[bushman]

Hi everyone , this is my first post as a new member from small town of LaSalle Ontario , Canada. I have been doing more of I would say hobby carving the last 5 years with a small class of five great friends with instructor, Gen. I think big sometimes, I have two pieces of basswood 28x80 x2inches thick. I want to a life size carving on each one to bolt down on each side of my door on my cedar log cottage up North.I'm looking for a life size pattern of a bear standing, trees ect or any ideas friends where i can ook for large patterns-thanks Terry- Bushman

[Marci MN]

Hi Bushman, I dont have a pattern location but do have a tip to pass on. If you have a school nearby they might have an Overhead Projector that you can put a smaller drawing on and the projector will pass your drawing to the wall. You can tape sheets of meat wrapping paper to the wall and trace the lines of your pattern to life size that way. You can put measure marks on your meat wrapping paper and then back up the projector until it fits the measurements you need.
Sometimes Churches have Overhead Projectors too. Another place to check.

I hope this helps you.

Marcia.

[telecarver]

Look on Ebay for an opaque projector. With this you can blow up a photo to any size you choose. Overhead projectors require a transparency. Most of the ones you see in art catalogs are of poor quality. Try to find one that has a 1000 watt bulb and at least a 8 1/2 by 11 original capacity. I bought an older 1000 watt American Optical Delineascope from a guy who painted murals. It can blow up a good quality image 50 feet high. I found another one like it for my ex-wife, who does ceramic murals, on Ebay, for $110.

[Marci MN]

Oh cool Telecarver.. thanks! I didnt know such a machine exists.

So for Bushmans case he could use a picture of a bear.. draw that and then use another of trees or mountains and draw that on along with his already drawn bear to make up his own scenerio?

[AlArchie]

Re; opaque projectors, I picked up one of these TRACER OPAQUE ART PROJECTOR AIRBRUSH DRAWING BRAND NEW - eBay (item 160241168684 end time May-22-08 20:43:43 PDT)

at Michael's several years ago with a 50% off coupon, I think for around 30 bucks. Although it's a "cheapie" it works great. It will enlarge over 20 times for me. They only claim 15. You do ned to use it in subdued light, where one of the more expensive ones will work in higher light levels.

One problem with all of these projectors is you have to get between the projector and the screen to do your drawing. I solved this by building a glass screen from and old casemant window. I tape my paper to the backside of the glass, project the image and then draw from the backside, staying out of the projection beam. Works great!

If you can find a high quality unit for a reasonable price, I'd go for that though......this one is a lightweight plastic, but still pretty though.

These cheap hobby types only haVE a 5"x5" base so if you plan on using a larget starting image, I'd suggest one of the bigger format projectors. I found I can "piece together" larger imagers with this one, though.

Al

[mark yundt]

Many times I've taken scaled drawings to a blueprint company and had them blow them up to the size I needed. It's basically a giant copy machine. If you can't do it in one pass,,just blow up the copy they give you. And if it gets really big,,do it in pieces and simply tape the sections together again to make one giant pattern.

Then again if you have a good small drawing it is very simple and quick to grid out a large paper that you want as your final pattern and simply transfer the drawing to it. I recently did this with my "Prodigal Son". Started with an 4 inch X 8 inch photo,,and was able to easily transfer it to a panel 2 ft X 5 ft.
Also worked to transfer a small sketch to a life size crucifix. It's a simple process without much fuss and no expense.
For 17 yrs of doing this stuff I always wanted one of those machines,,and it definitely would be handy for me and used regularly,,,I'm sure I'll get around to it someday. Just like the light box I've always needed,,,till then a window is always handy.

[telecarver]

If you know how to use photo processing software utilizing layers, you can scan or find a copyright free photo on line. You then create another layer, trace it with your mouse, resize the layer to the size you need, and then divide (tile) it into printable sizes. Then tape the printouts together and trace with carbon paper.

[Keoma]

COLORING BOOKS! Some of the absolute coolest images are in kids coloring books!

[Eddy Smiles]

Marcia...

Using a free program like IrfanView you can take any photograph and convert it to a pattern. That means you can Google to your heart's content and when you find the one you love all you need to do is make it into a pattern and then as Mark suggested take it to a commercial Blueprint company and they can blow it up for you.