diff --git "a/tutorials.txt" "b/tutorials.txt" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/tutorials.txt" @@ -0,0 +1,5959 @@ +File: academy/tutorials/tut_atkins.txt +https://web.archive.org/web/20210226065248/https://vyznev.net/ascii/ada/aaatutorial.txt + + ,-,-,-. . + `,| | | ,-. | , . ,-. ,-. . . ,-. . . ,-. ,-. . , , ,-. + | ; | . ,-| |< | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |/|/ | | + ' `-' `-^ ' ` ' ' ' `-| `-| `-' `-^ ' `-' ' ' ' ' + ,| /| + `' `-' + ,. .---. ,--. ,-_/ ,-_/ ,. . + / | \___ | `-' ' | ' | / | ,-. |- + /~~|-. \ | . .^ | .^ | /~~|-. | | + ,' `-' `---' `--' `--' `--' ,' `-' ' `' + A short tutorial on making and posting ASCII Art + By Martin Atkins (March 1999) + + This document was based on 'Make a Start in ASCII Art' by Daniel Au + +Stop before asking for an ascii picture of a whatever, or ascii for a +logo... wouldn't it be more fun to make your own? Perhaps you could +create a beautiful piece of ASCII Artwork and share it with us all at +alt.ascii-art! +If you would like to learn how to make ascii art, this tutorial should +help you get started. + +-._.-> Quick Start + """"""""""" +You don't need a special program to make ASCII Art, you can make it in +any text editor, or another program that allows you to type characters +from the keyboard. + +You should, however, make sure that it is producing plain text (no +colours, bold etc) and is set to a monospaced font. A monospaced (or +fixed width) font is one where all of the characters are the same +width. + +In a monospaced font, these two lines will be the same length: +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM| +IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII| +If they aren't, then you aren't using a monospaced font. Experiment +with available fonts until you find one that makes those two lines +match up. + +-._.-> Making a picture + """""""""""""""" + +The best way to pick up ascii art is to try it. Find a nice text editor +(most computers will have one, look for Notepad, Edit, Nisus, Ed...) +and load it up. + +Just fiddle around a little to get a feel of what shapes each character +makes, and then try to put them together to make a shape: + + o + -|- ASCII Art Stickman! + / \ + +Try making this stickman do things, like... + + o/ o + '| Waving... -|- o or Kicking a ball! + / \ |'. + +Now look around where you are now... can you see anything interesting +to make an ascii art of? Computers make very good 'first pictures', +because they are mostly rectangular and so easy to shape. Have a go at +showing your computer in ASCII Art. Try not to produce *exactly* what +you see, but enough detail that the eye assumes the extra detail. This +takes some practice, but once you've mastered it you can make almost +anything! + +How about a person? This is a good thing to do next. The best place to +start is not a specific person, but a generic one ... that way you can +concentrate on forming a person-shape without worrying about the exact +details of a person and possibly offending them! + +I've gone for a cartoony sort of person, since less details are needed +to produce it. Let's start with the head... + + + /"""""\ + | (o|o) | + | _\ | + | '---' | + \_____/ mga + | | + +See how you see a human face, but know that it's very unlikely you will +ever meet anyone who looks like this? This is what I mean by not +producing exactly what something looks like. + +Let's continue the picture... + + /"""""\ + | (o|o) | + | _\ | + | '---' | + \_____/ + ___| |___ + / '-' \ + | . . | + | | | | + | | | | + \_|_____|_/ + /_| |_\ + | .-. | + | | | | + '._| |_.' + /__| |__\ mga + + +Since it is a cartoon, I didn't worry too much about the proportions. +If this was a serious picture, the legs would be far too short for the +rest if the body, but you get the general idea. + +-._.-> Diagonal Lines + """""""""""""" + +Notice on the bottom of the trousers I have used the full stop and +apostrophe characters to produce I greater diagonal line than the slash +offers. This is the basis for producing lines in ascii art. This one +takes some time to master, but here are some lines to show you how to +construct a few 'odd' angles... + + + | | / ,' ,-' _,-' + | .' / ,' ,-' _,-' + | | / ,' ,-' _,-' __..--"" + | .' / ,' ,-' _,-' __..--"" + | | / ,' ,-' ,-' __..--"" _______________ + + +-._.-> Adding more detail + """""""""""""""""" + +We can make our picture more interesting by adding some extra details. +Just add anything that makes the picture look more like what it's meant +to be, or looks cool. +I'll just make a minor adjustment... + + /"""""\ + | (o|o) | + | _\ | + | '---' | + \_____/ + ___| |___ + / '-' \ + | . . | What young person would be seen + | |Robik| | without his expensive brand-name + | | './ | | sweatshirt? + \_|_____|_/ + /_| |_\ + | .-. | + | | | | + '._| |_.' + /__| |__\ mga + +-._.-> Background detail + """"""""""""""""" + +At the moment, our person is standing in a blank void. Why don't we add +some interesting backdrop to the picture? +Since my picture is of a young man, where better to stand him than in +front of a shop in town? +-----------------------------------.---------.---------- + .----------. | .-----. ||""""""""" + .-------. .------ /"""""\ | | | || + |FOREMEN| |..-.-.| (o|o) | _| | | || + |WANTED | |_.=-.-| _\ | / | | | || + '-------' '----- | '---' | |""| | | || +.------. .-----. \_____/ | | '-. | || +|.----.| |ASCII ___| |___ |""| | | ||_________ +||Sulk|| |MONTH / '-' \ | | .-' | |__________ +||Kit || ||""| | . . | |""| | | |__|___|___ +_________________ | |Robik| | |__| | | ||___|___|_ +================= | | './ | | ===| |mga | |__|___|___ + \_|_____|_/ | '-----' ||___|___|_ +__________________ /_| |_\ ____|_________|__|___|___ + / | .-. | + | | | | / + / '._| |_.' / + / /__| |__\ +________________________________________________________ +___/_________/________/________/_______/_______/______/_ +___|_________|________|________|_______|_______|______|_ + + +And here we have what is a pretty good ascii are picture! With more +tweaking it can be made even better. + +-._.-> Finishing it off + """""""""""""""" + +You may have noticed that in the example pictures above there are three +letters floating about apparently for no reason... 'mga'. +When you make ascii art, should put your name or initials somewhere on +it to identify it as yours. My initials are mga, which is where the mga +comes from! +Try to find a place where the initials don't spoil the picture, like on +a wall, or a screen... + +-._.-> Going public... releasing your picture to alt.ascii-art! + """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" + +Once you are happy with your picture, and have added your initials, you +can post it to alt.ascii-art. Paste it into your newsreader's message +composition window. Check that it is plain text (no colours or styles) +and in a monospaced font before posting. +You might want to mention that this is your first pic when you post it. + +Check back to alt.ascii-art a few days later, and you may find that +some people have responded to your picture. They may have written a +'Cool pic!' type message, in which case you did it right! Do some more! +The other possibility is that someone is offering a suggestion for +improvement. This will come in one of two forms: +* Diddling + 'Diddling' is when someone takes your picture, and changes it a + little. You shouldn't take offense at this (unless your pic has been + made offensive of course), just take heed to the suggestions and + bear them in mind for your future pictures. +* Textual Suggestion + Someone may make a suggestion like 'try to smooth out the corners + with a full stop', or 'try using a | instead of a : for vertical + lines'. These are just friendly suggestions, which you may choose to + bear in mind when you create future pictures. + +Whether everyone loves your pic, or they offer suggestions, you should +still continue to produce more pics. Remember practice makes, if not +perfect, at least pretty good! + +-._.-> Learning from others + """""""""""""""""""" + +The best way to learn is by example. Take a look at the ascii art in +alt.ascii-art. Note how different artists have used certain characters +to produce different shapes. +You can try some of the techniques used by other artists, and will +probably develop your own 'style' of ascii art. You can see differences +between how each artists create ascii art, some are subtle while others +are blatently obvious. Just practice and you'll get there! + +-._.-> In conclusion + """"""""""""" + +Anyone can create ASCII Art with a little perseverance. If you find +yourself bitten by the ASCII Art bug, please post your pictures to +alt.ascii-art - we'd love to see them! + +File: academy/tutorials/tut_au.txt +https://web.archive.org/web/19990427090024/http://users.inetw.net/~mullen/auteach.htm + +From: dcau@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Daniel Au) + +Date: 4 Oct 1995 15:47:46 -0500 + +I just wrote this now in response to an email sent to me asking how +I did my ASCII artwork. I responded by writing a brief walkthrough +of my thought processes (well, kind of) and just wanted to share +them on the group. Let's see more people try to make create their +own new artwork instead of requesting for the old stuff all the +time. It'll make for a better newsgroup overall and everyone will +benefit! -- Daniel + += ASCII art tips and example == + +Try practicing to make your own artwork by just typing on the +keyboard, which is what I do (I work just using the DOS text editor +which comes along with any MSDOS machine. Any text editor will do.) +Begin by basic shapes. For example, if you're making an animal - +say a giraffe - let's start with the head: + + __.ii, + (__," | + | | + +basically simple shapes to make it look approximately like it does +in real life (as best as you can, at least, in this case I've +cartooned it a bit :-) The " is making up the eyes, the . and , the +ears and a smile. The i i are those antennae like things on top of +their heads (if I remember correctly). I usually like to keep my +artwork within the size of a screen. Since a giraffe is a tall +animal, I'm keeping the details smaller. Then continue on with the +body and some legs. Try to do a rough outline. + + __.ii, + (__," | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | |------------, + / \\ + | |\ + |,._ |,______\ ||| + || //' || || | + || (( || || | + || `\\ || || M + || \\ || || + /_| /_| /_| /_| + +It's best to add some . and , in order to smooth out some of the +edges. Then the tail is in the back. Then add the detail - hair on +the neck and spots on the body. + + __.ii, + (__," |% + | #% + | |% + | #% + # |% + | |% + | |%-----------, + / ### ##### \\ + |#### """" ### |\ + |,._ |,_###__\ ||| + || //' || || | + || (( || || | + || `\\ || || M + || \\ || || + /_| /_| /_| /_| dcau + +That's pretty much for a quick giraffe that I just did while writing +this letter. You can add more stuff like a tree and a bird on a +branch too: + + + O ) __.ii, \ | / + O ) (__," |% - (_) - + O ) | #% / | \ + ) | |% + O ) | #% + O ) # |% + ,~ | |% +-- ~| ~ `O> | |------------, + | ||__/Q; + _JNm`.._./, /%u_``Rq, + _]\q,_^d: ( =`(!> Q4: + ((u! _(| kP + .j_,.. ` .J2% + `(_. _._Jzz_._..r. + _. _[, .x{..J: _%~ + ..7x. (% `qu. .7=>`_J=` + ([:no((. _. `d `_...__+r` .. + (/vD6~;.+r .r `(:((() .{ /~(` + j/G=:(4DJ, `` __% ```J` /(__%: . + `~.`>:__?&.. .__/'` ]7>__. _:` ((:r>(~` + `~. ^_: `_:` _` `:=_ .:{._>/J(=: + : .; _: ` ` . ._``` %`._%`=~...>(` + . ; r .._` _~J~((^`../^` + _ (.) _(C``._^` + ~ (/ ., . __|` { + .` _, ( .` .: _J``() + _ % /` `` ._} .] (; + : _ (:`/~_ ~:~/:`J (; + . .~ /(. `:` ``_:_: | + ~ _ ` .S,``` _. ... .._: ; | + . .%.` _;`:``` .`^^:(3~ : > + ~ _| _; J`v.: > + {_/` : .] .=| .: + ( J % / + _. . .% %_`/ + .` ~ _~ ` + .: .} _> + .: .c .: + .` /. + ` : + .` _, + / ( + ~ ~ + _` .` . + ; `. _(_` _^ ., + .: `_J[{_(^ .: + .. (.`_` _` + : ` ; , + . ~` .` + .. J ~ + ( _ _` + : _ ` + _. . .` + ( . .` + : ~` + .. _ .` + ; / _` + ( ( ( + _~ r ` + ) .x. ; + ; _3. .; + ~ . . 2 % ~..`. : + .~ :``(:_% .} `..` . + _ ~((: c ( `. .~ + ; /} : ( + .` o ; ( + _ ( .: _` + ( ( .` _` + ` ; _~ ( + . .` .;` .; + : ; v _` + ~ .` _; r + _ . v` .: + .. .` (. _` + , ( .: ( + .: .] ) ; + /. .; .: > + /` 8 : r + .` )` ( ( + _` .; .: ._ + .` ) _ ( + _=/__` ) { ...__ + .(c?!3/ (:(>`~w. + `` `:``(: + + +2/ +I saved the document and opened it in a text editor for hand made +diddling where I worked on the top-half of the girl, keeping the +legs for later. + +The diddling could have been made in JavE but I'm just used to my +text editor. + + + + .-- .&dkl`,ivne._ + | sRfkgvc+rsnmGBND. + | aHBNLbni+.irumLGNMms + | NRIr`'+dLKNMFb`'iNQr + | `ANWM7 `+lM0. `'^Kl + | iNWL*_;=e. Y._,_ ON + | aRNm _.l, j^ _` Bq, + | eNL:,l=N0`. ls`N0> ibK + | XHZu! _(c kPBN + | 'CD . ` tK7KX + | 'f _&zrc_. .Y + | , v, `ta.=" ,V + | 7q. 6% ^l = .r + | f'noib. + `d+ .._a7 t + | k+RD6 L.dr h' `*+iPb .f adI` + | dj+Ggr 4NJb .,dT `'KJc _ir+4b . + | `cl^ ._ tk. .,&;:rf"t&; 'yIKbr;. dp` luhrZti + | `~. ^_T `ysf' " n, 7 *lkr,. i7k._m.JKiV" + | J .H dY `"- ._`` "VK,4= . Kdj` + | K K B -s&. eJ+ .ys7^` + | T lLj (C' .4 + | P 'y ., . +j 7 + | ,y b, l .` ,t Y` Y + | 4` i J` g, ti .l k + | Y G p" - - "i`J p + | L .~ 74. `W` '`W 9+y b. + | N .Y 6s, _. .. ;T; gl + | A y *Yf+:'` `^*:pfjVK+i tb + | Y. j" K .J`X.f ly + | Tj V T. il .Vj .j' + | +' fi J` L. y + | 'y - .Y Yz,V + | .7 . 'A + + | .V ,i Tj + | xY fG ki + | tl K. + | K Jb + | ,I zH + | T I + | K N + | iU .` P. + | V `. _7_` _^ Rg + | .B `dJNMHb^ dl + | rG 'YKB` d' + | ls `T; f + '-- r '` il + .. J ~ + ( _ _` + : _ ` + _. . .` + ( . .` + : ~` + .. _ .` + ; / _` + ( ( ( + _~ r ` + ) .x. ; + ; _3. .; + ~ . . 2 % ~..`. : + .~ :``(:_% .} `..` . + _ ~((: c ( `. .~ + ; /} : ( + .` o ; ( + _ ( .: _` + ( ( .` _` + ` ; _~ ( + . .` .;` .; + : ; v _` + ~ .` _; r + _ . v` .: + .. .` (. _` + , ( .: ( + .: .] ) ; + /. .; .: > + /` 8 : r + .` )` ( ( + _` .; .: ._ + .` ) _ ( + _=/__` ) { ...__ + .(c?!3/ (:(>`~w. + `` `:``(: + +3/ +I made a copy of the legs and pasted them in JavE + + + .. J ~ + ( _ _` + : _ ` + _. . .` + ( . .` + : ~` + .. _ .` + ; / _` + ( ( ( + _~ r ` + ) .x. ; + ; _3. .; + ~ . . 2 % ~..`. : + .~ :``(:_% .} `..` . + _ ~((: c ( `. .~ + ; /} : ( + .` o ; ( + _ ( .: _` + ( ( .` _` + ` ; _~ ( + . .` .;` .; + : ; v _` + ~ .` _; r + _ . v` .: + .. .` (. _` + , ( .: ( + .: .] ) ; + /. .; .: > + /` 8 : r + .` )` ( ( + _` .; .: ._ + .` ) _ ( + _=/__` ) { ...__ + .(c?!3/ (:(>`~w. + `` `:``(: + +The idea was to use the gradient tool to fill the legs. To +obtain a nice shading effect I had to fill them separately. +So I erased one leg, closed the gaps and erased the shadows around +the knees and toes. + + ..:'''''''''': + ( ' + : ' + _. . + ( . + : : + .. : + ; : + ( ( + _~ r + ) .x. + ; _3 + ~ 2 + .~ _% + _ c + ; } + .` o + _ ( + ( ( + ` ; + . .` + : ; + ~ .` + _ . + .. .` + , ( + .: .] + /. .; + /` 8 + .` )` + _` .; + .` ) + _ ) + .(c?!3/ + `` +The next step was to make a custom gradient in the Fill Options panel. + + MNBtir+iB + +I entered the following settings in the Fill Options panel: + +- Linear +- dither: enabeld +- Any character + diagonal + +... and filled the edges of the legs + + + MMMMMMMMMMMMMM + M N + M M + MN N + M N + N B + NN N + B t + N B + BB t + B tBt + B ti + t t + it it + t t + i i + it i + i r + i i + i r + r rr + + r + r r+ + + + + r+ ++ + + + + +i +i + i+ ii + +i i + iB Bi + ii Bi + iB B + B B + BBBBBBB + BB + +Then I changed the last setting to: + +- Equal character + +... ans filled the inside of the leg. + + MMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMNNBBttiirrN + MMNNBBtBitiirM + MNNBBtBitrirrN + MNNBBttiirr+N + NBBttiirr++B + NNtBttiirr+N + BBitiirr++t + Nttiirr+riB + BBiirr++i+t + Btiirr++tBt + Biirr++iti + tiri+r++t + itrr+ri+it + tiirr++it + iirr++iii + itrirr++ii + iri+r++iir + iirr++iiBi + irr++iiBBr + rirr++iirr + +r++iiBr + r++i+Br+ + ++iiBi+ + r++ii++ + +iiB+ + +i+i+i + i+Biii + +iiBi + iBiBBBi + ii+iiBi + iB+iiBBB + B+iiBBBB + BBBBBBB + BB + +The left leg was made the same way. + +4/ +I opened the diddled drawing (step 2) in JavE and carefuly pasted the two legs +in place. +The setting I used in the Selection Options panel was: + +- Foreground + +5/ +I saved and closed the document, and opened again it in my text editor where +the legs shading and edges were hand diddled. + +Tadaaaa... + + .&dkl`,ivne._ + sRfkgvc+rsnmGBND. + aHBNLbni+.irumLGNMms + NRIr`'+dLKNMFb`'iNQr + `ANWM7 `+lM0. `'^Kl + iNWL*_;=e. Y._,_ ON + aRNm _.l, j^ _` Bq, + eNL:,l=N0`. ls`N0> ibK + XHZu! _(c kPBN + 'CD . ` tK7KX + 'f _&zrc_. .Y + , v, `ta.=" ,V + 7q. 6% ^l = .r + f'noib. + `d+ .._a7 t + k+RD6 L.dr h' `*+iPb .f adI` + dj+Ggr 4NJb .,dT `'KJc _ir+4b . + `cl^ ._ tk. .,&;:rf"t&; 'yIKbr;. dp` luhrZti + `~. ^_T `ysf' " n, 7 *lkr,. i7k._m.JKiV" + J .H dY `"- ._`` "VK,4= . Kdj` + K K B -s&. eJ+ .ys7^` + T lLj (C' .4 + P 'y ., . +j 7 + ,y b, l .` ,t Y` Y + 4` i J` g, ti .l k + Y G p" - - "i`J p + L .~ 74. `W` '`W 9+y b. + N .Y 6s, _. .. ;T; gl + A y *Yf+:'` `^*:pfjVK+i tb + Y. j" K .J`X.f ly + Tj V T. il .Vj .j' + +' fi J` L. y + 'y - .Y Yz,V + .7 . 'A + + .V ,i Tj + xY fG ki + tl K. + K Jb + ,I zH + T I + K N + iU .` P. + V `. _7_` _^ Rg + .B `dJNMHb^ dl + rG 'YKB` d' + ls `T; f + 'MWMNBKbri++ Y il + VMWNRKtirdJNMWNZ _.++ttKRNNs + VBKkrze+rdRBNMNkr++iittKKBNN + `VRttii++rrddNMNBKii++ddZZYe + Yttii+;rrddZBNNNttiirrddZl + Kttii;+rrddNMNKKii++ddZV' + `Vii+;rrddZBNNNttiirrddf + ltii+;rrddNWNKKii++ddZ + 'ii++;iddZBNNNttiirrd' + tii+;;rddNMNKKii++dV + 'i++r;ddZBNNNttiirrj + ii++irddNMNKKii++dl + i+:irddBNKNNtti+rri + ii+,:rddN NKKb+,;dd + ,i+.;iddMV VMNBb.ird + li,;xdRMB XMBkrddZ. + .ii+zBRMKX HSMBbrrd, + ili+inGBKJ XKbm++ddZ + rii++irdRZ ,GKtiirrdd. + ltii++rzkd lKKii++ddZi + tii++rrddZ BHttiirrdf' + ttii++rxd' KRbii++dd7 + tri:+rrdf 'Nbtii+rdl + 'Yi;++rB' KKii++dd + Bt:+rrf 'Rbii+rd + 'ii++H` Kbi++dl + V+irf "KiirP + ,Zli7 `Yi+rd + Z;bK tk;rl + tii+K Xli+i + si;+it AkirY. + etritkl ;ffi+ds + fltiielf Kbzrire + HKltfdN' NBKlfBH + b'ger NMBblB7 VMNKblKl + dBMN9 VKBNM7 + '` +- +That's it. +:) + +File: academy/tutorials/tut_ceejay.txt +"How to draw ASCII" by Christian 'CeeJay' Jensen +Website at http://CeeJay.dk (practicly never updated - I'm lazy) + +[Lines] + +Lines in general are made by putting characters with different "height" +next to each other in a way that simulates a line. + +Most characters suitable for creating a line fall in 4 heightcategories. +For some heights there are a choice between different characters. +It's important to choose a character for your height with a form and +position that seems to match the line. + + +Suitable characters are : + +High : ` ' " +Middle : - = +Low : . , +Bottom : _ + +You might think that ~ would be a good character too, but since ~ can +be displayed very differently from system to system it is best not to +use it when drawing lines + +Some of theese are best for lines slanting .. + +.. right : + +_,.-'" + +and some for slanting .. + +.. left : + +"`-._ + +And then there are / and \ and | .. all characters which forms restrict +their usability to lines that closely resembles their shape. + + +The best characthers are entirely a personal preference. + +Here are some different types of lines.. which do you like the best ? + + + | | / .' .-' _.-' + | .' / .' .-' _.-' + | | / .' .-' _.-' __..--"" + | .' / .' .-' _.-' __..--"" + | | / .' .-' .-' __..--"" _______________ + + + + | | / ,' _,' _,-' + | ,' / ,' _,' _,-' + | | / ,' _,' _,-' __..--'" + | ,' / ,' _,' _,-' __..--'" + | | / ,' ,' ,-' __..--'" _______________ + + + | | ; ," ,-" _.-" + | ; ; ," ,-" _.-" + | | ; ," ,-" _.-" __..--'" + | ; ; ," ,-" _.-" __..--'" + | | ; ," ,-" .-" __..--'" _______________ + + + +Here are some people's favourite linestyles : + + 3/1 2/1 1/1 2/3 1/2 +| | / / .' .' +| | | / / .' +| / / / .' .' 1/3 +| | | / / .' .-' +| | / / .' .' .-' +| / | / / .' .-' 1/4 +| | / / .' .' .-' _.-' +| | | / / .' .-' _.-' 1/5 +| / / / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--' +| | | / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' 1/6 +| | / / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' 1/7 +| | | / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' __..--' + _.-' _.--' __.--' __..--' 1/8 + _.--' __.--' __..--' __..--'' + __.--' __..--' __..--'' + __..--' __..--'' + __..--'' +[VK] -------------------------- 0 + + + + + 6/1 3/1 2/1 1/1 2/3 1/2 + | J J J / .' .' + | J | F / / .' + | | F J / .' .' 1/3 + | | J F / / .' .-' + | F | J / .' .' .-' + | F F F / / .' .-' 1/4 + | J J J / .' .' .-' _.-' + | J | F / / .' .-' _.-' 1/5 + | | F J / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--' + | | J F / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' 1/6 + | F | J / .' .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' 1/7 + | F F F / / .' .-' _.-' _.--' __.--' __..--' + _.-' _.--' __.--' __..--' 1/8 + _.--' __.--' __..--' __..--'' + __.--' __..--' __..--'' + __..--' __..--'' + __..--'' +[HS] -------------------------- 0 + +...and if the line slopes the other way use L instead of F. + + + + 2\1 3\2 1\1 1\2 1\3 12infinity + `. `. \ \ | | + `. \ \ | | | + 3\1 `. `. \ \ \ | + `-. `. \ \ | | | + `-. `. `. \ \ | | + 4\1 `-. `. \ \ | \ | + `-._ `-. `. `. \ \ | | + 5\1 `-._ `-. `. \ \ | | | + `--._ `-._ `-. `. `. \ \ \ | + 6\1 `--._ `-._ `-. `. \ \ | || +7\1 `--.__ `--._ `-._ `-. `. `. \ \ || + `--..__ `--.__ `--._ `-._ `-. `. \ \ | || + 8\1 `--..__ `--.__ `--._ `-._ _=_ + ``--..__ `--..__ `--.__ `--._ q(-_-)p + ``--..__ `--..__ `--.__ '_) (_` + ``--..__ `--..__ /__/ \ + ``--..__ _(<_ _/)_ + infinity21 ----------------------- (__\_\_|_/__) [mic] + + + +[Sun of directions] + +My "Sun of directions" + +It show my (CeeJay) favourite linestyles + +The first number is the change in the X value. +The second number is the change in the Y value. + +Note that the lines in the upper half of the sun +differs from the ones in the lower half. +I prefer the ones in the upper half but there are +different lines for different occasions. + + 1/3 | 1/3 + 1/2 | | | 1/2 + 1/1 | | | | | 1/1 + 3/2 \ `. `. | ,' ,' / 3/2 + 2/1 \ \ | | | | | / / 2/1 + . `. \ `. | | | ,' / ,' , + 3/1 `. \ \ | `. | ,' | / / ," 3/1 + . `. `. \ `. | | | ,' / ,' ," , + 4/1 `-. `. \ \ | | | | | / / ," ,-" 4/1 + -._ `-. `. `. \ `. `.|,' ,' / ,' ," ,-" _.- + 5/1 `-._ `-. `. \ \ | ||| | / / ," ,-" _.-" 5/1 + `--._ `-._ `-. `. `. \ `. ||| ,' / ,' ," ,-" _.-" _.--" + 6/1.__ `--._ `-._ `-. `. \ / ," ,-" _.-" _.--" __.6/1 + `--.__ `--._ `-._` _____ "_.-" _.--" __.--" + 7/1 `--..__ `--.__ `--._ .-' `-. _.--" __.--" __..--" 7/1 + --..__ `--..__ `--.__ ,' `. __.--" __..--" __..-- + 8/1 ``--..__ `--..__ / _ _ \ __..--" __..--'" 8/1 + ``--..__ ; (_) (_) : __..--'" + ----------------------- | | ------------------------ + ..--''"" : | | ; ""``--.. + 8/1 ..--''"" .--''"" \ `.___.' / ""``--. ""``--.. 8/1 + --''"" .--''"" .--'"" `. ,' ""`--. ""``--. ""``-- + 7/1 .--''"" .--'"" ,--' `-._____.-' CJ ``--. ""`--. ""``--. 7/1 + .--'"" ,--'" _,-". . `-._ ``--. ""`--. + 6/1'"" ,--'" _,-" .-' ,' / \ `. `-. `-._ ``--. ""`6/1 + ,--'" _,-" .-' ,' .' / .' ||| `. \ `. `. `-. `-._ ``--. + 5/1" _,-" .-' ,' / / | ||| | \ \ `. `-. `-._ 5/1 + ,-" .-' ,' .' / .' .'|`. `. \ `. `. `-. `-. + 4/1 .-' ,' / / | | | | | \ \ `. `-. 4/1 + ' ,' .' / .' | | | `. \ `. `. ` + 3/1 ,' / / | .' | `. | \ \ `. 3/1 + ' .' / .' | | | `. \ `. ` + 2/1 / / | | | | | \ \ 2/1 + 3/2 / .' .' | `. `. \ 3/2 + 1/1 | | | | | 1/1 + 1/2 | | | 1/2 + 1/3 | 1/3 + +[Special purpose lines & steps] + + ,8 ;" _| ,;' .oO | + ,8' ;" _| ,;' .o0008 __| + ,8' ;" _| ,;' .o0008888 | +,8' ;" | ,;' .o0008888888 | + + + 98b 080 d8P .o0P' + 98b 080 d8P .oOP' + 98b 080 d8P .o0P' + 98b 080 d8P .o0P' + 98b 080 d8P .o0P' + + _|| _( + _||" _( + _||" _( +||" ( + + + + +[Circular shapes] + _____ __ + .-' `-. ,dP""Yb, + ,' `. ,d" "b, + / \ d' _ `Y, + __ ; : 8 8 `b + __ ,'" "`. | | `b,_,aP P + __ ,' `. / \ : ; """" d' + ,' `. : | | | \ / ,P" + _ | | | ; \ / `. ,' a,.__,aP" + . o (_) `.__.' `.__.' `.____.' `-._____.-' `"""'' + + _______ + .-'"" ""`-. + .-' `-. + ,' `. + ,' `. + / \ + / \ + ; : + : : + | | + : : + : ; + \ / + \ / + `. ,' + `. ,' + `-. ,-' + `-.,,_______,,.-' + + +( An example of what you can achive by using + curves from ever smaller/bigger circles - A spiral ) + _______ + .-'"" ""`-. + .-" `-. + ," `. + ," `. + / \ + / \ +; _ : +: ,'" "`. ; +| ( , \ | +; `' | ; + \ / + `. ," + `-.,_____,.-" + +( .. and in this case a seashell) + _______ + .-'"" ""`-. + .-" `-. + ," `. + ," `. + / \ + / \ + ; _ : + : ,'" "`. : + | ( , \ | + ; `' | | + \ / | + `. ," : + `-.,_____,.-" ; + ,' `. / + / \ / + ; : / + | | / + | | ," + | | ," + : : ,-" + \ / _,-" + `. ," _.--" CJ + `""---'" + + +[Sentence drawing] - ( Drawing with characters aligned so they actually spell something! ) + + ught i + ca n + m a + ' ... t + I . . i + ! m + ! ! e + p !pool + l + e + h + + +[Geometric figures] + + +( Mirrored cubes ) + | + _______ | _______ + /\ \ | / /\ + / \ \ | / / \ + / \______\ | /______/ \ + / / / | \ \ \ + \ / / | \ \ / + \ / / | \ \ / + \/______/ | \______\/ +_________________|___________________ + _______ | _______ + /\ \ | / /\ + / \ \ | / / \ + / \ \ | / / \ + \ \______\ | /______/ / + \ / / | \ \ / + \ / / | \ \ / + \/______/ | \______\/ + | + | CJ + + +(Pyramid) + ___________________________ + /\__\/\__\/\__\/\__\/\__\\\\\ + \/\__\/\__\/\__\/\__\/__/_\\\\ + \/\__\/\__\/\__\/\__\__\__\\\\ + \/\__\/\__\/\__\/__/__/__/_\\\ + \/\__\/\__\/\__\__\__\__\__\\\ + \/\__\/\__\/__/__/__/__/__/_\\ + \/\__\/\__\__\__\__\__\__\__\\ + \/\__\/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/_\ + \/\__\__\__\__\__\__\__\__\__\ + CJ \/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/ + + + +If you keep at it long enough you can create +some pretty amazing and sometimes confusing stuff. + +( Two very similar drawings with very different + illusions of depth ) + _________ + / ___ /\ + / /__/\ / \ + / \__\/ / ___\ +/________/ /__/\\ +\ ___ \ \__\// + \ /__/\ \ / + \ \__\/ \ / + \________\/ CJ + + + _________ + / ___ /\ + / /\__\ / \ + / \/__/ / ___\ +/________/ /\__\\ +\ ___ \ \/__// + \ /\__\ \ / + \ \/__/ \ / + \________\/ CJ + + + +And sometimes ... REALLY confusing stuff. +Here f.x is a Escher-style geometric form .. +Dont look too long trying to figure it out. +It's an impossible form .. it cannot not exist in RealLife(tm) + + + ______________ + /\ __________ \ + / \ \______ /\ \ + / /\ \ \ / / \ \ + / / /\ \ \ / / /\ \ \ + / / / \ \ \/ / / \ \ \ + / / / \ \ \/_/____\_\ \ + / / / \ \____________ \ + / / /______/_\ ___________ / + \ \ _________/ / / / / + \ \ \_______ \ \ / / / + \ \ \ / / /\ \ \ / / / + \ \ / / / \ \ \ / / / + \ V / /____\_\ / / / + \ / /_________\/ / + \______________/ lgbeard/KPB/ap + + + +Another variation .. an endless staircase + + +"Slinky Heaven" _______ +by CeeJay _\|/_____/\ \ + ______=/\= \ \ ____\__ + /\ =\ \ \ \/\ \ + / \ = \ \______\/ \ ____\__ + / \______\/ / \/\ \ + / / _____/_ / / \ ____\__ + / / /\ \ / / ___\/\_ \ +/ / / \ \ / __/__\_ \ \ +\ / / \______\____\_ \ \_____\ + \ / / / _____/_ \ \_____\ / + \/_/ / /\ \ \_____\ / / + / / / \ \_____\ / / / + / / / \______\ / / / / + \ / / / / / / / / + \ / / / / / / / / + \/_/ / / / / / / + / / / / / /___/CJ + / / / / /___/ + \ / / /___/ + \ / /___/ + \/______/ + +File: academy/tutorials/tut_crawford.txt +http://www.penceland.com/AsciiCrawford.html + +Date: 21 Apr 94 16:45:44 GMT + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + ..ASCII GRAPHICAL TECHNIQUES V1.0.. + By Rowan Crawford. + + All text and art copyright (c) 1994 Sumaleth Productions. