Our super cool iPhone / iPad app for anyone who wants to be able to draw!

[VTPete]

Hi all,

I've got this cool app called Camera Lucida. It's a digital version of a optical device that's been around for hundreds of years that allows people to draw whatever they see in front of them.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/camera-lucida/id362499096?mt=8

What it does is to use your iPhone or iPad's camera to superimpose a photo of your choice with your drawing surface.

It's not a program that has you draw on the screen; you actually draw on paper with your favorite medium while looking at your iPhone's screen.

In the past year I've added a lot of great functionality that allows you to do things like posterize the image and draw a certain shade of grey. It's really quite cool; seriously!

If you're into drawing or painting; or have ever wanted to be an artist, you'll be amazed at what you can create by using this app to help out. I've got a really dull (and far too long) video on YouTube that demos the app as it was two versions ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzb7aCCdum4

 

[VTPete]

And, I forgot to mention that our website, http://www.cameralucidaapp.com has some nice FAQs for getting the most out of the app.
-VTPete

 

[EvanLugh]

i might give this a shot, even if the website's iphone demo makes it look basic as 'ote. aside from the transparency, i'm not sure what help this'll give me.. apart from armache

 

[VTPete]

i might give this a shot, even if the website's iphone demo makes it look basic as 'ote. aside from the transparency, i'm not sure what help this'll give me.. apart from armache

Evan,
Check out the YouTube video before buying it; even though it's a few versions behind, you'll see what it does. It's as useful as a "real" camera lucida which has been used to make some of the world's most famous paintings. At the risk of undercutting my own software, part of the device's elegance is its simplicity. And, my arm has never ached.

 

[EvanLugh]

Evan,
Check out the YouTube video before buying it; even though it's a few versions behind, you'll see what it does. It's as useful as a "real" camera lucida which has been used to make some of the world's most famous paintings. At the risk of undercutting my own software, part of the device's elegance is its simplicity. And, my arm has never ached.

for such a reply i feel obliged to give it a shot thanks!

edit: your arm has never ached because of your contraption, hah!
edit2: ok this looks pretty useful, especially as i suck at dot-to-dot. nice.

 

[VTPete]

for such a reply i feel obliged to give it a shot thanks!

edit: your arm has never ached because of your contraption, hah!
edit2: ok this looks pretty useful, especially as i suck at dot-to-dot. nice.

Ha ha!
My YouTube video is pretty bad... it was tough drawing and video taping at the same time. And, yeah, it should have been a minute, not six or seven. Hopefully people can skip through.

Here's a challenge: If you send me a photo, I'll use this app to draw it (say in a water color) and post the images here... just to show what it can do.

 

[EvanLugh]

Ha ha!
My YouTube video is pretty bad... it was tough drawing and video taping at the same time. And, yeah, it should have been a minute, not six or seven. Hopefully people can skip through.

Here's a challenge: If you send me a photo, I'll use this app to draw it (say in a water color) and post the images here... just to show what it can do.

i think all of macrumors would be happy to see this...

i'm going to have a play with this later, need to find a sketch book first

 

[VTPete]

Ok,
I decided Steve was a good subject!

Looking around the office, all I could find was a sharpie marker, a pencil and a piece of copier paper. So, I set up the iPad and started drawing. The following took between 10 and 15 minutes. Some of the following are screen shots and some are small photos taken with my iPhone.

First, I put my iPad up on a coffee cup and stack of UFO DVDs:

Next, I chose the image you gave me on the iPad version:

Then, I selected an interesting effect; in this case a kind of comic book. Just to simplify the drawing:

Next, I chose the darkest colors and sketched them with the black sharpie:

Here's a shot I took with my iPhone of me using the app:

When done, the quick sketch looked like this:

That's basically it!
-VTPete

 

[EvanLugh]

alright thats cool you've sold me

 

[VTPete]

alright thats cool you've sold me

Why thank you! I've had a few people who "could never draw" try the app. They were skeptical at first, but after their first drawing were converts! Some people commented that they just like using the image processing functions to create cool effects on photos. (My favorite is "color comic book".)

-Pete

 

[VTPete]

alright thats cool you've sold me

By the way, if anyone would like to post a photo of something else to draw, I'll whip it up and repost it here.
-VTPete

 

[jaywright00]

By the way, if anyone would like to post a photo of something else to draw, I'll whip it up and repost it here.
-VTPete

Alright Pete, since I've been using your app and know how cool it is, I'll throw you an icon for our app, Gameface, which deals in portraiture (well, biographic trivia, really).

Let's see what you can do and I'll shoot the final result to our executive staff.

-Jay

 

[VTPete]

Alright Pete, since I've been using your app and know how cool it is, I'll throw you an icon for our app,

Let's see what you can do and I'll shoot the final result to our executive staff.
-Jay

Jay,

Tossing down the gauntlet, eh? Awesome!
By the way, I know who that person is without any hints. You successfully sucked me into your Game Face and I love it!

