Question: Technique

I really enjoy ascii art and am working on a piece for my sig. I am
curious about technique. Do people just type in letter after letter,
symbol after symbol, and space after space until they get the look they
want (that is what i'm doing!), or is there a better way. Like a program
or something? 

Just curious.....Steve

s.h...@mail.utexas.edu (Steve Handelman) writes:


>I really enjoy ascii art and am working on a piece for my sig. I am
>curious about technique. Do people just type in letter after letter,
>symbol after symbol, and space after space until they get the look they
>want (that is what i'm doing!), or is there a better way. Like a program
>or something? 

i do all my art, letter by letter, until it looks right.  the only program
i use is my editor.  and yes, that is what many of us use!  techniques are
something that you will just pick up.  you can pick up techniques by looking
at other's art or by trial and error (like i had to do).  there are many
different styles (line, solid, shadow, 3d, etc.) to draw with.  the hardest
thing to do is probably the straight line.  once you get this down, you can
do all kinds of things.

a straight line is more than ---- or |.  you need to know angles and steps

here are some lines:
  / |
 /  |   ----
/   |

you can use , and ' for different angles.
    ,'
  ,'
,'

for even more acute angles try using these characters:
        _.-"
    _.-"
_.-"

these can even be doubled:


        __..--""
__..--""


you get the point.

i typically only use the following characters:

_ - ` , . ' " ; | / \ 

and occasionally, i'll use:
f J L V Y X r

to smooth out some of the rough spots.

when i do solid art, i use
H b P d ? o ^

but others tend to prefer using 8 instead of H and Y instead of ?

so, there *is* a technique.  you just have to play with it for a long time
and it'll come to you.  to get good at ascii art, you just don't learn
overnight.  it's a hobby and it's a lot of trial and error.  it's like doing
real art.  and if you practice it enough, you'll get good (and i still suck
at drawing art with a pencil and paper, go figure).
--
brian odom
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