Line art or photos for carving?

[BeaverDon]

I have come to appreciate line art for carving patterns, such as coloring book art or comic book art. Tutorials on how to draw this way can be very useful to us carvers. One example.

[Robson Valley]

I have been able to move into the 21st century recently with a flat-screen monitor for each computer. The image is so close to the surface when compared with the huge CRT monitors.
Now, I can turn up the brightness, hang a sheet of paper on the screen and trace the screen image!
Then a quick trip to an office supplies store with a copy center to make any degree of enlargement/reduction I want.

[BrandantR]

Another good source for ideas is clipart images. Most are simple, tasteful, and funny. Three characteristics for a good caracature.

[telecarver]

I create line art patterns on the computer using photographs and PhotoShop although any graphics program that has layers will work. Just create a new layer over the photo and trace the outline with your mouse. Hide the photo layer and what you have left is your pattern. You make it any size you want and then print it out. For large designs I take it to a copy shop that has a wide printer (Up to 48" wide and unlimited length).

[paolo59]

Originally Posted by telecarver

................Just create a new layer over the photo and trace the outline with your mouse. ......................

Usually I print the photo, then I put a sheet of transparent paper over the photo and trace the outline by hand with a pencil. I find this easier and faster than using the mouse. Moreover, you can copy only a part of the picture and add/combine more parts from other photo.

[telecarver]

Originally Posted by paolo59

Usually I print the photo, then I put a sheet of transparent paper over the photo and trace the outline by hand with a pencil. I find this easier and faster than using the mouse. Moreover, you can copy only a part of the picture and add/combine more parts from other photo.

That is also a good way to do it. Using the mouse to trace is an acquired skill. It takes some practice but I find it faster than tracing by hand. By doing the tracing on the computer, I can enlarge the photo as large as I need to to get the fine details in the shape. It's also easier to see the detail of the photo than through a piece of tracing paper and it saves me the extra step of having to scan the the sketch. I often cut and paste different elements of the sketch to get different movement in the body of a fish, animal or bird. I also sketch elements of the overall composition on paper and scan them. I then paste my animals on that to create unique patterns as well as proposal sketches for clients.

[Hiloboy]

I do the same as telecarver when doing my line art.. the only thing i do different is i use a Wacom tablet.. i have found it a lot easier than trying to draw with a mouse..

[Lazy Carver]

Ron Ramsey has the idea. Are you able to print? You can even make large sectioned copies on a home printer... I have. It's worth a try. If you can't, then load your reference photos on either a disc, or a flash drive, go to Ginkos or any other affiliate that can resize and do the work for you, (you can do the work your self, on a Ginko's computer)... Have them print it on whatever size... Shop around for pricing though!

[Canopener]

There is a setting on my Olympus camera that converts regular photos to line drawings and was under the impression that this is pretty common feature. It really does a nice job. I enlarge them on the printer and my nieces and nephews think it is really nifty for coloring. I am sure it would work well for carving.
Jim

[pallin]

Many of us have an "All-in-One" printer that can scan and enlarge. It's fairly easy to scan part of an image, enlarge that to full page, and put together the sectioned copy that LazyCarver mentioned. Be sure to enlarge all sections the same.