Re: Inspiring sketches! (was: Re: Einstein's Cross)

If you liked Bertrand Laville's web site, you will like Serge
Vieillard's web site as well (huh, yeah, another Frenchman...):

http://www.astrosurf.com/magnitude78/serge/index.html

Here's just one example of his beautiful work:

http://www.astrosurf.com/magnitude78/serge/images/M17_04.jpg

These are two remarkable observers and regular contributors to an
online magazine titled "Ciel Extreme" i.e. Extreme (deep) sky and
various online forums and mailing lists.

Clear skies!
Julien

On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 10:05 PM, Marek Cichanski
<marek.cichanski@No-Spam> wrote:
> Thanks, Julien, for posting the link to Bertrand Laville's sketches!
> I hadn't seen his site before, and I have to say that I'm really impressed!
> Not only the number and difficulty of the objects he's seen, but the way he
> makes his sketches. I'm looking at his `Techniques utilisees pour dessiner
> le ciel profond extreme' page, and it's really neat. I particularly like the
> way he make nice, round stars. None of those horrible-looking, blobby,
> scrubbed-in stars that one sees so often. He sweats the business of making
> them *round*, and I really like that.
> Also quite interesting is his method of not actually making the final
> sketches in the field. That makes a ton of sense to me. It looks like he
> makes, in essence, `brightness maps' and lots of notes, and then he makes
> the final sketches indoors, based on these maps and notes. Again, that
> sounds like the only way to go. Looking at his site, I think he's set the
> gold standard for deep-sky drawings. (I seem to recall that Harold Hill's
> lunar drawings were made the same way.)
> I particularly liked this part:
> ``Je dessine sous forme des lignes des isophotes... exactement comme... les
> courbes de niveau pour materialiser le relief''
> In other words, he draws isophotes, just like contour lines which are used
> to show topography. Having drawn isophotal maps of various galaxies this
> summer - albeit on photographic base maps - I can attest to how much work
> that would be. I love his precise, scientific approach to his drawings.
> Even better was this line, in reference to his note-taking:
> ``Je suis tres <<bavard>>''
> (``I'm very <<chatty>'')
> Yeah, baby! You go, brother! That had me really psyched, because... er, um,
> no reason...
> Anyway, Laville rocks. He's got me psyched to be out observing faint fuzzies
> again, if we ever get some clear skies.
> -Marek Cichanski
>
> --
> Who's observing/imaging where? http://observers.org/OI-calendar/
> GSSP is coming, July 10-14 http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org
> TAC's imaging mailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TAC-Imaging/
>
>

-- 
Who's observing/imaging where? http://observers.org/OI-calendar/
GSSP is coming, July 10-14 http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org
TAC's imaging mailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TAC-Imaging/