Scanning turtles

In the early ‘90s I wrote and illustrated a book about sea turtles, entitled Tracks in the Sand. It was named an Outstanding Science Trade Book by the National Science Teachers Association and many people have told me they really loved the artwork. It’s been out of print for awhile, but with the ebook technologies now coming online, I’ve been thinking it might be a candidate for reissue in digital form.

With that in mind, and because three framed pieces are due to go into an exhibition, I’ve been disassembling the frames and scanning the spreads. The page just fits into my scanner... since it’s for a digital version, there is no need for bleed, I’m assuming. 


This little guy is under the sand in the nesting chamber breaking out of his shell... he looks a tad grumpy at the moment.


The artwork was rendered using Caran d'Ache Neocolor ll aquarelle crayons and is scanning nicely. I am having to piece the pages together in Photoshop, which isn’t too difficult, fortunately. Not sure at this point if the artwork will need to be in single page or spread form, but I’ll figure that out later.


One issue is that the paper is somewhat wrinkled towards the edges in places, so that is going to have to be dealt with a Screen or Hard Light layer to counter the shading.