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +CONTENTS: 1. Intro ____ _ .. + 2. Line art dHHA /^ |T AHHHHHA (_) : . + 3. Small/sig art dHPHH Y __jj HP" IH .-. I:: + 4. Solid art dHP HH l__ \\ H HHHH | | HI: + 5. 3 Dimensional art dHHHHHH | // Hb. IH | | HHI + 6. Conclusion dHP HH l___// UHHHHHU l_j UHU + 7. Quick plug + + +1. Intro + + Producing pictures from ascii is such a strange idea, and yet the results + can sometimes be quite impressive. Although there are a many different + forms of ascii art, they all use basically the same ideas to produce + the end result. + + The techniques I use are based around a few simple rules. These rules + help me make decisions about which character to use, and where to place + it. Of course they aren't strict rules, but they make a good foundation + upon which to build a picture. + + This is not intended as the "definitive" guide to ascii creation, but is + instead simply an analysis of how I approach the subject. + + Back to Contents + + +2. Line Art + + Line art is where you represent a picture by just it's outlines and + details. Comic art is good material for this type of work since you have + a definite outline to work from. However, any picture can be reproduced + just by defining it's various boundaries. + + There are many standard characters which can be applied to this form + of ascii art. These are the most obvious ones: + + / \ | - _ + ( ) < > , . ~ ^ " V X T Y I l L : ` ' ! j J 7 + + Start by finding an area of the picture which is fairly simple. From + there, work your way around the perimeter creating an outline using + just these "basic" ascii characters: + + / \ | - _ ( ) + + Try to get proportions correct at this stage, because it IS important, + and the later you leave it the harder it is to correct. You can also + draw in some of the larger details at this stage, which may help get the + proportions correct. + + Once you're happy with that, it's time to go over the whole thing and + work on the anti-aliasing. I like to have *every* line connect up, + leaving no large gaps such as: + + ~~~~~~~~________ + + If I come across an area which has no "ultimate" choice of characters, + I may decide to add an extra detail there. For example, "near" vertical + lines are virtually impossible in ascii. Here's some options: + + | | | | | + | l l. \ l + | I `| Y `L + | | | | | + + START ^----------OPTIONS----------^ + + As you can see, none of them produce the "perfect" results I'd like. + In this case, I would try adding some form of detail in there thus + removing the problem. It doesn't always work, but it's worth a try. + + Near-horizontal lines are much easier (thankfully). Using these + chars: ( ~"-.,_ ) you can quite easily produce a reasonably decent + line. The previous (horizontal) example would become: + __ + "~~"----..,___ + + Or at least something to that effect. I usually get very "nit-picky" + and arrange the comma just before an underscore since it sits down + one pixel lower than the full-stop ("."). I also like to carefully + select between the " and ~ since they each have their own distinct + properties. Avoid using this technique at angles around 30 degrees + (looks a bit odd), and very slight angles (because it results in a + long line of dots, and that doesn't look good). + + Actually, the selection of the picture is very important in determining + how the resulting pic will look. You also have the option of changing + certain parts of the pic, so that they work better in the ascii format. + For example, instead of trying to do a near-vertical line, just make it + perfectly vertical. + + Curves also play an important role in ascii art. Although the standard + ascii character set does not directly support curves (apart from "(" and + ")" of course :), you can get some nice curves with a little bit of work. + Here's the most often used chars for curve creation: + + / \ - _ ~ " . , ' ` ! I l Y + + And here's a couple of sample curves to demonstrate the idea: + ___ + .-~" "~-. / + / \ _.-~ + Y Y ,^ + | | / + l ! / + \ / __.-~ + "-.,___,.-" + + CIRCLE SUBTLE CURVATURES + + Some people wouldn't like the use of "Y" and "^", but to me, the + advantages outweigh the negative aspects. Also note the use of "l" and + "!" to make the transition from vertical to angled less pronounced. + + I also consider the choice between "." an "," important because it + affects the smoothness of the line. For example, in the part on the + above curve: _.- :it looks like a "," may have been a better choice: + + / But as you can see here, using the + _,-~ comma has altered the flow of the + ,^ line somewhat. It now appears as + / more of a "step" rather than an + / angled line. + _,-~ + + CURVE USING COMMA + + Intersections require yet another strategy. Often you'll find that one + line must join onto another at a place where the join isn't neat: + + "-._ / "-._ / Here the incoming line should join + / 7 onto the main part halfway through + / / a "/". That's where you can use some + other chars. In this example, a "7" + INTERSECTION FIX would work well, as seen in the + example to the left. + + You could also try "Z" "X" "T" "Y" as a replacement, but it depends + entirely on what is happening around that point as to which char works + the best. Other chars which work well in these situations are "K" "<" ">" + "r" "L" "j" "J" and "I" because they all point in at least 3 directions. + + After practice, the anti-aliasing can be done as you are drawing the + main outline. Not that it really makes any difference. + + That basically covers the outline techniques. The smaller details are + the next, and final, step. Adding details isn't always necessary, but + it will be in most cases. Eyes, noses, finger nails, switches, knobs, + handles, plus a host of other things are usually confined to just one + or two character spaces, so the choice of chars is quite important. + + Eyes are a common example. You have quite a few different characters + available which work well as eyes, but it's up to you to decide which + work best. You need to decide what "emotion" you want to portray, and + then find an appropriate character. + + As some examples, I have used two "6"'s for a kangaroo, a "bd" combo + for a horse, a pair of "r"'s for a giraffe and: -=b- :as the eye of + an eagle. In each case, I tried many different combinations until I + was happy with the selection: + . + /\ /| . , ___,A.A_ __ _____ + ((.Y(! |\/| \ , 7"_/ / ~"-. + \ |/ bd "n. ~"T( r r) Y -=b-. _) + / 6~6, / _,"n | \ Y l c"~o \ + \ _ +-. '\ | ~\ .| \_.-~"~--. ) + \`-=--^-' ~~ | |`-' )/ + \ \ ' + + Other details are equally important, and the same technique is used. + Just trying different combinations of characters until a "solution" + is found. Sometimes there is no optimum arrangement, so you either + have to live with it, or rearrange things just enough to give you a + fresh angle of attack. + ____ + .-~. /_"-._ This T-Rex head demonstrates how you can use + / /_ "~o\ :Y the character shapes to an advantage. The "L" + / : \~x. ` ') at the bottom joins three connections together + | Y< ~-.__j quite well, as does the "Y" at the back of the + : l l< /.-~ mouth. These are things too look out for when + l /~\ \<|Y creating a picture, and by using the chars in + '.-~\ \L| such a fashion, you can usually get quite a lot + "--' of detail into a small area. + + Back to Contents + + +3. Small/Signature Art + + Smaller artwork requires a slightly different approach than the large + pieces. Due to the smaller area, you aren't always able to recreate + a picture perfectly, so a different frame of mind is needed. + + Take, for example, the kangaroo head above. The back of the neck should + of course be curved, but this was not possible with only two characters. + In smaller pics however, it's not always necessary to be that detailed, + it is more important to focus on making the object immediately + identifiable. + + Small ascii pictures usually start from a simple motif or idea. The way + certain characters fit together often creates the idea, and once an idea + is found, you have a base to work from. + ___ + {~._.~} This little koala pic is a good example of how a + ( Y ) relatively simple collection of characters can + ()~*~() produce a very "familiar" result. Some experimenting + (_)-(_) was done with the eyes, "bow tie" and the bottom "-", + with these being chosen simply because they worked the + best. Different "eye" characters produced different emotional feelings + (which is how the "Koala Collection" came about), but the simple "." + resulted in the most familiar appearance. + + Remember, shape is the most important aspect of small ascii art. There + are so many different shaped ascii characters available that there + is bound to be one which fits the needs + _ . of the picture. This example is a "mini" + __CL\H--. Millennium Falcon. Since I'd already + L__/_\H' \\--_- drawn a bigger one, I knew exactly what + __L_(=): ]-_ _-- - shape it needed to be, and what features + T__\ /H. //---- - it needed to make it look like the Falcon. + ~^-H--' + " Picking out the main features is a good + step, and then find chars which closely + resemble them. The blasters on top of the Falcon were well emulated by + the "=" for example. The combination of "CL" worked perfectly as the + cockpit, as did a simple ":" for the distinctive markings on it's back. + + Simplicity is the key in small art, but that doesn't necessarily make + things any easier. Many things simply cannot be successfully drawn in + small sizes, so a touch of planning can sometimes help. + + Back to Contents + + +4. Solid Art + + Solid ascii art differs from line art in that the resulting image is + more of a "silhouette" rather than an outline. + + By using a "heavy" character such as: W M H 8 :you build up a basic + silhouette (filled in outline), and then use other characters to anti- + alias (smoothen) the image. + + "W" and "M" are the darkest characters in most character sets, but they + do vary quite a lot and are a bit too bottom/top heavy which ruins the + effect somewhat. "H" and "8" also produce patterns of similar darkness, + but result in two different "looks". The "H" is more stark and rigid, + whereas the "8" produces a more "bubbly" appearance (which prints up + quite well apparently). + + WWWWWWWW MMMMMMMM HHHHHHHH 88888888 + WWWWWWWW MMMMMMMM HHHHHHHH 88888888 + WWWWWWWW MMMMMMMM HHHHHHHH 88888888 + WWWWWWWW MMMMMMMM HHHHHHHH 88888888 + + I originally used "M" and "W" since they worked well with the font I once + used, but now I use "H" because I like its consistency. Other people + prefer "8", so it's really just a matter of personal taste. Indeed, + remapping an image from one type into another is quite simple, and should + not affect the picture at all. + + Different effects can be created by varying the chosen texture over + various sections of the picture (shading). The choice of character can + also be based on the subject matter, for example, if money were involved + the obvious choice would be a "$". Try to avoid using "*" though, as it + looks a bit cheesy (imho). + + Once the basic shape is defined with the chosen character, the anti- + aliasing process is next. The most used chars are: + + d b P F 9 V T Y A U _ , . - * ^ ~ " ` ' n a o l L j J k [ ] ( ) : \ / | ! + + Each character has a purpose based on its shape, although there are + cases where no character will produce perfect results. In these cases, + you either have to make do as best you can, or remodel that particular + area of the picture, thus giving you a fresh approach. + + Going back to the earlier "curve" examples, here they are in solid form: + + .adAHHHAbn. JHH + dHHHHHHHHHHHb _.adHHH + dHHHHHHHHHHHHHb ,AHHHHHHH + HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH dHHHHHHHHH + VHHHHHHHHHHHHHP JHHHHHHHHHH + YHHHHHHHHHHHP _.adHHHHHHHHHHH + "^YUHHHUP^" HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH + "~" + SPHERE CURVED HILL + + It's important to get a good understanding of how best to use the + characters. The basic forms are as follows: + + _,.aomdAHAbmon.,_ For the upper curves. + + "~^*YUHUP*^~" For the lower curves. + + The characters: d b P :are all extremely useful, but there is no + equivalent character for bottom/left. There is, however, four chars + available which do a decent job: T Y V 9 .The 9 works well for *some* + char sets, but generally it has a big hook at the bottom so isn't + quite so useful. + + Notice how I've used "A" and "U" to smoothen the transistion from "H" + to "d"/"b" (and "Y"/"P" respectively) even though the effect is quite + subliminal. A minor detail, but it does help. I don't often use "_" + in these types of pics because of the way it touches the top of the + "H". It does come in handy sometimes though. + + Side curves require more of an "on the spot" approach. The chars: + l [ ] : j i :all come in handy when trying to smoothen out vertical + curves, and I've also seen "(" and ")" used (although I wouldn't use + them myself). Consistency in contrast is very important. + + Adding details using the solid ascii technique is a bit harder than + in line art because there isn't the same number of possible choices + for each position. The letters: a n o :are all very useful because + they are nice "solid" chars which only occupy the bottom half of the + character space, but there is no good alternative for the top half. + + dHF^^^ See how the bottom arm fits in with the solid + dHP appearance of the main part, yet the "^" (which + dHBooan is the closest char available) doesn't look so + beefy. Even the "^" varies across different char + sets, so that leaves just: " ~ : which are of no use at all. In that + particular case, it is necessary to expand the picture by one line: + + anpoan Note the use of the "p" to make the effect just + dHP that little bit more effective. An "r" could also + dHP work well at the end of each arm. Purely cosmetic + dHBooan though. Note that if you're using "M" or "W", then + "m" and "w" can be used to keep it consistent. + + Details aren't always as simple as that example though (unfortunately). + + HHHH aann .aoon. + HHHHHHHHHHHHH aanndHHHHHHP" "^vaondAHHHHHP" + HHHHHHH "~^YHHHHH "~^SHHHHH + HHHHHHHHHH dHHHHHHb .adHHHHHHh, + HHHHHH ~^VHHHP ~^VHHHP + HH YHP "VP + + START HALF WAY FINISHED + + The different steps can be seen here. Starting by roughing out the shape + (a wizards head incidentally) using the chosen character. Next, go over + all the edges making all the obvious replacements. That means using: + d P b Y V a n :plus the occasional: " ~ :if there's an obvious place for + it. Just enough to give it some shape. + + The final stage requires a bit more work. Start with "A" and "U"/"V", + and then the rest is purely experimentation. The "S" was chosen because + it seemed to have the right shape, although there are many chars which + could really go there. + + The curve section at the back required quite a lot of work. An "a" seems + to be the best opposite of "n", and for long stretches, I like to use + some "o"'s in there just to mix it up a bit. The: "^ :piece at the end + was an obvious combination, so it was just a matter of finding a char + to connect the "a" to the "^". As it turned out, "v" was custom made + for that position. + + WMHI: .:IHb. I Smooth shading can be created by using + MH[: .adAHHHI:. :H different chars to fade out at the edges, + HI: .:IHHHHHI:' .jIH instead of the anti-aliasing (which + Y: `:YHHI:' .:|IHM produces hard edges). + + Good "outer" characters are: . , : ; ' ` + For the transition from solid to outer edge: I H A U V T Y | i j d b + n a o [ ] :or basically anything that produces the desired effect. + + Both line and solid techniques can be combined together, resulting in + a "comic book" look and feel. Each form of ascii art works well in + certain circumstances, so why not use this to your advantage. Line art + for the various outlines and small details, and solid art for large + dark areas. + + Back to Contents + + +5. 3 Dimensional Art + + 3D ascii art is basically an extension of SIRDS, where you can create + the illusion of depth on a flat surface. This is achieved by producing + two slightly different versions of the one picture, and placing them + a certain distance apart. + + . . Focus Point + / \ + / \ x Where the image appears + / x \ + --- --- __ The original pictures on the screen + / \ + / \ /\ Where your eyes are looking + / \ + O O OO Your eyes + + PLAN VIEW + + Although the scale and angles are a bit off, the basic principle can + be seen from the above diagram (seen looking down). The two versions + of the picture are located on the screen, but you don't look there. + You need to focus on a point *past* the screen which produces a third + image at "x". + + This resulting image occurs because of the way eyes work. They can only + focus on one "depth" at a time, and anything either further away or + closer becomes blurred. These "blurs" are just two different views of + the one object produced by the two eyes seeing different things. + + Try this: stand three feet from a wall. Now hold two fingers up about + one foot from your face, and about 1.5 centimeters apart. Look between + your fingers, and focus onto the wall. Keep focus on the wall, but + look into the foreground at your fingers. You should see a ghost image + from both fingers converging into the center. The trick is to make the + two ghost images overlap each other resulting in (hopefully) one solid + image. This image should appear at a different level than the originals: + + | | | | | + | | | | | + + TWO FINGERS RESULTING IMAGE + + The results from this experiment won't be 100% perfect since your two + fingers are likely to be different, but it is a good way to understand + the concept. With a little practice, you should be able to focus on real + 3D pictures without too much effort. + + --- --- Note that if you cross your eyes instead of using the + \ / above technique, you actually see the picture in reverse. + \/ This diagram shows the effect from above, and the resulting + /\ image will appear where the lines cross over. Since most + / \ stereograms (STARE-eograms?) are created to go into the + / \ screen, looking at them this way will produce an incorrect + O O vision (and is somewhat harder on the eyes). + + That's the hard part out of the way, now a bit about how to create them. + Getting back to the little koala example (which is a perfect size for + this type of work), lets bring him into 3 dimensions. + + X X Here I have placed two koalas 10 chars + ___ ___ apart from each other. Generally, a good + {~._.~} {~._.~} distance would be between 7 and 15 chars, + ( Y ) ( Y ) although you can use any distance you like. + ()~*~() ()~*~() Values outside those bounds tend to be + (_)-(_) (_)-(_) difficult to focus on however. + + The distance determines how much the resulting image sits "into" the + screen. If the distance is 0 (ie. no separation), the image is neutral + which means it appears -at- the screen. As the distance is increased, + the resulting image appears further -into- the screen. + + By having many koalas laid out across the screen (all separated by the + same distance), the effect becomes slightly easier to focus on. Any + extra layers should then be added across the whole picture, with the + result being quite effective. + + The picture is quite boring so far, with just one layer of 3D being + created, so the next thing to do is to add another layer or two. + The "tried and tested" approach is to add a "pole" in front of him, + and since we want it -in front- of the existing layer, each pole + should be 9 chars apart: + _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + (_) (_) (_) (_) (_) (_) (_) (_) + H___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H ___H __H + {H._.~} H~._.~} H{~._.~} H {~._.~}H {~._.~H {~._.H} {~._H~} + H Y ) H( Y ) H ( Y ) H ( Y ) H ( Y )H ( Y H ( YH) + (H~*~() H)~*~() H()~*~() H ()~*~()H ()~*~(H ()~*~H) ()~*H() + (H)-(_) H_)-(_) H(_)-(_) H (_)-(_)H (_)-(_H (_)-(H) (_)-H_) + H H H H H H H H + ~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~"~~ + + Notice that since the pole is to appear in front of the koala, it + actually replaces the koala where they overlap. Here's the same pic + except the pole appears behind the koala: + _ _ _ _ _ _ + (_) (_) (_) (_) (_) (_) + ___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H ___ H___ + {~._.~} {~._.~}H {~._.~} H {~._.~} H{~._.~} {~._.~} {~._.~} + ( Y )H ( Y ) H ( Y ) H ( Y ) H ( Y ) H( Y ) ( Y ) + ()~*~() ()~*~()H ()~*~() H ()~*~() H()~*~() ()~*~() ()~*~() + (_)-(_) (_)-(_)H (_)-(_) H (_)-(_) H(_)-(_) (_)-(_) (_)-(_) + H H H H H H + ~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~~~~~~"~~~~~ + + Now, since the pole is to appear behind the koala, its chars do not + write over the koala where they overlap. The poles here are 11 chars + apart, so appear one "step" behind the koala. All layers are built like + this, and of course I could have the poles both behind and in front of + the koala in the same picture. Here's a multi-layer example: + _ _ + .-~ \ .-~ \ + / \ _ / \ _ + ~x .-~_)_ ~x .-~_)_ This picture has 3 distinct layers: + ~>x".-~ ~-. ~x".-~ ~-. the hat, head and face. There are + ( / \ ( / \ many other examples of 3D ascii + T o o Y T o o Y around, plus there are programs + l < ! l < ! available for the easy creation + \ .__/ / \ ._/ / of SIRDS. + "-.___.-' "-.___.-' + + A quick examination of the above picture shows that the head (circle), + part of the hat and a part of the mouth are all 15 characters apart. + The rest of the face is just 14 chars apart, and the top section of + the hat is 16 chars apart. + + Note that all this information is from pure observation, so it may not + be 100% accurate. + + Back to Contents + + +6. Conclusion + + Perhaps there's more to ascii art than + meets the eye? Before writing this, I . + had no idea just how much thought goes /\ /l + into creating ascii pictures, and I ((.Y(! + imagine that I haven't even begun to \ |/ + cover it all. / 6~6, + \ _ +-. + Analyzing the work of other people is \`-=--^-' + a great way to learn what works, and \ \ + what doesn't. Analyzing "art" may seem _/ \ + like a strange concept, but it does ( . Y + open your awareness to the art form, and /"\ `--^--v--. + it's a great way to learn the various / _ `--"T~\/~\/ + techniques. I hope that you have found / " ~\. ! + my ideas about ascii interesting. _ Y Y./' + Y^| | |~~7 + In the end however, it's up to the | l | / ./' + individual artist to work the way they | `L | Y .^/~T + want to, and not necessarily the way | l ! | |/| | -Row + someone else would do it. Finding | .`\/' | Y | ! + your own style is all part of the fun, l "~ j l j_L______ + and perhaps this text will aid people \,____{ __"~ __ ,\_,\_ + in finding that style. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + :D + + Back to Contents + + +7. Quick Plug + + Check out my ascii art collection v1.2 (it's on the various ascii + FTP sites around). Collection 2 coming soon(ish). + +-------------------------[ Sumaleth Productions 1994 ]----------------------- + +File: academy/tutorials/tut_flump.txt +https://web.archive.org/web/20071116040106/http://www.kersbergen.com/flump/howto.html + + ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + + Getting Started + +If you want to make ascii art the first thing you should know is that you don't +need a special program, or special skills to make it with. All you need is +somewhere to type text into - your e-mail program, notepad, wordpad, that sort +of thing - and an idea of what you want to draw. There are no secrets or rules +other than the following: + + 1.) Use a non-proportional or fixed width font. Click HERE for a page on this + site that will tell you what they are, or ask me for the text version of the + page via e-mail. + +2.) Don't use tabs!! Always, but always use the space bar (or your cursor keys/ + mouse if the program you're typing in supports that) for empty spaces. The +reason for this is that different computers and programs interperet the size of +a tab space differently, so although what you see on your screen looks fine, on + someone else's your pic may look all split up. + + 3.) Only use the keyboard characters on an American standard keyboard. That +means all the letters, numbers and punctuation that you can see printed on the + keyboard keys. You can use the shift key, but don't use the alt key to make + characters. The reason for this is similar to that for not using tabs - + different computers interperet alternative characters in different ways. The + idea behind ascii is that all computers can read it because it's made up of + characters that all computers will recognise. + +4.) Don't leave empty spaces at the end of each line. Make sure every line that + you type ends on the last character, and not a few spaces after it. This can + cause problems on other systems, with line wrapping and so on. + + Your First Ascii + +The best way to make a start is to take someone else's picture and see if you +can copy it. That way you get a feel for how you can use different characters. +We'll start easy. Try copying these shapes, which only use the characters: + + / \ | _ + ___ ___ +| | /\ / \ +|___| /__\ \___/ + +Easy huh? Now try making the same shapes again using the characters: + +- " . , ` : > < + +This is what I came up with: + + .---. . .--. + : : .' `. < > + "---" "---" `--' + +Bit more tricky, and it doesn't look as neat, but some of these characters, and +knowing how you can use them can come in very handy at times, which we'll see +later. Have a go at copying these, just for practice. Change them if you like: + + _ _ __ _ _ .^._ __ +| |_| |_.' `._| |_| | /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ / \| \ \ +| _ _ _ _ | / \/ \/ \/ \ .' `. /_____V / / +|_| |_| `.__.' |_| |_| / /\ /\ /\ /\ \ < > |[]_[]| \ \ + \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ `. .' | |+| | / / + \/ `"""""' \_\ + + Curves + +It's handy to know where the characters 'sit' on each line. Are they at the +top, in the middle or on the bottom of the line? A couple of ascii characters +vary in their position from computer to computer, but mostly they all sit in +the same place. Have a go yourself on your keyboard. Here are some examples. + + +Top of line: " ` ' +Top or middle of line: ^ * ~ = +Middle of line: - + +Bottom of line: _ . , + + +You can use all these characters on one line to make a pattern, like these: + +_.