Still working out the best way to put my drawings on here – simplest seems to be to take a photo of them, now I have figured out how to turn the flash off (thanks, Nige!) But I need a good light, daylight seems the best option. If I scan them at work, they turn into PDFs and then seem only to post as a link.
Spanish scribbles 
I’ve been photographing my drawings, but sometimes I scan them. What are you using to scan them? I’d be surprised if a pdf is the only option.
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I tried using the scanner where I work, no idea what sort it is! But now I think photographing the pictures is working out ok 🙂
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I work on drawings all the time, some for my partner Angelica, who is a professional artist, and some of my own (I trained as a graphic designer). You can see her work here: angelicawesterhoff.wordpress.com
I use both photos and scans. As with your drawing of the castle, one of the problems is the distortion caused by the camera lens, especially when using a smaller camera. To offset this effect somewhat, you should position your camera so that the lens is aligned witth the centre of the drawing. You need to be parallel to it, so check the edges of the drawing are as close to the edges of the camera screen as possible. The camera should not be held above, below, or to either side. This will avoid big curves at the sides by helping distribute any distortion more evenly, so it is less noticeable.
The next thing you should do it become familiar with photoshop so you can restore, more or less, the whiteness of the paper and get a similar contrast to the original. It takes a bit of time to learn the tricks of the trade, but it’s worth it. I advise you to always work on a copy of the original. If you make the slightest mistake, you can always fall back on it. When you save, save as a jpeg, as this is easier to post.
I’d also advise you to take photos on the sunniest of days, but out of direct sunlight.
If you follow these instructions, you can crop photos of drawings to square them up without losing much of the original paper size. To give you some idea of the results that can be achieved I point you to a link to one of my sites. http://bryanhemming.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/portraits-of-my-pueblo-conil-andalusia/
The pictures are watercolours of Conil by Angelica. The shade is a feature of Photoshop, which I don’t always use. You can also see other drawings in the corner of my Santa Catalina site,which you just started following. For enlargements, click onto the drawings at the beginning of each story.
Thanks for joining up.
I hope I have been of some help, and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more queries. I might be able to sort them out. Good luck with it. The castle drawing seems a good start.
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Thank you so much for all the information and advice! Much appreciated. I did find that the scanned pictures turned into PDF files and then when posted, they were click on links, which is of course useless as nobody will bother! I think I am getting better at photographing them but will follow what you say with the next one. Thanks again 🙂
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