Exercise #3:
Hand-colored blind contour portraits (due 2/17)

Introduction to Computer Art
Instructor: Tiffany Holmes



Blind contour portrait by Drew Cobleigh, fall 1997.


Directions: Create a digital portrait from an analog blind contour sketch. Consider the following visual elements in your overall design: line, movement, space, color, tone, scale, contrast, and color. You must keep the lines from the original drawing visible in this project.

PART 1: Create the blind contour drawing

1) Using a black felt tip pen, sketch a portrait of your partner WITHOUT EVER LOOKING AT THE DRAWING SURFACE and WITHOUT STOPPING THE MOVEMENT OF YOUR PEN.

You will probably want to do three or more drawings and then select the most interesting one to scan into the computer. You may trade portraits with your partner if you wish to do a "collaborative" self-portrait as opposed to a portrait of your partner.



PART 2: Digitizing the drawing.

A) Scan your drawing into the computer as demonstrated in class. Make sure you are scanning at 150 dpi (dots per inch). Please do not make your images larger that 8x10 inches. Make sure you save one copy of the original scan. (Suggestion: name the file something like........tiff.original).

Once your scan is visible in Photoshop window, go to Image, then Adjust, and select Levels. Play with the sliders in the histogram to create varying amounts of black and white pixels in your scan.

Part 3: Hand-painting the portrait

Use any combination of tools and filters to hand color the portrait. Please attempt to....

A) Experiment with invented pattern to fill shapes (demonstrated in class-cloning tool)
-select pattern with rectangular marquee
-Under Edit, choose Define Pattern
-Double click the rubber stamp tool
-Under Rubber Stamp Options choose Pattern (aligned) from the pop-up menu.
-Select with the lasso the area that you want to paint with the pattern
-Click the rubber stamp tool again and paint in the pattern.

B) Create a feeling or emotion in the portrait itself using existing line and invented color, movement, etc.


The portraits (final image and original scan) are due Tuesday, 2/17, 9am sharp, for a brief critique.