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._.,-=~+"^'`*`'^"+~=-,._ + + +"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^"^`'*-=~+,._.,+~=-*'`^" + +Now try making a simple sig with a decorative border, using all the characters +we've met so far. This is what I came up with: + + _________________________ + ..,,++~~--==**''``^^"" Hayley Jane wakenshaw ""^^``''**==--~~++,,.. + /|\ flump@quadrant.xs4all.nl /|\ +< : > Flump's Fantastic Ascii Collection http://www.xs4all.nl/~klr < : > + \|/ "Daddy.. why doesn't the magnet pick up your floppy disks?..." \|/ + ""^^''``**--==~~++,,.._________________________..,,++~~==--**``''^^"" + + + Using The Other Characters + +The other ascii characters fall into three categories. Either they're the full +height of the line or they're half height. Capitals and numbers are always full +height. Compare them to some of the others - which are half height, and which +are full height? Some examples: + +Full height: A 7 % @ ! # ) ; & $ ] } | / > l t f k h d ? +Half height: a o v z + +And then there's the 3rd sort. The characters that look like half height, but +sit a little lower on the line, like they would in handwriting. These are: j g +y p q + +And all together they can make a slight curve, just like the others: + +pqyjgacoevA8!@)lf$%;$fl(@!8AveocagjypqacoevA8!@)lf$%;$fl(@!8Aveoc + + Lines and Diagonals + +There are three basic lines to any picture - straight (either horizontally, or +vertically), diagonal, and the third is the curve, which includes circles. +We'll look at straight and diagonal lines first. Horizontal and vertical lines +are simple in ascii - here are some examples: + +Horizontal: 8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 + """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" + ---------------------------------------------------------- + __________________________________________________________ + .......................................................... + + +Vertical: | 8 : ! 1 I + | 8 : ! 1 I + | 8 : ! 1 I + | 8 : ! 1 I + | 8 : ! 1 I + | 8 : ! 1 I + +Diagonals are a bit more tricky. You can make simple ones using the / and \ +keys. Diagonals with other gradients need a technique similar to that used to +make slight curves. Experiment yourself to see how you can make different +angles. Here are some examples to start you off: + + + / .' _,-' __ + / .' _,-' __..--'' + / .' _,-' __..'' + / .' _,-' __..--'' + / .' _,-' __..--'' + / .' _,-' __..--'' ____....----""" + / .' _,-' __..--'' ____....----"""" +/ .' ,-' __..--'' ____....----"""" + + + + Circles + +By now we've looked at the basic characters, character height, slight curves, +lines, and slopes. The last thing to look at is what many people who make ascii +have trouble with: circles. You're half way there already, though, because +ascii circles are basically a mix of vertical and horizontal lines, slopes or +diagonals, and curves. After a little practice, you'll get a feel for making +different sized circles - I have a basic set of circles in a file that I refer +to when I need a circular or rounded shape in an ascii pic, so now I can make +them easily in all sorts of sizes. Start making small circles - how many ways +can you think of to make a circle in under 5 lines? The bigger the circle the +more rounded it can be, but try making circles of different sizes and see what +you come up with. These are mine: + + __ + _ /""\ / \ +1 line: O () 2 lines: (_) \__/ 3 lines: \__/ + + ____ + ___ .-''-. .' `. +4 lines: / \ 5 lines: / \ 6 lines: / \ + | | | | | | + \___/ \ / \ / + `-..-' `.____.' + + _.-""""-._ +9 lines: .' `. + / \ + | | + | | + | | + \ / + `._ _.' + `-....-' + + +That's the basic characters, and what you can do with them. Play with them, see +what patterns and ascii scribbles you can make. Have a go at taking one of my +pics, or another ascii pic from some of the excellent sites around, and copy +it. Then change it! See how you can use the characters to make the picture look +different. Can you make the expression on a face change? Can you make an ascii +person fatter, thinner, taller, shorter? Give Barney the dinosaur a moustache, +or, much better, multiple wounds? :-) This is how I learned. Many of my first +efforts were absolutely dreadful. So I looked at how someone else had made the +same sort of picture and learned from it. And I still do - probably why people +often say my style is very similar to Joan Stark's! + +To get you started, cut and paste this head into wherever you want to draw your +ascii, and give it a face. Add a hat or a body. Or make the hair shorter or +longer. Make it a clown or a devil! + + + ,-.,~~. + ,'///||\\`. + ///(((||)))\\. + ((( ))) + _))) |(_ + ._//\ /\\_. + `-'_/`-._.-'\-`-' + ' \/=._.=\/ hjw + + + Moving Forward + +That's all the boring stuff about technique over. :-) What's coming up is a +step by step demo of how I go about turning a picture into ascii. + +When you first start, it's always a good idea to try to draw something simple. +Gromit the dog is made up of very simple shapes - just ovals and circles, so +I'll use him as an example. + + [wallgromsm] + +To start a picture, I look for the simplest or most prominent feature of +whatever I'm trying to draw. In Gromit's case, I reckon it's his nose. :-) I'll +try the 2 line circle and see where that takes me. After I've drawn his nose +I'll see if I can draw the shape of his head around it: + + ___ + / \ + | | + / _ \ + | (_) | + \ / + `---' + + +Hmm.. don't like that - the top of his head isn't tall enough, but if I make it +any longer it looks too narrow. If I make it wider, then the nose looks too +small.... + + ____ + / \ + | | + | | + / _ \ + | (_) | + \ / + `----' + + +.... and to put the nose in the center, I'll have to make it yet another +character wider....... + + + _____ + / \ + | | + | | + / _ \ + | (_) | + \ / + `-----' + + +.. and though it looks like it would make a nice dog, it's not Gromit, really +is it? So I'll make his nose a bit bigger; 3 lines this time, and try the face +shape again. + + ____ + ." ". + / \ + | | + | | + / __ \ + | / \ | + | \__/ | + \ / + `.____.' + + +Yep - that's more like it. :-) Next I usually try to fit the eyes in. + + ____ + ." ". + / __ __ \ + |/()\/()\| + |\__/\__/| + / __ \ + | / \ | + | \__/ | + \ / + `.____.' + + +Nope. Don't like those. Normally I like to make eyes complete circles, or just +use a couple of characters like "9 9" or "e e".But those would be too small. +And these eyes are too big and don't look round enough. I'll try two lines +instead. + + ____ + ." ". + / \ + | _ _ | + | (O)(O) | + / __ \ + | / \ | + | \__/ | + \ / + `.____.' + + +Much better.Now to add the ears. + + + .-""-. .-""-. + / -.`. ____ .' _ \ + \ .' \ `" "' ,' \ / + `-' / \ `-' + | _ _ | + | (O)(O) | + / __ \ + | / \ | + | \__/ | + \ / + `.____.' hjw + + +There are gaps left that look untidy though. This is where I couldn't get the +characters to fit together. Often you can solve this by using a letter. This is +about the only time I use letters and numbers apart from doing small details +like eyes. I'll mess around with my favourite 'connecting' characters like: "j" +"v" "V" "X" "x" "7" "i" "y" "Y". I'll use the "Y" I think, because it has the +right angles in the right places to connect the ears to the head. :-) + + .-""-. .-""-. + / -.`. ____ .' _ \ + \ .' \ `" "' ,' \ / + `-' Y Y `-' + | _ _ | + | (O)(O) | + / __ \ + | / \ | + | \__/ | + \ / + `.____.' hjw + + +Last stage is to add the little details, and tidy up any messy or unclear bits. +I don't like that left ear at the minute, so I'll, change that. But in the +final version that goes on the web site I might decide to change it back. ;-) +Have a last check to make sure he actually looks like the picture I've been +working on, ask Robbie my fiance if he can tell what it is. If the Robbie test +succeeds, then I hit the save button, and start looking for something else to +draw. :-) + + .-""-. .-""-. + / ,.`. ____ .' _ \ + \ / \ `" "' ,' \ / + `-' Y Y `-' + | _ _ | + | (O)(O) | + / __ \ [wallgromsm] + | /# \ | + | \__/ | + \ / + `.____.' + --" "-- hjw + + +These are only the basics. There are other techniques such as shading, making +solid style ascii, anti-aliasing (making solid style ascii look smoother). But +I don't use those much so I'm not qualified to explain them. But this info +should be enough to get you started. :-) + +If all else fails, you can always have a look at some of the other ascii art +tutorials and hints available. There are about 7 that I know of, but the +following three are the ones that I found useful and not too technical: + + Daniel Au's + Rowan Crawford's + Joan Stark's + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +File: academy/tutorials/tut_haavisto.txt +https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/tutorials/Maija_Haavisto.html + +This tutorial is written by Maija Haavisto (old homepage, and another homepage) + +DiamonDie's ASCII art tutorial + +Table of contents + +1 Introduction +2 Types of ASCII art + 2.1 Lineart + 2.2 Solid + 2.3 Grayscale + 2.4 Camelized + 2.5 Others +3 Drawing ASCII art + 3.1 Starting out + 3.2 Lineart + 3.3 Solid art + 3.4 Grayscale + 3.5 Antialiasing + 3.6 Tracing + 3.7 Aspect ratio + 3.8 Difficulties and limitations + 3.9 Perspective, 3D and isometric ASCII + 3.10 Textures and materials + 3.11 Lighting and shadow + 3.12 Uses for different characters +4 Fixed-width fonts + 4.1 Courier New + 4.2 DOS font + 4.3 Topaz New + 4.4 Lucida Console + 4.5 Fixedsys + 4.6 Arial Alternative + 4.7 MS Gothic + 4.8 Andale Mono (aka Monotype.com) +5 ASCII art software + 5.1 JavE + 5.2 FIGlet + 5.3 TheDraw/Aciddraw + 5.4 Acidview + 5.5 PabloDraw +6 Other stuff + 6.1 ASCII map + 6.2 Displaying ASCII art on web pages + 6.3 Coloring ASCII art + 6.4 Demoscene ASCII art + 6.5 ASCII art culture and etiquette + +1 Introduction + +ASCII is an acronym of "American Standard Code for Information Interchange". +ASCII art means art made out of different characters in the ASCII map and can +thus be represented in plain text format. It cannot include extended characters +or text formatting such as bold or italics. ASCII art is always done on a +fixed-width font like Courier New or Fixedsys, never on a proportional font +like Arial or Times New Roman. It can be made in Notepad or MS-DOS Edit, but +there are also some specific programs for making ASCII art. And no, I'm not +talking about ASCII converters. + +People often comment on ASCII art by saying "Wow, that is so amazing, I'd never +have the patience to make something like that". I don't get it. Why do they +think ASCII art requires so much patience? I can make a decent fullscreen ASCII +in an hour (even if it sometimes takes ten hours). It takes me at least fifteen +hours to draw a decent fullscreen CG picture. + +ASCII art isn't easy and it does require skill, but you don't have to care +about things like brush strokes or colors and usually not about shading either. +In a way it is a lot like pixel art. When I started pixeling it felt very +familiar due to my ASCII and ANSI experience. Pixel artists will probably +experience a similar reaction when they start drawing ASCII. You don't have to +have great drawing skills to be a good ASCII artist. I, for instance, suck at +drawing, I can paint but I can't do the sketch like thing at all. ASCII +sketching is practically something non-existant, but if this interests you, +nothing stops you from trying this new style. + +Some people wonder what's the point. What's the point in making art in general? +I think limitations are what makes art interesting and feeds the creative mind. +ASCII art probably isn't something that you encounter in an art museum (which +is regrettable), it's more like everyday art. I guess it has something in +common with pop art. ASCII art can be sent via email or to Usenet newsgroups, +it can be used on IRC and many chatrooms (do that with caution, though). You +can include ASCII art in your signature or login screen or print it out with +your old matrix printer. It can be used for representing game situations, +graphs or molecular models. + +I've heard opinions of ASCII art not being art but graphical design, but I +disagree with that. Design is usually considered to be something functional, +such as advertisements or interfaces, while visual art is something you can +hang on your walls. ASCII art usually isn't functional but aesthetical. I know +people who have ASCII pictures hanging on their walls. + +There are other ASCII tutorials, but I decided there's still room for another +one. Many of the others are outdated, some are even more than 10 years old. +They also feature slightly different techniques and lack some of the parts that +my tutorial focuses on. This turned out perhaps more like a ASCII drawing/ +culture FAQ than an actual tutorial, but I hope it will still be useful. + +2 Types of ASCII art + +2.1 Lineart + +Lineart is just what its name implies, things are represented with (usually +thin) outlines, sometimes dotty, sometimes consisting mostly of slashes, +underscores and pipes. Lineart also includes most FIGlet fonts and demoscene +logos. Suitable for both huge images and tiny pictures. + + + .-"""-. + ' \ + |,. ,-. | + |()L( ()| | + |,' `".| | + |.___.',| ` + .j `--"' ` `. + / ' ' \ + / / ` `. + / / ` . + / / l | + . , | | + ,"`. .| | + _.' ``. | `..-'l +| `.`, | `. +| `. __.j ) +|__ |--""___| ,-' + `"--...,+"""" `._,.-' mh + +Penguin by DiamonDie (2002?) + +2.2 Solid + +Solid art is the "opposite" of lineart, it's not outlined but filled and +flat-shaded. It's often best fit on mid-sized and large pictures, though it can +also work for small pieces, such as the heart here. Often it looks better than +lineart, simply for the fact that it's not as "thin". Solid art is often used +for logos, ornament designs and text, but it fits almost any kind of subject. +It's not very well suited for faces though. + + + ,o8o, ,o8o, +,888888,888888, +888888888888888 +888888888888888 +`8888888888888' + `888888888' + `88888' + `8' + +Heart by DiamonDie (1997) + +2.3 Grayscale + +Grayscale is like solid art, but it consists of many different characters that +are used to portrays lighter and darker areas, making it the most suitable kind +of ASCII for picturing faces. It is usually best viewed white on black, such as +the example below (people using most graphical browsers can select it with a +mouse or press Ctrl-A to see it in inverse color). Most converters create +grayscale art, though rather messy kind with often no antialiasing. Grayscale +could be considered the most difficult of all ASCII techniques. + + + .,,,yyyy@@yyyyy,,, + ,ytS$$CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC?III;,. + .yt$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIII;. + ,4$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC?IIIII; + y$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIII, + ,$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIII: + l$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIi + t$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCCCCCCCIIII: + .l$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIII, i + d$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIII. ;I, + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIIII .III + j$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSCCCCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIIIIi.II; + ]$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P"' `"^?CCCCCCCCCCIIIIIIIIIIIII + l$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P"'' .,.. `;?CCCCCCC?IIIIIIIIII; .y%* + l$$$$$$$$$$$$SP" ,yS$$$$$$Shy..`"IICCCCCCII: :: 4C7; \ + $$$$$$$$$$$SP. .;;$$$SCCCCCSSCCCCSb: ICCCCCCCII; '' liC$ClCC;;l + $$$$$$$$$$$$I::lIIIICCSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCCIICCCCCCCI ICCC$lCC??;b + P"^^^48$$$$$$SSIII' `Ii : y,"ICCCS$SCCCCCCCCCCI ICl"l "7SSbl. + : l$$8888II66 ,?$b,yySIIICC$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCCI ?CCb l JCC$il + : . ,$$$$$$CCCC$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI ICS$li$$SCC?l + `SS",+.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI !?S$ ;I$$SCCP + "' : S$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI ICSCS$$$$$I + ;:6$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI `?C$$$$P + `$$$$$$$$$$S$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCCI `""""' + j$$$$$$$$$SCCS$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$CCCCCI + $$$$$$$$$$$$$CI$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCI; + j$$$$$$$$$$SS$CI$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSCCCCCIi + 7$$$$T7"`,yyiIIC$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSSSCCCC?i + "4$SC**7"""-:47$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SSSSCCCCCI + 7I . ,';' ";7ICS$$$$$$$$$C$S$$$$$CCCCl + : jy.,jyyjCCCCi ..i."7C$$$$$$C$CS$S$$$SCCC?' ; + : d$$$$CCC7?"""""?7CiiCS$$$$SCCCC$S$$$$CCCC; i, + .CC,]CCSSSCCSCCCIiIiICS$$$SSCCCCS$$$$SCC? .| + :`j$$$$$$$$SCCCC$$$CICS$$SCCCCCCCC$CC?; iI. + :l$$$$$$$CCCCCS$$$$C?iCCCCCCCCC7"'., .iII, + :C?"~~ ,CCC$$$IiIiCCCCCCC? ' ,IIIII + :$7 ,_,jS$$$$CIiIi?iCCC?? iI?CCCII + .; :;i:;;?S???iiIiIi?i' iII?CCCCCII. + ; ';' ?lCi??i;i;; iI?CCCCCCCCIIi + : ;? ;I" iIIICCSCCCCCCCCIIl + ; .,iiI?CCCC$$$$$SSCCCCCCIi I, II; + '. _,. ,i,IIII?CCCCCS$$$$$$SSSCCCCIIIIIIIII' + ' ~ + =- - ' ~ ` SCCIIIIII???CCCCS$$$$$$$$$$$SCCCCCCC?I" + l$$CCCCCCCCCCCCS$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$SCCC"` + +It Figures by `nemoorange + +2.4 Camelized + +Camelized ASCII art isn't very popular, even though it already appeared in the +book Alice in Wonderland. It is usually poetry (sometimes prose) made into the +shape of an object, often an animal. There are a couple of different techniques +for making the shapes. Some people use extra spacing to achieve lines of +required length, others wrap words from the middle or use extra characters. +JavE has a feature for camelized ASCII. + +2.5 Others + +There are variations of the previously listed styles, such as combination of +solid and lineart (my favorite type of ASCII), "solid lineart" (made out of +heavy outlines in solid style) and tiny ASCII, such as smileys and other very +small pictures. ASCII animations are made for terminals or nowadays usually in +JavaScript, they can be made in any of these styles, but are usually in +lineart. There are also ASCII stereograms and many other wicked things. Some +people list lettering, signature art, illustrated stories and 3D as their own +genres, but they're usually just variations of line art (sometimes solid or +grayscale). + +Things that can be erroneously believed to be ASCII art include Shift_JIS art +(text art using Japanese characters), typographic pictures, AOL macros (made in +Arial font and often including extended characters), ANSI and most of demoscene +"ASCII art". Another thing that definitely isn't ASCII art is those horrid HTML +conversions that are usually composed of 1s and 0s and would have absolutely no +shape with the color removed. These are sometimes called "text art" or +"character art", even though both terms can be considered slightly misleading. +I don't believe using a converter without any editing is really creating ASCII +art. It's image manipulation. + +People sometimes confuse ASCII and ANSI and call either of them "ANSII". What +ANSI really is could be described as an extension to ASCII, allowing the use of +extended MS-DOS characters (such as so called "raster blocks") and 16 colors. +It was commonly used in the BBS (Bulletin Board system) world, but many people +still keep drawing ANSI pictures, even though MS-DOS is hardly used any more +and the Internet has largely killed off BBSes. + +3. Drawing ASCII art + +3.1 Starting out + +Start up JavE or your favorite text editor. Think about what you want to draw +and what could be a good subject for your first ASCII. Try not to pick anything +too difficult, such as celebrities. Many people choose a house as their first +picture, but I think it's a little boring subject. Others attempt a face, but +that's much harder. Animals, plants and household objects often turn out to be +a good choice. You can either draw a single object or a scene, like a house, a +tree and some birds. + +A reference picture may be helpful. You could also use a technique called +tracing which is explained later. Looking at other people's ASCIIs is just as +important as drawing your own, because you'll learn a lot of different +techniques just by looking at ASCII art. How do people achieve slanted lines, +how do they make fur look like fur and what's the secret of smooth curves? + +Also remember the rules of normal art, like that eyes are located in the middle +of the head, not on the top. People are about 7-8 heads tall, unless you're +drawing a comic character. Houses usually aren't placed on top of the ground, +but on the ground. Perspective really improves pictures of cubic objects. A +house or a box without a perspective is pretty much just a rectangle, not very +interesting. + +3.2 Lineart + +Lineart is a good choice for an ASCII beginner. It might be a good idea to do a +rough "sketch" first. Draw the outline of your object and see if it bears any +resemblance to your model. Try to avoid using only straight lines and slashes, +that makes your picture look dull and awkward. Instead try commas, periods, +hyphens and apostrophes. It might be a good idea to sketch with periods first +and then change some of them to colons or semicolons, some to apostrophes and +then extend that. + +Forget about shading, reflections and stuff like that. Try using as many +different characters as you can without getting silly results. You can get more +detail with lineart than with solid technique, but you still might have to give +up some for a better result. If you're drawing a face, you don't have to draw +every single wrinkle and you might skip the eyelashes too. + +3.3 Solid art + +Not many people start out with solid ASCII, but nothing says you can't do that. +Filled pictures are no harder to make than outlined ones, it just doesn't fit +for houses and faces very well. It's usually a good idea not to use outlines +with solid art. Some people use a different character for every area of the +picture, but I think it's better to stick with one or a few filler characters. +Antialiasing is very important in solid art. + +3.4 Grayscale + +Grayscale ASCII is difficult to draw, not recommended for beginners, even +though I know people who have started off with it with fine results. You need a +good eye for light and shadow and a good reference photo is a must, you may +want to increase the contrast of it. Picking the right set of characters is +crucial, remember that the "lightness" of some characters varies greatly +between fonts. Take a look at existing grayscale ASCII art or even converted +pictures to get inspiration for good character sets. Don't start out too small, +80x25 is probably the minimum you want to attempt and 80x50 is better. + +3.5 Antialiasing + +Antialiasing doesn't really apply for lineart the same way it applies for solid +and grayscale, but I think smooth edges are one of the most important things in +a solid ASCII picture (unless you're aiming for a different impression). Often +grayscale is drawn without any empty spaces in the picture, but sometimes +without a background and that's when you really need antialiasing. + +Simple antialiasing is actually very easy to do and can often be achieved with +periods/commas and apostrophes/accents/quotation marks alone. Just add these +when there's a rough corner and it looks much better. Sometimes you may want to +use more characters. I use d, b and n (sometimes m) for the upper parts of +objects and + for lower parts, the plus doesn't look too good, but it's the +best I've found. q and p can be used to match d and b, but they hang lower. P +is better, but it has no equivalent for the left side. Demoscene artists often +use a wider variety of antialiasing characters, such as 7, 4, \, / and %. + + + 88888 + 88888888888 +8888888888888 +8888888888888 +8888888888888 + 88888888888 + 88888 + +A filled circle without antialiasing + + .nd888bn. +.d888888888b. +8888888888888 +8888888888888 +8888888888888 +`+888888888+' + `"+888+"' + +The same circle with antialiasing + +3.6 Tracing + +In the ancient times, people sometimes drew/copied the picture on a +transparency first, which they taped on the screen to be able to trace the +image as well as possible. I used this technique once, when I needed to make an +ASCII out of a map and first I traced the picture from a book, but I didn't +have a transparency so I used a plastic bag, perhaps needless to say the +results weren't excellent. + +When Netscape Composer came out, some people figured out that they could just +set the image file as the page background and draw over it. Now we have JavE, +which has a particular function just for this, you can set the display size and +aspect ratio of the image file and apply some brightness/contrast tweaks. + +3.7 Aspect ratio + +Aspect ratio is something to pay attention to, particularly because of the +differences between the fonts. Practically all fonts are taller than they're +wide, so a picture of 10 lines and 10 columns probably won't look rectangular. +Fixed-width fonts in general are of roughly the same width, but Topaz New is +considerably more narrow, while Courier and its descendants are very fat. Most +people have their web browsers set to use Courier, so some pictures may look +unneededly fat, but this is partly unavoidable. Just pay attention to this if +you're drawing ASCII for a particular purpose or if you're using Courier or +Topaz to draw. One way to solve this is not to draw pictures that are supposed +to be exactly circular or square and a different angle can help too. One of my +ASCII pictures looks just fine in both 80x25 and 80x50 fullscreen resolutions, +even though the 80x50 font is twice as wide. + +3.8 Difficulties and limitations + +Some things are very hard to do in ASCII, some of these are obvious and some +not so obvious. Slanted, almost vertical lines are very hard and usually end up +looking stupid, so it's a good idea to avoid them whenever possible. Completely +straight vertical lines are often better. The same problem doesn't apply for +slanted horizontal lines at all, those are very easy to do once you learn to +use different characters correctly. + +Things with a high resolution/detail are also hard, things like small spirals. +That's why you sometimes need to drop the detail (or draw the picture in a +bigger resolution). You also can't properly represent blurriness or softness, +or at least that's extremely difficult. You can do some optical illusions in +ASCII, such as stereograms. Magic eye pictures are probably not possible, +excluding very high resolutions. + +3.9 Perspective, 3D and isometric ASCII + +Some ASCII pictures feature a perspective, but it's often a very simple one and +limited to lines. In a way, a lot of ASCII art could be called naivistic. Even +a simple perspective improves the picture, though. A good way for creating a +perspective is drawing the lines so that they would continue to this imaginary +perspective point, which can be located in the middle of the picture or +elsewhere. Isometric ASCII art exists too. JavE has a feature that can render +3D shapes in ASCII art, as wireframes or with a simple