Scratchboard Drawing Effects
When it comes to drawing, there's nothing I like
more than crisp black lines on a white background. Color drawings
are fun and powerful, but there's nothing like the simplicity of
a good old black and white illustration.
The problem is that most drawings that are computer
generated look as if they were computer generated. These days,
most professionals can tell if a layout was done in QuarkXPress
or InDesign, and a lot of us can guess pretty accurately whether
an illustration was done in FreeHand or Illustrator. Determining
whether a drawing was done with conventional media or on a computer
is a piece of cake.
So I got to thinking about scratchboard techniques,
and how easy it would be to do on the computer. With custom brushes
that have been available in FreeHand since version 10, all the
tools are there - you only have to use them. 
The basic premise to this style of drawing is
to create a handful of brushes (see Figure 1, I made three different
brushes and flipped two horizontally to make life easier) and work
with blends. From there, it's a matter of looking
for the opportunity to make a blend that will create the illusion
of form, light, and
shade.
Figure 1.
All the brushes used for the
scratchboard drawingon this page.
What's a Brush?
When it comes to vector drawing, a brush is a graphic
shape that becomes attached to a path. The brush shape can be a
single element that stretches from the beginning of the path to
the end (called a “paint” application), or it can be
applied as a “spray” whereby the graphic element is
repeated over and over - similar to a dashed line. The illustration
that leads this article was “painted,” but we'll get
to the sprayed style later in the article. In FreeHand you can create
a set of brushes - say, a variation of balloons, blades of grass,
bubbles, rocks... you name it - and the variants used to make a
random graphic pattern.
Brushes are easy to make, but the dialog boxes
can be a little overwhelming when you first open them. After an
hour or two you'll be finding the need for custom brushes in half
of your projects.
A conventional paint brush can be loaded with many
different colors of paint or ink, but a FreeHand brush is pretty
much stuck with whatever colors were involved in its creation. You
can't change the color of the brush without editing the brush, so
keep your wits about you when you're working out the details of
your project. For instance, the lead illustration shows white strokes
on a black field. The original drawing was done with black strokes
on a white field. Using the standard Find & Replace dialog box
has no effect on brush strokes. Therefore, in order to invert the
colors, I would have had to edit each of the five brushes by changing
their colors from black to white. Instead, for this example, it
was much simpler to invert the image in Fireworks.
Creating a Brush - Quick and Dirty
The brush creation process is four simple steps:
1. Draw something - it can be simple or complicated;
lines or gradient fills. (see Figure 2
)
Figure
2. A brush made from two circles
that were blended in 6 steps.
2. Copy the object to the pasteboard (Command-C/Control-C).
3. Choose Modify>Brush>Create Brush.
4. Select either the Convert or Copy button in
the dialog box that appears. (see Figure 3)
Figure
3. The Create Brush dialog
box.
5.
Name the new brush and set any attributes you need. (see Figure
4).
Figure
4. Many variables can be set in the Edit Brush dialog
boxes. The above figure is for Paint application; the lower figure
will make a Spray use of the brush.
That's sort of like the way Monty Python gave
instructions on how to play the flute: “You blow in this end, and
run your fingers up and down the other end.” Here's a little more
detail - probably more than you wanted.
Creating a Brush - the Dirty Details
First of all, a brush is nothing but a symbol
that is attached to a path. Brushes can be found in the Library
with other symbols, and have the same use and editing rules as
symbols. You shouldn't create an overly complicated graphic for
a brush. At some point you will want the brush to do something
that it can't, and you'll be frustrated. Instead, create multiple
brushes that are similar, but different enough to be useful. Then
draw paths that can use your specialized brushes efficiently.
When you are stumped at the Convert or Copy dialog
box, here's your reasoning: Convert turns the graphic into a symbol,
leaving nothing immediately editable on the drawing. You can edit
the graphic that makes up a Converted brush, but to do so, you
must select the brush from the Library and choose Edit. A new document
window will open with only the brush in it. Make any changes you
want and just close the window. The symbol is updated, and so is
every instance of the brush in your document - including the graphic
you used to create the brush. Copy leaves the graphic alone and
creates a brush/symbol based on a copy of the graphic. If you edit
the original graphic (for instance to create a variation for a
new brush), it won't affect any of the brushes you've already applied.
If you change the symbol, it won't change the original graphic,
so you're covered both ways. If you're not sure, opt for Copy.
