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Step 2Select your drawing package: vector drawing
There are three main ways to draw on a computer,
1: vector (lines - graphics),
2: bitmap (tones and shading)
3: parametric based 3D CAD.
Some drawing packages combine two or three ways in the same package. A few years ago packages that were good at vector or line drawing or CAD were rubbish at shading and tone and the other way round was true as well. Now more and more packages combine the elements quite successfully. Vector drawing is nice because it gives you control over the shapes, and is easier than free form shading and tone work (e.g. Photoshop)
I do mainly 2D vector line drawing and I use Macromedia Freehand (10), but this is out of date now as the company that made it was bought by Adobe and the application has been superseded by Adobe's own vector drawing package called Illustrator. These two packages are quite expensive, but there are cheaper ones available, or free ones such as Inkscape (see some of the comments below).
Don't be wowed by too many flashy effects and colours, you can create very nice drawings just by using a few simple shapes and strictly limiting your colours and line widths, so even the cheaper vector drawing packages (or free ones) should be fine to get you going and let you create fabulous looking instructables.
Remember, however 3D you make you images look, this is NOT 3D CAD, you will only be drawing the pictures yourself 2D and trying to get a 3D look, which means that you need to get all the angles looking right when you start drawing.
Of course you can trace round photos (which I do) for some of your difficult-to-draw images.
In this instructable I will be showing you how to draw from scratch AND how to trace round an image to get a really professional look.
So let's get drawing...
1: vector (lines - graphics),
2: bitmap (tones and shading)
3: parametric based 3D CAD.
Some drawing packages combine two or three ways in the same package. A few years ago packages that were good at vector or line drawing or CAD were rubbish at shading and tone and the other way round was true as well. Now more and more packages combine the elements quite successfully. Vector drawing is nice because it gives you control over the shapes, and is easier than free form shading and tone work (e.g. Photoshop)
I do mainly 2D vector line drawing and I use Macromedia Freehand (10), but this is out of date now as the company that made it was bought by Adobe and the application has been superseded by Adobe's own vector drawing package called Illustrator. These two packages are quite expensive, but there are cheaper ones available, or free ones such as Inkscape (see some of the comments below).
Don't be wowed by too many flashy effects and colours, you can create very nice drawings just by using a few simple shapes and strictly limiting your colours and line widths, so even the cheaper vector drawing packages (or free ones) should be fine to get you going and let you create fabulous looking instructables.
Remember, however 3D you make you images look, this is NOT 3D CAD, you will only be drawing the pictures yourself 2D and trying to get a 3D look, which means that you need to get all the angles looking right when you start drawing.
Of course you can trace round photos (which I do) for some of your difficult-to-draw images.
In this instructable I will be showing you how to draw from scratch AND how to trace round an image to get a really professional look.
So let's get drawing...
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Inkscape and XaraLX are both great vector graphics programs that cost nothing. I prefer Inkscape.