lighting. + + .:. + .::'. + : : : '. + .' : : '. + .' : : '. + : : : '. + .: : : : + .' : : '. + .' : : : + : : : '. + .' : : '. + .' : ...:. '. + : ......::''''' '''... '. + ':'' : '''... '. + '. : ''':. + '. : ...''' + '. : ...''' + '. : ...'''' + '. : ...''' + ':.''' + +A wireframe pyramid by JavE + +4.0 Textures and materials + +Textures and materials aren't commonly seen in ASCII art, if you don't count +brick walls and hair. Plastic, metal, wood and skin all look alike in ASCII. +Hairy and spiky textures can be done and often artists use different kinds of +characters for different areas, like dots for clouds and lines for more solid +objects. Experimenting with textures can lead to interesting results. + +4.1 Lighting and shadow + +Light isn't usually present in ASCII pictures, with the exception of grayscale. +Reflections sometimes work, but normal shadows often end up looking clumsy. +Some artists use slight shading in their line art, usually with periods and +colons. It might a good idea to forget about highlights when drawing eyes (and +perhaps hair too). Just pretend that the ASCII world lives in ambient lighting +without separate light sources. + +4.2 Uses for different characters + +! used sometimes in lineart and solid style, but the character is very thin +in some fonts and fat in some others +> sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies +# used sometimes as the filler character in solid style, not often used in +lineart except for tiny images +$ a common filler character (especially in demoscene art) and common in +grayscale as well, but the brightness of this characters varies in different +fonts +% I've seen it used as a filler too, but the looks it vary a lot as well, +especially between DOS and Windows +& not commonly used due to its problematic shape +' used for all styles, the only problem is that sometimes it is a tiny +straight line, sometimes more like a little slash +( used for lineart, sometimes solid style too, the plumpiness varies a bit +) -"- +* used in line art and solid, but be wary as the size and placement of this +character varies a lot, so it's usually not a good filler ++ not so common in line art, but I love using it in solid art because it's +the only mid-sized character that doesn't reach to the bottom of the line +, used in all styles, sometimes located higher than the period, sometimes +not +- used in most styles, has no problems associated with it +. used in all styles +/ used mostly in lineart, the slantedness varies (especially between DOS and +Windows) +0 not commonly used, the problem is that sometimes it's struck through, +sometimes not, O is better +1 not commonly used +2 not commonly used +3 not commonly used +4 not commonly used +5 not commonly used +6 used in solid style, sometimes grayscale and lineart, useful for little +eyes +7 useful for some shapes of lineart, sometimes solid style too +8 a great filler for solid style, not much used in lineart +9 used in solid style, sometimes grayscale and lineart, useful for little +eyes +: useful for lineart and the edges of solid style +; useful for lineart and the edges of solid style +< sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies += sometimes used for lines +> sometimes useful for lineart, but the angle varies +? mostly used in lineart +@ useful as a solid filler and often for lineart too, especially the eyes. +Shape varies, but usually that doesn't cause problems +A useful for angular shapes, sometimes has serif though +B not commonly used, sometimes seen as a solid filler +C useful for lineart in eyes, noses and stuff like that, sometimes seen as a +solid filler +D sometimes used in lineart +E not commonly used +F used in vertical lines in some line art styles +G not commonly used +H sometimes seen as a solid filler +I sometimes used for vertical lines, but remember that it may be serif and +thus look awkward +J used in slanted vertical lines in some line art styles +K used in slanted vertical lines in some line art styles +L used for angles and sometimes in vertical lines +M common solid style filler together with its lighter version N +N common solid style filler together with M +O usually the best choice for small round shapes, sometimes used in solid +style +P good for antialiasing solid style +Q sometimes used for eyes +R not commonly used +S sometimes used as a solid style filler +T sometimes used in lineart +U sometimes used in lineart +V used in connecting two diagonal lines, something that doesn't look too +good in all fonts +W common solid style filler +X sometimes used as a solid style filler or for connecting diagonal lines +Y used in connecting diagonal lines and in some styles also for vertical +lines and other things +Z not commonly used +a sometimes used as eyes or as a solid style antialiaser +b good for solid antialiasing (the pair is d) +c sometimes used as eyes/noses or as a solid style antialiaser +d a common solid style antialiaser +e sometimes used as eyes or as a solid style antialiaser +f sometimes used for slanted vertical lines +g not commonly used +h sometimes used as a solid style filler or antialiasing +i not commonly used +j useful for slanted vertical lines, sometimes antialiasing too +k used in slanted vertical lines in some line art styles +l for vertical lines in lineart, sometimes solid antialiasing too +m good for solid antialiasing +n good for solid antialiasing +o for lineart and solid antialiasing +p good for solid antialiasing (the pair is q), sometimes P is better even +though it doesn't have a symmetric pair +r sometimes used in lineart +s sometimes used for solid antialiasing +t sometimes used in lineart +u sometimes used in lineart +v sometimes used in lineart, though might suffer from the same problem as V +w sometimes used for solid antialiasing. +x for connecting lines in lineart +z not commonly used + +4 Fixed-width fonts + +ASCII art needs to be viewed on a fixed-width font. The fonts have differences, +so even though it's not a good idea to "optimize" your picture for a particular +font, it's completely ok to say "best viewed with a Lucida Console, preferably +a small font size and white on black". Most of the fonts I list are free of +cost and TrueType/OpenType, usable on eg. Windows, Linux and Macintosh. There +are also other choices for other operating systems, commercial font faces and +several fonts that can only be acquired with a particular piece of software. + +4.1 Courier New + +Courier New is the font that looks like a typewriter. It's very wide, which can +sometimes cause problems. It's not particularly aesthetical either. Most people +use it as their fixed-width font for web browsing. + +4.2 MS-DOS font + +The 80x25 DOS font is cool, especially for solid art, or maybe it's just the +white on black. The 80x50 one is less cool. + +4.3 Topaz New + +Topaz is the font used by the operating system of the Amiga computer and Topaz +New is a TrueType version of it. It's very narrow, but quite thick and well +suited for ASCII art. You can download it on the Internet. + +4.4 Lucida Console + +Lucida Console was introduced in Windows 98 and is nowadays the default font in +Notepad. It's an ordinary sans serif font, quite decent, but may have +unpleasant effects on some pictures (especially grayscale). + +4.5 Fixedsys + +Fixedsys is a nice sans serif font that used to be the default for Notepad. +Many people use it as their ASCII viewing font and it definitely isn't bad for +that. Fixedsys is a bitmap font so some Windows programs might not allow you +use it. + +4.6 Arial Alternative + +Arial Alternative looks like Courier bred with Arial, resulting in a wide, +relatively thick sans serif font, not exactly my cup of tea. + +4.7 MS Gothic + +MS Gothic has nothing to do with slitting wrists, it's actually meant for +displaying Japanese. It is sans serif and looks quite ok, but I'm not sure if +it's worth getting and installing just for ASCII art, as the file size is a +whopping four megabytes. + +4.8 Andale Mono (aka Monotype.com) + +Andale Mono is actually a commercial font, but it was apparently bundled with +some versions of Internet Explorer. This is a fixed-width font that actually +looks stylish, even though it might not be the best one for viewing ASCII art. + +5 ASCII art software + +5.1 JavE + +Jave is the Photoshop of the ASCII world, but unlike Photoshop, it's free +software. It's also multiplatform because it runs on Java, so you need to +download the Java runtimes to get it to work. JavE offers many kinds of +painting modes, gradients, textures and brushes. Naturally it also gives you +the ability to copy and paste rectangles, flip and mirror pictures and. JavE +also contains a a watermark option, a picture to ASCII converter, camelizer, an +ASCII 3D modeller, FIGlet and many other features. You can even make ASCII +animations with it. + +5.2 FIGlet + +FIGlet is a derivative of the Unix program "banner" which was meant for the +automated creation of crude ASCII art text logos. There are hundreds of +different FIGlet fonts available, from handwriting to 3D letters. FIGlet files +are plain text with some special markup for the program, so they're quite easy +to make. You can also use JavE for creating FIGlet fonts. + + + 88888888b oo dP dP + 88 88 88 +a88aaaa dP .d8888b. 88 .d8888b. d8888P + 88 88 88' `88 88 88ooood8 88 + 88 88 88. .88 88 88. ... 88 + dP dP `8888P88 dP `88888P' dP + .88 + d8888P + + ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ + /\ \ /\ \ /\ \ /\__\ /\ \ /\ \ + /::\ \ _\:\ \ /::\ \ /:/ / /::\ \ \:\ \ + /::\:\__\ /\/::\__\ /:/\:\__\ /:/__/ /::\:\__\ /::\__\ + \/\:\/__/ \::/\/__/ \:\:\/__/ \:\ \ \:\:\/ / /:/\/__/ + \/__/ \:\__\ \::/ / \:\__\ \:\/ / \/__/ + \/__/ \/__/ \/__/ \/__/ + +Some examples of FIGlet fonts + +5.3 TheDraw/ACiDDraw + +TheDraw is an MS-DOS based application meant for drawing ASCII and ANSI, +originating from the mid-80s. It can be operated with a mouse, but the menus +and commands are executed with the keyboard. It's fairly easy to use once you +learn it and you probably won't forget them any time soon. It also features a +VGA mode where you can zoom out your picture. + +ACiDDraw is an improved version by TheDraw made by the legendary artgroup ACiD. +I drew ASCII and ANSI with it for years and occasionally still do. Some +computers have problems with running ACiDDraw, which can cause runtime errors +or freezing of the program. In Windows tweaking the settings of the program +often help. + +5.4 ACiDView + +ACiDView is a freeware Windows program, also by ACiD. It's used for viewing +ASCII and ANSI files in several resolutions and can also save them as PNG, +which comes in handy. There are no drawing functions. + +5.5 PabloDraw + +PabloDraw is another popular ANSI/ASCII editor for MS-DOS Windows, somewhat +similar to ACiDDraw. I personally have no experience using it, but PabloDraw's +support for multiuser drawing on the Internet is definitely an interesting +feature. There's also a viewer companion to it, known as PabloView. + +6 Other stuff + +6.1 ASCII map + + 032 [space] 048 0 064 @ 080 P 096 ` 112 p + 033 ! 049 1 065 A 081 Q 097 a 113 q + 034 " 050 2 066 B 082 R 098 b 114 r + 035 # 051 3 067 C 083 S 099 c 115 s + 036 $ 052 4 068 D 084 T 100 d 116 t + 037 % 053 5 069 E 085 U 101 e 117 u + 038 & 054 6 070 F 086 V 102 f 118 v + 039 ' 055 7 071 G 087 W 103 g 119 w + 040 ( 056 8 072 H 088 X 104 h 120 x + 041 ) 057 9 073 I 089 Y 105 i 121 y + 042 * 058 : 074 J 090 Z 106 j 122 z + 043 + 059 ; 075 K 091 [ 107 k 123 { + 044 , 060 < 076 L 092 \ 108 l 124 | + 045 - 061 = 077 M 093 ] 109 m 125 } + +6.2 Displaying ASCII art on web pages + +If you want to showcase ASCII art on your web page, you can just save the +images as text files and link to them. The problem with this is that if you +draw loads of small pictures, you will have hundreds of files as well. Some +older versions of Internet Explorer (and possibly some other browsers) might +show your art in proportional font. + +When embedding your art into HTML pages, always remember the 
 tags, which
+tell the browser that the text is already formatted and should be displayed in
+a fixed-width font. You can use CSS to determine the particular font, provided
+that the viewer has it.
+
+6.3 Coloring ASCII art
+
+With HTML you can also color your ASCII pictures, but this is a tedious job to
+do by hand and you can use an HTML editor for it.
+
+Other ways for coloring ASCII art include ANSI colors and mIRC colors. Both of
+these contain 16 foreground colors. MIRC also has as many background colors,
+while ANSI only offers 8. ANSI can be viewed in DOS or the DOS prompt of
+Windows if you have a driver called ansi.sys loaded. Alternatively you can use
+an ANSI viewer like ACiDView or save the pictures as GIF/PNG.
+
+MIRC colors can only be used on IRC and not all clients support them - and some
+networks have a channel mode that forbids you from using colors. Some IRC
+clients (including mIRC) also support ANSI color, but you may have to turn on
+that option first.
+
+6.4 Demoscene ASCII art
+
+Demoscene is an underground culture based mostly on demos, which are multimedia
+presentations a lot like animations, but calculated in real time. They evolved
+from cracktros (tiny applications included with cracked software) which had
+mostly scrollers and some background music. Nowadays demos often look like
+music videos or professional 3D animations. Demoscene is also much more than
+that, including national and international gatherings, demoparties.
+
+Like the infofiles of pirated software, demoscene productions (demos and
+intros) often have an ASCII logo in their infofile. Generally they're either so
+called "oldskool" ASCII or "block ASCII". Oldskool ASCII consists of logos made
+mostly out of slashes, pipes, hyphens and underscores. The logos appear very
+similar in style and hard to read for many people. They may look very easy to
+draw, but are more difficult than they seem.
+
+                                  .
+                            _ ____:____
+   __ _                           |   (_               _ __
+  _\     ___       __       ___   |    / ___  aBHO ____   /_
+        / _(___  _/ /__   _/__/__ | _ /_/__/__  __/ _ (_
+ __ ___/  \   (_/  /   \_/ _)   (_| /// _)   (_/   l/ _/_ ___
+ \  \_        _/  /    _/  `    _/  /   `    _/  ___\   /   /
+  \  /________\  ______\  ______\ _/_________\  / /_____\  /
+<--\/----------\/-------\/-------\/-----------\/---------\/-->
+
+Clever by aBHO
+
+Some oldskool ASCIIs are made on the Amiga and contain extended characters,
+they're known as Amiga ASCII (compared to PC ASCII)  "Block ASCII" is not
+technically ASCII at all, as it utilizes extended characters, "raster blocks",
+as does ANSI art. There's another type of demoscene ASCII, known as "newskool
+ASCII". It's practically a solid style, often used in graffiti-like logos and
+usually uses extended DOS characters.
+
+Besides info files, demoscene ASCII can also appear elsewhere. Some demoparties
+have ASCII and ANSI competitions and there are ASCII logo compos held on some
+IRC channels regularly. ASCII pictures are also released in "collies"
+(collections) and artpacks. A colly is usually just a text file with lot of
+logos by the same artist. An artpack is usually released by an artgroup and can
+have ASCII, ANSI, Ripscript and hires pictures.
+
+6.5 ASCII art culture and etiquette
+
+The people who belong in the demoscene related art scene often regard their
+scene as the "real" ASCII scene, though it's much newer and much less popular
+than the mainstream ASCII scene. The alt.ascii-art Usenet newsgroup has existed
+for a long time and is still rather active for posting ASCII pictures and
+requesting them. There are other newsgroups, but they receive hardly any
+traffic.
+
+Usually people sign their ASCII pictures with their initials or with a short
+nickname. You're usually free to use ASCII art for non-commercial purposes as
+long as you keep those initials - it's the artist's signature.  In
+alt.ascii-art, people often diddle each other's pictures. That means altering
+the picture slightly so that it looks better - or like something totally
+different. Usually that means including initials from every person who has
+participated in the picture.
+
+There's a certain individual in the newsgroup that makes "ASCII art farts" of
+other people's images - he has done that every day for several years. Don't be
+too offended if Tran takes a picture of yours and adds a lame joke to it.
+
+File: academy/tutorials/tut_oglesbee.txt
+http://www.ascii-art.de/info/tut_jro.txt
+
+So, You Want To Make Text Art?
+
+    ___            _     _            _       _             _
+   /  _`\         ( )   ( )          ( )  _  ( )           ( )_
+  | (_ (_) _       \`\_/'/__  _   _  | | ( ) | |  _ _  ___ | ,_)
+  `\__ \ /'_`\      `\ /' _ \( ) ( ) | | | | | |/'_` )' _ `\ |
+  (~)_) ( (_) )_     | ( (_) ) (_) | | (_/ \_) ( (_| | ( ) | |_
+   \____)\___/( )    (_)\___/ \___/  `\__/^\__/'\__,_|_)_(_)\__)
+              )/
+         _____                     _
+        (_   _)       /'\_/`\     (_)
+          | |  _      |     |  _ _| |/')   __
+          | |/'_`\    | /V\ |/'_" ) , <  /'__`\
+          | ( (_) )   | | | ( (_| | |\`\(  ___/
+          (_)\___/    (_) (_)\__,_|_) (_)\____)
+     _____          _         _____      _     ___
+    (_   _)        (_)_      (  _  )    (_)_  /__ \
+      | |  __      | ,_) ___ | (_) |_ __| ,_|(_) ) |
+      | |/'__`(`\/') |  (___)|  _  ( "__) |     / /
+      | (  ___/>  <| |_      | | | | |  | |_   |_|
+      (_)\____|_/\_)\__)     (_) (_|_)  `\__)  (_)...
+
+   ...That's NO problem, believe me. If you can't paint like
+Remington, Picasso, or Chester Scott, or sketch a square circle with a
+pencil, or even smear "wash me" on a dirty windshield with your
+finger, then text art is for you! Truth is, just about anybody can
+make a text picutre; so don't say that you CAN'T. You can. It's easy!
+It really is. It doesn't take a lot of practice, and it doesn't take a
+lot of "artistic ability". I can have you making your own, unique
+text-art, in no time at all.
+
+   Hi, I'm Jonathon R. Oglesbee, and I'll show you some of the simple
+"mysteries" of text-art. Just don't call me an "artist". I'm not. At
+best, I have been a hack cartoonist in the past... among other
+things. I make cartoons in ascii (pronounced ask-ee... or better yet,
+ass-key) for fun. I started doing it as a lark, but so many people
+took an interest, that the response I recieved left me
+speechless. I've stuck with it, in present-day computer form, for a
+few long, lineal, loafing, lolly- gagging years - (words with an "L",
+this time), and derived many hours of entertainment from cartooning
+gags, using nothing but text-art. I'm not an are-teest. But maybe you
+WILL be. So, if you are still interested, read on.
+     ____________________________________________________
+    |____________________________________________________|
+    | __     __   ____   ___ ||  ____    ____     _  __  |
+    ||  |__ |--|_| || |_|   |||_|**|*|__|+|+||___| ||  | |
+    ||==|^^||--| |=||=| |=*=||| |~~|~|  |=|=|| | |~||==| |
+    ||  |##||  | | || | |JRO|||-|  | |==|+|+||-|-|~||__| |
+    ||__|__||__|_|_||_|_|___|||_|__|_|__|_|_||_|_|_||__|_|
+    ||_______________________||__________________________|
+    | _____________________  ||      __   __  _  __    _ |
+    ||=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=| __..\/ |  |_|  ||#||==|  / /|
+    || | | | | | | | | | | |/\ \  \\|++|=|  || ||==| / / |
+    ||_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_/_/\_.___\__|_|__||_||__|/_/__|
+    |____________________ /\~()/()~//\ __________________|
+    | __   __    _  _     \_  (_ .  _/ _      _     _____|
+    ||~~|_|..|__| || |_ _   \ //\\ /  |=|_  /) |___| | | |
+    ||--|+|^^|==|1||2| | |__/\ __ /\__| |(\/((\ +|+|=|=|=|
+    ||__|_|__|__|_||_|_| /  \ \  / /  \_|_\___/|_|_|_|_|_|
+    |_________________ _/    \/\/\/    \_ /   /__________|
+    | _____   _   __  |/      \../      \/   /   __   ___|
+    ||_____|_| |_|##|_||   |   \/ __\       /=|_|++|_|-|||
+    ||______||=|#|--| |\   \   o     \_____/  |~|  | | |||
+    ||______||_|_|__|_|_\   \  o     | |_|_|__|_|__|_|_|||
+    |_________ __________\___\_______|____________ ______|
+    |__    _  /    ________     ______           /| _ _ _|
+    |\ \  |=|/   //    /| //   /  /  / |        / ||%|%|%|
+    | \/\ |*/   //____// //   /__/__/ (_)      /  ||=|=|=|
+  __|  \/\|/   /(____|/ //                    /  /||~|~|~|__
+    |___\_/   /________//   ________         /  / ||_|_|_|
+    |___ /   (|________/   |\_______\       /  /| |______|
+        /                  \|________)     /  / | |
+
+   First, you need to get ready. For that, you are going to need very
+little. Since you're probably reading this on-line, we will assume
+that you have a computer, with a keyboard at your disposal, and so we
+can dispense with the typewriter lesson (re- member typewriters?).
+Besides a keyboard, you will also need a monitor, and a simple
+text-editing program or word-processor. The simpler, the better. I
+generally use Windows Notepad, myself. If you are using something
+else, then I'd best mention a word or two about fonts.
+
+  "Fonts" are your character, or letter sets. You will need to
+"select" a font that will work well to make your text pictures with. A
+mono-spaced font is really the only thing to use. Fixedsys, Courier
+New, Topaz New, Lucinda Console - these are all mono-spaced
+fonts. That means that each character takes up the same amount of
+space. A font such as Garamond, Arial, or just plain Courier
+doesn't. If you make a picture using that kind of font, then it will
+appear skewed on any system that isn't displaying the same font you
+used to make the picture. If you use a mono-spaced font, you won't
+have these kinds of problems. So, if you are going to use a
+text-editor that allows you to pick your font, pick one that will
+work! If you're using something like Windows Notepad, it likely
+already uses a mono-spaced font, and you won't have to worry about
+this.
+
+   That's the main thing you need to know about fonts, but I better
+mention one other tip you'll need to know. That's about which letters
+and numbers are the good ones to use, for making ascii text-art. It's
+best to just stick to those characters you probably see, right there
+on the keys of your keyboard. There are some other interesting
+characters, often called "alt" or "extended" characters, which are
+usually made by holding down the "alt" key and typing in a
+number. There are some really neat ones, but it's best if you steer
+away from those things.
+
+   Now we'll begin, with a simple, step-by-step tutorial of how to
+make a castle.  Maybe you have seen some neat text pictures of castles
+or buildings, and been impressed by them. Well, let's just see about
+that...
+
+      |   and  _    <---- those are two useless-looking characters on
+                            your keyboard, aren't they?
+
+  Here's a thing or two you can do with them. Let's make some of those
+bottom-line things, three spaces apart...
+
+   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
+                                        <---- they just don't look like
+                                                much, do they?
+
+  Well, let's make some |'s, with _'s between every other one...
+
+|_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_|   <----- looks kind of like... nothing,
+                                           huh?
+
+  Now, let's put the two separate lines together, like this....
+
+   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
+|_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| | <--- it looks a little like a
+                                             parapet.
+
+   Next, let's continue with the |'s and _'s, on the third line, but
+let's add an extra _ between our |'s. One | and then two _'s, over
+and over...
+
+   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
+|_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|  <--- it IS starting to look like
+                                              something... just a little
+                                              bit.
+
+  Continue this, but offset the |'s on at least every other line, so
+all your "blocks" aren't lined up the same. I'm certain you can see
+how I do this...
+
+   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
+|_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|    <----  keep going...
+|_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__||
+
+   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
+|_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|    <----  and keep going...
+|_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__||
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
+
+   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
+|_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|    <---- And now look!
+|_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__||
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
+||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
+|_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__||
+
+   You could easily keep going, until you created the Great Wall of
+China. If I were you, though, I'd stop before I made 4,000 miles of
+this. Why not just settle for a simple castle wall?
+
+   Of course, you don't have to make your blocks just like I did mine.
+You could make them longer, shorter, twice as big, or even completely
+different, by doing some things like this:
+                                                              ________
+         _________        ___________________                [__]__]__]
+        |____|____|      |    |    |    |    |      _____      _________
+  _____                  |____|____|____|____|     |_|_|_|    {_}_}_}_}_}
+ /_\_/_\
+
+   ... That's all up to you. I'm sure you've got blocks all figured
+out by now, anyway.  Make your own, using whatever dimensions you
+like. Or use the same ones I have; I won't mind.
+
+   Using nothing more than the two characters we started with, you
+should have no trouble making a basic castle wall, like this one:
+
+ _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
+| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
+||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+|__|__|__|__|__||         ||__|__|__|__|__|
+|_|__|__|__|__|||         ||_|__|__|__|__||
+|__|__|__|__|__||         ||__|__|__|__|__|
+
+...As you can see, that entire castle is constucted using nothing more
+than the "_" and "|"  characters. Soon, you'll be making much better
+ones than this, but I'm going to use it for demonstration purposes,
+okay?
+
+  Can you see how I have made the door? It was really no trick. If
+you're supple- minded, you could just count over to where you want
+your doorway, and remember not to brick it in. If you're lazy, like
+me, you could just put your cursor about where you want the right edge
+of your door to be, and backspace to where you want the left edge of
+your door, and then start making it. Easy.
