Technical illustrations

[J.Dillon]

Hi All,

I do art for fun. I also write technical articles for profit and illustrate my writing with line drawings as well as photos.

In a recent published article my well rendered drawings were re done using wash. This has happened before. No gripe on my part as the magazine can present an article the best way it thinks.

But, I was thinking, " Heck I can do that ! "

My questions are :

Do wash drawings have to rendered any differently to produce well in a glossy publication ?

Is there any technique I should be aware of when doing wash for publication ?

Should the above questions be addressed elsewhere and if so where ?

Thanks

[artdude]

Don't think I can answer any of these questions for you. Maybe you can try the "Illustration", "Art Business" or "Printmaking" forums. :confused:

[G.L. Hoff]

I do ink and wash (watercolor or plain ink sometimes) and I've had 'em reproduced, although that was a long time back. I think the technique of the work is less important than the method of reproduction, so I'd agree with artdude--maybe the Illustration forum could tell you more.

Cheers

[coyote]

When doing illustrations that are to be printed, it's important to keep the printing process in mind. Halftones, which is anything other than black or white, are produced with dots of varying sizes. If your wash goes from black all the way to white, there will be an area of very light gray...say, 10% or less. In order to "hold" that tiny dot it may be necessary to adjust the contrast on the whole illustration and you risk dulling the whites.

I'm just talking about B&W, but the principle is the same for color.

If possible, scan the illustrations yourself and tweak them in Photoshop (or whatever you use) and provide TIFF files to the publisher.

[J.Dillon]

Thank all,

I took your collective advise an posted the question in "Illustrations":)