Hi William, I appreciate your comments on my sketching. I have traditionally always used drafting pencils with 2B, 2H, HB, 4B and 6B lead on white paper. Earlier this year Alex Massey from Australia shared over at Ice in Space a method called the Scott Mellish or Mellish method. It is the use of pastel chalk on black paper basically and the method can be found here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-614-0-0-1-0.html So 90% of the time I do the white on black at the scope but winter and the freezing temperatures have made me go to using my drafting pencils with their various leads on white paper also using blending stumps etc., with extensive notes, and then re-creating them at home using the pastels and charcoal. The batch at Lakeside were done this way and the batch I am currently processing from last night at Pit n Pole are that way also. They ones at home don't different much except I feel this method is a better representation of what is seen at the scope. I should have the Pit n Pole sketches up today or tomorrow. Come spring as the temps increase I'll go back to doing the white on black again. Feel free to contact me or if you want your welcome to come out in the field even without a scope and just watch the technique. On a very, very sad note, Scott Mellish passed away earlier this year at the age of 46. In many ways his technique is just catching on with sketchers and he never lived to see that. It made me wake up because I am also 46 and that is far too young to pass away. You can see Scott's work at Astronomy Sketch of the Day located at this special memoir at: http://www.asod.info/?p=5434 His gallery at Astronomy Sketch of the Day is located here: http://www.asod.info/?s=scott+mellish&x=0&y=0 Take a minute and look at his work. I think it is as stunning as many astrophotographers if not more so but I admit my bias for sketching. He refined his method for well over 15 years plus. Let me know if I can be of any help. All my supplies were purchased at either Hobby Lobby or Michaels. On 2011-12-27 14:09, William Lockman wrote:
I was very impressed with your sketches. They very accurately show what one sees looking through a telescope. I was wondering about your technique and medium. You may have posed this before, but if you did, I never caught the posts. Did you use some sort of light colored pastel on a dark paper? Did you do the white on black at the telescope or did you do pencil on white paper at the telescope, then copy it in white on black later? What did you use at the telescope to illuminate the drawing surface? Was the telescope computer guided or did you have to keep moving it by hand to keep the image in view?