July 2008 - markseibold:

Moon, 2 days past full July 20th 2008 Midnight ~ 2 AM, observed through Nexstar 5i with 32mm Plossl and 12mm Plossl for close-up inset image in detail.

*Sky clear, calm; seeing estimated as 9/10.
*Temperature 63 deg F dropping to 58 with dew point rising fast.

Observed through a Nexstar 5i at low and medium magnification, my original intention was to render this sketch as the whole moon.

Materials used:

Canson Mi Tientes medium tooth Blue Indigo paper of 20” X 24”.

Old antique pastel chalk sticks in square sticks and round include Sargeant, Grumbacher, Eagle Prismapastel, and various carbon greys as Swan Stbilo CarbOthello brand; I have purchased a few new ones as small square sticks. These are NuPastel. I have never used a blending stick. Only cotton swabs, Q-Tips and occasionally my bare fingers although I abstain from that as I know that it destroys the paper surface. I have never used a fixative on any of my works so they are vulnerable to smearing, thus kept stored until determination of whot to do with them in many requested prints now. Occasionally but not too often I accidentally smear some chalk in the void blank areas. I will lightly clean off or erase those areas with a dampened cotton swab before photographing the work with a 5.1 megapixel Sony Cybershot under north daylight or photoflash at night. If exposure is insufficient, I will drop brightness in Photoshop by a fer points and raise the contrast an equal amount. Color balancing is done with the camera settings per the ambient light- True north UV daylight or photoflash.

This was the first time I also used new chalk pencils by Faber Castell in snow white and a Swan Stabilo in cream white.

Much of the color on the whole moon was left as unblended with the exception of some small portions as you can see. That image is to be somewhat impressionistic yet I have rendered the actual craters and maria as accurate in position and placement as I could in under 2 hours (25 ~ 30 minutes of that time was spent on the close-up inset detail which actually became the final work for this forum.) Finally my left hand was omitted from the lower potion of the work with Photoshop erasure so as to not clutter the subject matter, hence the vignetting in the lower edges of the blank blue indigo paper.