Happy 4th of July! (Patreon)

     Image processing programs weren't a thing when I was doing fine art, back in the  Triassic Period, or at least they weren't anything like they are now.  They're certainly a game-changer, especially when it comes to cleaning, adjusting and generally perfecting a piece of art for printing. As you all know, I can only do basic clean-up--removing hairs, dust, getting rid of that shadow around the edges of all my scans--but it's still very useful. Some of those raw scans are pretty...raw. However, looking at a piece (especially gray-toned or painted ones) blown up 75% is brutal on the ego. Because of the need to produce and post material quickly, I can't spend anywhere near the time I used to spend on a piece, back in my fine art days; but I still wouldn't scan and process an image before I felt it was done. However, when looking at that blown-up image on the computer screen, tiny errors, too small to see in real life, suddenly appear as large as lunar craters...and they're everywhere. It's so tempting to go back and rework a piece at that point, but unfortunately, the pursuit of perfection is massively time-consuming, and ultimately futile. Plus, I have a feeling you'd all rather not wait a month  between new pieces, perfect or not.