Who doesn't love sketch of themselves or their loved ones?
but...
and but...
You probably don't have a Tablet PC (or iPad), drawing skills are good for making amoeba and lazy enough to not use existing copying techniques then I have something for you (sounds pretty theatrical ) - A $2 Sketch portrait maker easy enough that a child can make realistic sketches (and obviously not using that computer tricks).

You just have to take a picture (or use which is already on your mobile phone or digital camera) place it over the device and draw on any flat surface like cards,books,etc. and not only on thin paper !!!

Make a sketch of your loved one and gift him/her.

Step 1: Materials Required

A shoe box
Two magnifying glasses (i.e. convex lens) of two different focal lengths-in my case they are 6cm and 20 cm. You can use different focal lengths also but make sure that they have a difference as large as mine. Finding focal length is fairly simple, here's the Youtube video link of someone "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoGDOT6U9pQ" (just see the approximate focal length part).
Paper Cutter
Sticking tape
A ruler
30 minutes

Step 2: Cutting and Sticking

Step1 : Cut your shoe box as shown in fig., it should be the size just less than your mobile phone screen or the screen of your digital camera, PSP, etc.

Step 2 : Take the lid of the shoe box and divide it into two length wise and make circular holes of the size just less than that of the two different lenses (but don't stick the glasses yet)

Step 3: Finding the Right Height for Cuts

Step 1 : Now put your display brightness of mobile phone, etc. to highest and put it facing downward on the cut you made on the box then bring the smaller lens below it as shown in fig. and adjust it by moving it up & down so that you see the image of mobile screen display on the base of the shoe box clearly. (it will not be that clear therefore we will use second lens)

Step 2 : Now you know where to set the smaller lens you have to make a cut on the shoe box(see fig)and after sticking the smaller lens to the cut you made earlier using tape(tape it only sidewise not in the centre of lens) place it in the cut on the shoe box.

Step 3 : Now bring the second bigger lens below the smaller lens (which you just fixed in step 2)
and adjust it the same way as in step 1&2 to get a clear image(this time it will be really clear) and fix it in the shoe box same as in step 2.

Step 4:

Now you are done the final product should look like as shown in fig
All you have to do is put a paper or any flat surface on the base and open the picture on your device of which you want to make the sketch of and start making on the projected image using a pencil or pen.

Step 5:

Now take a pen or pencil and start outlining the basic features of the photo, then add details like wrinkles or hairs,etc. . For better results switch off the lights and set the brightness of the display to maximum.

If you are in a real hurry then I have an another idea :
Take a regular paper who's thickness should be around the standard A4 sheets we use for printing at home and then wrap that paper onto your mobile/camera display with the photo open and brightness max. You will be seeing an image on the paper. Now simply draw on the paper. But it works only for thin papers therefore I made this instructable so that you can make on any surface like cards,cardboards,fabric,etc.

Enjoy!!!

Check out another exiting experiments at http://scimad.com/

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35 Discussions

happybuilder

10 years ago on Step 5

DUDE I SAW AN IPOD PROJECTOR FOR 150 DOLLARS BUT 3 DOLLARS?

Parapegma

10 years ago on Introduction

Wonderful high tech twist to a drawing technique that has been around since at least the 1500s, maybe even longer. In effect, it's a bit as though you've reinvented the camera obscura. Camera obscura were perhaps invented by the Romans, and there are scholarly battles going on now among art historians whether mirrors were used in the Renaissance to achieve a similar effect. Certainly the use of mirrors or camera obscura to cast strong images and trace from seems to have been used by such artists as Carravaggio and Vermeer. Or so some claim. Canaletto was very open in his use of a camera obscura for sketching and the 19th Century in particular brought a number of devices on to the market like it, some of which are still available. You might like to look up the antecedents of your technique in book, "The Science of Art"