Csplk/THE.ASCII.ART.EMPORIUM · Datasets at Hugging Face

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was located within the grid.

There was many ways of doing this, but I opted for the following
rectangle (10 x 5 characters):

1.2.3.4.5.
2.A.B.C.D.
3.E.F.G.H.
4.I.J.K.L.
5.M.N.O.P.

This rectangle was then replicated horizontally and vertically
until an area the size of an 8.5" x 11" page was filled up. I
later decided to replace the periods by spaces to "lighten" the
grid. This created an electronic grid which looked like this:

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4
2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C
3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G
4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K
5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4
2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C
3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G
4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K
5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O

The characters 1 to 5 produced horizontal and vertical guidelines.
With these guidelines, I could quickly locate the approximate area
of the grid that I wanted to work on. To pinpoint the exact
location, I relied on the letters A to P which appeared only once
inside each rectangle.

Of course, the electronic grid alone was not very useful until I
could somehow relate it to the drawing. To do so, I printed out
the grid and then photocopied it on an acetate for reusability.
Then, whenever I wanted to work on a picture, I taped a photocopy
of it to the back of the acetate and brought up the electronic grid
on the screen. By the intermediary of the grid, I automatically
had a relationship between the picture on paper and the screen.

TIP: If you ever print a grid on an acetate, make sure to cover the
acetate with clear tape afterwards to prevent your fingers
from eroding the toner. I learned the hard way.

Now, back to Mona. You may find the discussion a little difficult
to follow at times without a picture, so either find a copy of the
Mona Lisa or print out this file.

In search of a decent reproduction of the Mona Lisa I went to the
closest library and found an excellent example on page 25 of the
book "Leonard de Vinci" published by McGraw-Hill in 1974. The
picture measured about 9.5" x 12" and was in full colour.

Next, I photocopied the picture. The lowest darkness setting gave
the best result, but was still a little bit too dark in certain
areas to distinguish some of the lines. Before addressing that
problem, I decided to cut the photocopy so that the resulting
picture could fit in 55 lines by 78 columns. This was
approximately double the height of the head and was wide enough to
show a large portion of both shoulders.

To make the barely discernable lines more visible, I highlighted
them with a blue pen. I made sure to draw those lines about one
sixteenth of an inch thick so they would be clearly visible.
Experience had taught me that very fine lines were often too
difficult to distinguish from a dark background once the grid was
superimposed on the picture. The affected lines were: the lines
between veil and hair, hair and background, chin and throat, and
the lines on each side of the face and on each side of the arched
garment extending to her left shoulder (referred to as the shawl in
the rest of this document). While I was at it, I also highlighted
the contours of the lips, nose and eyes in the same manner. I then
taped the touched up photocopy behind the acetate which had the
grid.

The next step was to load the electronic version of the grid in my
favourite word processor (WordPerfect). Before starting work, I
decided to represent the dark areas of the picture with an "8" (I'm
sure you guessed that), the shawl with an "I" and the veil with an
"8" if it was covering any hair and with an "I" if it was not (or
to show its border in the hair). I chose those characters since
they contrasted very well: it was easy to distinguish a line of
I's in an area filled with 8's.

Then, I determined which character of the acetate corresponded to
the top of her left shoulder and located that character on the
electronic grid. While holding the acetate in my left hand and
marking my position on it with my thumb, I delimited the contour
(only one character wide) around the bottom of the picture (counter
clockwise) up to her right shoulder by replacing the characters of
the grid with 8's except for the ends of the shawl which needed
I's.

I then continued up the picture, line by line, while overwriting
the grid's characters with spaces until I got to the first
character delimiting the border of Mona's hair or veil, as
determined from the acetate. At that point, I typed one of four
characters: "8", "d", "`" or "," depending on which one
corresponded best to the dark portion of the picture at that

was located within the grid.

There was many ways of doing this, but I opted for the following

rectangle (10 x 5 characters):

1.2.3.4.5.

2.A.B.C.D.

3.E.F.G.H.

4.I.J.K.L.

5.M.N.O.P.

This rectangle was then replicated horizontally and vertically

until an area the size of an 8.5" x 11" page was filled up. I

later decided to replace the periods by spaces to "lighten" the

grid. This created an electronic grid which looked like this:

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4

2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C

3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G

4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K

5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4

2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C D 2 A B C

3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G H 3 E F G

4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K L 4 I J K

5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O P 5 M N O

The characters 1 to 5 produced horizontal and vertical guidelines.

With these guidelines, I could quickly locate the approximate area

of the grid that I wanted to work on. To pinpoint the exact

location, I relied on the letters A to P which appeared only once

inside each rectangle.

Of course, the electronic grid alone was not very useful until I

could somehow relate it to the drawing. To do so, I printed out

the grid and then photocopied it on an acetate for reusability.

Then, whenever I wanted to work on a picture, I taped a photocopy

of it to the back of the acetate and brought up the electronic grid

on the screen. By the intermediary of the grid, I automatically

had a relationship between the picture on paper and the screen.

TIP: If you ever print a grid on an acetate, make sure to cover the

acetate with clear tape afterwards to prevent your fingers

from eroding the toner. I learned the hard way.

Now, back to Mona. You may find the discussion a little difficult

to follow at times without a picture, so either find a copy of the

Mona Lisa or print out this file.

In search of a decent reproduction of the Mona Lisa I went to the

closest library and found an excellent example on page 25 of the

book "Leonard de Vinci" published by McGraw-Hill in 1974. The

picture measured about 9.5" x 12" and was in full colour.

Next, I photocopied the picture. The lowest darkness setting gave

the best result, but was still a little bit too dark in certain

areas to distinguish some of the lines. Before addressing that

problem, I decided to cut the photocopy so that the resulting

picture could fit in 55 lines by 78 columns. This was

approximately double the height of the head and was wide enough to

show a large portion of both shoulders.

To make the barely discernable lines more visible, I highlighted

them with a blue pen. I made sure to draw those lines about one

sixteenth of an inch thick so they would be clearly visible.

Experience had taught me that very fine lines were often too

difficult to distinguish from a dark background once the grid was

superimposed on the picture. The affected lines were: the lines

between veil and hair, hair and background, chin and throat, and

the lines on each side of the face and on each side of the arched

garment extending to her left shoulder (referred to as the shawl in

the rest of this document). While I was at it, I also highlighted

the contours of the lips, nose and eyes in the same manner. I then

taped the touched up photocopy behind the acetate which had the

grid.

The next step was to load the electronic version of the grid in my

favourite word processor (WordPerfect). Before starting work, I

decided to represent the dark areas of the picture with an "8" (I'm

sure you guessed that), the shawl with an "I" and the veil with an

"8" if it was covering any hair and with an "I" if it was not (or

to show its border in the hair). I chose those characters since

they contrasted very well: it was easy to distinguish a line of

I's in an area filled with 8's.

Then, I determined which character of the acetate corresponded to

the top of her left shoulder and located that character on the

electronic grid. While holding the acetate in my left hand and

marking my position on it with my thumb, I delimited the contour

(only one character wide) around the bottom of the picture (counter

clockwise) up to her right shoulder by replacing the characters of

the grid with 8's except for the ends of the shawl which needed

I's.

I then continued up the picture, line by line, while overwriting

the grid's characters with spaces until I got to the first

character delimiting the border of Mona's hair or veil, as

determined from the acetate. At that point, I typed one of four

characters: "8", "d", "`" or "," depending on which one

corresponded best to the dark portion of the picture at that