RE: Doing Your Own Art

[mlist -at- ca -dot- rainbow -dot- com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Johnson, Mike (MED, OEC) [mailto:Mike -dot- Johnson -at- med -dot- ge -dot- com]

> the writers are going to have to
> take up the slack and do their own art work.  Although I've 
> been in this
> business a long time I have never had to do all of my own 
> line art before.
> I've done lots of block diagrams, captioned photographs, and 
> screen shots,
> but never generated any line art from scratch.  We are going 
> to have to
> determine how to produce pictures of the human figure 
> operating complex
> equipment, etc.  Stick figures won't cut it.

Like you, I've done diagrams, flow-charts, etc., and modified 
photos and bitmaps, but I've never done free-form line art 
from scratch.

Give me a sketch-pad and some pencils (and, oh yes, an eraser...) 
and I'll come up with a creditable illustration... eventually, 
especially if I can draw from a live model.  But my sketching 
technique is to lightly and repeatedly go over a line, or 
to suggest folds and curves with shading... built-up shading.
I'm not the sort who can grab a pen and slam down a complete 
illustration with a few bold strokes.  So, even if I had a stylus 
pad, rather than a mouse (ugh!) or my trackball (UGH-er!), 
I can't duplicate my method of building up lines and transitions 
to get a shape "just right".

What do others do, to create free-hand art on computer?

/kevin