Scrollsaw Portraits in a NutShell #2: Lesson #2 - Creating Patterns on the Computer

Since I was asked by a TON of people over the last few months how I go about creating a scroll saw pattern from a picture I am going to attempt to share with you all just how I go about doing so.

First of all, I am using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1. I was able to get a great deal on the software (student pricing) and that is what I use for 95% of my graphic’s work. The techniques I use can pretty easily be duplicated using other graphics programs, some of them extremely inexpensive or even free.

For this lesson, I wanted to pick a pretty simple graphic so all the changes can be easily seen. I found an album cover “Something for Everybody” by Devo and it fit the bill nicely.

What you are looking for in order to make a great cutting is a LOT of contrast, and that is what this picture has. You CAN make just about any picture work, but you can save yourself a TON of work if you find a picture like this one – Trust me!

Now, I start by doing the exact same thing for just about every picture I work with – knock down the color and crank up the contrast. Here we go…………………….

In PhotoShop, Open your picture and hit “Control-U”, or choose “Image, Adjustments, Hue/Saturation” to bring up the “Hue / Saturation” Window.

Slide the “Saturation” Bar (The middle one) all the way to the left. This will knock down any colors except shades of gray. Click “OK”.

I think you can see where I’m going with this………

Now, choose “Image, Adjustments, Brightness/Contrast” to bring up the “Brightness / Contrast” Window.

Slide the Contrast bar all the way to the right. Now, you can “play” with the Brightness bar to give you the level of detail you need for this picture. I chose to set it to level +30. Any less and there would be too many shadows; any more and you start losing important details.

Now, we have to take care of a bunch of little details – all by hand I’m afraid…………………..

First, I used the pen and cleaned up (filled in) some of the areas around her chin and mouth. I also drew in some of the lines in her fingers as well as removing that nasty area under her lips.

Now I had to make a decision. How do I keep the teeth from falling out of her? I decided to draw a line where a camera flash would naturally go on her lips to connect her teeth to the rest of the image. I also cleaned up the miniature DEVO Hat she is putting in her mouth.

In essence, we are done right here! Read to cut. However, I took the liberty to add one more element to the image – the Band’s name. I found the following image on-line and it is basically ready-made for scrollworking.

I cut just the band’s name out of it, rotated it a tad and pasted it on her neck – sort of a tattoo of sorts.

NOW we are ready to print and cut. :-)

In closing, what advice can I give?

Less is more – keep is simple! This type of work relies a lot on the “mind’s eye” to fill in the details. Don’t try to capture every single shadow line or detail in the picture. You would be surprised what leaving out entire body parts will do. Take a quick look at this image of a past work I did.

Now, look at it again and notice the total lack of Han’s Left arm – pretty cool, eh?

Don’t worry about embellishing your work – it’s an original after all! If you have to move something around, go for it! If you want to add or subtract elements, go for it!

Take a few steps back and stare for a while – I find that looking at your image from a distance shows you more what your finished piece will look like.

Only create as much as you need with the computer – if you are comfortable using a rough pattern that you can then embellish once you start cutting, by all means do so! In this case, I will probably cut in eyelashes and individual hairs around her head while I am cutting.

Practice, Practice and above all…………. Practice! Don’t be afraid to screw something up – you learn from these mistakes.

Hope this helps!

Good luck!

-bob

-- Man is a tool-using Animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all. - Thomas Carlyle http://www.ffrf.org