Cross Hatching From a Black And White Smooth Shaded Drawing

[JAA]

Say I have a normal, blended-shaded picture in black and white.

 

Is there any function that can convert that shading to cross-hatching?

 

I am guessing it looks for the highest slope of the grey-scale. That's the perpendicular hatch line. Then it does the cross-hatch perpendicular to that for the contour hatching.

 

I can shade normally, but am hopeless at cross-hatching which looks nicer and more striking in some cases.

[Pixey]

@JAA There are a few ideas in this thread here.

[Red ochre]

Scribble (in my pack, link in sig) may help?

[JAA]

Hi, thanks Pixey. I did already see that post. The parallel lines is a great plugin, but does not really do what is meant to be done when cross-hatching in real life.

 

In real life cross hatching, a lines are typically drawn in the shortest path from white areas to deepest black. Ie for a ball lit from the front where the middle is white and the edges are black, the lines would be radial from the centre to the edge. Ie along the slope where the change in white to black is steepest.

 

The you do cross hatching. Think of this as along the contours of equal gradient. In the ball example it would be concentric circles from the middle. However, those contour lines are closer and closer together as is reaches the deepest shadow, ie darkest area.

 

 

[JAA]

Hi Red Ochre.

 

That looks interesting. I will play about with that tomorrow.

 

Its not completely cross hatching like I described in my answer to Pixey, but is getting there.

 

Its past midnight, so I will try it our tomorrow.

 

Thanks Pixey and Red Ochre for your replies.

[Tactilis]

7 hours ago, JAA said:

Its not completely cross hatching like I described

@JAA It would be very helpful if you could post a couple of example pictures showing exactly what you mean.

[Welsh Yellow Cheddar]

@JAA Have you tried the Halftone plugin?  You may need to run it twice on different layers  (horizontal / vertical).

There is also this type of cross hatching but I don't know how to do it.

[JAA]

Thank you for all the replies so far. Sorry for not getting back earlier, but I have not been A1 for a few weeks. I am still not 100% now.

 

As for the art. I am after a really macabre feel and look - old style.

 

I have tried to get the Scribble working, but do not seem to be having much success. I typically get an incoherent load of lines that look nothing like the original picture. I am not sure what settings I am meant to be using.

 

This is the kind of artwork I will be starting with (Note this is not mine)

 

This will be shaded normally. Something I can do.

 

Then I want to cross hatch, something like this (again not mine), but not maybe so dark:

 

 

 

 

This is the type of cross-hatching I am after:

 

Edited May 8 by JAA

[Red ochre]

@JAA Hope you feel better soon.

 

You can only really get something to look hand drawn if it is hand drawn.

I suggest you print out a faint version of your 'artwork' on paper, (perhaps just outlines) then draw the hatching by hand, then scan the image.
It will take time, patience and a steady hand but mistakes are so easy to correct these days - no scrapping off Indian ink with a scalpel when the pen slips!
... just correct that area on the computer and re-do it.