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NGC 4631 - Whale and companion.


Wiu-Wiu

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7 hours ago, JAO said:

Very nice sketch. Can I ask about your technique. Are you using pencil and then inverting a scan?

Thank you.

I used to work out every sketch at the eyepiece but when the paper gets wet, it wrinkles and smears out the details. So now I make a raw sketch in pencil, on which I make notes for later processing (for example the outlines of a galaxy, voids, details about brightness,...). i also number the stars by brightness. 

Then I copy the stars to a new sketch template (in a very fine pencil!) and draw in the details from the object. Usually I draw galaxy's with a variety of blending sticks. They are great for layering detail. 

When I'm done with the object, I use 4 black fineliners of various thickness (0,05 - 0,3 - 0,7 - 1) to dot the stars by magnitude. 

After that it's time to digitalise: scan in gray at 600dpi, clean up the dust bunnies with a clone stamp, invert, and play with levels and curves to get to the correct brightness on your screen. Under polluted skies I add a bit of red to the background, moonlit skies get some more blue. Bright stars get dotted with white, colored stars receive a little bit of color too. Add frame and info, and you're done :) 

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