How to make a stone drawing
- Select a set of stones to last for a year.
- Find a text for the day.
- Arrange stones on light table.
- Turn on the light table.
- Photograph the light table from above. (Set camera resolution to 1280 x 960.)
- Download camera image to computer (Macintosh System 9.2.2) Save it to a folder labled:
- camera downloads
- 0-stones
- June
- Rename the image with the day as title of the photo. E.g. June 02/05
- Open the image in Photoshop.
- Crop.
- Delete the background.
- Select the stones.
- Use paint bucket to make the stones as black as possible. (Create a black and white image with no gradations.)
- Save.
- Resave as a Pict file on the desktop.
- Open Illustrator. (Illustrator 5.5)
- Select auto-trace tool. Trace around each stone.
- Select all. Copy all.
- Open a new Illustrator file. Paste the image into the new file.
- Select all. Move the transparency toolbar to 33%.
- Type the date in the lower right corner using the format 06/02/05 (June 2, 2005).
- Select the type. Move the transparency tool to 33%.
- Save the file as stones_6_02_2005.
- Print on vellum. (This is the daily drawing.)
- File print out in box for daily drawings.
- Repeat every day for one year.