T. W. PROCTOR & ASSOCIATES
ATTORNEY & MEDIATOR SERVICES

630 UVALDE ROAD
HOUSTON, TX 77015-3766

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WELCOME TO
eART SCANNING
"SOMETHING NEW
UNDER THE SUN"

© 2003 by Terrell William "Terry" Proctor, J.D

On this page you will learn about the wonderful new ART FORM of eArt Scanning,
a technique which I discovered and have continued to improve upon for about four or five years.

This new ART FORM has at least three benefits to everyone, including Attorneys, Judges and other Court uses:

• For Attorneys, Witnesses and Others--Create wonderful exhibits to show Judges and Juries, at a fraction of the cost of previous methods PLUS you get effects which you never got before to call attention to your exhibits, without any distortion or claim of alteration. I will explain more below.
• For Archive Personnel, Individuals and Everyone--A great form of recordation. You can store superior images of valuables, evidence for the future, heirlooms, lists for storage for insurance records, and many other important uses.
• For Artists and Everyone--A beautiful way to create outstanding, frameable artwork for your own office, home and to sell, with effects you cannot obtain with a camera or any other means. I will explain more below.

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eArt Scanning was an accident, I admit. Although I am an attorney, mediator and former Judge, I must confess much of my heart is in digging up fossils, minerals and other ancient things. I had a fossil fish from Germany which was the carbon residue remains of the fish and very flat. I had purchased a Scanner and some OCR (optical character recognition) software so that I could scan incoming discovery etc., then get with clients, answer the discovery and send the response back out WITHOUT HAVING TO RETYPE everything that came in. The OCR and Scanner didn't seem to want to work together well, so the Scanner set in my office for many months unused.

That is when I decided to scan the fossil fish. I expected it to be fuzzy or blurred, but thought what a neat way to make a quick rendition of fossils, if it worked. At least I could somewhat document the fossils and minerals, in my listings of those things, which are on loan to the Proctor Museum of Natural Science (the not for profit corporation which I set up with five other members some 15 years ago and have served as Curator and Board Chairman since that time).

To my amazement, the fossil fish turned out sharper than with a photo with a camera. I could not believe the fidelity of the reproduction. I could then immediately print out copies, in color, on my inexpensive ink jet printer (which would print up to 8.5" x 14" size paper.

After the first success, I wanted to try other things, so I set about scanning fossils and minerals. The one draw back was that when I placed groups of things or even singles on the scanner, they all had a muggledly greenish-blue background and seemed to radiate out in circles from the object with ever darker circles. This wasn't pleasant so I decided that I needed to lighten the background.

If you use a scanner, you know that the objects are put upside down on the scanner bed, just like a sheet of typed paper, for the scanner to see from the bottom. Therefore, to lighten the background, meant to apply light from the top side. This meant removing the scanner lid (my scanner lid readily came off) and affixing a light overhead. However, upon scanning, I realized without having to experiment, that the light from above had to be diffused. My first thought was to take some Kleenex® tissues from a box which I keep in the office (some clients cry a lot) and tear these into patches to lay over the object being scanned. This worked somewhat, but the torn edges didn't look all that artistic in most scans, but looked like torn up Kleenex®. Therefore, I knew I needed something which was larger and would diffuse the light better.

On my next round of experimentation, having a suit hanging in the office, which I had just gotten our of the cleaners, I removed the white tissue which the cleaners had placed in the sleeves. I realized that the paper wasn't smooth, so I rolled the entire sheet up into a ball, then smoothed it pretty much back out, to give it a uniform crinkled effect. I have continued to use this on various materials as it gives a great background effect. However, one sheet is insufficient to stop hot spots from the light, so I use two sheets most of the time.

As time went on, I created floral arrangements, shell arrangements, and many other artistic things using this new technique. I even scanned my own face and head, with the tissue in place and the overhead light. Being an old bearded guy, clients tell me the eArt self-portrait looks like Moses. See following eArt Scan.

