​Hey, guess who's in the September 2018 issue of Drawing Attention? That's the online zine of the Urban Sketchers, an international community of artists who draw on location. This "Cool Gear" piece shows that I jerry-rigged a portable easel on my rolling backpack. Simple, cheap and lightweight.

Story and photo by Mark Leibowitz, on page 40 of Drawing Attention.

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Maybe tinkering around and making things by myself comes with being an artist. Or maybe it's just the shoestring budget that does it. Who knows. But anyhow, now that I've gotten my DIY web/blog design up and rolling I guess it's time to consider the almighty content part. And more specifically, how to get it online. And, naturally, for an artist, the most important content of all is the art work! And for that you need quality digital images.

Choices, Choices

So far, the best digital images of my paintings have been from a professional scanning shop downtown. They're beautiful, crisp and delicious. However, it's a schlep to go all the way there, leave the paintings for a few days, and then make another schlep to pick 'em up. It really cuts into painting time. Not to mention my wallet. So what to do?

Photograph them myself? Well, to be brief, I've tried. I've got a good DSLR camera and 50mm lens. And a BIG learning curve. Upshot? Awful. Next!

Okay. So once upon a time I scanned a small painting with a garden variety (and out-of-date) Epson printer/scanner and it came out looking fantastic. But the inevitable happened and the time came for a new printer. (And a new computer and a new this and a new that. Sigh.) I love my present Canon Pixma MG5320 all-in-one, and the scans are actually pretty good, but they just don't sing like the old Epson did.