought one of those little slim USB powered Canon scanners off of a friend, mostly new, I'll try out some colour work on it and let you know how it does. I know that model only runs $90-100.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

No, no, it's not even a $20 scanner - it's a $20 all in one printer/scanner/copier. *nods sagely* And it was free! :P

Let me know how you like that one - I'm certainly in the market.

[renatus.livejournal.com]

Oh that makes it worse. :X

I know Jim (jemstone) has a similar scanner and it did well for him, although I don't recall him scanning in any colour. At any rate, I'll hook it up tomorrow morning and do a few test runs, then get back to you.

[renatus.livejournal.com]

I had a hell of a time finding some colour pieces that I hadn't given away and had to scrape up a holiday card that had migrated under the old scanner and had laminated itself to the table due to the heat, but I finally got it set up and tested. For the record, it's a Canon LiDE 60.

I like it okay so far. I find the software a bit odd because the colour correction is done with curves but it works okay. It seems to get along a bit poorly with yellows.

I didn't do any correction to these in Photoshop other than resizing. I'll get you some detail scans if you want them.

http://www.rbail.net/art/temp/test1.jpg - very little correction to this, it gave it a distinct bluish cast.
http://www.rbail.net/art/temp/test2.jpg - this scanned surprisingly well; the scanner had some trouble with the texture, partially because one edge was slightly raised due to it being too big for the scan bed. The background gradient did wash out but it was very, very pale to begin with and had a lot of yellow in. I did some more correction to this in the scanner software than with the first test. The colours of the shirts are true to the original, as far as I can tell
http://www.rbail.net/art/temp/test3.jpg - no tweaking needed. The pale washes scanned in perfectly.

Basically, this scanner seems to have no trouble with blues, very little correction needed for cool reds, and does a faqir amount of chewing up anything with much yellow in it. However, I didn't play much with the correction software and I could possibly stand to re-calibrate the thing. It's USB 2 capable so it can scan pretty fast, albeit noisily, and it's nice and small and USB powered - the cable you use to plug it into the computer is also the power cable.

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

Ellen, did you try scanning it with a scrap of yellow or gold colored paper? Sometimes scanning with a contrasting color and editing it out later will pick up some of the other tones. It's worked wonders for me, since I started doing it, and I have little or no tweaking to do. Of course my scanner isn't quite a $20 scanner...LOL, but it's not expensive either. ;P It's the mustek a3, and I love it!!

BTW...your painting is gorgeous!!! More cool twirly swirly hair!!!! She looks like she's free falling on the bubble so the name Free Falling popped into my head!!!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I actually tried that trick - which is probably why you can see any blue at all... but it's still way, way washed out. :/ I got what I paid for! I like that name! *ponders*

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I guess so. I'm sorry you have such a crap scanner...LOL YAY for you liking my suggestion!! ^^

[millennialhippy.livejournal.com]

yep, i can tell already, you have a yellow-grey tint to it. Most scanners require color-correction, sadly -- even the $$$ ones.

[cynnalia.livejournal.com]

She's so adorable, though! ^_^ I love the happy expression on her face...she looks like she's having so much fun! :P

[celticwren.livejournal.com]

This is why I use a heavy hand now with the light colors, Absolute matte seems to work quite well for showing up on scans. It's sad though that the lighter delicate colors that I like to use so much just don't show up like they are supposed to.

I love those stockings, and the green reminds me of peppermint...

[jessicolors.livejournal.com]

Great work Ellen! Sorry about the scanner, though.
I have the Epson GT-15000 and it´s one heck of a machine. Works like a charm, have never needed any color adjustments, it makes true, ready-to-print scans and no tweaking is necessary before I burn and ship my CD´s to companies. This scanner is awesome. Expensive, but totally awesome and I love it to bits.

[fleeboy.livejournal.com]

it's wonderfully whimsical. i love that dragonfly.

[pixiewildflower.livejournal.com]

Oh beautiful! The first thing that popped in my mind was "Lazy Days". Even the fairy is hitching a ride rather than flying!