Sketching bright stars

[davhei]

Made an attempt to sketch a few of the brighter stars, seeing as the full moon was out and the sky wasn’t suitable for deep sky observing.

Experimented with diffraction spikes on Vega, Capella and Arcturus to get a nice bright look to imitate the view through the reflector scope. Overall very enjoyable!

 

[Rob Sellent]

Lovely work, Davhei and a joy to see some stars on these rainy days in Spain ⛈️🌧️⛈️ Think you've worked your technique with the diffraction spikes to a tee 👍

[davhei]

Thanks Rob, a toothpick really helps to get the thin lines. I believe someone on this forum provided the inspiration, can’t recall who it was though. Anyway it works well and I will thank that person if I run into the post again.

[mark81]

Very nice sketches!

[Rob Sellent]

@davheiToothpick! Genius 😀 Inspirattion comes from all corners but you have found it and applied it to your own art and it has come off a treat 👍

[Ruud]

Wonderful sketches. Making them must help to really know these star fields.

[davhei]

2 hours ago, Ruud said:

Wonderful sketches. Making them must help to really know these star fields.

Thank you Ruud. Yes indeed, it really adds a dimension to observing.

I see some people add a touch of colour to their sketches as part of the finishing at home. Have to try that at some point, probably fairly simplistic on a phone app, me not being into photoshop and the like. Looks great for colorful stars.

[Ruud]

1 hour ago, davhei said:

some people add a touch of colour to their sketches

Yes, it would look nice if you did that with your star sketches. You should try the freeware GIMP.

I imagine this is how it would work in GIMP: open your scan or photo. Add an empty layer, change its blend mode to colour and paint an orange blob on the empty layer over Arcturus. Anything underneath the blob that is not black or white will take on the colour you used.

I did this in Photoshop using a rather tacky highly saturated orange-red for Arcturus:

The orange blob is bigger than the star, but that does not matter because black and white are not affected.

I should add: the original was a grey scale image, so my first step was to convert it to RGB colour.

Some search terms to help you find the right tutorials: GIMP change image mode to RGB, GIMP add new layer, GIMP change blend mode of layer, GIMP save as png.

Good luck. Get GIMP and get going. It is an excellent tool for this task.

[davhei]

33 minutes ago, Ruud said:

Yes, it would look nice if you did that with your star sketches. You should try the freeware GIMP.

I imagine this is how it would work in GIMP: open your scan or photo. Add an empty layer, change its blend mode to colour and paint an orange blob on the empty layer over Arcturus. Anything underneath the blob that is not black or white will take on the colour you used.

I did this in Photoshop using a rather tacky highly saturated orange-red for Arcturus:

The orange blob is bigger than the star, but that does not matter because black and white are not affected.

I should add: the original was a grey scale image, so my first step was to convert it to RGB colour.

Some search terms to help you find the right tutorials: GIMP change image mode to RGB, GIMP add new layer, GIMP change blend mode of layer, GIMP save as png.

Good luck. Get GIMP and get going. It is an excellent tool for this task.

 

That’s an awesome suggestion and a what a tutorial! Thanks for this Ruud, much appreciated!

[Lurcher]

Great posts guys. I do love sketching stars too, (double stars in particular). But I've been a little disappointed that they don't match up to the brilliance I see for myself at the telescope, so I might have to give that toothpick idea a try too. 👍 (As well as that GIMP programme? I've been using the basic  "Paint" programme, so that would be interesting to try an alternative).

Thanks all.

[MaHa]

Hi davhei, 

Can I ask how you invert the colours please, making the sky black and stars white? I'm a total novice at sketching so my knowledge is very limited! 

Many thanks, 

Mark 

[davhei]

6 hours ago, MaHa said:

Hi davhei, 

Can I ask how you invert the colours please, making the sky black and stars white? I'm a total novice at sketching so my knowledge is very limited! 

Many thanks, 

Mark 

I use an app on my phone. There are probably many out there but I use pixlr.

I first snap a picture of the sketchpad, preferrably in overcast daylight, then adjust the colours to zero on the phone image editor to get greyscales. Load the image into the app, make a few adjustments to contrast and then invert the colours.

A more ambitious person could probably work miracles in photoshop but sadly I am not one of them. 😀

Edited September 28, 2019 by davhei

[MaHa]

That's great, many thanks!! 

I have just downloaded the app, and I'll be sure to have a play around with it as soon as I get some time. No doubt you'll see some of my future attempts around here! 

Thanks again, 

Mark.