Clients and others in my office, who saw the hundreds of eArt Scans I started turning out, constantly commented on the effects and how beautiful they thought the pictures were. As a result, I invested in an Ink Jet Printer, which would print out 13" x 19" prints, which are definitely frameable size. My wife and I had these double-matted and framed by the largest frame manufacturer in Houston. We now sell these on the internet at https://terryco.us. I gave one to Constable Ken Jones in Baytown for a fund raiser and announced to the audience that the retail price on this large double-matted framed art work (this one was of cactus in bloom with yellow cactus blossoms) was $179.00. After heated bidding, the final sale price of the donated eArt Scan went for $200.00 or $21.00 more than the retail sales price. A pretty good confirmation of the value of these new art form.

Next I saw that eArt Scanning could become a valuable tool in evidence presentation and for a LOT LESS MONEY than professional exhibit makers.

Consider that as expensive as color ink cartridges for ink jet printers are (Sam's get about $55 for one color ink cartridge for the 13" x 19" HP ink jet printer and the retail price is even a little higher. Consider that you have to special order the Epsom matte finish 13" x 19" photo paper to print out your copies and it isn't cheap (but also isn't all that expensive either). Consider that you can buy a scanner for probably under $200 with a top which will come off and the software should come with it FREE. Consider that the 13" x 19" HP printer I purchased for $499 is now available at most Office Depot stores for only $399. Put that together with a little of your time and you get:

Large 13" x 19" prints of your evidence, in full color and often the evidence appears to float out in front of the background to add importance to your evidence item, all for no more than $5.00 for the item. Use some of the new double face roll on tape to the face of a piece of foamcore® board from Texas Art Supply or similar places, and you won't have over $7.50 to $10 for your exhibit. It may only cost you $4 or $5 total depending upon how you do it and where you buy your materials.

What do these exhibits look like? Following are a couple of samples of eArt Scans ready for use as EXHIBITS in Court.
On the left is a client's left hand, showing the surgery to correct the bad surgery, for which the client has a healthcare liability claim for the bad first surgery on his hand.
On the right is a gun which I have scanned for use for company who has retained me to make exhibits for their Mystery series which they are working on. The same thing could be used in a civil or criminal case.

Click on the pictures to see a full size eArt Scan on this page--then click the back arrow to return.

Client's hand with latest surgery to correct bad prior surgery to show necessary re-operation, stitches and bruising to demonstrate, among other things the pain and suffering client had to endure	This exhibit shows the gun in greater detail than a photo would. It was eART SCANNED at only 250 dpi here, whereas we usually scan at 500 to 600 dpi.

Now for some beauty in the art work, here are some flowers, shells and other artwork done using eArt scanning. Click on the picture to see it full page. Then click on the Back Arrow to return to the same place on the page.

White orchids with a piece of orange tissue to diffuse the fluorescent overhead light provides this beautiful floral art	A couple of toe claws from a Pleistocene giant land tortoise from Leisey Shell Pit in Florida. Notice how they seem to float in front of the background. Great for Courtroom Exhibits.	Looks like a picture of a water lily on a pond--right? It was all done on the scanner with wet water lily pads, the flower and blue gel
The interior of a Crinoid millions of year old, but showing great detail, when you click on it to have a full screen inspection. A 13" x 19" print shows a jury all the neat inside detail. Thanks to Prof. Robert Cross for the loan of this fossil.	This gorgeous eART SCAN of a Closet Plant shows what you can do with eART SCANNING that you cannot do with a camera. Click on this beautiful scan to see how you can see through the petals to the leaves behind.	Notice how this eART SCAN shows the texture of the wood with a three-dimensional effect which you don't get in a photograph. Want to show why a kid got a splinter? This lets the jury see it in detail they can understand.

This page is under construction. Please be patient while we add other items and more explanation of this wonderful new ART FORM and evidence technique.