+
+   That door looks a little plain, though. Still using only the same
+two characters, we'll just spruce it up a little:
+
+ _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
+| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
+||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+|__|__|__|__|__||_   |   _||__|__|__|__|__|
+|_|__|__|__|__|||_  |||  _||_|__|__|__|__||
+|__|__|__|__|__||____|____||__|__|__|__|__|
+
+...There you go. You have now mastered the art of mediveal
+construction, using text from your keyboard.
+
+   Next, let's see about making a little fancier castle, and put it
+into a complete picture....
+
+   Well, here is another castle that I started for a cartoon I never
+finished.  It's very similar to the one above, and since it's not
+doing anything else, I'll just use it here. Take a look:
+
+                     |
+                     |
+                    /^\
+                   /^^^\
+                  /^^^^^\
+                 /_______\
+                 |  ___  |
+                 | |   | |
+                 | |___| |
+                 |       |
+   _   _   _   _ | _   _ | _   _   _   _
+  | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+  |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+  |_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
+  |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+  |_|__|__|__|__|__|...|_|__|__|__|__|__|
+  |__|__|__|__|__|."   ".|_|__|__|__|__||
+  |_|__|__|__|__|||     ||__|__|__|__|__|
+  ||__|__|__|__|_||     ||_|__|__|__|__||
+  |__|__|__|__|__||_____||__|__|__|__|__|
+
+...I never really finished this picture, as you can see. We'll take
+care of that, but first, I want you to notice that the additional
+characters I have used in this castle:
+
+         /        \     ^    .    "
+
+   Find them on your keyboard, and get ready to use 'em.
+
+   Now, you might think that curve above the door is simple. It is.
+It's made on two lines, like this:
+
+line 1    ... three periods
+
+line 2  ."   ". a period and a quotation mark, followed by three
+spaces, and then a quotation mark and another period.
+
+Together, lines 1+2 look like this:
+                                     ...
+                                   ."   ".     ... a simple arch.
+
+   Let's finish this picture, now...
+
+                     |>>>>
+                     |
+                    / \
+                   /   \
+                  /     \
+                 /_______\
+                 |__|_|__|
+                 |_|   |_|
+                 |_|___|_|
+                 |__|__|_|
+   _   _   _   _ |_|__|__| _   _   _   _
+  | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+  |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+  |_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
+  |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+  |_|__|__|__|__|__|...|_|__|__|__|__|__|
+  |__|__|__|__|__|." | ".|_|__|__|__|__||
+  |_|__|__|__|__|||  |  ||__|__|__|__|__|
+  ||__|__|__|__|_||  |  ||_|__|__|__|__||
+  |__|__|__|__|__||__|__||__|__|__|__|__|
+
+   All I have done here, is brick in the tower, add a midline to the
+door, and add a little flag at the top. I didn't really care for the
+"shingles" I had on the roof, so I deleted them. If you liked them,
+you can keep them in, of course.
+
+   That "flag" looks cute, but it is really nothing except the <
+character...  Oh my, my; I mean the > character, entered a few times,
+until it looks like a flag.
+
+   Next, let's add a line to give it a little dimension, just like
+with a drawn picture on a sketchpad. We won't really need anything
+except the "_" character again....
+
+                              |>>>>
+                              |
+                             / \
+                            /   \
+                           /     \
+                          /_______\
+                          |__|_|__|
+                          |_|   |_|
+                          |_|___|_|
+                          |__|__|_|
+            _   _   _   _ |_|__|__| _   _   _   _
+           | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |
+           |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+           |_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
+           |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|
+ _________ |_|__|__|__|__|__|...|_|__|__|__|__|__| _____________
+           |__|__|__|__|__|." | ".|_|__|__|__|__||
+           |_|__|__|__|__|||  |  ||__|__|__|__|__|
+           |__|__|__|__|__||  |  ||_|__|__|__|__||
+           |_|__|__|__|__|||__|__||__|__|__|__|__|
+
+   That's much better, isn't it? But this picture still lacks an
+element or two... I think what this picture really needs, is a tree or
+two. Trees are really simple to make. We will look at two easy ones,
+made with the characters:
+
+                       /   |    \     @
+
+   And here they are:
+
+                           @@@@@@
+               /\        @@@@@@@@@
+              //\\       @@@@@@@@@@
+             ///\\\      @@@@@@@@@
+            ////\\\\      @@@@@@
+           /////\\\\\      | |
+               ||          | |
+
+   Pretty simple to make an evergreen and a deciduous tree, isn't it?
+I could have made some fancier ones, but I will leave that for your
+imagination to come up with.  Anyway, let's add these to the
+picture....
+
+                              |>>>>
+                              |
+                             / \
+                            /   \
+                           /     \
+                          /_______\
+                          |__|_|__|
+                          |_|   |_|
+                          |_|___|_|
+                          |__|__|_|
+     /\     _   _   _   _ |_|__|__| _   _   _   _
+    //\\   | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |   @@@@@@
+   ///\\\  |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|  @@@@@@@@@
+  ////\\\\ |_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__| @@@@@@@@@@
+ /////\\\\\|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|  @@@@@@@@@
+  ___||___ |_|__|__|__|__|__|...|_|__|__|__|__|__| _ @@@@@@ ____
+           |__|__|__|__|__|." | ".|_|__|__|__|__||    |  |
+           |_|__|__|__|__|||  |  ||__|__|__|__|__|    |  |
+           |__|__|__|__|__||  |  ||_|__|__|__|__||
+           |_|__|__|__|__|||__|__||__|__|__|__|__|
+
+   That still doesn't look like quite enough foliage to me, so let's
+look at some ways to make some flowers and things...
+
+                  @
+                 \|/      <---- nothing new here, is there?
+
+                %
+               \|/        <------ I didn't do anything here, except
+                                  subtitute a percent character.
+
+Now, let's add 'em in quantity....
+
+                              |>>>>
+                              |
+                             / \
+                            /   \
+                           /     \
+                          /_______\
+                          |__|_|__|
+                          |_|   |_|
+                          |_|___|_|
+                          |__|__|_|
+     /\     _   _   _   _ |_|__|__| _   _   _   _
+    //\\   | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |   @@@@@@
+   ///\\\  |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|  @@@@@@@@@
+  ////\\\\ |_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__| @@@@@@@@@@
+ /////\\\\\|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|  @@@@@@@@@
+  ___||___ |_|__|__|__|__|__|...|_|__|__|__|__|__| _ @@@@@@ ____
+           |__|__|__|__|__|." | ".||__|__|__|__|_|    |  |
+   @  @  @ |_|__|__|__|__|||  |  ||_|__|__|__|__||  % | %| %
+  \|/\|/\|/|_@|__@__|_@|__||  |  |||__|_%_|_%_|_%| \|/ \|/\|/
+  @  @  @  |\|/_\|/_|\|/__||__|__||__|_\|/_\|/|\|/ %   %  %
+                                                  \|/ \|/\|/
+
+   Notice that I put some of the flowers directly "in front" of our
+castle. I knew where I wanted them to go, placed the cursor there,
+backspaced, and entered the new character I wanted to use - simple. If
+it had looked misplaced, well...  that's a lot easier to fix, than
+going back and erasing a "real" line on a piece of paper, or finding
+some way to incorporate a mistake into an actual painting.  About the
+only "trick" you see me doing in this picture, is with the
+background. I have intentionally left out a space between the
+background line, and the castle and tree element. This preserves the
+perspective of the text picture, by keeping the background line from
+running into the foreground elements, which may confuse the eye into
+thinking they are all connected. With a text picture, this can often
+be a problem. Some text artists don't do this, because they may have
+other ways of keeping the perspective constant. Then again, some just
+forget, but don't tell them I said so.
+
+   This picture looks almost done, but I think it needs a road up to the
+front door...
+
+                              |>>>>
+                              |
+                             / \
+                            /   \
+                           /     \
+                          /_______\
+                          |__|_|__|
+                          |_|   |_|
+                          |_|___|_|
+                          |__|__|_|
+     /\     _   _   _   _ |_|__|__| _   _   _   _
+    //\\   | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |   @@@@@@
+   ///\\\  |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|  @@@@@@@@@
+  ////\\\\ |_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__| @@@@@@@@@@
+ /////\\\\\|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|  @@@@@@@@@
+  ___||___ |_|__|__|__|__|__|...|_|__|__|__|__|__| _ @@@@@@ ____
+           |__|__|__|__|__|." | ".||__|__|__|__|_|    |  |
+   @  @  @ |_|__|__|__|__|||  |  ||_|__|__|__|__||  % | %| %
+  \|/\|/\|/|_@|__@__|_@|__||  |  |||__|_%_|_%_|_%| \|/ \|/\|/
+  @  @  @  |\|/_\|/_|\|/__||__|__||__|_\|/_\|/|\|/ %   %  %
+ \|/\|/\|/               .'       '.              \|/ \|/\|/
+                       .'           '.
+                     .'               '.
+                   .'                   '.
+
+...Nothing more than periods and appostrophes were used to make that
+road, by using an ever-widening space between them on the following
+lines. Hey, how about a cloud or two?...
+
+             ________
+           _( (   __ )_
+        __( __     ) __)
+       (____   (   _)
+            (_____)
+
+      Parenthesis and the bottom-line character make good, easy clouds.
+Let's put some in the picture...
+
+             ________                          __
+           _( (   __ )_                      _(( )_
+        __( __     ) __)                  __(   )  )
+       (____   (   _)                    (_ (  _ __ )_
+            (_____)                       _( __     __)
+                                         (__(_  (  _)
+                              |>>>>           (___)
+                              |
+                             / \
+                            /   \
+                           /     \
+                          /_______\
+                          |__|_|__|
+                          |_|   |_|
+                          |_|___|_|
+                          |__|__|_|
+     /\     _   _   _   _ |_|__|__| _   _   _   _
+    //\\   | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |   @@@@@@
+   ///\\\  |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|  @@@@@@@@@
+  ////\\\\ |_|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__| @@@@@@@@@@
+ /////\\\\\|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|_|  @@@@@@@@@
+  ___||___ |_|__|__|__|__|__|...|_|__|__|__|__|__| _ @@@@@@ ____
+           |__|__|__|__|__|." | ".||__|__|__|__|_|    |  |  JRO
+   @  @  @ |_|__|__|__|__|||  |  ||_|__|__|__|__||  % | %| %
+  \|/\|/\|/|_@|__@__|_@|__||  |  |||__|_%_|_%_|_%| \|/ \|/\|/
+  @  @  @  |\|/_\|/_|\|/__||__|__||__|_\|/_\|/|\|/ %   %  %
+ \|/\|/\|/               .'       '.              \|/ \|/\|/
+                       .'           '.
+                     .'               '.
+                   .'                   '.
+
+   There you go. One completed picture of a castle, that looks like
+it's doing something besides hanging there on an empty page. Be sure
+and sign your picture, so folks will know who made it!
+
+   By now, I am sure you have dozens of ideas for improving that
+picture, and for making better ones of your own. Try them all! There
+is really no mystery to making good text-art. Play around with it, in
+your spare time.  You'll most likely impress yourself with the
+results. Drop me a line, if you come up with any that you'd like to
+show me, or need some help:
+
+                     oglesbee@
+                             mail.fullnet.net
+
+  We'll be continuing this series of tutorials, later. I'll try to cover
+other topics, from people to perspective. Watch for more, later.
+
+              __..\/
+             /\ \  \\         Good Luck!
+            /_/\_.___\           JRO
+           /\\~()\()~/\
+           \_    _)  _/      __
+             \  //\\/       (((\
+           __/\ __ /\__   /)////
+          /  \ \  / /  \  \___/
+         /    \/\/\/    \/   /
+        |      \../     /   /
+        |   |   \/ __ \    /
+        |   |    o    |\__/
+        |   |    o    |
+        |   |    o    |
+
+--
+Jonathon R. Oglesbee
+
+File: academy/tutorials/tut_oglesbee2.txt
+https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/tutorials/JRO2.html
+
+    ___            _     _            _       _             _
+   /  _`\         ( )   ( )          ( )  _  ( )           ( )_
+  | (_ (_) _       \`\_/'/__  _   _  | | ( ) | |  _ _  ___ | ,_)
+  `\__ \ /'_`\      `\ /' _ \( ) ( ) | | | | | |/'_` )' _ `\ |
+  (~)_) ( (_) )_     | ( (_) ) (_) | | (_/ \_) ( (_| | ( ) | |_
+   \____)\___/( )    (_)\___/ \___/  `\__/^\__/'\__,_|_)_(_)\__)
+              )/
+         _____                     _
+        (_   _)       /'\_/`\     (_)
+          | |  _      |     |  _ _| |/')   __
+          | |/'_`\    | /V\ |/'_" ) , <  /'__`\
+          | ( (_) )   | | | ( (_| | |\`\(  ___/
+          (_)\___/    (_) (_)\__,_|_) (_)\____)
+     _____          _         _____      _     ___
+    (_   _)        (_)_      (  _  )    (_)_  /__ \
+      | |  __      | ,_) ___ | (_) |_ __| ,_|(_) ) |
+      | |/'__`(`\/') |  (___)|  _  ( "__) |     / /
+      | (  ___/>  <| |_      | | | | |  | |_   |_|
+      (_)\____|_/\_)\__)     (_) (_|_)  `\__)  (_)...
+
+               Part Two of a tutorial about ascii text-art.
+
+
+
+
+   Now that we have delved into castle construction with text-art,
+in Part One, how about looking at some other kinds of pictures?
+Automobiles might be a good thing to roll on to. Let's race on down,
+and look at a simple car, to see how it's made:
+
+
+          _____            ... line 1  =  _
+      ___/     \____       ... line 2  =  _ and / and \
+     |______________|      ... line 3  =  _ and  |
+       (o)       (o)       ... line 4  =  ( and o and )
+
+    ... yep, that's a basic car shape. It's probably won't turn a
+fast quarter mile, but it's good enough for a starting point. The
+only characters we didn't use in our castle exercises, are the
+letter "o" and the parenthesis. Since I imagine you know your alphabet,
+let's do a little more, shall we?
+
+
+        ______
+    ___/ /_|__\____
+   |____|__|__|____)
+     (o)        (o)
+
+   That wasn't hard, at all. I have really done nothing except put
+in the doors and windows, and substitute a paraenthesis instead
+of the "|" character for the front end of this auto. It's hardly a
+work of art, but it is recognizable as a car; a four-door sedan, at
+that. Try making a two-door on your own, and don't forget that you
+can lengthen or shorten the whole car, if need be.
+
+Now, let's see what we can do about making some better autos...
+
+              _________
+         ____/ |___||__\_______
+        [  __  |-  ||-  \  __ |]
+       (__/()\_|___||___|_/()\_)
+          '..'            '..'
+
+   Okay, it's ugly, but it might pass for a taxi cab, huh? I used five
+lines, this time, and two new characters (three, actually): the - minus
+character, and the two [ and ] brackets. The tires, as you can see, were
+done by using nothing more than apostrophes and periods. The crude
+fender wells go a long way towards making it look a little more like a
+real car, don't you think?
+
+   How about a truck, made the same way? You shouldn't have any trouble
+with that. Here's one of my own...
+
+
+          _________________
+         |   Joe's     /"""\
+         | delivery    |____\_____
+         |  ___        |-   |___ [|
+        [__/ o \_______|____/ o \__)
+           '._.'            '._.'
+
+   It's very similar to the taxi cab. The new character, is the
+quotation mark. See what differences you can find between this, and
+the car up above. Could you make an even bigger truck, this way?
+Try it! How about something smaller, like a sports car?
+
+
+                  ____.-.___\______
+                 / __  |-    \  __ '.
+                (_/()\_|_____/_/()\__)
+                  '..'         '..'
+
+   Well... maybe it does look a little more like an old Jeepster. You
+go ahead and make a better sports car, on your own. I never cared very
+much for two-seaters, anyway.
+
+
+   Let's look at a couple of different views of automobiles. Examine
+each, and see how they were made:
+
+           _____________________
+          //~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\
+         //                     \\
+        //_______________________\\
+      /' /                       \ `\
+     /  /                         \  \
+    /__/___________________________\__\
+   |/| ____ ||||||||||||||||||| ____ |\|
+   |/|______|||||||DODGE|||||||______|\|
+   |/ ||  |||||||||||||||||||||||  || \|
+  /-------------------------------------\
+  '-------------------------------------'
+   |\_________________________________/|
+   |     |                       |     |
+   |_____|                       |_____| jro
+
+   My car doesn't have a horn. It says
+          =DODGE= on the front.
+
+
+   What new characters can you find in the above picture? Notice how I
+used the slash characters, with ever widening spacing on each
+consecutive line, to give the appearance of looking "up" the hood. It's
+really no different from how we made the "road" leading up to the castle
+in our first exercise, right?
+
+
+   Here's a better picture of a favorite old car of mine:
+
+        ___                                __
+       / _ )__  ___________  ______  _____/ /_  _
+      / _ (/ _`´/ __/ __/ _`´/ __/ |/ / _  / _`´/
+     /____)\___/_/ /_/  \___/\__/\___/\___/\___/
+           Built in Detroit. By heretics.
+
+               ______________________
+             .'______________________'.
+            //| \_______ _|_ ______/ |\\
+           // /________ [___] _______\ \\
+       .-.//_/_________________.-""-._\_\\.-.
+       './/______________________________\\.'
+       /   /            ||||            \   \
+      /   /             ||||             \   \
+     /   /              ||||              \   \
+    /   /               ||||               \   \
+   /___/________________||||________________\___\
+  /|__________________  ||||  __________________|\
+ | .'  `. ____        \ |||| /        ____ .'  `. |
+ | :    : \__/         >||||<         \__/ :    : |
+ .\`.__.'_____________/______\_____________`.__.'/.
+'__________________________________________________'
+ '.______________________________________________.'
+  |\  \______________/       \_______________/  /|
+  | '------------------------------------------' |
+  |______|                                |______| jro
+
+
+  Sorry, but I couldn't help re-creating the old ad-logo,
+at the top. This car introduces some more new characters.
+Did you find the ~ and the ` character in the Dodge above
+it? They're in this one, too, along with the < and >
+characters.
+
+
+        How about some rear views?
+
+               ____ _______  __
+              / ___|_   _\ \/ /
+             | |  _  | |  \  /
+             | |_| | | |  /  \
+              \____| |_| /_/\_\
+
+
+                                    .
+           ________________________ |
+          //~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\|
+       ()//________________________\\()
+        /_/________________________\_\
+       || _______     GTX    _______ ||
+       |||_______|_____.____|_______|||
+      |\______________________________/|
+      |     |(_)----\____/----(_)|     |
+      |     |/                  \|     |
+  ____|_____|____________________|_____|_____jro
+
+
+
+
+      ____             _ _
+     / ___| _ __   ___| | |___
+     \___ \| '_ \ / _ \ | / __|
+      ___) | |_) |  __/ | \__ \_ _ _ _ _ _
+     |____/| .__/ \___|_|_|___(_|_|_|_|_|_)
+           |_|
+
+                                    .
+           ________________________ |
+          //~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\|
+       ()//________________________\\()
+        /_/________________________\_\
+       || _______     GTX    _______ ||
+       |||_______|_____.____|_______|||
+      |\______________________________/|
+     (|     |(_)----\____/----(_)|(    |))
+    ((|)) ))|/                  \|  )) | ))
+  __((|((_(_|))________________(_|_)_)_|)____jro
+
+
+
+
+       _ _  _             _ _          _ _
+      ( | )/ \  _   _  __| (_) ___  __( | )
+       V V/ _ \| | | |/ _` | |/ _ \/ __| V
+         / ___ \ |_| | (_| | | (_) \__ \
+        /_/   \_\__,_|\__,_|_|\___/|___/
+                          ____
+                    _____( -  )__
+               ____(   . )  )((  )_
+            __(  ( . (  ()   )))   )__
+           (_. (    (((    )   . )) __)
+            (__ (-  ()-   (((    )__)
+            __(       ))  . (( - )_
+         __(  ((.  ((-.      ))  ) )_
+        (__ (    ( "   .' ( ()__)  ) )___
+        __(  (.   ( "  ;   .  )) _--) ))))
+       (__((   ().  ((   () ) )__ " ) ___)
+       __( ( -;   )   __(   ((.   ) - . )_
+______(______(_______(___________)________)____jro
+
+
+  I guess you can color that car gone. Ever drive one?... nevermind.
+Ignore the big, ascii letters for now - we'll get into those, later.
+Look how I used the same basic clouds we discussed earlier, to make
+that cloud of smoke. It's been spruced-up a bit, with some periods and
+minus signs, but it's nothing more than a giant version of the same
+clouds we used in the castle picture.
+
+
+                          __
+                        _( _)
+                       (__)
+                       __
+                     _( _)
+                    (___)
+   ________________  ||
+  /________________\ ||
+ /__________________\||
+ |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~||
+ | |         //\\\ | ||               ____
+ | |________( o_o )| ||         _____/TAXI\_____
+ |___________\ - /___||        //~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\
+ |__________/_\_/_\__||       //         )))))  \\
+ /===================\|      //_____ ___[|o o|]__\\
+ |___________________|/     //_/____\__/).-'-.(\__\\
+ | _  _  METRO  _  _ |     /_/__________@_________\_\
+ |(_)(_)|||||||(_)(_)|    |(__) |||||||||||||||| (__)|
+ |[__]  |||||||  [__]|    |(__)[]__\||||||||/__[](__)|
+(____________________)   (____________________________)
+ |  |            |  |      |  |                  |  |
+ |__|            |__|      |__|                  |__|
+
+
+   Here's a taxi and a truck, taken from another cartoon of mine.
+They aren't very realistic-appearing, but then they weren't supposed
+to be. They're supposed to look silly, like the people in them.
+
+  Here's some other simple cars. Try making and improving some like
+these, working up to larger and more detailed ones:
+
+        _______
+       /~~//~~||
+  ____/__//___||_____________
+ ()_() ____    |      ____   |
+ <<<<|/.--.\   |     /.--.\ =|
+ [___]| () |___|____/| () |\(]
+   `..`.__.'      `..`.__.'
+
+
+   __ __ __
+   )(_)(_)(
+  / .' __ '._()_\__           ___
+ ||:  /  \  :      """----...' _ `.__
+  \:  \__/  :_______________| (_) |__>
+    `.____.'                `.___.'
+
+     ____    _
+   .' __ '._(_)__\           ___
+  :  /  \  :      """----...' _ `.__
+  :  \__/  :_______________| (_) |__>
+   `.____.'                `.___.'
+
+
+          ______
+    _____/o/____\_________
+   [       |      \   __  \
+   (_______|______|__/  \__)
+      \__/           \__/
+
+                   _
+       ___________|_\_________
+      /  ____  |-    \  ____  \
+      \_/ () \_|_____/_/ () \_/
+        `.__.'         `.__.'
+
+
+
+  Try putting some of your new cars in a picture, as we
+did with the castle in the previous tutorial...
+
+
+
+      /\     /\     /\     /\     /\
+     //\\   //\\   //\\   //\\   //\\
+    ///\\\ ///\\\ ///\\\ ///\\\ ///\\\
+      ||     ||     ||     ||     ||
+    @     @      @      @      @     @
+   \|/   \|/    \|/    \|/    \|/   \|/
+____________________________________________
+           .-----.
+    ______/  |____\_________
+  [|  ____   |-     \ ____ |)
+  (__/ () \__|______|/ () \__)
+     '.__.'          '.__.'
+_____________________________________________
+
+  Cars and trucks are good practice for any text-artist.
+They range from the simple, to the complex. I reccomend
+you start small, and let your imagination make them grow
+from there.
+
+
+
+
+  Now how about some common objects? Let's look at a few
+of those...
+
+               _____________         .
+              /            /       . |
+             /            /|       |/|
+            /            /||    ___| |
+           /            / ||   /   |/|
+          /____________/|     /____|/|
+          ||  ||       ||     ||__||||
+          ||           ||     ||  ||||
+          ||           ||     ||  ||
+
+           table and chair
+
+                   (
+                  (
+                  )(
+    ______________)
+   (__((_________()
+
+         smoke
+
+
+                     _____.
+                   ~(_]---'
+                  /_(U
+
+            six-shooter
+
+
+
+            ___________________
+           /__________________/\
+          /  _______________  \|
+          |.'    \  12      '.||
+          ||    11\   / 1    |||
+          ||  10   \_/    2  |||
+          ||   9   (_)    3  |||
+          ||   8         4   |||
+          ||     7  6  5     |||
+          |'._______________.'||
+          \___________________//
+    alarm
+    clock
+
+
+______________________________________________________________
+______________________________________________________________
+      | |                                         | |
+      | |                                         | |
+      | |         [ ] ______________ [ ]          | |
+____  | |            |              |             | |    ____
+  ||  | |            |   ________   |             | |   ||
+  ||  | |            |  |        |  |             | |   ||
+  ||  | |            |  |________|  |             | |   ||
+__||  | |            |              |             | |   ||___
+  ||  | |            |   ________   |{o}          | |   ||
+  ||  | |            |  |        |()|             | |   ||
+  ||  | |            |  |________|  |             | |   ||
+__||  | |            |              |             | |   ||___
+      | |            |   ________   |             | |
+      | |            |  |        |  |             | |
+      | |            |  |________|  |             | |
+______| |____________|______________|_____________| |________
+      | |            / W E L C O M E\             | |
+      | |           /________________\            | |
+______|_|_________________________________________|_|________
+           @       /__________________\    @
+________@_\|/@_____|__________________|__@\|/_@______
+       \|/  \|/   /____________________\\|/  \|/
+                  |____________________|
+
+front door
+
+
+  Perhaps you are wondering what's going on here, with all these
+new and different pictures I am throwing at you. Just what is it
+that I am doing, and how am I making all of these?
+
+  I'm really not doing anything except "outlining" simple objects
+with text. Try this: look at an object in the room. A clock, a book;
+even your computer screen. Outline the thing. You probably won't need
+more than the _ and | characters, to start with. Once you have the
+basic shape, you can go back and add other details; if you think it
+needs them. Often, your first text-art picture of something may look
+too simple, or just plain bad. Don't give up on it! All that it may need
+is just a detail or two. Imagine that front door above, without the knob
+or inset panels. It would be nothing but a box, right? But by filling in
+those details, it looks like a door. Let's make a new one, together...
+
+
+                       _____________
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |    Okay, we're calling it a door,
+                      |             |    but it doesn't really look like
+                      |             |    anything except a rectangle,
+                      |             |    right?
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |_____________|
+
+
+
+                       _____________
+                      |    _____    |
+                      |   |__|__|   |
+                      |   |__|__|   |
+                      |             |   We'll add a little window, and
+                      |             |   now it's beginning to look like
+                      |             |   something...
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |             |
+                      |_____________|
+
+
+
+                       _____________
+                      |    _____    |
+                      |   |__|__|   |
+                      |   |__|__|   |
+                      |             |   The addition of two panels
+                      |  _________  |   makes it look more like a door,
+                      | |         | |   indeed...
