Artist’s First Scanner (Finally!)
Greetings! I have some pretty exciting news to share with you. I finally have my own scanner! Considering how often I use traditional mediums, this is a game changer for me.
Close up crop of my ink and watercolour illustration The Fisherdess using my new scanner.
What scanner to use for art?
To get things clear from the beginning, this isn’t a full review. If you know me, you know I like to spend time with something in order to form a rounded opinion on it. That being said, here’s some details on the scanner I ended up picking.
The scanner itself is the Canon LiDE 300. I narrowed it down to a few models from a couple brands, and ultimately went for this one. Reviews over on Teoh Yi Chie’s blog Parka Blogs helped me tremendously in the decision making process, since I wanted an artist-focus to reviews when researching.
What scanner is going to be “ideal” to a person depends on the criteria they have. In my case I was looking for something on the cheaper end with the ability to scan up to A4 in size, and with enough clarity to reliably scan finished illustrations and paintings. Something to get me started, basically. When comparing the LiDE 300 to the LiDE 400 I determined that the difference in maximum resolution (2400dpi vs 4800dpi) wasn’t of consequence to my current interests. I have no desire to scan at 4800dpi right now.
Another close up of the illustration, this time focusing on the coelacanth-inspired fish.
So… what now?
It’s testing time! I have started scanning in some of my finished illustrations to test processes of editing scans, and determining which watercolour pigments do and don’t scan well. That’s a whole thing, if you weren’t aware. I’ve been warned that some groups of pigments are particularly prone to this, such as perylenes, but I would like to run some tests for myself.
This also opens up some opportunities to test methods for illustrations and comics that were previously difficult for me to do. At least to a level of quality I was happy with, anyway.
Two that come to mind are:
scanning traditional ink line art, then colouring it digitally (illustrations and comics)
scanning traditionally inked and coloured comic pages, then adding text and lettering digitally
It also means I’ll be able to scan things like swatches and colour mixing charts in the future as well.
The scan of my ink and watercolour illustration The Fisherdess, watercolour and ink 2025.
Needless to say, I’m excited for all the opportunities this will open up for me. Hopefully it bumps up the experience for you lovely readers as well. See you all later, and happy creating!
