January 6, 2001
Data Sequence: Visualization 2

Jeanne's first imaginary of Mac led to so much dialog that jeanne tried a second visualization to see if we could share drawings like word pictures. That led to Mac's own perceived self, above. That led to my doing Tina this evening. And, look, Tina. I did you in the very same colors I did before! I didn't even remember that earlier drawing. I found it when I discovered there was already a 2nd Tina file.

Lessons for Untrained Artists: By Untrained Artists

Mac's first draft.

Lesson 1

Because most of us have little discretionary time, so that we are falling asleep as we study, I try to stick to really bright colors to wake us up. They're also cheerful. This would work better if I'd use my real drawing program instead of Paint or PhotoShop, but they're free with Windows or Word Perfect or whatever.

So, Mac, I brightened up your table, but tried to stick with your choice of violet/pink.

jeanne's first edit.

Here's first editing, Mac. I did it in Photo House, which gives me only random colors. This file is mac16.gif. I softened the sun by using bright yellow in the spray can tool around the edges. I actually wanted to use a darker yellow but Photo House wouldn't give me that.

The spray can tool helps to soften edges, and give less of a comic book effect. I used the brush with the best color matches I could get to cover up the white pixels left uncovered by the fill tool.

Here are other versions you can play with:

Notice that the smoke from the coffee cup shows up better on the magenta background. I made it show up even better by using the spray can to draw the smoke. I wanted to do it in light gray, but Corel Photo Shop had other ideas.

In this version, mac15.gif, I found the yellow got a little old. So I used the fill tool to change the colors on a couple of the books, and settled for the colors I could get. I reckon you could call this "coloring," Mac.

Mac, your original is "mac06.bmp," and the file is up, should you want to work with that. jeanne

Tina wanted to know how I'd draw her if she gave up smoking! jeanne

Continue dialog.