+                      | |_________| |
+                      |             |
+                      |  _________  |
+                      | |         | |
+                      | |_________| |
+                      |             |
+                      |_____________|
+
+
+
+                       _____________
+                      |    _____    |
+                      |   |__|__|   |
+                      |   |__|__|   |   Add a knob...
+                      |             |
+                      |  _________  |
+                      | |         |O|
+                      | |_________| |
+                      |             |
+                      |  _________  |
+                      | |         | |
+                      | |_________| |
+                      |             |
+                      |_____________|
+
+
+                      _______________
+                     | _____________ |
+                     ||    _____    ||
+                     ||   |__|__|   ||
+                     ||   |__|__|   ||  And a frame, and wallah! You
+                     ||             ||   have a door.
+                     ||  _________  ||
+                     || |         |O||
+                     || |_________| ||
+                     ||             ||
+                     ||  _________  ||
+                     || |         | ||
+                     || |_________| ||
+                     ||             ||
+                     ||_____________||
+
+
+
+  Nothing to it, see? It really does look like a door. Just don't
+try to open it, or you'll smear fingerprints on your monitor.
+
+  Don't feel obligated to use the same characters I do. Could you
+think of ones that might make suitable replacements? Or ones that
+might work better? Look at these versions of the same door:
+
+                      ...............
+                      H.............H
+                      H    .. ..    H
+                      H   l..l..l   H
+                      H   l..l..l   H
+                      H             H
+                      H  .........  H
+                      H l         lOH
+                      H l.........l H
+                      H             H
+                      H  .........  H
+                      H l         l H
+                      H l.........l H
+                      H             H
+                      H_____________H
+
+
+
+                      _______________
+                     : _____________ :
+                     ::    _____    ::
+                     ::   :__:__:   ::
+                     ::   :__:__:   ::
+                     ::             ::
+                     ::  _________  ::
+                     :: :         :Q::
+                     :: :_________: ::
+                     ::             ::
+                     ::  _________  ::
+                     :: :         : ::
+                     :: :_________: ::
+                     ::             ::
+                     ::_____________::
+
+
+
+                      _______________
+                     I _____________ I
+                     II    _____    II
+                     II   I__I__I   II
+                     II   I__I__I   II
+                     II             II
+                     II  _________  II
+                     II I         I0II
+                     II I_________I II
+                     II             II
+                     II  _________  II
+                     II I         I II
+                     II I_________I II
+                     II             II
+                     II_____________II
+
+
+  Point here being, there is always more than one way to
+make a door, or anything else. Use whatever you find most
+asthetically pleasing, and don't be afraid to experiment.
+Believe me, you WILL discover new ways of making things!
+
+
+
+  We started out with simple automobiles, tossing in a few
+more complicated ones. None of them were terribly difficult,
+however. Neither are any of the other objects we moved along
+to. You don't need to be an artist to draw with text-art, as
+I'm sure you're beginning to realize.
+
+  So far, however, all these pictures are reasonably angular.
+Here's an example of the kind of picture that often confuses
+beginner text-artists:
+
+          Northrop
+            XP-56
+                         _
+                        / |
+                       /  |`'.
+            .~~~\--.../_  |_-~'
+           /_\_.-       ~-._.--~`-.
+        .-`.      __..--~~`  _.-~._~-.
+       (   .   :~(__)    _.-~  :   ~-.~.
+   .-~` '-.__   ~-------~_|~=,;       ~
+ _~_.`~~~~   ~~--~~~~~~\  |.-`
+  ~        jro          \_|
+
+
+
+  There's a lot of little curves and angled lines in this picture
+of an old experimental plane, isn't there? Don't dispair; here's a
+few tried-and-true examples of lines and cirles, sent to me by a pal.
+I think you'll find them useful when you want to make a picture that
+needs curves and obliques in it:
+
+
+:   6/1   3/1    2/1     1/1     2/3     1/2
+: |  J    J     J       /      .'      .'
+: |  J    |     F      /      /      .'
+: |  |    F    J      /     .'     .'          1/3
+: |  |   J     F     /     /     .'         .-'
+: |  F   |    J     /    .'    .'        .-'
+: |  F   F    F    /    /    .'       .-'       1/4
+: | J   J    J    /   .'   .'      .-'      _.-'
+: | J   |    F   /   /   .'     .-'     _.-'       1/5
+: | |   F   J   /  .'  .'    .-'    _.-'      _.--'
+: | |  J    F  /  /  .'   .-'   _.-'     _.--'      1/6
+: | F  |   J  / .' .'  .-'  _.-'    _.--'    __.--'     1/7
+: | F  F   F / / .' .-' _.-'   _.--'   __.--'    __..--'
+:                  _.-'  _.--'   __.--'   __..--'    1/8
+:                   _.--'  __.--'  __..--'   __..--''
+:                    __.--' __..--'  __..--''
+:                    __..--' __..--''
+:                    __..--''
+:                   -------------------------- 0
+
+                                           _____              __
+                                        .-'     `-.        ,dP""Yb,
+                                      .'           `.    ,d"      "b,
+                                     /               \   d'    _   `Y,
+                             _      ;                 ;  8     8    `b
+                  __      ,'" "`.   |                 |  `b,_,aP     P
+          __    ,'  `.   /       \  ;                 ;    """"     d'
+        .'  `. /      |  |       |   \               /            ,P"
+     _  |    | |      /  \       /    `.           .'     a,.__,aP"
+  o (_) `.__.'  `.__.'    `.___.'       `-._____.-'        `"""''
+
+
+  And a few others I also use, although I'm sure a hundred other
+people do, too:
+
+
+        _.-~
+    _.-~
+_.-~            __..--""
+        __..--""
+__..--""                ___...---~~~
+            ___...---~~~
+___...---~~~
+
+   ____
+ ."    ".                           ____
+/        \               _____    .'    '.
+|        |        __    /     \  :        :
+\        /       /  \  |       | :        :
+ '.____.'        \__/   \_____/  '.      .'
+                                   '----'
+   ____
+ ."_  _".
+/ (_)(_) \
+| .    . |
+\ \____/ /
+ '.____.'
+
+
+  Here's a thing or two you can do with them...
+
+                     \  | /
+                   '. ____ .'
+                 "-.."    "..-~
+             ~~--../        \..--~~
+             ------|    __..--""-._---                   __.--""--..__
+            ___...---~~~           ~-._                .'
+        _.-~                           `.          _.-~
+__..--~~                                 `.__..--~~
+
+   Sunset on the prairie... Look how many combinations of the
+sample lines above, that I used to make the horizon.
+
+
+          ."".
+         '    ;
+     .''..'  .'    Silly shape... A kidney bean, perhaps?
+     .     .'
+      '...'
+
+
+
+ The Martians_____________________________________
+|*        .    .   * _______________________      |
+|               .   /  To Antares with the  \  .  |
+|   *     '      * / "mission", Base.  Those \   *|
+|                 |   Earth Beings abducted   |   |
+|       * .    '  |  Zompflitz, and tried to  | . |
+|                  \  have SEX with him!!!   /    |
+|   ' .             \_________ _____________/ . * |
+|              _.-'~~~~'-._  |/                   |
+|   .      _.-~\__/    \__/~-.         .          |
+|       .-~    (oo)    (oo)   ~-.                 |
+|      (______//~~\\__//~~\\_____)                |
+|  _.-~`                         `~-._            |
+| /O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O\     *     |
+| \___________________________________/.          |
+|            \x x x x x x x/            `.        |
+|    .  *     \x_x_x_x_x_x/.    '  .     ___   .  |
+|              `.           `.         .'| \'.    |
+|                `.     .     `.       | \ / |    |
+|   ' .     *                          '.___.'    |
+|_________________________________________by_JRO__|
+
+  And an early text-art cartoon of mine. Not too good
+a "Planet Earth", but the Martians' flying saucer is
+acceptable, yes? In any cartoon, of course, it's mostly
+the gag that counts, anyway.
+
+  I'm sure you can now see how easily I handled the lines
+and curves in that small airplane picture I first showed you.
+Cirles, curves, and obliques are no big deal. After looking
+at a few examples, and giving it a try or two, I'm sure you'll
+have it mastered.
+
+
+
+  Well, this about wraps it up for this second instalment.
+I hope I've given you some new ideas, a few tools to work
+with, and an increasing interest in making text-art. Practice
+simple exercises, and work up from there. Soon, you'll find
+yourself able to make a text-art picture of almost anything
+you've seen or imagined. Remember - it's never as hard as it
+looks!
+
+              __..\/
+             /\ \  \\         Keep typing!
+            /_/\_.___\            JRO
+           /\\~()\()~/\
+           \_    _)  _/
+             \  //\\/        (((\
+           __/\ __ /\__    (\||||
+          /  \ \  / /  \    \___/
+         /    \/\/\/    \  /   /
+        |      \  /      \/   /
+        |   |   \/ __\       /
+        |   |    o    \     /
+        |   |    o    |\___/
+        |   |    o    |
+
+        .       .        .
+         .      .       .        .'               .--.
+ '.       .     .      .       .'       ________.'_.'_____.--.___
+   '.      .    .     .      .'        ()_() ooo   ~/   -.|      "-._
+     '.     .   .    .     .'          ((((<____   |      |  ____  = )
+       '.    .  .   .    .'       .-'  (__)/ () \___\_____|_/ () \__/)
+.        '   ______    .'      .-'    ___'.'.__.'_________'.'.__.'____
+ '-.      .-~      ~-.      .-'      /
+    '-. .'            '. .-'      __/
+_      .                .      _./
+ '-._ .                  . _.-'  |
+      :                  :      /
+  .-' .                  . '- .'
+-'     .                . . .'
+    .'  '.            .' _.'
+  .'  .'  '__________'.-'
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
+~~  ~~~    ~~~ ~~ ~ /jro
+  ~~   ~~~~  ~~~~ ~/
+
+--
+Jonathon R. Oglesbee
+
+File: academy/tutorials/tut_oviatt.txt
+https://web.archive.org/web/20071029164837/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/soviatt.htm
+
+1.  What is ASCII art? or "ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI."
+
+    What is ASCII art?  Basically, it's creating pictures using the
+    letters and symbols found on a regular keyboard or typewriter.  Trust
+    me, the computer keyboard is MUCH easier to use than a typewriter.
+    Related art can be done with ANSI (sometimes known as "higher ASCII")
+    characters, but since those don't show up on Aladdin or GEnie, I've
+    never played with them.  Most everyone has seen some sort of ASCII
+    art, either in regular ASCII Art topics, (such as in the Family RT),
+    as part of the opening screen for various RoundTables, or as part of a
+    cute little signature by the members themselves.  This is a sample of
+    a signature ASCII art:
+
+                 _
+               ('v')
+               (   )   "Birdie"
+              ~/'~'~~
+
+    My pictures are done for the computer screen, and look best on a
+    screen that is set for a dark background and light letters.  Viewing
+    the pictures on a light background with dark letters (either on the
+    screen or on paper, printed up) makes them look a little like photo
+    negatives, light where it's supposed to be dark, and dark where it's
+    supposed to be light.  Just keep in mind how your pictures will be
+    viewed, while you're creating them.  Some of the pictures I've done
+    will "translate" just fine to a different setup, some don't do nearly
+    as well.
+
+2.  The CANVAS, or "Targon's secret."
+
+    One of the very first ASCII artists on GEnie, TARGON, came up with the
+    idea of creating a "canvas."  To make it easier to put your characters
+    where they need to go, start with a blank canvas.  In most word
+    processing programs, (including Aladdin's text editor), the cursor
+    can't be moved somewhere it's never been before.  That's fine if you
+    know exactly where you want each character, and can type it in
+    perfectly the first time, but if you need to experiment, like I do,
+    you'll want to move that cursor around with your arrow keys.
+
+    The canvas consists of a screen full of lines, and the lines consist
+    of nothing but spaces you've tapped in with your spacebar.  This is
+    the way I made mine:
+
+    First, go to the program you plan to use to make your pictures. Since
+    I use Aladdin, I'll describe the procedure I use.  While offline, go
+    to a reply screen, such as the ASCII Art topic in the FAMILY BB.
+    (Category 3, topic 18.)  Hit "r" for "reply."  When the screen comes
+    up, draw a line of dashes across the top, and then hit the enter key
+    oh... about twenty times or so.  At the end of the screen, draw
+    another line of dashes across the bottom.
+
+    Go back to the top of the screen, press the down arrow once, and start
+    hitting the space bar.  When you get to the end of the line, use the
+    down arrow to get to the next line.  Do not hit "enter" again, and do
+    not let the line of spaces wrap around.  Hit the space bar again,
+    filling the next line with spaces, and again when you get to the end
+    of the line, use the down arrow key to get to the next line.  Continue
+    doing this till you've filled all 20 lines with blank spaces.
+
+    At this point, it would be wise to "save" the "canvas" so that you
+    don't have to go through this every time you want to do a picture.  To
+    save a file on Aladdin, you hold down the control key and tap the K,
+    then the W.  A little screen will pop up, asking for a name.  I chose
+    the name "canvas," but then, I'm an original thinker.  :)  From then
+    on, when you want to create a new picture, you can "recall" the canvas
+    by going to a reply screen.  To recall the canvas using Aladdin, hold
+    down the control key and tap the K then the R.  You'll see that little
+    window come up, asking for a file name, and you type in the name you
+    gave your canvas.  Then hit enter, and the canvas will be on the
+    screen.  For those who would rather skip this step, I've included a
+    canvas at the end of the file.  Since most of my pictures are rather
+    large, the canvas is larger than I've specified here.
+
+3.  How to start, or "Whaddaya mean, just start tapping keys?"
+
+    Now you're ready to begin creating your picture.  The first thing you
+    need to do is make sure your text editor is in "overwrite" mode.  In
+    Aladdin's default setting, that means you'll need to hit the "insert"
+    key one time.  This way, each character you tap into place will
+    overwrite the blank space.  If you do not have your text editor in
+    overwrite mode, each character you tap in will be inserted between
+    your spaces, and the lines will begin to wrap almost immediately.  If
+    that happens, don't panic, just delete the extra keys, press the
+    "insert" key and start again.  I guarantee you, you'll notice quickly.
+
+    Another pointer to remember:  If you've tapped something in and you
+    don't like it, or if you've made a mistake, do NOT erase it using the
+    backspace key.  The backspace key will delete that space, and it'll
+    offset the rest of that line by one.  You may not notice that if
+    you've only backspaced once, but if you've backspaced a dozen
+    characters out of the way, you'll have a line that's shorter than the
+    rest by that many spaces.
+
+    If you want to correct a mistake, just use your arrow keys till the
+    cursor is on the space you want to change, and tap in the character
+    you want.  (Again, make sure you are in overwrite mode.)  If you
+    forget and backspace an error away, hit the insert key again, then hit
+    the spacebar till you've added back in the spaces you accidentally
+    deleted, then hit the insert key again to go back to overwrite mode.
+
+    Oh, one more thing... For some reason, it's best to leave the first
+    space on each line blank.  Your art will look fine while you're
+    creating it, but when it gets uploaded to GEnie a character on the
+    very first space of the line will cause the following lines get
+    shifted over one space, and that's enough to mess up a picture.  This
+    is especially true if you have used any asterisks (*) as first
+    characters on the line.  The asterisk is used on GEnie to say, "The
+    following is a command, not part of the text."  People viewing your
+    work won't even see that line.
+
+4.  Sources, or "Where do I find pictures to try?"
+
+    Most of us have some little doodle we've done for years... I've always
+    drawn little elephant fannies all over papers and scraps.  I'd suggest
+    that you translate YOUR doodle to ASCII art as your first piece.  It's
+    familiar, and you'll know if it doesn't look quite right.  Play with
+    it till you're satisfied with it.
+
+    For your next piece, choose something simple.  You'll have an easier
+    time, and you'll build your confidence.  Children's coloring books are
+    a great place to find simple pictures to try.  While you're finding
+    the sorts of pictures you enjoy doing, you'll be developing your very
+    own style of ASCII art.
+
+    One of the greatest things about this particular art form is that each
+    style is so distinctively different. Once an artist has the basics
+    down, you can almost tell WHO did a picture before you see their name
+    at the bottom of the screen.  Some of the ASCII Artists you've
+    probably seen at one time or another here on GEnie are TARGON,
+    PHOENIX, TSUEX, and RIKROK.  All of these people have very individual
+    styles.  Some pictures look like drawings with ASCII characters, some
+    look more like paintings.  They're all delightful.
+
+    Holiday pictures are my favorites.  I can find samples from
+    newspapers, comic books, coloring books, art books, and sometimes from
+    my own imagination.  Most of the time I need a pattern, even if the
+    finished product doesn't look anything like the original.  It gives me
+    an idea of where to go first.  :)
+
+5.  Choosing Characters, or "Which characters do I want to use?"
+
+    First of all, your choice of characters depends on what effect you're
+    looking for.  If you are "sketching" with ASCII characters, you'll
+    want to pay special attention to the following keys:
+
+         / ` " ' \ , . _ - = ~ ^ ; |
+
+    Notice that all of these characters have been entered on the same
+    line, but many are in different positions on that line.  The
+    apostrophy is higher on the line than the comma, for instance.  Keep
+    this in mind as you "sketch" because sometimes that small difference
+    is enough to make or break your picture.
+
+    If you are going for a more filled in look, such as I do in my
+    pictures, you will also want to keep in mind the relative value of the
+    characters as far as light and shade go.  Look at the following
+    characters:
+
+          @ # $ & X % > / ; :
+
+    Notice that when you are using a dark background, light letters, that
+    the @ and # keys provide a lot of light.  You would use these
+    characters to highlight your work.  The : and ; let much less light
+    through, so those would be the characters you shade with.  If you are
+    working on a reverse screen, with a light background/dark characters,
+    the opposite would hold true.
+
+    Keep in mind, too, that for detail work there are several characters
+    that are very similar, but subtly different, and can add just the
+    right amount of contrast to get the effect that you want.  For
+    instance:
+
+        S $    : ;    % X    0 O
+
+    One more thing that will help you get the look you want is the
+    relative height of capital and lower case letters. When you need a
+    line to taper a bit, using a lower case letter is sometimes the
+    perfect "bridge" between high and low characters.  For instance:
+
+        S s    X x    O o   @ a
+
+    To taper these lines even further, when a very gradual decrease is
+    wanted, use both of these methods, somtimes using them more than once.
+    For instance:
+
+        Ss,..,sS          or    -=*@*=-     or     .,%,.
+        SSss,,..,,ssSS    or    ..,,;;|;;,,..
+
+    Also remember that what is low on one line can be the perfect bridge
+    for something high on the line directly under.  This is especially
+    helpful when you're creating signatures of some kind... For instance:
+
+                  ,;;;,
+                 ;;  .;'                 ;;
+                 `;,
+                 . `';,.  .;. ;.   ,;;;, .;.  .;;;.
+                  ';.  ;;  ;; ;;   ',,.   ;;  ;; ;;
+              ,;;;.;;  ;;  ;; ;;   .  ;;  ;;  ;;''
+             ;;   ';;;;'   `;;';;' ';;;'  ';. `;;;'
+             `;;;;'
+
+6.  Small pictures, or "Good things come in small packages."
+
+    VERY small pictures can be a lot of fun to do.  Just remember that
+    with those tiny ASCII pictures, a LOT is left to the imagination.
+    Sometimes a suggestion of what you're looking for is the best you can
+    do.  For instance, the following was done on only two lines:
+
+             ~|_
+              (_)\_
+
+    It's certainly no photograph, but most people will recognize this as a
+    wheelchair.  Another fun use for tiny ASCII graphics are for signing
+    off e-mail, especially during the holidays.  For instance, during the
+    Christmas season, I like to sign letters off with one of the
+    following:
+
+
+                 <\oOo/>
+                 ### ###
+                 ### ###
+
+
+                   /\
+                  //\\
+                 ///\\\
+                   ][
+
+    It's important to remember that many RoundTables on GEnie (Such as the
+    FAMILY and Personal Growth RoundTable) frown on the use of excessive
+    ASCII art in regular topics. This is due to the fact that users who
+    are visually impaired and use voice synthesizers have a heck of a time
+    with this stuff...  For instance, a blind user coming across the top
+    Christmas miniature would hear, "lesser than, backslash, o, O, o,
+    slash, greater than..."  And that's only the FIRST ROW!  Can you
+    imagine how irritating that would be?
+
+    Some voice synthesizers do not "pronounce" punctuation, but they do
+    pause for many punctuation marks.  For instance, if your little ASCII
+    picture consists of a lot of periods and commas, the voice synthesizer
+    will pause for each.  If there's enough there, the user may think that
+    he or she was discontinued.
+
+    If you are on a RoundTable and you don't know what their policy is,
+    it's best to preface any ASCII art with a warning phrase, placed a
+    line above the actual art:  "WARNING:  ASCII Art to follow."  And
+    don't be offended if it's returned to you.  There are many ASCII Art
+    topics on GEnie, and your work is VERY welcome there.  :)
+
+7.  Big pictures, or "Bigger is better, right?"
+
+    Though a large picture can be a little intimidating, it is often
+    easier to do than a small picture.  Large pictures give you room to
+    add detail.  If you are doing a picture on, say, ten lines, you don't
+    have as much room to develop curves and angles.  Your work has to be
+    much more precise, and it's not always possible.  On the other hand,
+    on a large picture, you have much more room to develop not only curves
+    and angles, but also shading and highlighting.
+
+    Where do you start on a large picture?  Well, first of all you'll
+    probably want more than one "canvas" to work on.  Just add another
+    canvas or two on the end of the previous one so that you have plenty
+    of room.  Get rid of the excess lines between them with the
+    "control-y" keysequence.
+
+    Some ASCII artists consistently start with the eyes, if the picture
+    HAS eyes.  Personally, I start in a different place each time, but
+    most often I start on what will give me the most problems.  For
+    instance, on the tiger I started with the nose.  I'm not exactly sure
+    WHY that nose was such a bugger (sorry, couldn't resist... :) but once
+    I got that done, I figured I could finish the rest of the picture.
+    Other times, when there isn't an area that I feel I need to start on,
+    I might start at the very top, so that I can get a relative feel for
+    the width and length of the picture.
+
+    Once I've started the picture, I will most of the time go ahead and
+    tap in the rest of the basic shape.  Afterwards I'll go through and
+    add the highlighting, shading, and other detail work that I want.
+    Sometimes when you're sitting so close to the screen, tapping in the
+    pictures, NOTHING you do looks right.  If that's the case, stand back
+    from the screen.... Or squint your eyes.  Or if you wear glasses, take
+    them off for a moment.  Many times you'll see the picture "come
+    together" when you try one of these little tricks.
+
+    When you're finished, make sure you save your picture.  You save your
+    picture the same way you saved the canvas; hold down the control key,
+    hit the K and then the W.  When the screen comes up, give your picture
+    a name.  That way you can bring it up again whenever you'd like.
+
+8.  ASCII Art protocol, or "Gee, this is neat, can I show my friends?"
+
+    ASCII art IS neat, and it's great to get it in the mail.  Kids (and
+    the kid in all of us) enjoy watching it download, as the picture takes
+    shape right before our eyes.  Though I can only speak for myself, I
+    don't mind at all when pictures are "shared" with others.  Some of my
+    pictures have been to many different countries, on many other
+    continents, and that tickles me.  Though tastes differ, appreciation
+    of art is something everyone has in common, especially in such a fun,
+    unexpected form as ASCII art.  What I do ask, though, is that my name
+    be left on the picture.  If you KNOW the source of the art, include
+    the artist's name.  It's not enough to put in a line that says, "yes,
+    it's stolen."
+
+    There have been times in the past that I've received my OWN artwork
+    back in e-mail to me, along with a note that says, "See, you're not
+    the only one who can do this stuff..."  Even more irritating is seeing
+    my own picture with credit given to someone else.  This stuff may not
+    be as "important" as some great literary work, but ASCII artists DO
+    spend an hour or more on each picture to make something that will give
+    others pleasure.  Give them credit.
+
+9.  Printing up ASCII Art -- or "Eww. Why does this look so bad on paper?"
+
+    Why is it when we print up this ASCII art it looks sort of squatty?
+    One reason is that the "characters per inch" is different on the paper
+    than it is on the screen.  In old "typewriting" terms, "Pica" print is
+    ten characters to the inch.  "Elite" print is twelve characters to the
+    inch.  The screen is fairly close to "elite," the default pitch of
+    many printers is closer to "pica."  The printer will print the
+    line character by character rather than inch at a time.  The
+    difference isn't much, but when the picture is six inches wide, that
+    means when it's printed, it'll be seven and a half inches wide. Thus,
+    the "squatty" look.  To correct it, when you print out the work,
+    change the default pitch to something that is closer to the size on
+    the screen.  If you play with it enough, it'll work out.
+
+    The second reason ASCII art may look a little strange on paper is that
+    it may have been created for a dark rather than a light background.
+    (Paper is light.  :)   For instance, if I create a picture, using the
+    @##@ characters as highlights, it's easy for you to see that on a
+    white piece of paper, those characters are actually DARK, not light.
+    The solution is to either   1) keep in mind HOW the picture will be
+    seen.  If your picture will be seen mostly printed up, work on a light
+    background with dark characters while you're creating it.   2) Hand
+    the picture to a child to color.  They can fix anything. :)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+My canvas... (I put a + in the center):
+
+=====================================+====================================
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+=====================================+====================================
+
+File: academy/tutorials/tut_quinn.txt
+https://www.ludd.ltu.se/~vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/tutorials/Shawn_Quinn.html
+
+From: skquinn@brokersys.com (Shawn K. Quinn)
+Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art
+Subject: GIFSCII.EXE for DOS
+Date: 31 May 1996 13:01:26 GMT
+
+In message  - Shane Hall  wri
+tes:
+:>Does anyone have any tips or tricks for using GIFSCII? It has no docs and
+:>no built-in help. It offers 3 prompts: name of gif, columns and lines.
+:>The author told me to hit ENTER at the last 2 prompts and then I will get
+:>a menu to View, Save and other things. I never get this menu.
+
+The way I remember it, it goes like this:
+
+Start the program, give it the name of a GIF. It will then prompt you for
+number of columns and rows, and should give you this table:
+
+Lines     Columns    Lines        Columns
+Spec.      Spec.     Output       Output
+-----      -----     -----         -----
+  0          0       GH/10        GW/6
+  0          C       C*GH/GW*.6   C
+  L          0       L            L*GW/GH/.6
+  L          C       L            C
+
+This means (1) Gifscii will default to giving you one ASCII row for each 10
+GIF rows, and one ASCII column for each 6 GIF columns, (2) if you specify
+only a number of columns or rows, it will default to keeping the same aspect
+ratio when figuring out the other value, and (3) if you specify both it will
+make an ASCII picture of exactly that size.
+
+NOTE: any GIF wider than 480 columns or taller than 240 rows WILL NOT FIT on
+an 80x24 screen if you accept both defaults! This includes ANY 256-COLOR GIF
+that fills the screen or comes close in SVGA resolutions! Whip out your
+calculator if needed to figure out what to tell the program.
