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Go back to the screen and count the number of whole squares from
top to bottom. Do not count the incomplete block at the top and the
bottom.
Next, go back to the picture and measure the height only. Divide
the height by the number of vertical squares that you have counted on
the screen. For Example: picture height 260mm, number of squares on
the screen 13. Divide 260mm by 13 screen squares = 20mm. Divide your
picture now by drawing vertical lines 20mm apart. If you do not wish
to damage your picture stretch a sheet of tracing paper over the top
of it and do all line work on the tracing paper.
Number the row of blocks along the top starting by placing a 1 (one)
in the block on the left. Number the row of vertical blocks on the
left hand side starting by placing a 1 (one) in the block at the top.
The number 1 (one) will be common to both the vertical and horizontal
rows of blocks.
Go back to the screen and with the freehand-tool write in the
numbers corresponding to those on your picture. Make sure that the
numbered grid is in the centre of the screen. (When finding the middle
line of the screen don't forget the part under the palette.) Rows of
blocks on the right and left of the centered grid can be deleted.
If your picture happens to have more horizontal blocks than the
screen has you will have to decide which part of the picture horizontally
is most important to you. This, however, does not happen very often.
Now draw the outline and details by looking at the picture and
drawing lines in the corresponding blocks. The numbers at the top
and bottom of the screen and the picture will help you to identify
corresponding blocks.The mouse is not the ideal tool for drawing, but
the outline does not have to be perfect. If you have chosen a face or
head make sure the important details such as eyes and nose are in the
right place.
When you have finished with the outline and details remove all the
grid lines by using the background colour. My use of colours, in most
cases is black for the background and cream-white or brown for the line
work and grid lines. Background colours other than black are likely to
interfere with colours in the picture and white line work is hard on
the eye.
Filling in is the next step. Before you use the fill-in tool make
sure you do not have any breaks or gaps in your outline. You can check
for breaks by using the magnifying-tool. If you overlooked a gap and
part of the painting that you didn't want to fill-in gets filled-in,
use the UNDO to remove it, close the gap and try again.
After filling-in all the basic colours check for details that are out of
place.
Most of the shading in can be obtained by using a progression
of colours. Sometimes better results are obtained by using a basic
colour and a progression of darker brown dots for red, yellow and green,
and grey dots for white and blue. At the cost of time you can create a
checkered pattern. It could for example be made up of red and brown
squares. By progressively using darker browns the red will also darken
by the influence of the brown. The brown dots can't be seen as the red
is the mo re dominant colour. It will appear that the red gets darker,
creating an illusion of a shadow. Using two shades of red will extend
the range from light to dark even further.
A typical annoying feature of computer graphics is that lines on an
angle and curves have little steps. Most of these steps can be eliminated
by putting in an intermediate colour. For example, if the object with the
steps is red and the background colour is black put brown dots in
the corners of the steps. The ragged outline will then be smoothed out.
Most of what has been said here can be seen by scrutinizing my two
paintings on this disk. Both of the paintings are med-res and they can
be transferred to a painting programme to be looked at with the
magnifying-tool.
BACK-UP
Finally, I would like to advise you to save your work each hour.
Also, at the end of your day's work make a back-up copy. Detailed
paintings can take several days to complete.
To lose a painting because of memory or disk failure can be very
disheartening. (And don't we just know it!!)