Talk-Answer: How to do ascii art?

In article <3mhvhd$27...@tst.hk.super.net>, Her son <sch...@hk.super.net> wrote:

>How do you make Art with the acsii charachters because I am really interested.
>in making some if I can find a good program,  But if you don't use program's
>I am still interested how you make such complex art.

There are several ways to make ASCii art.  Some people just take a GIF file
 of a picture they like and run it through a GIF-to-ASCii converter.  To me,
 this makes nice pictures but is less artsy.  I generally prefer to see
 hand-drawn ASCii art even when it doesn't seem as well drawn.
Many people stick with hand-drawn ASCii art.  Sometimes, you just use
 freehand - just use some ASCii text editor and start doodling.  Some
 people will sketch the picture on graph paper first - the drawback there
 is that graph paper has squares and most fonts are not square.
Another freehand technique is to make some kind of see-through overlay
 drawing of the picture you want to make and then stick it to your screen and
 use an ASCii text editor to "trace" it.
Any freehand form is difficult and takes practice so don't get discouraged
 if your first works aren't all that hot.  My early work was absolutely
 horrid but I got better with practice.  Anyone can.
For more tips on technique, check out the ASCii FAQ which is posted here
 about every week or FTP it ftom ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow.

As to what program to use, I recommend against using most of the programs
 designed for art since they're mostly for ANSI art and usually limit
 you to a single screen when you may want to do larger artwork.
 I use QEdit (available from most standard FTP sites like simtel sites
 and wuarchive.wustl.edu and so on) or else I just doodle in the editing
 window of my comm program (Telemate).  That's not necessarily an endorsement
 but they work okay for me.

     /|/  __..---~~~~---...---~~~---..._
    /  \                      Ranma 1/2 `_
 , |  |\\   Dov "Kuma" Sherman            ;
(,\|  `''7    AB3...@Stat.Appstate.Edu   .'
 >[(=---<   "Kawaiikunee! Iroke ga nee!" `
</ )     )@ ---...____....__..-------...-'
   '~`--~

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