+
+Then comes the tricky part. You'll get this prompt:
+
+(v)iew (zZ)oom (s)ave (lrud)=Pan (i)nvert (h)elp (cC)cont (bB)bright:
+
+These describe the options. These do pretty much the same as ASCGIF,
+unfortunately, I don't think that came with docs either. Typing in an "h"
+will show a help screen. Most of the options let you tweak the way the
+conversion is done so it will hopefully show up better. Be prepared to alter
+the GIF after conversion in case it doesn't quite look the way you had hoped.
+
+I really wish the authors would not rely on the source code comments to
+effectively document the program the way some do. Some people don't even
+download the source code. I do if there's no doc file, because I know better.
+Of course if there are no comments in the source code, that's a problem too...
+
+SKQ
+
+File: academy/tutorials/tut_stark.txt
+https://web.archive.org/web/20071028135413/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/howto.htm#programs
+
+    .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+                        How I Make these ASCII Pictures
+                         and Links to Other Tutorials
+
+    .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+FAQ's About Creating ASCII Art:
+
+ 1) Do you need any special programs or software to make ASCII Art?
+ 2) You've heard of programs that make ASCII art- do they work?
+ 3) How long have I been creating ASCII Art images?
+ 4) What were my first ASCII art creations?
+ 5) How much time do I spend on making just one ASCII art picture?
+ 6) How do I make the characters "fit together"?
+ 7) Aren't ALL keyboard characters "ASCII"?
+ 8) Are there other ASCII Art tutorials online?
+ 9) What suggestions do I have for aspiring ASCII Artists?
+10) Do I have too much free time on my hands?
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+1) Do you need any special programs or software to make ASCII Art?
+
+    The answer is "NO".  All you need is a text editor with a fixed-width font.
+    Examples of fixed-width fonts are: Courier, FixedSys, and any others where
+    the following two lines of letters are the same length:
+
+                      IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
+                      WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
+
+    I don't have any "secret programs" or "magic software".   I've created
+    these ASCII pictures by using Windows notepad, my keyboard  ( and monitor
+    obviously ), my imagination, and plenty of inspiration. That's it.  I
+    create these pictures by free-hand.
+
+    Essentially I sit at the keyboard and type. The more I do, the faster and
+    easier it becomes. Some images come from models (usually one of my kids'
+    toys), pictures in books and magazines, or from my imagination.  I can only
+    make a picture when I feel inspired to do so.  Not every day is a creative
+    day.
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+2) You've heard of programs that make ASCII art- do they work?
+
+    As you may have noticed, there are different styles of the ASCII art. I
+    typically make the "line-ASCII art".  Others, like Allen Mullen and The
+    Dutch Dude make "solid-style ASCII art".
+
+         .-.                     .-.               .                      .
+      .--' /                     \ '--.           ..###'                    '###,.
+      '--. \       _______       / .--'          '####;       .ooooo.       ;####'
+          \ \   .-"       "-.   / /                 '##,   .o8P"""""Y8o.   ,##'
+           \ \ /             \ / /                   '##, 88'         '88 ,##'
+            \ /               \ /                     '##8'             '8##'
+             \|   .--. .--.   |/                       '#8   ,o.   .o,   8#'
+              | )/   | |   \( |                          8 8 888; :888 8 8
+              |/ \__/   \__/ \|                          8P '88'   '88' Y8
+              /      /^\      \                          P       8      'Y
+              \__    '='    __/                          b      888      d
+                |\         /|                             `8b         d8`
+                |\'"VUUUV"'/|                              88'"88888"'88
+                \ `"""""""` /                              8 `"""""""` 8
+                 `-._____.-'                                `8ooooooo8`
+            jgs    / / \ \                                  ,##'   '##,
+                  / /   \ \                                ,##'     '##,
+                 / /     \ \                        jgs   ,##'       '##,
+              ,-' (       ) `-,                        .#####,       ,#####.
+              `-'._)     (_.'-`                           `##'       '##`
+
+               LINE STYLE                              SOLID STYLE
+
+    There are converters available to turn GIF and JPG files into ASCII art.
+    The results are usually solid-style --but even so, you still have to do
+    quite a bit of work with them to make them look good.   If you want to give
+    it a go anyways, check out  conversion programs.
+
+    There is a PicText Service online that will convert GIF images into
+    ASCII... results are OK-- not ideal.  As example, see an ASCII image of me
+    in comparison to the original GIF graphic--->  jgs
+
+    There is *ONE* conversion program that works well--  that is FIGlet!  If
+    you want to write your name in a fancy ASCII'fied font, this is the place
+    to go:  FIGlet Service.   Also, check the alt.ascii-art FAQ for Internet
+    locations  to download your own copy of the program.
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+3) How long have I been creating ASCII Art images?
+
+    I've been around the USENET's  newsgroup since November '95
+    and I've been making the ASCII pictures since July '96.
+
+    I first saw ASCII art in the summer of 1995 and was intrigued by it.  My
+    immediate thought was that there were people in this world who had too much
+    time on their hands!   Nonetheless, I was amazed at what I saw.   I tried
+    to collect as much of the ASCII art as I could.   Then when I found
+    Scarecrow's archive, and saw the immensity of it, I gave up and decided to
+    try to make the ASCII images instead.
+
+    I had been lurking on the alt.ascii-art newsgroup and saw many
+    requests--most which were never filled.  At that point I chose to create
+    the ASCII art pictures to respond to the requests.
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+4) What were my first ASCII art creations?
+
+    My first ASCII Art creations were letters that spelled out my screen name
+    -- and I added a little fish and a swimmer....  Here it is:
+
+       ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooojgs
+      __~~ _- ~~ -~~~-_/\O_~~ ~~__~~  _-~_ __
+     /  \ ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo| |  / /
+    / /\_\ |  _ \  | |  | | | \  | | | | / /  /
+    \ \_   | | \ \ | |  | | |  \ | | | |/ /  <')=<
+     \_ \  | |_/ | | |  | | | | \| | |   <    \`
+    __ \ \ |  __/  | |  | | | |\ | | | |\ \ Spunk1111
+    \ \/ / | |     | |__| | | | \  | | | \ \@juno.com
+     \__/  |_|     \______/ |_|  \_| |_|  \_\@aol.com
+
+    It's not very good, IMO -- but it was a start.  Playing around with making
+    letters helped me to figure out how the ASCII characters fit together.  I
+    don't remember how long it took to make.
+
+    I stopped making the letters once I found out about "FIGlet".  FIGlet is a
+    program that creates the ASCII art letters for you -- all with a click of a
+    button!   Try it yourself!   FIGlet Service
+
+    The first big picture I made was of a dragon-- it took about a week to
+    complete-  When it was finished, I sent it to the alt.dragons ASCII art
+    page (http://www.dragonfire.org/) - and they put it at the top!  I was
+    "published"!  From then on, I was hooked on the ASCII art!
+
+    ~ Fire-Breathing Dragon ~  7/96
+                                                              ___
+                                                           .~))>>
+                                                          .~)>>
+                                                        .~))))>>>
+                                                      .~))>>             ___
+                                                    .~))>>)))>>      .-~))>>
+                                                  .~)))))>>       .-~))>>)>
+                                                .~)))>>))))>>  .-~)>>)>
+                            )                 .~))>>))))>>  .-~)))))>>)>
+                         ( )@@*)             //)>))))))  .-~))))>>)>
+                       ).@(@@               //))>>))) .-~))>>)))))>>)>
+                     (( @.@).              //))))) .-~)>>)))))>>)>
+                   ))  )@@*.@@ )          //)>))) //))))))>>))))>>)>
+                ((  ((@@@.@@             |/))))) //)))))>>)))>>)>
+               )) @@*. )@@ )   (\_(\-\b  |))>)) //)))>>)))))))>>)>
+             (( @@@(.@(@ .    _/`-`  ~|b |>))) //)>>)))))))>>)>
+              )* @@@ )@*     (@) (@)  /\b|))) //))))))>>))))>>
+            (( @. )@( @ .   _/       /  \b)) //))>>)))))>>>_._
+             )@@ (@@*)@@.  (6,   6) / ^  \b)//))))))>>)))>>   ~~-.
+          ( @jgs@@. @@@.*@_ ~^~^~, /\  ^  \b/)>>))))>>      _.     `,
+           ((@@ @@@*.(@@ .   \^^^/' (  ^   \b)))>>        .'         `,
+            ((@@).*@@ )@ )    `-'   ((   ^  ~)_          /             `,
+              (@@. (@@ ).           (((   ^    `\        |               `.
+                (*.@*              / ((((        \        \      .         `.
+                                  /   (((((  \    \    _.-~\     Y,         ;
+                                 /   / (((((( \    \.-~   _.`" _.-~`,       ;
+                                /   /   `(((((()    )    (((((~      `,     ;
+                              _/  _/      `"""/   /'                  ;     ;
+                          _.-~_.-~           /  /'                _.-~   _.'
+                        ((((~~              / /'              _.-~ __.--~
+                                           ((((          __.-~ _.-~
+                                                       .'   .~~
+                                                       :    ,'
+                                                       ~~~~~
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+5) How much time is spent on making just one ASCII art picture?
+
+    That first large dragon picture took a week to make--  However, as I create
+    more ASCII art graphics, they take less time to make... Usually, I spend
+    about 20 minutes on each... a little longer for larger ASCII art, less time
+    for smaller ones. I can create the picture quickly if I can envision the
+    image beforehand, . At times, I see lots of things in "ASCII"--- it's at
+    those instances that I have a creative spurt!
+
+    Remember that this website has been a labour of love which has lasted
+    several years-- there is no way that I could create all of these pictures
+    in one sitting!
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+6) How do I make the characters "fit together"?
+
+    Playing around with the characters on the keyboard really helps...
+    For instance, the following characters can create a gradual slope:
+
+                             _,.-'"^`
+
+    To change the degree of the slope, you can either add more characters, or
+    delete... of course keeping in mind the "look" of whatever it is that you
+    are trying to create.
+
+           a more gradual slope:              __,,..--""^^^
+
+             a steeper slope:                      _.-"
+                                                .-"
+
+    Look at the individual ASCII characters-- you'll notice that they are
+    located in various typographical locations.  The periods, commas, and
+    underscores are at the bottom of the character space.  The hyphen, equal
+    sign, and the plus sign are found in the middle of the space.  The
+    apostrophe, quotation marks, and caret sign are located at the top portion
+    of the character space.  The asterick and the tilde characters are either
+    in the middle or the top of the space-- depending upon which fixed-width
+    font you use.
+
+    Deciding which character to use often depends upon the desired 'feel' of a
+    picture.   However, I've found that some of the characters are
+    "inter-changeable", such as:
+
+                                      " and '
+                                      . and ,
+                                      - and =
+
+    Sometimes it is very helpful to look at the ASCII art pictures created by
+    the different artists.  You'll be able to see just how that person handled
+    curves, lines, slopes, and details.
+
+    I've added a really neat online ASCII art experience.  If you have Internet
+    Explorer 4+, you can give this a try.  The text characters can be dragged
+    onto a grid in order to create an ASCII art image.  There is template to
+    follow if you wish-- or just go freestyle!
+
+                           ASCII ART HOW-TO --- GRID
+
+                            :*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+7) Aren't ALL keyboard characters "ASCII"?
+
+    No-- ASCII is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information
+    Interchange.  There are only 94 ASCII characters (95, if you include the
+    space)-- these are the ones that are typically found on the standard
+    American keyboard:
+
+                            abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
+                            ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
+                                    0123456789
+          < > [ ] { } ( ) ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * _ + | - = ; : " ' ` ? \ / . ,
+                                      (space)
+
+
+
+
+    It is possible to make non-ASCII characters with your computer.  Some
+    examples of non-ASCII characters are the British pound-sterling, the
+    copyright symbol, fractions, and the accented characters.  These should NOT
+    be included in ASCII art images because they are not standard from one
+    computer system to another.  One computer may interpret the character code
+    accurately-- another computer may not.  Believe me, it can make for a
+    pretty bad ASCII art image!
+
+    I know that America Online users have "macros"--  proportional-font text
+    art.  These macros often contain non-ASCII characters.  This will work on
+    AOL because AOL users are all using the same America Online network.   mIRC
+    often uses the non-ASCII characters too (fixed-width  fonts though)  This
+    works on mIRC because that is how the system is designed.  Presently, the
+    Internet is not as standardized.  In conclusion, it is best not to use the
+    non-ASCII characters in any international email/USENET posting.
+
+    If you have any questions about font, characters, or ASCII/non-ASCII,
+    please refer to the alt.ascii-art FAQ or my 'What is ASCII Art?' webpage
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+8) Are there other ASCII Art tutorials online?
+
+    There are several ASCII Art  tutorials available... but, IMO, they don't
+    help unless you've tried your hand at it first. Keep in mind that ASCII
+    artists have their own 'style'.   Accordingly, the tutorials differ in
+    regard to the type of ASCII drawings.
+
+        Daniel Au's Tutorial
+        Susie Oviatt's Tutorial
+        Rowan Crawford's Tutorial
+        Normand Veilleux's Tutorial
+        Targon (Ed Wisniewski)'s Tutorial
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+9) What suggestions do I have for aspiring ASCII Artists?
+
+    My suggestions for budding ASCII artists are the following:
+
+        look at as many ASCII pictures that you can
+        identify how the characters are used in those pictures
+        duplicate an "already-made" picture -
+        copy it line by line or section by section
+        modify an existing picture
+        start small- perhaps doodle and see what it looks like,
+        and go from there
+        use a model or picture as a guideline
+        read the tutorials and the FAQs
+        post your pictures for critique
+        (or send them to a friend for critique)
+        keep at it and have fun... <--- most important!
+
+                            .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+10) Do I have too much free time on my hands?
+
+
+    Too much free time on my hands??  That's a funny one!             _  _
+      As a mother of four kids, I can testify that I       hehehehe  (.)(.)
+    don't have excess time!  However, I will confess that         \ /  ()  \
+    my laundry pile is larger than it ought to be!                _ \ '--' / _
+    Laundry time has taken a backseat to ASCII art               { '-`""""`-' }
+    time.   ASCII art is a hobby-- most people have               `"/      \"`
+    hobbies.  ASCII art is mine.  Usually I create this             \      /
+    ASCII art late at night when the kids have gone to             _/  /\  \_
+    bed.  I try not to spend my life in front of the          j   {   /  \   }
+    computer.  Really!                                             `"`    `"`
+
+    .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+              [Guidelines For Using this ASCII Art ][-=[ GO ]=-]
+
+                         to main pageSearch this site
+
+    .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.
+
+File: academy/tutorials/tut_targon.txt
+https://web.archive.org/web/19990501044414/http://users.inetw.net/~mullen/tarteach.htm
+
+Note: some of the directions apply only to the GEnie computer service.
+
+Punch Art is not as hard as you would think if you prepare your canvas
+first. Here are some tips that might help.
+
+
+        1. I start my canvas by selecting this topic from aladdins j
+screen and selecting R to reply.
+        2. When the reply screen is open I draw a line from the left
+boarder to one space from the right boarder.
+        3. Then I hit return 20 times and draw another line at the
+bottem of the screen.
+
+                               (like so)
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+(press return)     { use the space bar to move the cursor to here !)
+(press return)
+(repeat above 20 times)        (you are doing this because the cursor
+                                 can not be moved where it has never
+                                  been before.)
+
+
+
+
+                        (bottom line)
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+        4. Then I return the cursor to the first line and use the
+space bar to move the cursor to one space from the end of the line.
+        5. I use the arrow key to move the cursor down to the next
+line. It will automatically go to the beginning of the line. I then
+use the space bar to move it to one space from the end of the line.
+        6. I repeat this until I reach the line I drew at the bottom
+of the canvas.
+
+ Once this is done your canvas is ready. You can now use the arrow
+keys to move your cursor anywhere you want and you are ready to
+begin your drawing.
+
+        7. To draw on the canvas, I press the insert key to go into
+typeover mode. This is important so that when you enter characters,
+your cusor does not insert spaces.
+        8. If you make a mistake and want to erase a character just
+use the arrow key to move the cursor back to the character and use
+your space bar to erase it. (Do not use the backspace key or the
+delete key to correct mistakes. They will change the spacing)
+                -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
+
+                         TIPS
+
+If you are drawing an animal or a person, start with the eyes then
+the nose and the mouth. Then draw the head. You will be able to
+judge the size the body needs to be from the head.
+
+Get familiar with the position of the following keys on the screen.
+
+        [ ] ( ) . ` , ' ; : \ / | " ^ < >   - _ = ! ~
+
+Notice that they have all been typed on the same line, however they
+are positioned at different hights. You can use combinations of
+these keys to draw angles, slants, and sometimes circles.
+
+           \             /        \_     `-._      (increasing the
+            \           /           \_       `-._   amount of the _
+             \         /              \             can change the
+                                                    angle.)
+
+                                     `----.______
+                                                 `------
+
+
+                              ,----.
+                            ,"      ",
+                            "        "
+                            "        "
+                            `.      ,'
+                              `----'
+
+
+The following keys make good eyes, fingers, or toes.
+
+                         o O  0 ( ) c C
+
+        eyes ---->    0 0   or (0) (0)    or   o o or (o) (o)
+
+        toes ----->    Oooo    or  Cooo
+
+If you get to the bottom line of your canvas and your picture is not
+finished, you can expand the canvas by hitting enter as many times
+as you need and using the space bar to prepare the canvas as you did
+when setting it up.
+
+
+If you cannot complete your drawing in one setting, type control k
+and then w. A window will open and ask you for a file name. Name the
+file. Then type ctrl a to abort the reply.
+
+When you're ready to resume the drawing, open the reply window from
+the j screen, then type control k and then r. When prompted for a
+file name, enter the name of your picture. It will be loaded back
+into the reply screen and you can continue.
+
+You can also use the above method to save a blank canvas after you
+prepare one. Then you don't have to make a new canvas for every
+drawing.
+
+Remember that every key on the key board can be used. Some of them
+make good shading keys. Such as @@@@@@@@@  or  ######
+                                @@@@@@@@@      #####
+                                 @@@@@@@       #####
+
+Don't be afraid to try different key combinations. If they don't
+work, experiment.
+
+Don't worry about pictures that don't work. I have many failures. It
+dosn't take long to realize you can't make a drawing work. I just
+give up on them.
+
+File: academy/tutorials/tut_veilleux.txt
+http://www.ascii-art.de/info/tut_veilleux.txt
+
+Normand Veilleux's ASCII Art Tutorial
+
+From: Normand Veilleux 
+
+Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 12:18:52 -0500 (EST)
+
+Several people have asked me how I do what I do (smoothing out
+pictures,  etc.)  First, I would like to say that I am a complete
+beginner myself.  I had no drawing experience before Dec 11, 1993.
+At that time someone posted an ascii picture of Meriday (a
+professionally drawn nude, I think).  I found that picture a lot
+more appealing than the GIFs I have seen or the mainframe pictures
+from my University years.  Those tend to be hard the eyes from
+close up.
+
+Anyway, when someone else posted another nude that (I'm guessing
+here) was a cleaned up GIF.  I immediately saw there was lots of
+room for improvement and I decided to give it a try.  The only
+tools I had at my disposal were a PC with WordPerfect.  The big
+advantage I saw with WP was that I could toggle between a normal
+view of the picture and a reduced version since WP allowed me to
+view a full page of text at once on the screen.
+
+In reduced format the text is actually transferred in graphics so
+that an '8' would actually appear as a black square.  This gave the
+picture a rough look; the edges were all jagged.  But, by
+experimenting with various character changes I soon realized that
+I could smooth out those jagged edges.  I spent a lot of time
+flipping back and forth between the normal and the reduced views.
+
+Oh, one thing I forgot to mention.  When I changed the font from
+"Courrier 10" to "Line Printer 16.67 cpi" for the LaserJet printer,
+I noticed that the jagged flaws appeared even more pronounced.
+This is why you'll see me mention once in a while that "the
+drawings I post are at their best when printed with 'Line Printer
+16.67 cpi' font or equivalent."  They were worked on using that
+font.  They still look very good in a regular font
+though.  That's the beauty of it all.
+
+I still do the same thing now, only a little faster.  It is a time
+consuming process and I see potential to automate some, if not a
+large portion of it.  I have asked a few people on the NET if they
+knew of any software that could lighten or darken an ascii picture,
+reduce or enlarge it, etc.  So far, no luck.
+
+I took a 15 hour bus ride (double it for the return trip) during
+the Christmas holidays up to Kapuskasing where my parents live.  So
+I had some time to think about things.  I came up with pseudocode
+for a program to lighten and darken a picture automatically.  That
+is, if the picture is dark, it will lighten it and vice versa
+without any cumbersome parameters of any sort.  It's extremely
+simple when you think about it for 3 to 4 hours.  I haven't had the
+chance to program any of it yet but given a week or two it will be
+implemented.
+
+I also wrote pseudocode for flipping a picture horizontally, and
+for reducing and enlarging one.  These were not quite as simple but
+it looks like it can work.  If any of you out there know of
+programs that do just that already please let me know ASAP.  You'll
+save me a lot of time.
+
+Thank's a million.
+
+I hope these "tips" have entertained as much as enlightened you.
+Like a person I use to listen to on radio often said "When I learn
+something during the day I go to bed at night less ignorant."
+
+And so it has been for me a joy to learn how to draw.
+
+From: Nveilleu@emr1.emr.ca (Normand Veilleux)
+Date: Sat Jan 08 16:08:26 CST 1994
+
+I have received a few requests to explain the "logic" behind the
+smoothing.  So far I have only explained what tools I use to create
+it (flipping back and forth from normal to reduced view in
+WordPerfect).  I will try to give here the same explanation I gave
+the first student who asked.  Since I did not save that discussion
+this one will be slightly different.
+
+The whole thing is visual as you could have guessed.  So, the best
+way I know to show you what I mean is by giving an example:
+
+     Take this                     Doesn't this
+     for example                   look smoother?
+
+      8                              8
+      88                             Yb
+       88                             Yb
+        888                            Y8a,
+          88888                         `"Y888
+
+BTW, that reminds me of a quote I saw not too long ago:  "A truly
+wise person does not play leapfrog with a rhinoceros"  :-)
+
+I consider the "smoothing problem" as nothing more than a "weight
+distribution problem".  By shifting up the pixel density of an 8
+with characters such as P, Y, ", etc., where necessary, and by
+shifting down the pixel density of an 8 with characters such as b,
+d, a, etc., where necessary, the graphic takes on a smoother look.
+
+May sound simple when it's explained like that but I don't know
+where to start to program it.  I'll start with easier stuff first,
+like flipping a picture horizontally.  That's kids stuff.  I used
+a semi-manual technique when I had to flip my ascii face around.
+The picture I had drawn was a mirror image, so it had to be flipped
+to look right.  I created two small macros (less than 10 commands
+each) in WordPerfect which did the bulk of the work.  After that
+all I needed to do was about 20 global search and replaces.  It
+took about 5 - 10 minutes total.  It would have taken hours to
+retype it in reverse or to write a program to do it.
+
+Since I don't have access to a scanner, but I sometimes want to
+take a picture from paper and draw it in ascii I developed a GRID
+technique to help me out.  Anyone who wants to give it a try needs
+to create the grid electronically and then print it.  Here is how
+it works.  Start with the following grid:
+
+1.2.3.4.5.
+2.A.B.C.D.
+3.E.F.G.H.
+4.I.J.K.L.
+5.M.N.O.P.
+
+The dots can actually be replaced by spaces, so create the grid
+using your preference.
+
+Then, copy the whole grid horizontally until you fill all the width
+of the paper size you want to use.  And then, copy this new grid as
+many times as needed to fill the length of the page.  You will end
+up with something along these lines (with spaces):
+
+1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
+2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D
+3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H
+4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L
+5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P
+1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
+2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D
+3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H
+4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L
+5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P
+
+Now, get a printed copy of that grid and put it aside for a bit.
+
+BTW, this technique works best with pictures that are about 1/4 of
+an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.  Larger pictures can also be done but
+are cumbersome and time consuming.  That is how I created three
+ascii pictures so far:  the hand that showed "that close", the ying
+yang, and my own face.  The toughest thing about the face was to
+draw it on paper first.
+
+At this stage you need to find a picture that is reasonably simple
+in terms of complexity :-)  In other words not too detailed; the
+coarser the better.  Something taken from a colouring book would
+probably be an excellent choice (although I have not used any
+myself yet).  You may need to "modify" the picture so that it will
+also "cooperate" to the process (especially if taken from a
+photograph or other source).
+
+With a photocopier, enlarge or reduce the picture so that it is
+close to the best size (as stated above).  Then, use a wide black
+marker to "highlight" the lines and contours (this may not be
+necessary if the picture came from a colouring book).  If there is
+a background image that you want to remove, just cut and tape white
+paper over those areas or just cut out the undesired areas.  This
+is important since the "junk" you would otherwise leave in would
+eventually interfere with the grid.
+
+When the lines are all really dark and just about all the
+background has been removed you can photocopy the new picture on
+the grid.  You may have to experiment a few times to get the
+picture to come out the same as the original on an upside up grid.
+
+When you have such an image you can now bring up the electronic
+grid.  Work at it from left to right and from top to bottom.  Put
+your word processor on typeover and space over the characters of
+the first line until you get to a character that is partially or
+completely covered by a dark line on the paper grid.  Use the 1 to
+5 and the A to P to locate the correct position.  When you get to
+such a character, try to find a character that resembles the shape
+of the line and type that in.  Ex: '8' for a character that is
+totally covered, 'a' for a character that has the bottom half
+covered, etc.  This is actually starting the smoothing process at
+the same time you are converting from paper to screen.  Remember
+that shading complicates things unnecessarily, so ignore it
+completely.
+
+Repeat this process for all the lines of the grid until the picture
+is completely transferred to electronic form.  You don't need to be
+an artist do this.  You just need to have some time on your hands.
+
+Of course at this point the ascii picture is still slightly rough,
+but at least you have the right proportions, etc.  Now you could
+try to smooth it out by using the "weight distribution" technique
+described above and perhaps a printed version of one of the ascii
+pictures I have smoothed (for concrete examples).
+
+It may sound very complicated at first, but just to give you an
+example, the ying yang I did (a few people informed me that I had
+forgotten the eyes):
+
+            .,ad88888888baa,
+        ,d8P"""        ""9888ba.
+     .a8"          ,ad88888888888a
+    aP'          ,88888888888888888a
+  ,8"           ,88888888888888888888,
+ ,8'            (888888888( )888888888,
+,8'             `8888888888888888888888
+8)               `888888888888888888888,
+8                  "8888888888888888888)
+8                   `888888888888888888)
+8)                    "8888888888888888
+(b                     "88888888888888'
+`8,        (8)          8888888888888)
+ "8a                   ,888888888888)
+   V8,                 d88888888888"
+    `8b,             ,d8888888888P'
+      `V8a,       ,ad8888888888P'  Normand
+         ""88888888888888888P"     Veilleux
+              """"""""""""
+
+took just over half an hour using that technique.  I hope a few of
+you will be interested enough to try it out.  If you do, let us
+know how it goes.