I copied your photo to my iPad's camera roll. Step 1 was to zoom in a bit and choose an image style that helped me to identify the key shading. Here are some the the processed images I tried:

First, the original:

Next, a 64 color version:

Next, a comic book version:

Then, a posterized version:

I settled with the 64 color version; even though the image you gave me was grey scale, it did a nice job of moving the images into four distinct shades of grey.

So, I then started to block in the blackest spots with a 6B graphite pencil. Looks like my paper has a bit too much tooth to it; who cares!

After I had put in the blackest blacks, I then went and shaded in the next shade of grey.

Here's what the drawing looks like with just quickly shading in two shades of grey:

After I had those two shades of grey, the key proportions of the drawing are done. That's the hardest part for any artist: How to get the eyes, the mouth and the nose in their proper positions. Once you have that done, you can spend as much or as little fine tuning.

So, I decided to then switch back to the original image and see the finer shading details. I blended and refined a few spots:

Then my wife came down, saw what I was doing and said, "Wow, that's really cool!" I handed her the phone and had her take this photo of me using the app:

A half hour later and I had to get to work. So, I could have spent more time on the hair, etc., but I think this shows you what is possible. Here's where I left it:

Any other takers? Post a photo: This is fun!

-VTPete

 

[jaywright00]

Stamp that picture with a Gameface logo and we're in business.

Actually a school teacher friend of mine saw that and suggested getting the kids to sketch their favorite characters. It would be a great way to learn to draw horses, for example.

 

[VTPete]

You CAN draw portraits! Really, there's an app for that!

Well, Apple was kind enough to approve the new version of Camera Lucida; version 5.0. I rewrote all of the camera interface code to make use of the AVFoundation framework's goodness. So, now it supports all kinds of things like digital zooming, panning, etc.

If you haven't tried it, give it a look (link below). And, as always, if you have a photo you'd like me to draw, send it my way and I'll post the results.

-Pete

Hi all,

I've got this cool app called Camera Lucida. It's a digital version of a optical device that's been around for hundreds of years that allows people to draw whatever they see in front of them.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/camera-lucida/id362499096?mt=8

What it does is to use your iPhone or iPad's camera to superimpose a photo of your choice with your drawing surface.

It's not a program that has you draw on the screen; you actually draw on paper with your favorite medium while looking at your iPhone's screen.

In the past year I've added a lot of great functionality that allows you to do things like posterize the image and draw a certain shade of grey. It's really quite cool; seriously!

If you're into drawing or painting; or have ever wanted to be an artist, you'll be amazed at what you can create by using this app to help out. I've got a really dull (and far too long) video on YouTube that demos the app as it was two versions ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzb7aCCdum4

 

[barnettart50]

Jay,

Tossing down the gauntlet, eh? Awesome!
By the way, I know who that person is without any hints. You successfully sucked me into your Game Face and I love it!

I copied your photo to my iPad's camera roll. Step 1 was to zoom in a bit and choose an image style that helped me to identify the key shading. Here are some the the processed images I tried:

First, the original:

Next, a 64 color version:

Next, a comic book version:

Then, a posterized version:

I settled with the 64 color version; even though the image you gave me was grey scale, it did a nice job of moving the images into four distinct shades of grey.

So, I then started to block in the blackest spots with a 6B graphite pencil. Looks like my paper has a bit too much tooth to it; who cares!

After I had put in the blackest blacks, I then went and shaded in the next shade of grey.

Here's what the drawing looks like with just quickly shading in two shades of grey:

After I had those two shades of grey, the key proportions of the drawing are done. That's the hardest part for any artist: How to get the eyes, the mouth and the nose in their proper positions. Once you have that done, you can spend as much or as little fine tuning.

So, I decided to then switch back to the original image and see the finer shading details. I blended and refined a few spots:

Then my wife came down, saw what I was doing and said, "Wow, that's really cool!" I handed her the phone and had her take this photo of me using the app:

A half hour later and I had to get to work. So, I could have spent more time on the hair, etc., but I think this shows you what is possible. Here's where I left it:

Any other takers? Post a photo: This is fun!

-VTPete

 

[barnettart50]

I just returned from Paris; anyone care to learn from the master Paul Cezanne? BTW, Camera Lucida is going to allow me to return to painting.

Also charcoal pencil and colored pencil drawing! I cannot thank VTPete enough.

Any chance there will be an update that sees "Photos" instead of the defunct iPhoto? Aperture? Lightroom? And why do I see an extension for Dropbox but can't download my images there directly from this great app?

THX 2 anyone whom is able to provide help!

 

[VTPete]

Wow, has it really been almost 4 years since this thread was active? In that time, Camera Lucida has grown tremendously!

Coincidentally, for the first time ever, I've put it on sale today! $.99 instead of $4.99! It's a one day sale only!
-Pete

I just returned from Paris; anyone care to learn from the master Paul Cezanne? BTW, Camera Lucida is going to allow me to return to painting.

Also charcoal pencil and colored pencil drawing! I cannot thank VTPete enough.