In 1525 Durer invented his drawing machine. It is a way to mechanically reproduce an image. Instead of making 1 large drawing you create many smaller, connected drawings.
Each of these smaller drawings is easier to create which in turn makes the final image easier to create. You can use an image from anywhere (e.g. an image you made using your
cellphone's camera or an image you found by searching the Internet). Once you have a file which contains the image you use Drawing Machine to overlay a grid of lines on
the image. Then you yourself create a copy of that grid on your canvas (on the piece of paper on which you are drawing your final picture). To recreate the image, you draw
each individual square in the grid on your canvas. Depending on your final purpose, you may need to digitize your new picture (which you can do by taking it's picture using
your cellphone's camera or by scanning it in on your printer).
The Drawing Machine is useful for many purposes. Suppose you are not an artist but wish to become one. You can let Drawing Machine help you make the transition. You can
use Drawing Machine to help you reduce errors in your desired picture. You can use Drawing Machine only on some of your picture and draw the easier parts yourself. The
Drawing Machine can substitute it's mechanical technique of reproduction wherever there is a gap in your personal repertoire of drawing skill. As your skill improves,
you can rely on Drawing Machine less and less to produce a picture. Hopefully, in time, you can stop using Drawing Machine entirely when you have honed your drawing or
painting skill sufficiently.
The Drawing Machine is also useful for use in the digital world. Once again, let us assume you do not yet personally have the artistic skills to create some visual digital
product you need. Perhaps this desired digital image is a design or illustration. If you can find or create some image that provides some of what you want to see then you can
use Drawing Machine to fill in the missing portion of the image. Or perhaps you want to design something to be used on a webpage. Drawing Machine can help you do this too.
If you are a game designer then you can use Drawing Machine for many purposes. You can use it to create logos, to help come up with shapes in your game which you want to
animate. You can use Drawing Machine to help you create splash screens.
Intuitively, the way Drawing Machine works is for you first to find some image you want to use. You use the Drawing Machine controls to load the image into the app. Drawing
Machine will then overlay a grid on this image. Next, you transfer this grid to your canvas. You do this by drawing a mesh that is a mirror image of the grid created by Drawing Machine.
It isn't hard to understand this process. Your image has a certain size and shape on your desktop screen. By whatever means suits you, copy the boundaries and the grid lines over to your
canvas. The following is a simple set of directions for creating this template on your canvas:
Obtain a piece of paper that is about the same size as your picture on your desktop screen (or find a piece of paper which is larger than your picture).
Orient your piece of paper so its longer side is next to the longer side of your picture and the shorter side of the paper is next to the shorter side of the image.
Place the upper left corner of the piece of paper in the upper left corner of your picture (Physically flatten the piece of paper onto your desktop screen).
With a pencil make a mark on the paper in the upper right where the image ends (at the upper right corner of the image).
Make a mark on the paper in the lower left where the image ends (at the lower left corner of the image).
Make a mark on the paper where each vertical and horizontal line touches the edge of your photograph.
These marks on your paper will be along the left side and the top side.
If your piece of paper is exactly the same dimensions as your image then you can also mark the line interesections on the right side and bottom side of the paper.
Now transfer your attention to your canvas (to the piece of paper on which you are going to make your actual drawing). This canvas is a 2nd piece of paper. You can stop
flattening the first sheet of paper against your screen.
Using your 1st piece of paper as a form, draw a line on the left and along the top to create the left and top boundary of your drawing.
Rotate your 1st piece of paper 180 degrees (assuming your piece of paper is not the exact same size as your image. Perform rotate instructions only if this is true).
Draw a line on the right and the bottom of your drawing to finish making an exact copy of the dimensions of the image on your desktop screen.
Rotate your 1st piece of paper 180 degrees again.
Align its upper left corner to the top of your drawing and copy the marks along its upper and left edge to your drawing.
Rotate your 1st piece of paper 180 degrees again.
Align its lower right corner to the lower right of your drawing.
Copy the marks along its lower and right side to the right and lower side of your drawing.
Using your 1st piece of paper as a ruler (using the edge of the paper), draw lines as lightly as possible from the matching marks on the top and bottom creating vertical lines.
