Wednesday, August 15, 2007

I'm too Stupid to Use My Own Scanner

I recently figured out how to scan my drawings in a way that doesn't make them look like they've been run through a defective matter transmitter. It only took me about three years to do this, and then it was only because my friend Susan, who knows about these things, told me how.

In my defense, the process is completely counterintuitive. When I fire up the old Canon, it asks me what type of material I want to scan. I'd always chosen the "black and white line art" option, because, 1.) my drawings are in black and white, and, 2.) they are mostly made up of lines. It seems that this little test is precisely how Canon separates the smart kids from the ass-backward stupid ones. When I explained to my friend how I'd been scanning my drawings in the past, she responded "Oh, no. Don't use that line art setting. Scan your drawings as color photos." Well, that was just about the dumbest thing I'd ever heard and I wondered vaguely whether Susan had taken to hitting the sauce in the afternoon. I was desperate enough to give it a shot, however, and I'll be darned if she wasn't right.



That there's an exercise I did for a Drawing 1 class I took last fall. (Clicking on the picture will bring up a much larger version, by the way.) The assignment was to stuff a bunch of miscellaneous crap in a shoe box and draw it. There were slots in the sides of the box so some of the stuff was sticking out the side. The depth of the box is not readily apparent in this scan, since my scanner is smaller than the actual drawing and there were no 8-year-olds around to show me how to use Canon's foolproof "stitch assist" feature.

If Susan looks closely, she will notice a very poor rendering of a very nice piece of pottery that she made for me many years ago.

7 comments:

robyncz said...

Holy cats, Lisa. I knew you were talented, but I had no idea you were arty-talented, too.

I'm impressed. I don't even have the patience to think about making all those lines, let alone render an attractive image.

Wow. Just wow!!

Lisa Meltzer said...

Aw, shucks.

I love drawing, but I have a hard time getting myself to start a project because I'm afraid I'll screw it up.

The process of getting the shapes down on paper is my least favorite part because it's the thing I'm least confident doing. The crosshatching is my favorite part. It's one of the few things I do that completely clears my brain.

I hope to complete another project over the next couple of months. The catch is that I have to start it first.

Anonymous said...

Nice drawing! Eric Records - one of my favorite labels!

Anonymous said...

Robyncz said all that needs to be said on this one, but I'll say it again: Holy cats! Beautiful drawing, Storch. I showed it to my pal, M, (who's lying across my couch just now rather *like* a cat, refusing to accept that the Red Sox game has been postponed and, therefore, refusing to leave) and he, too, said (essentially), "holy cats." Let's have MORE!

Lisa Meltzer said...

Okay, Mitzy. While I'm doing that, you can write a few posts for your blog. How d'ya like them apples? Hmmmm?

suespez said...

I'm glad the "color photo" setting worked :D

suespez said...

And oh yah... just because it worked doesnt mean that i'm not hittin' the sauce in the afternoons...