Doing graphics when you're not an artist?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Jennifer O'Neill reports: <<We need to use more graphics in our manuals. The
problem is that the technical artist already has too much work and there's
no budget to get another. We need line drawings of hardware equipment to
show how to assemble the parts. Myself and my colleague are used to
modifying existing graphics (illustrator and coreldraw) but not drawing from
scratch. I'm wondering how practical it is to take digital photos of the
equipment and then use a software package to trace over the parts of the
picture we
want to use.>>

First off, consider using the digital photos directly to illustrate what you
want to show. With a little practice, and the immediate feedback permitted
by using a digital camera, you should be able to learn how to obtain good
photos that show exactly what you want. That's particularly true if you can
use graphics software such as Photoshop to edit out details that would
otherwise conceal the more important details that you're trying to
emphasize. If you go this route, strive for consistency by not randomly
mixing old line art with new photos unless the line art shows something you
simply can't show with a photo (i.e., a greater degree of abstraction). If
carelessly done, the results look inconsistent, and that can detract from
the perceived quality of the manual.

<<I think Adobe Illustrrator lets you do such tracing but haven't tried.>>

Just talked to our graphist, and he said that autotracing of anything
complex usually creates an overly complex image that takes forever to clean
up; for example, you may end up with so many bezier curves that the graphic
becomes unprintable. Although it's possible to develop a workflow based on
simplifying the photo in Photoshop (e.g., reducing contrast, changing color
depth, etc.) followed by autotracing (with experimentally derived parameters
for number of points per curve etc.), he's found it much more effective to
use the layers feature of Illustrator: Just as we used to place onionskin
paper over a photo so we could trace it with a pencil, Illustrator lets us
manually trace the important parts of a photo to produce reasonably credible
technical illustrations. Not as good as what you'd get from a skilled
artist, but good enough to print.

One thing to consider: Once you're really good at tracing over photos and
producing a good rough draft, consider offering this service to your artist:
"I'll produce the roughs; you turn them into professional drawings". Might
be a win-win situation for the both of you!

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
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