Using your 1st piece of paper as a ruler (using the edge of the paper), draw lines as lightly as possible from the matching marks on the left and right creating horizontal lines.
At this time you may or may not want to erase most of these lines leaving only a small cross where the lines meet.
You now have an exact copy of the grid you see on your desktop screen. If you have printer that allows you to scan and copy sheets of paper then you can make as many copies of this template as you need.
If you resize all the images you import into Drawing Machine to have the same number of pixels at the top and the bottom (if you always use photos you took with your cellphone camera then this will
always be the case) then the template you just made can be used over and over.
You may not want to follow these simple instructions because you may think of a way of copying the screen that you like better. You might use tracing paper in your preferred technique. There is
certainly more than one way to create a template.
Draw your picture by drawing each of the smaller pictures created by the grid. Note that places where lines, curves, or areas with the same color or texture cross from one subsquare to another are
important. One way the Drawing Machine is useful is in making sure you put these crossing points in exactly the right topographic location.
One thing you can do is to use the grid only to mark critical points, lines, and areas that you think you would have trouble drawing if you didn't use the Drawing Machine.
Or you could draw and use your grid only in some areas of your picture. Hopefully and presumably, over time you can reduce the extent to which you rely on the Drawing Machine to draw your pictures.
After all, the Drawing Machine merely helps you mentally perform the same tasks that an artist performs who doesn't use the Drawing Machine. Hopefully the Drawing Machine will help you become a
more skilled artist by helping you bridge the gaps in your repertoire of drawing skills. Over time it seems reasonable to think that you will be able to reduce the size of these gaps.
All you need is a little help. Drawing Machine provides that help.
This application is controlled by 11 screens.
The first screen allows you to load an image into the Drawing Machine, or to read the documentation in some selected language, or to cause the language used to display the application commands to change
, or to exit the program. The loaded images always come from the saved_images directory under the Drawing Machine installation directory on your system.
If you click to load an image on the first screen you see the second screen. This second screen allows you to click on the name of an image or to page forward or back through the images in the directory
(if there are too many images to show on just one screen), or to decline to load an image (and thus return to the first screen).
If you click on the filename of some image you are taken to the third screen. This third screen has the image you selected shown in the right of the screen. The default of a 10 by 10 grid has been overlain
on the image. You can change the number of squares (i.e. the dimensions of grid) by changing the preset value of "10" to something else. If you think 100 squares are too many you could perhaps reduce that
to 25 squares (to a 5 by 5 grid) by changing "10" to "5". You could leave the grid to be 10 by 10 but only look at some of the 100 squares by changing the lower left and lower right rows and columns. To zero
in on the upper right quadrant of the 10 by 10 grid you could make the lower left row be 6 and the lwer left column be 6 and let the upper right row continue to be 10 and let the upper right column continue
to be 10. To cause this zoom to occur you need to click on the Zoom click box. You will now see just the lower right 5 by 5 squares.
Perhaps you are painting this picture and you only have 1 specific color mixed (the color you are going to use to paint some specific portion of the image). To support this, on this screen, you should
select the Red, Green, and Blue of this color and select some Difference from each of these color components then click on Show Only This Color. For example, suppose you have mixed a color which is strongly
but not completely red. Let us assume that the color of your paint in RGB values is closest to being .9 Red, 0.0 Green, and 0.0 Blue. To show only those parts of the image which are close to that color set the
Difference to 0.1. The only pixels which will be shown are those between 1.0 to 8.0 Red, 0.0 to 0.1 Green, and 0.0 to 0.1 Blue. All other pixels will become black. If only 1 square contains these
strongly red pixels then 99 of the squares on the screen will go totally black and those pixels in the remaining square which fall inside the specified color band will remain. You can then concentrate on
painting just the areas which match your mixed paint. Now, suppose you still want to see the pixels which aren't strongly red but you want those pixels deemphasized. To do this set Blend Out Percentage to 75
and click on Blend Out Other Colors. The 99 non-strong-red squares will now be 75 percent ghosted (deemphasized). All the strongly red pixels will stand out visually to your eyes. Note this functionality is
not part of the classical definition of Durer's drawing machine but it IS a feature of Drawing Machine.