Edit Brush
The heavy options come when you get to the Edit
Brush window. It appears when you first create a brush, and again
if you choose Edit from the Options drop-down menu in the Stroke
inspector. In the bottom of Figure 4 you can see that I've selected
the Spray option and changed many attributes. I won't bore you with
the details of what Spacing, Angle, Offset, and Scaling do - their
names pretty much tell it like it is. The important thing to remember
is that every drawing is unique. Every time you place a custom brush
stroke, it's going to be on a unique path or shape. Therefore, you
have to experiment. After awhile, you catch on to the settings you
want for a given instance of a given brush.
Applying a Brush Stroke
It's too simple. Select any FreeHand object that
has a path. That's anything that you can draw, including text that
has been converted to paths. Click the Stroke item in the Object
inspector (it usually shows the stroke width and color), and choose
Brush from the drop-down menu (it's set to Basic as default). Then
you gain another drop-down menu that contains all the brushes you
have in the current document. Choose a brush style, and the selected
object now has the chosen brush stroke. If you don't like it, choose
another style. In fact, with FreeHand MX, you're not stuck with
just one stroke - you can add more by repeating the process. There
are some pretty cool effects you can create that way.
If the brush is set to Paint, and the path is
closed, the stroke will completely surround the object. That can
make the brush too skinny (or maybe too fat). If that happens,
open the Options menu in the Stroke inspector window and choose
edit. Adjust the Scaling settings to suit. When you click OK, you
get a new window that asks if you want to make a global change
to all the instances of the brush in use, or create a new brush.
The decision is yours - if you've used the brush in several places,
the global change might throw a monkey wrench in the drawing.
Changing a Brush
It was covered briefly above, but let's say that
you want to change the color in about half of the instances of
the brush you used. Open the Library; select the brush symbol;
duplicate the symbol and make your modifications. Then select the
entire modified symbol and choose Modify>Brush>Create Brush
- just as you would if you were starting a brush from scratch.
Now select the brush strokes that you wish to change, and choose
the new brush stroke from the Stroke inspector.
Things that Drive You Nuts
The functioning of the new Object inspector panel
in FreeHand MX can frustrate even the most seasoned FreeHand veteran.
It's no exception when it comes to brushes. When you're drawing,
you usually want to see what you're drawing, and how the paths
are laying out. To do that, you either have to have a stroke of
some width and color applied, or be comfortable working in Keyline
view. I opt for the former. You may decide to click the Add Stroke
button in order to apply the brush. When you do, you'll get the
brush, but the original stroke will also appear. To get rid of
the original, select it in the Stroke window and click the Delete
icon in the top right corner of the inspector.
Let's say you want the original stroke and the new brush stroke. In order to arrange them, you
can move one above the other in the hierarchical menu in the
Stroke window.
Okay, you have that down pat - what about the weird
things that happen in sharp corners? What weird things? Take a look
at Figure 5. The black stroke is the Default Paint brush that comes
with FreeHand. The mitering that is set causes the points of the
star shape to be squared off. The colored stroke is a variation
of the brush used back in Figures 2 and 4 (only the colors have
been changed). Notice the odd and even overlapping that results
in strange gaps and holes. That's not anything I can live with,
so this brush would be an unacceptable choice for me - I'd have
to experiment to come up with a better solution.
Figure 5. Watch
out for the Odd and Even overlapping and mitering when you’re
working with brushes.
Now, to Scratchboard Techniques
Fine. You've made a drawing and now you want to
make it look as if it were done in scratchboard. If you want to
make white brushes and draw on a black background, that's fine.
I prefer to work in a positive atmosphere and invert the image later.
I also choose the brush shape (with the Pointer tool selected) before
I start drawing so I can get a feeling for what the brush is going
to do for the modeling. To provide the modeling, draw a path that
conforms to the shape at a terminal point of the shape, and either
clone and move that path, or draw another path at the other terminal
point. You can draw as many intermediate paths as necessary to mold
the shape of your object, but keep the space between paths roughly
the same. Create a blend from the paths, and adjust the number of
steps to suit your taste. If the shape you're modeling has compound
curves, you can draw a path that follows the length of the blend,
then attach the blend to the path. With simple manipulation of the
blend/path, you can get pretty close to just about any shape. Figure
6 shows my final drawing. Any guess as to what this thing is? It's
a 12-Volt gizmo that you plug into your car's cigarette lighter
socket. Now you can plug in your cell phone and electric commuter
mug at the same time. Lights in the front tell you if the car's
battery is running low so you can unplug something.
Figure
6. The original scratchboard drawing before inverting the
colors.
Summary
So now you know just about all you need to know
to create drawings that don't look computer generated. Make one
and email it to me.
