Accurate Drawings #4

    The technique about to be descibed
has regularly been used by myself for
ordinary 'static' pieces of art work.
One of the best results I have achieved
with this technique can be seen by
loading in the "F_40.CPT" picture which
can be found in the "_PICTURE" folder.
    This method has a number of stages,
some of which you do not use the
computer for. It is most useful when
you have a drawing or photograph which
you wish to reproduce on the screen.
Obviously, the best method is to use a
video-digitiser, but these are very
expensive (75 to 150 pounds for the
software alone!). The steps you must
follow are:

1)  Firstly, make a copy (onto tracing
paper for instance) of the picture you
wish to reproduce. Only copy the
outlines and basic details - not the
shading. You may miss out this stage if
you don't mind the original drawing
messed up...

2)  A grid must now be drawn over the
picture. The size of the squares which
make up the grid depend upon the size
of the picture. Ideally, you should aim
for a grid which can be numbered from 0
to 319 across and 50 to 199 down. This
is for lo-resolution. For medium res
use 0 to 639 across and hi-res use 0 to
639 by 100 to 399. These, values
indicate the number of pixels available
in each of those respective resolutions
when the HotSpot is turned on.
Normally, I would try to use squares of
10 units (to represent 10 pixels
each).

3)  Now you can load in Canvas.

4)  This next part is the most tiring
part. You must roughly copy the drawing
onto the screen. This is achieved by
using the HotSpot to find the correct
co-ordinates represented on your grid.
Usually, K-Line is the most appropriate
Mode to use. For a picture with fairly
straight lines, this shouldn't take
long. However, if there are lots of
curves - like there were on the F40
drawing - you must split up the curve
into sections of straight lines. It
wont look perfect - don't expect it to
- it's just a basis on which to add
detail. Don't start erasing bits of the
picture just because they look wrong -
they will most probably look much
better when you've done more of the
drawing. (The F40 outline looked
terrible until I had almost finished
it!)  NOTE that you should only use one
colour for the whole outline.

5)  Right, so you have an outline. If
you discover that the picture doesn't
take up quite the amount of screen that
you expected, now is the time to resize
it using the Block Copy Mode followed
by the Block P-Resize Mode. Turn the
HotSpot off since you are unlikely to
be needing it again.

6)  Now for the final leg - the detail.
This is the point at which you should
set up the colour palette.

7)  To add the detail itself you will
probably find the Zoom Mode best. This
will undoubtably take a long time and
will look rather strange until you have
finished - the F40 was a bit wierd when
the roof, bonnet and windows were done
and not the rest!  Special attention to
shading should be given when adding
this detail. If you don't do it now,
you probably wont be bothered to go
back to it later!  Refer back to the
original picture constantly - you don't
want to forget what it really looks
like!

8)  Finally, save your masterpiece to
disk.