The final help that this third screen provides is the ability to subgrid the grid. You activate this function by specifiying some number other than 1 for the number of subsquares. If you change "1" to "2" each of
the major grids will be subdivided into a 2 by 2 subgrid. The internal boundaries of this subgrid are shown in a different color (i.e. orange) from the white color used to show the major grids.
You could click Back to return to the first screen and load another image or you could click the More button to go to the fourth screen.
The fourth screen allows you to add three more color ranges, to add crosshairs on specific points, and to add perspectives. These three additional color ranges act like the 1st color range provided in the
third screen. This allows you to mix up to four colors of paint and paint all four at the same time (if you wish to be that ambitious). If you click Crosshairs on then the screen becomes responsive to your
mouse clicks and every click creates a crosshair within a major grid square. This ability to target an exact point and see precisely where it lies horizontally and vertically within the major grid lets you
precisely mark that point on your drawing canvas. This will help you draw better without increasing the number of major grid squares. Again, Durer's original drawing machine did not support this but this
Drawing Machine application does help you get the same result using fewer major grid squares. This is advantageous because increasing the number of lines (squares) causes the number of total squares to increase
exponentially. Clicking Perspectives leads you to the fifth screen.
This fifth screen lets you choose between whether you want to overlay a one point perspective, a two point perspective, or a three point perspective on the image. The ability to overlay these perspectives allows
you to attempt to match perspectives which already exist on the image and thus help you draw consistently with the pre-established perspectives. Alternatively, if you are modifying the perspectives on the image
according to some perspective you want to add it helps you add graphic drawing consistent with this new perspective. Again, Durer's drawing machine did not provide this help. Drawing Machine the application does.
If you choose a one point perspective you arrive at the sixth screen. The horizon line is at the top of the image. You can move the horizon line up and down slightly by clicking the up(^) and down(v) buttons.
You can move the horizon line up and down greatly by clicking the up 5% button and/or the down 5% button. The horizon point is always on the horizon line. You can move the horizon point to the right and
left slightly or greatly using the up,down,up 5%, or down 5% buttons. Point 1 and Point 2 start at the bottom of the image and can be moved slightly or greatly up or down. The one point perspective is
formed by overlaying lines from the horizon point to both Point 1 and Point 2. One point perspective is often used for architectural purposes. Suppose your source image shows a railway line. The perspective
lines can be adjusted to closely conform with the image of the railway. Alternatively, suppose you are trying to add a railway (with a train on it too perhaps) to your image. You can use one point perspective
to do that.
If you choose two point perspective you arrive at the seventh screen. The horizon line is at the top of the image. You can move the horizon line up and down slightly by clicking the up(^) and down(v) buttons.
You can move the horizon line up and down greatly by clicking the up 5% button and/or the down 5% button. The two horizon points are always on the horizon line. You can move the horizon points to the right and
left slightly or greatly using the up,down,up 5%, or down 5% buttons. Points 1 through 4 start at the bottom of the image and can be moved slightly or greatly up or down. Two point perspective can be used to
locate or place a three dimensional region within the image. If you are primarily copying an image then two point perspective helps you locate a region you see but perhaps don't really understand where it truly
is within the context of the overall image. If you are using Drawing Machine to edit or adjust an image then two point perspective helps you place new regions on the image (and you have to do your original
drawing within that newly created 3D region).
If you choose three point perspective you arrive at the eighth screen. One horizon line is at the top of the image. The other is at the bottom. You can move the horizon lines up and down slightly by clicking the up(^) and down(v) buttons.
You can move the horizon lines up and down greatly by clicking the up 5% button and/or the down 5% button. The three horizon points are always on a horizon line. Two horizon points are on the top horizon
line and one horizon point is on the bottom horizon line. You can move the horizon points to the right and left slightly or greatly using the up,down,up 5%, or down 5% buttons. Points 1 through 4 start at
the bottom of the image and can be moved slightly or greatly up or down. Points 5 and 6 start at the top of the image and can also be move slightly or greatly up or down. Three point perspective can also be used to
locate or place a three dimensional region within the image (similarly to two point perspective). If you are primarily copying an image then three point perspective helps you locate a region you see but perhaps don't really understand where it truly
is within the context of the overall image. If you are using Drawing Machine to edit or adjust an image then three point perspective helps you place new regions on the image (and you have to do your original
drawing within that newly created 3D region).
