Just a few moments ago I was at my scanner with my latest “Inkbook” scanning in the pages. It’s book twenty seven. I’ve filled one book a year so I started making these Inkbooks way back in the year 2000. That barely seems like a real year anymore. There are one hundred pages in the book and so far I’ve drawn on and scanned in the first twenty two pages.
Back in the year 2000 when I first started filling up these Inkbooks with small ink drawings I didn’t scan the pages in as a matter of course. I use these Inkbooks to draw small thumbnail drawings which is where I get my ideas from. So when I want to work on an art piece I can look through one of the books, pick out one of the small drawings, and blow it up onto a bigger piece of paper to make into something.
That first year with the first book I’d find a thumbnail drawing that I liked and go over to the scanner to scan it in. I learned pretty quickly that this was an inefficient method. On occasion it would be too much of a bother to scan a drawing in and it would slow me down. After I realized that I would scan the pages in as I went. At least I’d scan them in every month or two as just before I was scanning in a two and a half month’s worth of drawings.
I bring this up because sometimes I wonder if there is anyone out there who has made more scans than I have? Twenty six books times one hundred pages is 2,600 scans and that is just from my Inkbooks. The tip of the iceberg.
In the late 1990s when I worked in the Production Bullpen at Marvel Comics scanning in artwork was part of the job. I could make a hundred scans a week doing that job. I have no idea how many thousands of scans I made when I was there. But that part of the job is nonexistent now as almost all of the artists scan in their own work and send it in to all the comic book companies.
I mention that it’s not part of the job anymore because I figure if there is someone out there who has made more scans than me it has to be part of their job. Maybe someone who scans in photographs and negatives. Except I think that running a scanner is probably an entry level job. The harder part is what comes after the scan. Probably an employee runs the scanner for a couple of years and then gets promoted or moves on. It’s not the most stimulating of jobs. It’s a thankless task.
Back in the early 2000s I gave myself the task of scanning in all of my photo negatives. I bought my first slide scanner and went to work on them. At first I thought I could scan them all in during quiet moments when I didn’t have much going on. After a year of doing that and only scanning in one album out of fifteen I gave up that idea, cleared my schedule, and scanned for two weeks straight. I was scanning ten to twelve hours a day. It was a lot of work and ended up being around 5,000 scans. That was a tough two weeks.
Over the last ten years I’ve been scanning in all of the family photos my mother has taken. I’m not even sure how many scans that has been but I usually take two or three days a year to scan stuff in. That’s been going on for ten years so I’m guessing that I’m at least up to 5,000 scans for that stuff too.
Of course there is also my everyday art. Every piece I make I scan in. I scan in working drawings, sketches, and finished pieces. I scan those as I go along so I usually making a few scans a week. I have about 7,200 scans in my main scan folder. That’s another huge chunk.
Then there are individual projects that get their own scan folder. I made my first Art Card (a baseball card size piece of original art) back in 2006 and since then I have made around 3,200 art cards. Each one of them has its own scan.
Just a few weeks ago I wrote about scanning in the production negatives to “Spooky Spooktown” number 63. That’s just four scans but then I scanning in some Superman 3M proofs for a friend just last week too. That was eight more scans. I’ve made so many scans I have no way of tracking it except for the stuff that is in big chunks on my hard drive.
I also teach all of my students how to use the scanner. I usually make only ten or so scans with them but I’ve showed at least twenty groups of students how to scan. That’s another two hundred scans on the tally.
I used to scan in the covers of comic books that I sold on eBay. A couple of hundred scans.
I’ve scanned in all of the original art that I’ve bought over the years. A hundred scans.
I’ve scanned in a friend’s art collection too. A hundred scans.
I used to scan in another friend’s comic book art. He had no scanner of his own so when he finished a job he’d bring it over and I’d scan it in for him. That must have been a thousand scans if not double that.
I’ve scanned in photos for friends. I don’t even know how many over the years but it must be up near 500.
None of this really means anything. No one cares how many scans that anyone has made. I don’t even know if anyone but me has even given it a thought. It’s just something that crosses my mind every now and then. Especially when I’m scanning. There is a lot of waiting in scanning so there is plenty of time for thinking.
There may be people out there who have made more scans than I have but I sure don’t know any of them.