+
+EXPERIMENT:    Would someone with access to a scanner and the
+               GIF2ASC program (or an OCR) try the following:
+               take a picture from a colouring book, scan it and
+               then convert it to ascii.  Alternatively, tell your
+               scanner that what you are scanning is text, if you
+               have an OCR.  I am under the impression that the
+               results would be quite presentable.  Of course,
+               sometimes theory and practice differ considerably.
+               Please post your findings.
+
+From: Normand Veilleux 
+Date: 27 Jun 1994 20:26:35 -0500
+
+I have seen several ascii versions of the Mona Lisa circulating in
+alt.ascii-art but I was not happy with any of them.  They all
+appeared to be converted GIFs and even the best one, which was
+distinctly superior to all the others, only looked decent when I
+stood back at least 5 feet from it.  It also had the drawback of
+being stretched vertically.  So I decided to make my own.
+
+I also wanted to take this opportunity to give a concrete example
+of how the special grid technique that I use, accelerates and
+simplifies the creation of many ASCII drawings.  I wanted to
+explain, as much as possible, what was involved in drawing by
+"hand" the ASCII version of a relatively complex picture while
+starting from scratch.
+
+I have described the grid technique in a previous post (in Jan.
+'94), but a recapitulation is necessary before going any further.
+Basically, the grid was nothing more than a series of characters
+that filled up the area taken by the drawing.  I realized that the
+characters composing the grid would be more useful if they were
+chosen to help pinpoint where a particular portion of the drawing
+was located within the grid.
+
+There was many ways of doing this, but I opted for the following
+rectangle (10 x 5 characters):
+
+1.2.3.4.5.
+2.A.B.C.D.
+3.E.F.G.H.
+4.I.J.K.L.
+5.M.N.O.P.
+
+This rectangle was then replicated horizontally and vertically
+until an area the size of an 8.5" x 11" page was filled up.  I
+later decided to replace the periods by spaces to "lighten" the
+grid.  This created an electronic grid which looked like this:
+
+1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4
+2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C
+3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G
+4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K
+5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O
+1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4
+2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C
+3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G
+4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K
+5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O
+
+The characters 1 to 5 produced horizontal and vertical guidelines.
+With these guidelines, I could quickly locate the approximate area
+of the grid that I wanted to work on.  To pinpoint the exact
+location, I relied on the letters A to P which appeared only once
+inside each rectangle.
+
+Of course, the electronic grid alone was not very useful until I
+could somehow relate it to the drawing.  To do so, I printed out
+the grid and then photocopied it on an acetate for reusability.
+Then, whenever I wanted to work on a picture, I taped a photocopy
+of it to the back of the acetate and brought up the electronic grid
+on the screen.  By the intermediary of the grid, I automatically
+had a relationship between the picture on paper and the screen.
+
+TIP: If you ever print a grid on an acetate, make sure to cover the
+     acetate with clear tape afterwards to prevent your fingers
+     from eroding the toner.  I learned the hard way.
+
+Now, back to Mona.  You may find the discussion a little difficult
+to follow at times without a picture, so either find a copy of the
+Mona Lisa or print out this file.
+
+In search of a decent reproduction of the Mona Lisa I went to the
+closest library and found an excellent example on page 25 of the
+book "Leonard de Vinci" published by McGraw-Hill in 1974.  The
+picture measured about 9.5" x 12" and was in full colour.
+
+Next, I photocopied the picture.  The lowest darkness setting gave
+the best result, but was still a little bit too dark in certain
+areas to distinguish some of the lines.  Before addressing that
+problem, I decided to cut the photocopy so that the resulting
+picture could fit in 55 lines by 78 columns.  This was
+approximately double the height of the head and was wide enough to
+show a large portion of both shoulders.
+
+To make the barely discernable lines more visible, I highlighted
+them with a blue pen.  I made sure to draw those lines about one
+sixteenth of an inch thick so they would be clearly visible.
+Experience had taught me that very fine lines were often too
+difficult to distinguish from a dark background once the grid was
+superimposed on the picture.  The affected lines were:  the lines
+between veil and hair, hair and background, chin and throat, and
+the lines on each side of the face and on each side of the arched
+garment extending to her left shoulder (referred to as the shawl in
+the rest of this document).  While I was at it, I also highlighted
+the contours of the lips, nose and eyes in the same manner.  I then
+taped the touched up photocopy behind the acetate which had the
+grid.
+
+The next step was to load the electronic version of the grid in my
+favourite word processor (WordPerfect).  Before starting work, I
+decided to represent the dark areas of the picture with an "8" (I'm
+sure you guessed that), the shawl with an "I" and the veil with an
+"8" if it was covering any hair and with an "I" if it was not (or
+to show its border in the hair).  I chose those characters since
+they contrasted very well:  it was easy to distinguish a line of
+I's in an area filled with 8's.
+
+Then, I determined which character of the acetate corresponded to
+the top of her left shoulder and located that character on the
+electronic grid.  While holding the acetate in my left hand and
+marking my position on it with my thumb, I delimited the contour
+(only one character wide) around the bottom of the picture (counter
+clockwise) up to her right shoulder by replacing the characters of
+the grid with 8's except for the ends of the shawl which needed
+I's.
+
+I then continued up the picture, line by line, while overwriting
+the grid's characters with spaces until I got to the first
+character delimiting the border of Mona's hair or veil, as
+determined from the acetate.  At that point, I typed one of four
+characters: "8", "d", "`" or "," depending on which one
+corresponded best to the dark portion of the picture at that
+location on the acetate.  I then typed two more 8's and a space;
+just enough to define the contour.  Of course, when I was in the
+area where the veil was the first thing to be reached I used I's
+instead of 8's.
+
+I repeated that process for each line until I reached the top of
+the head.  There, I decided to follow the inside line of the hair
+while going down the right side of the picture.  So, I first
+started by defining the hair line on the forehead and filling the
+top of the head with 8's.  Then, starting at the inside line for
+the hair I typed 8's until I reached the other side of the hair and
+then added a "b" or a "," if necessary.  I also made sure to drop
+an "I" along the way at the exact location where I had shown the
+veil to start covering the hair (it was a blue line on the
+photocopy).  I continued this, line by line, until I reached the
+top of the shawl.
+
+So, half an hour after loading the grid I was at this stage:
+
+                                  _______
+                           _,,ad8888888888bba,_
+                        ,8888888888888888888888888,
+                      ,888888888888888888888888888888,
+                    ,8888888888888888888888888888888888,
+                   d88888PP"""""""YY888888888888888888888,
+                 ,88  A B C D 2 A B C D 2 ""Y8888888888888,
+                ,II 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E  IIII8888888888,
+               ,II  4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J `888III8888888,
+             ,II  P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N  `888888I888888,
+            ,II 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4  `888888I8888b
+           ,II  C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 8888888I8888,
+           II8  G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H `8888888I888b
+           II8  K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L  88888888I888
+           II8  O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P  88888888I888,
+           II8  4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 ,888888888I88b
+          ,II B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 8888888888I888
+          II8 F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 8888888888I888,
+         ,II  J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 8888888888I888b
+         II8  N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888888I888
+         II8  3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 88888888888I888,
+         II8  B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 88888888888I888b
+         II8  F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 88888888888I8888,
+         II8  J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 88888888888I8888b
+         II8  N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888888I88888
+         II8  3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 88888888888I88888
+         `II  B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 88888888888I88888
+          II8 F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 8888888888I888888,
+          `II J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 8888888888I888888b
+           `II  O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 8888888888I8888888
+            `II 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 `888888888I8888888,
+             II8  D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D  888888888I88888888,
+            ,II G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H  `88888888I888888888,
+            II8 K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 88888888I8888888888,
+            II8 O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 88888888I888888888888,
+           ,II  4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 `8888888I88888888888888,
+           II8  C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2  8888888I888888888888888b
+          ,II F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 ,8888888I8888888888888888
+         ,88  J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J I
+      ,88 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N I
+    ,88 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 I
+  ,88 C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B I
+ ,88  G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F I
+d88 J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J I
+8 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N 8
+8 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 8
+8 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B 8
+8 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F 8
+8 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J 8
+8 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N 8
+8 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 8
+8 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B 8
+8 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F 8
+8 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J 8
+8888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888888888888888888
+
+Here, it seemed appropriate to fill in the shawl with I's which
+automatically led to filling in the bottom right corner with 8's
+and adding my name.  I then completed the small portion of hair at
+the top of the shawl.  Then, I defined the upper portion of the
+garment, beside the veil, and filled in the section below that with
+8's.  Next, I filled the rest of the hair (on the left side of the
+picture) with 8's while defining the hair's inside line.  I also
+filled in, with spaces, the area of skin from the top of the
+garment up to the throat.  Next, I drew the veil on the forehead
+and filled in the rest of the forehead with spaces.  And finally I
+smoothed all the lines drawn so far, leaving the face for last.
+
+So, after one hour of work I was at this stage:
+
+                                  _______
+                           _,,ad8888888888bba,_
+                        ,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
+                      ,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
+                    ,d888888888I8888888888888888888888b,
+                   d88888PP"""" ""YY88888888888888888888b,
+                 ,d88"'__,,--------,,,,._ ""Y8888888888888,
+                ,8II-'"                  "```IIII8888888888,
+               ,I88'                          `Y88III8888888,
+             ,II88I                            `Y88888I888888,
+            ,II888'                              `888888I8888b
+           ,II8888                                Y888888I8888,
+           II88888                                `8888888I888b
+           II88888, 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L  88888888I888
+           II88888I 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P  88888888I888,
+           II88888' 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 ,888888888I88I
+          ,II88888  2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D d888888888I888
+          III88888, 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 8888888888I888,
+         ,III88888I 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 8888888888I888I
+         III888888I 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888888I888
+         II88888888,  2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 88888888888I888,
+         II88888888I  A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 88888888888I888b
+         ]I888888888, E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 88888888888I8888,
+         II888888888I I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 88888888888I8888I
+         II8888888888b  N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 88888888888I88888
+         II888888888888a  4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 88888888888I88888
+         `II8888888888888b, D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 88888888888I88888
+          II888888888888888ba,_ E F G H 3 E F G H 8888888888I888888,
+          `II88888888888888888b I J K L 4 I J K L I888888888I888888b
+           `II88888888888888888 M N O P 5 M N O P I888888888I8888888
+            `II8888888888888888                   `888888888I8888888,
+             II8888888888888888,                   Y88888888I8888888b,
+            ,II8888888888888888b                   `88888888I88888888b,
+            II888888888888888P"I                    88888888I8888888888,
+            II888888888888P"   `                    Y8888888I88888888888b,
+           ,II888888888P"                           `8888888I8888888888888b,
+           II888888888'                              8888888I888888888888888b
+          ,II888888888                              ,8888888I8888888888888888
+         ,d88888888888                              d888888I8888888888IIIIIII
+      ,ad888888888888I                              8888888I8888IIIIIIIIIIIII
+    ,d888888888888888'                              888888IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
+  ,d888888888888P'8P'                               Y888IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
+ ,8888888888888,  "                                 ,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
+d888888888888888,                                ,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
+888888888888888888a,      _                    ,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII888888888
+888888888888888888888ba,_d'                  ,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,,______,IIIIIIIIIIIIIII888888888888888888
+88888888888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIIII888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888888888
+888888888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII888888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888888888888
+88888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII8888888888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888 Normand  88
+88888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII8888888888888888888 Veilleux 88
+8888888888888888888888888888888IIIIIIIIIIIIII88888888888888888888888888888888
+
+I found the shawl to be much too pale in comparison to the rest of
+the garment, so I tried replacing the I's with darker characters
+such as M, H, A, etc.   Unfortunately, even though I could see the
+difference on the screen reasonably well, I could not see any
+difference between those characters and the surrounding 8's when I
+used the reduced view feature of WordPerfect.  I have been using
+this feature to view an entire page at a time on the screen.  It's
+only when I tried a 'Z' that I was able to distinguish between the
+two characters in the reduced view.  So, 'Z' had my vote.
+
+I then worked on the face for about half an hour, defining the
+mouth, nose, eyes, etc.  I tried my preferred style first, but it
+looked awful so I tried line draw instead without any more success.
+Nothing seemed to work, so I reverted back to my preferred style of
+ASCII drawing and to be true to it I did not add any shading to the
+face.
+
+This was how the picture looked at that stage:
+
+                                  _______
+                           _,,ad8888888888bba,_
+                        ,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
+                      ,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
+                    ,d888888888I8888888888888888888888b,
+                   d88888PP"""" ""YY88888888888888888888b,
+                 ,d88"'__,,--------,,,,._ ""Y8888888888888,
+                ,8II-'"                  "```IIII8888888888,
+               ,I88'                          `Y88III8888888,
+             ,II88I                            `Y88888I888888,
+            ,II888'                              `888888I8888b
+           ,II8888                                Y888888I8888,
+           II88888                                `8888888I888b
+           II88888,   .aag,    ,gaaP""             88888888I888
+           II88888I    ___"b  d"    ____           88888888I888,
+           II88888'  <^I88>I  I   <^I888'         ,888888888I88I
+          ,II88888  . `""" I  I    `""" .         d888888888I888
+          III88888,  ````     b     ''''          8888888888I888,
+         ,III88888I                               8888888888I888I
+         III888888I        ,   \,                 88888888888I888
+         II88888888,      I'    "I                88888888888I888,
+         II88888888I      `"baad"'               ,88888888888I888b
+         ]I888888888,                           ,P88888888888I8888,
+         II888888888I    "Y88bd888P"          ,d" 88888888888I8888I
+         II8888888888b     `"""""          _,8"  ,88888888888I88888
+         II888888888888a                _,P"'   ,d88888888888I88888
+         `II8888888888888b,          _,d"'    ,aP"88888888888I88888
+          II888888888888888ba,__,,ad""    _,aP"   8888888888I888888,
+          `II88888888888888888b"ba,,,,aadP"'      I888888888I888888b
+           `II88888888888888888  `""""'           I888888888I8888888
+            `II8888888888888888                   `888888888I8888888,
+             II8888888888888888,                   Y88888888I8888888b,
+            ,II8888888888888888b                   `88888888I88888888b,
+            II888888888888888P"I                    88888888I8888888888,
+            II888888888888P"   `                    Y8888888I88888888888b,
+           ,II888888888P"                           `8888888I8888888888888b,
+           II888888888'                              8888888I888888888888888b
+          ,II888888888                              ,8888888I8888888888888888
+         ,d88888888888                              d888888I8888888888ZZZZZZZ
+      ,ad888888888888I                              8888888I8888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+    ,d888888888888888'                              888888IZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+  ,d888888888888P'8P'                               Y888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+ ,8888888888888,  "                                 ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+d888888888888888,                                ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+888888888888888888a,      _                    ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888
+888888888888888888888ba,_d'                  ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,,______,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888
+88888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888
+888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888
+88888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888 Normand  88
+88888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888 Veilleux 88
+8888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888
+
+Since I could not seem to improve the face, I decided to try and
+experiment with shading to see if that could help.  Well, it did
+not turn out the way I thought it would: the shading was too pale.
+So I ended up losing half an hour to get to this stage:
+
+                                  _______
+                           _,,ad8888888888bba,_
+                        ,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
+                      ,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
+                    ,d88888888I88888888888888888888888b,
+                   d88888PP""" """YY88888888888888888888b,
+                 ,d88"'__,,--------,,,;:::""Y8888888888888,
+                ,8II:'"              .,:.":::IIII8888888888,
+               ,I88:.                 ...::::::Y88III8888888,
+             ,II88I:.                   :..:::::Y88888I888888,
+            ,II888'..                  :.:...:::::888888I8888b
+           ,II8888.                        .::::::Y888888I8888,
+           II88888:                        .:::::::8888888I888b
+           II88888;   .aag,    ,gaaP""... .:.::::::88888888I888
+           II88888I:::::::"b  d":::::;;::, :..:::::88888888I888,
+           II88888'::<^I88>I  I::.<^I888'   ..:.::;888888888I88I
+          ,II88888  . `""" I  I:.. `""" .   ..:.::d888888888I888
+          III88888,  ````     b;.   ''''   ..:.:::8888888888I888,
+         ,III88888I            :.         ..:.::::8888888888I888I
+         III888888I        ,   :,         :::.::::88888888888I888
+         II88888888;:     I'    "I       :.:.:::::88888888888I888,
+         II88888888I:.    `"baad":       .:::.::::88888888888I888b
+         ]I888888888;:.:.    :.:..:.:: ..:.:.:::::88888888888I8888,
+         II888888888I:. ."Y88bd888P"   ..::.::::::88888888888I8888I
+         II8888888888b::.  `""""'.:.:.:.::.::::::;88888888888I88888
+         II888888888888a:.   :::::.:. .:,aP:::::;d88888888888I88888
+         `II8888888888888b;.    ..::.;aP":::::;aP:88888888888I88888
+          II888888888888888ba,__,,aP"::::::;aP::::8888888888I888888,
+          `II88888888888888888b"ba;;;;aadP":::::::I888888888I888888b
+           `II88888888888888888 .:::::::::::::::::I888888888I8888888
+            `II8888888888888888  .::::::::::::::..`888888888I8888888,
+             II8888888888888888,   ..::.:::::.:..  Y88888888I8888888b,
+            ,II8888888888888888b      .::..:..     `88888888I88888888b,
+            II888888888888888P"I        ..:.        88888888I8888888888,
+            II888888888888P"::.`                    Y8888888I88888888888b,
+           ,II888888888P".:::                       `8888888I8888888888888b,
+           II888888888'                              8888888I888888888888888b
+
+Later, I decided to give line drawing another chance and started
+working on the face with no shading.  I managed to get a decent
+looking nose in about 5 minutes so I continued and slowly but
+surely the rest of the face took on a new look that was much better
+than anything obtained so far.  It took about half an hour of trial
+and error to get to this:
+
+                                  _______
+                           _,,ad8888888888bba,_
+                        ,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
+                      ,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
+                    ,d888888888I8888888888888888888888b,
+                   d88888PP"""" ""YY88888888888888888888b,
+                 ,d88"'__,,--------,,,,._ ""Y8888888888888,
+                ,8II-'"                  "```IIII8888888888,
+               ,I88'                          `Y88III8888888,
+             ,II88I                            `Y88888I888888,
+            ,II888'                              `888888I8888b
+           ,II8888                                Y888888I8888,
+           II88888                                `8888888I888b
+           II88888,    ---.      ..-----           88888888I888
+           II88888I   _,,_ `.  .'   _,,_           88888888I888,
+           II88888'  <'(@@> |  |   <'(@@>         ,888888888I88I
+          ,II88888    `"""  |  |    `"""          d888888888I888
+          III88888,            `                  8888888888I888,
+         ,III88888I                               8888888888I888I
+         III888888I        ,   ',                 88888888888I888
+         II88888888,      (_    _)                88888888888I888,
+         II88888888I        `--'                 ,88888888888I888b
+         ]I888888888,                           ,P88888888888I8888,
+         II888888888I    "Y88bd888P"          ,d" 88888888888I8888I
+         II8888888888b     `"""""          _,8"  ,88888888888I88888
+         II888888888888a                _,P"'   ,d88888888888I88888
+         `II8888888888888b,          _,d"'    ,aP"88888888888I88888
+          II888888888888888ba,__,,ad""    _,aP"   8888888888I888888,
+          `II88888888888888888b"ba,,,,aadP"'      I888888888I888888b
+           `II88888888888888888  `""""'           I888888888I8888888
+            `II8888888888888888                   `888888888I8888888,
+             II8888888888888888,                   Y88888888I8888888b,
+            ,II8888888888888888b                   `88888888I88888888b,
+            II888888888888888P"I                    88888888I8888888888,
+            II888888888888P"   `                    Y8888888I88888888888b,
+           ,II888888888P"                           `8888888I8888888888888b,
+           II888888888'                              888888I8888888888888888b
+          ,II888888888                              ,888888I88888888888888888
+         ,d88888888888                              d888888I8888888888ZZZZZZZ
+      ,ad888888888888I                              8888888I8888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+    ,d888888888888888'                              888888IZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+  ,d888888888888P'8P'                               Y888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+ ,8888888888888,  "                                 ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+d888888888888888,                                ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+888888888888888888a,      _                    ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888
+888888888888888888888ba,_d'                  ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,,______,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888
+88888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888
+888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888
+88888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888 Normand  88
+88888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888 Veilleux 88
+8888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888
+
+I decided to consider this the final unshaded version.
+
+Now, the question remained: would it be worthwhile to add in the
+shading?  I showed the unshaded version of the picture to a friend
+who is a graphic designer.  It didn't take him long to mention
+shading as the next step.  I showed him the first attempt
+(displayed above) and admitted that I had no idea how to improve
+it.  He suggested using a printed copy of my unshaded picture and
+drawing the shading on it first, before attempting to draw it on
+the computer.
+
+Well, that almost discouraged me right there.  Drawing simple stuff
+on paper was not a problem, but when it came to shading I didn't
+have a clue how it could be done.  He helped by pointing out that
+I could start by drawing the outer edge of the faintest shading as
+though it were a regular object.  I could then define another line
+that would represent the "middle ground" of the shading.  He
+suggested not to use more than 2 or 3 different levels of shading.
+So off to the drawing board I went.
+
+I did not keep all the stages of the shading, but suffice to say
+that it took about twice as much time then all the rest of the
+picture.  This was the final result of the shaded version:
+
+                                  _______
+                           _,,ad8888888888bba,_
+                        ,ad88888I888888888888888ba,
+                      ,88888888I88888888888888888888a,
+                    ,d888888888I8888888888888888888888b,
+                   d88888PP"""" ""YY88888888888888888888b,
+                 ,d88"'__,,--------,,,,.;ZZZY8888888888888,
+                ,8IIl'"                ;;l"ZZZIII8888888888,
+               ,I88l;'                  ;lZZZZZ888III8888888,
+             ,II88Zl;.                  ;llZZZZZ888888I888888,
+            ,II888Zl;.                .;;;;;lllZZZ888888I8888b
+           ,II8888Z;;                 `;;;;;''llZZ8888888I8888,
+           II88888Z;'                        .;lZZZ8888888I888b
+           II88888Z; _,aaa,      .,aaaaa,__.l;llZZZ88888888I888
+           II88888IZZZZZZZZZ,  .ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ;llZZ88888888I888,
+           II88888IZZ<'(@@>Z|  |ZZZ<'(@@>ZZZZ;;llZZ888888888I88I
+          ,II88888;   `""" ;|  |ZZ; `"""     ;;llZ8888888888I888
+          II888888l            `;;          .;llZZ8888888888I888,
+         ,II888888Z;           ;;;        .;;llZZZ8888888888I888I
+         III888888Zl;    ..,   `;;       ,;;lllZZZ88888888888I888
+         II88888888Z;;...;(_    _)      ,;;;llZZZZ88888888888I888,
+         II88888888Zl;;;;;' `--'Z;.   .,;;;;llZZZZ88888888888I888b
+         ]I888888888Z;;;;'   ";llllll;..;;;lllZZZZ88888888888I8888,
+         II888888888Zl.;;"Y88bd888P";;,..;lllZZZZZ88888888888I8888I
+         II8888888888Zl;.; `"PPP";;;,..;lllZZZZZZZ88888888888I88888
+         II888888888888Zl;;. `;;;l;;;;lllZZZZZZZZW88888888888I88888
+         `II8888888888888Zl;.    ,;;lllZZZZZZZZWMZ88888888888I88888
+          II8888888888888888ZbaalllZZZZZZZZZWWMZZZ8888888888I888888,
+          `II88888888888888888b"WWZZZZZWWWMMZZZZZZI888888888I888888b
+           `II88888888888888888;ZZMMMMMMZZZZZZZZllI888888888I8888888
+            `II8888888888888888 `;lZZZZZZZZZZZlllll888888888I8888888,
+             II8888888888888888, `;lllZZZZllllll;;.Y88888888I8888888b,
+            ,II8888888888888888b   .;;lllllll;;;.;..88888888I88888888b,
+            II888888888888888PZI;.  .`;;;.;;;..; ...88888888I8888888888,
+            II888888888888PZ;;';;.   ;. .;.  .;. .. Y8888888I88888888888b,
+           ,II888888888PZ;;'                        `8888888I8888888888888b,
+           II888888888'                              888888I8888888888888888b
+          ,II888888888                              ,888888I88888888888888888
+         ,d88888888888                              d888888I8888888888ZZZZZZZ
+      ,ad888888888888I                              8888888I8888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+    ,d888888888888888'                              888888IZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+  ,d888888888888P'8P'                               Y888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+ ,8888888888888,  "                                 ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+d888888888888888,                                ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
+888888888888888888a,      _                    ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888
+888888888888888888888ba,_d'                  ,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,,______,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888
+88888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888
+888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888
+88888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888
+8888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888 Normand  88
+88888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888 Veilleux 88
+8888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888
+
+As you can see, the grid system that I have been working with since
+January '94 allows to very quickly transfer the large details from
+paper to screen while keeping the proportions of the original
+picture.  This eliminates a lot of the time-consuming
+experimentation otherwise required to get the right proportions.
+You can't go wrong with the grid:  the characters that compose it
+allow you to "see" where you should start and where you should
+stop.  The skills required to use it are fairly simple as well,
+although they do need to be practiced.  One thing the grid cannot
+do though, is eliminate the experimentation needed for the
+finishing touch:  the smaller details, the smoothing, the shading,
+etc.
+
+     ---<-<@    ---<-<@   ---<-<@    ---<-<@   ---<-<@
+
+A big thank you goes to Rowan Crawford who spent time revising an
+earlier draft of this document and who provided many useful
+suggestions to improve its contents.
+
+The pictures I post are at their best when printed with a
+'Line Printer 16.67 cpi' font or equivalent.
+
+    ___        _______
+  ,88888,    ,d88888888a
+ ,88" `Y8,  ,88"'   `"Y8i     ,ggggg,   ,ggggg,   ,ggg,,ggg,,ggg,
+ I8b,  `8b ,88'       d8I    dP"  "Y8ggg8""""8I  ,8" "8P" "8P" "8,
+ `Y8P   88.88'       ,88'   i8'    ,8I       8I  I8   8I   8I   8I
+        (8V8'        d8P    I8,   ,d8'       Y8,,dP   8I   8I   Yb,
+        (88P        ,8P     `Y8888P"         `Y88P'   8I   8I   `Y8ba
+        d88         d8'
+       ,88'        ,8P                 _,,ggdd888bbgg,,_
+       d8P         I8I            _,gd8888P"""""""""Y8888bg,_
+      ,88          I8b       _,gd88P"""'               `"""Y88bg,_
+      88'          `Y8b,__,gd8P""'      Normand Veilleux     `""Y8bg,_
+     d8P            `Y88888P"'        nveilleu@emr1.emr.ca       `"Y88ba