The ninth screen is reached by clicking Change to Which Language on the first screen. Simply click on a language to change the text of the commands to that language. This change only affects the language used
during the present execution. To make this language change permanent click Set Default Language to Present on the first screen. For example, suppose the application starts in English (this is the default
language at install time). But you want to use French. Clicking Change to Which Language and then click French to change over to French. Then in the first screen click Set Default Language to Present to
make French the language you will see whenever you start the application subsequently. Another way to change the application permanently to another language is to change the text in the file named "default".
It normally contains the text "English". To change to another language change "English" to the string specifying that other language. For example, to change to French change "English" to "French" in default.
If you click More twice after loading your image you arrive at the tenth screen. On this screen you can go to the Styles screen where you can set your preferred styles, or you can go to the Print screen where you
can generate print files about your image, or you can go to the Layers screen where you can add up to 4 different other images to your main image.
On the Styles screen you can change from solid grid lines to dotted grid lines or to dashed grid lines or to grid lines which alternate between dots and dashes. You can also decide to only draw small crosses at where
grid lines would normally intersect. You can change the line thickness of your grid lines. You can adjust the transparency of your grid lines or crosses. You can change the color of your grid lines to your preferred color.
On the Print screen you can cause the creation of a set of print files which you can then print on your own printer. The Print screen does not actually print anything itself. You will have to do the actual printing
in whatever way you usually print. If you so desire you can generate and later print a blank grid formatted to fit your image. You can generate a print file which has a grid overlaid on your selected image. You can
create print files where your color image has been converted to a greyscale image in case you want to draw using charcoal. You can set how many squares you want in your grids. Normally these grids are created in a
subdirectory of your game directory. Note that usually the Print screen is set to erase all files in this subdirectory. Be careful with this. You can also specify any directory in your system as the place where you want print files will be created. If you set erasure to occur automatically on generation then every file and every file in every subdirectory under that directory will be destroyed! WARNING! Make very certain that
you type in the right full path if you are going to have automatic recursive erasure activated. The erasure occurs when the Generate button is pressed. If you click on save in subfolder then writing will occur in what
you have typed in as the full path. If you don t type anything in and don t check save in subfolder then all writing occurs in the print_files directory under your game directory. If all this makes you nervous then click off erase file in subfolder (no files will ever be erased in that case), don t ever type anything in the text entry field, and don t click on save in subfolder. If you never use a directory other than print_files
for your generated grids then leave erase file in folder on but never click on save in subfolder and never type in anything in the text field. Then you can click Generate over and over and your generated grids will show up in print_files with any old print files there being erased when the Generate occurs. This Print screen corrects the biggest problem with the first implementation of Drawing Machine. You had to manually create your
blank grid page every time. Now you don t. You can also print up all your images and blank grids and take them with you and leave your computer at home. If you have kids you need to give something to do on vacation then this might be an ideal way to do it.
On the Layers screen you can type in the full path of any additional image you want to overlay on top of your base image. You can add up to four of these images. You could also add a copy of a single image four different times if you wanted to do so. Whenever you type in a full path you will see a screen which will confirm or deny that you typed in a good file name. After you receive confirmation you can click to go to that specific image and adjust, scale, crop, and move that image inside the original image. These four new sub images are prioritized. The fourth and last image (the image name typed in at the very bottom of the screen) has highest priority. Therefore; if that highest priority image overlaps with any lower priority image (layer 1, layer 2, layer 3) then the fourth image will be seen on the Layers screen. Similarly, each image has a higher priority than lower numbered images. The layer 1 image has no priority over any other image. If none of the images overlap then there is no issue, any and every image can be drawn simultaneously without there being any issue of interference.
The latest modifications significantly improve Drawing Machine. The ability to create print files removes the tedious burden of manually drawing your blank grids on paper or canvas. The ability to change the styles let you draw only small crosses at grid line intersections instead of full grid lines. This allows you to use Drawing Machine as intended but reduces the footprint of non-original-image drawing on your view. The ability to add other images and to crop and position these images lets you get the same kind of results you could get by using image manipulation programs to adjust your image. However, you can do all your work in Drawing Machine instead of having to modify four images and manually position your adjusted images onto your base image.