Creating a Pattern

[TomO]

I was reluctant to start a new thread for this but I couldn't find any references to my question so decided I'd start here. It would frequently be very useful to be able to create a line drawing carving pattern from a photograph, whether it be a persons portrait or an object, that one wishes to carve. My question is, does anyone know of some good computer software, or filter, that can convert a picture to a good line drawing (without the shading)? I realize the general response will probably be, "tracing paper and a pencil", but not being a technophobe and wishing to "save time", I'd really like a computer solution. Any ideas?

[Claude]

Two items:
1. I just print a color photo out, spray it with some adjustable adhesive (think post it note glue), stick it to the wood and then cut right through the photo.

2. The server software here on the forum saves you a lot of searching; scroll all the way to the bottom of this page, and you'll see several links to similar questions in the past.

Claude

[BeaverDon]

I have been able to do this in Illustrator. There might be a less costly alternative I don't know about.

[Buffalo Bif]

My kodak software has a coloring book feature, it's not great, just OK

[TomO]

Thank you for your responses, gentlemen. There must be an application somewhere that does this. I'll keep looking.

[KeithC]

There are quite a few out there. There is a lot of info on the Scroll saw forum which also seems to be a Fox Chapel fox chapel sponsored site. A couple of free ones are Inkscape and Gimp. The site is scroll saw woodworking and crafts.
KeithC

[pallin]

Since you started this thread under "General Wood Carving" it is not clear what form of carving you want to create a pattern for. For caricatures, you might want a way to create a front view/side view combination. Claude's suggestion would work find for two dimensional projects such as reliefs, but you would need matching front & side photos to use it for "in-the-round" carvings. Making a pattern for a spiraling design on a walking cane is a very different challenge from either of these. Chip carving designs often call for mechanical drawing skills.

Many forms of carving (whittling, found wood, etc.) call for forming a "vision" in your mind, and transfering that to the wood as you carve away. There is no computer program or book that I know of that will do this for you.

[Claude]

There is a piece of software, Coyote Stencil Shop by Carving Technologies, that will create patterns from photos for scrollsawing, stained glass work, etc. List price is $89.00 from the authors - may be cheaper from Amazon or elsewhere. Only runs on PC. But, as Phil says, it's no good for carving in the round (3D work), unless you take a front view, side view, etc., set of photos yourself.

Claude

[carver33]

There's a freeware program name Irfanview that has a feature called edge detection under Image > Effects. This does a pretty good job ofe creating a colored line drawing. By playing around with contrast and saturation, then by reducing colors to two (monochrome), you can get a pretty good pattern.

[northwood bob]

All the high end photo editing programs have the capacity to make the drawing in black and white with varying degrees of gray-scale. Photoshop Elements ($65.00) will also do this at a budget. I haven't but you might try the MS Office photo editing program.

Since the act of carving usually deletes any or all parts of the sketch, I usually don't use them. I do, however, use a large aspect (8 x 10) photo as a reference during the process. I also usually and often re-draw center lines and critical references during the process. These two rules will keep me on track along with allowing imaginative deviation while carving.

Bob