By Prof. Jose R. Buitrago, assistant professor, University of Georgia School of Environmental Design

Fig. 20

The Standard Sepia Color Print

The sepia color or brown line is another ?EUR??,,??old print technology?EUR??,,?? format that many designers use to create the nostalgic feel of an old document. Like the blue print, this format is also easy to create.

Fig. 21

Import your CAD drawing into Adobe Photoshop CS2 as a PDF. [Open Adobe Photoshop CS2. Under File menu, select Open and browse until you find your Adobe PDF drawing, then hit the OK button, which opens the Import PDF pop menu window. There, on Select, choose Page, Thumbnail?EUR??,,?(R)Size Fit the page, Crop to?EUR??,,?(R)Bounding Box, Resolution to 300 dpi or larger, Mode to RGB, and Bit Depth to 16 bit. Hit OK. Your drawing should carry the same paper size dimensions of your CAD drawing. Under the top menu option, Image, select Canvas Size and match the canvas size to the size of your original drawing. There is a small percentage distortion in changing the AutoCAD file into a PDF and then into Photoshop CS2.]

Fig. 22

Second, create a new layer and label it background. Rename the PDF drawing layer to Line Drawing. As stated in the Jan. column, this simple step allows us to quickly recognize where thing are located. Next, make the background layer the active layer and turn off the line drawing layer. From the tool bar, click on ?EUR??,,??set background color.?EUR??,,?? This should launch the ?EUR??,,??color picker?EUR??,,?? window. Scroll up or down on the color bar to get the tan or light brown schemes tones and value. Select the tan color that resembles the background light tan color of a sepia print, and then hit OK. See Fig. 20. Using the rectangular marquee tool, select the entire background layer. Select the bucket tool and select the tan color from the background color, and click inside the field previously selected with the rectangular marquee tool. Make sure the background layer is active. This action will fill the background layer with a solid tone of tan color. After completion, deselect the area. See Fig. 21. Remember that the background color layer is under the line drawing layer, so make sure that your layers order is correct, otherwise the line drawing might end underneath the solid field of tan.

 

Fig. 23

Like in last month?EUR??,,??s blue print exercise, you might also want to consider and experiment with the gradient tool, which lets you create a fade out feel on the background. Use the gradient editor and experiment with several color schemes combinations such as a dark and light tone of blue and the circular gradient. See Fig. 22.

Fig. 24

Now, turn the Line Drawing layer on and make it the active layer. To change the lines from black/grey to dark brown color you must go to the top tool bar; under Image ?EUR??,,?? Adjustments ?EUR??,,?? Hue/Saturation. See Fig. 23. Using the Eyedropper tool, you must first select the black line. Note that in the Select Background/Foreground color tool of the tool bar, the square preview turns black. Next, check Colorize and Preview icons boxes. In the Hue/Saturation pop-up window change the Hue field to 11, Saturation to 100, and Lightness to +31. This will make change the color of the lines from black to tan color. See figure number 24. You may also try different tones of tan by scrolling to the left or right on each one.

Fig. 25

To age the looks even further, try using the Dodge or Burn tools to create highlights or dark spots along the edges. Make sure the background layer is the active layer, and experiment with the style of brush, size, range and exposure parameters.

Fig. 26

Try using the ?EUR??,,??drippy water?EUR??,,?? brush from the wet media brush styles in combination with the Dodge tool to create the effect of wet storage damage. See Fig. 25.

Fig. 27

Note: The default brush setting of Adobe Photoshop only shows some the limited basic brush styles. You might need to ?EUR??,,??load?EUR??,,?? the full set of brush styles in order to diversify your rendering options. To load the brush styles, select the brush icon, click on the arrow, and scroll down to load brushes. See Fig. 26.

Fig. 28

Ones you reach the desired ?EUR??,,??sepia print?EUR??,,?? feel save the drawing as an active Adobe Photoshop drawing, then save a copy as the ?EUR??,,??final drawing.?EUR??,,?? The last one is the copy that you need to flatten all layers to create one simple drawing. See Fig. 27. The first one you keep as a back up copy in case that further revisions are needed.

Fig. 29

It is highly recommended you print your drawing using Adobe PDF as well. This will turn the drawing into an easy format to print, plus reduce the file size considerably. Make sure that under ?EUR??,,??Print ?EUR??,,?? Properties?EUR??,,?? you select the correct page layout, paper size, color print. Also, and under the Adobe PDF Setting, select High Quality Print. See Fig. 28. Fig. 29 shows the finished product.

Prof. Jose Buitrago, assistant professor, University of Georgia School of Environmental Design. Prof. Buitrago has extensive work experience in hurricane restoration in San Juan, Puerto Rico and field knowledge in Hispanic-Caribbean landscape architecture history, economy, ecology, cultures and traditions. His current teaching includes courses in advanced computer graphics and desktop publishing techniques and their application to environmental design projects. Auto CAD, Photo Shop Elements, Sketchup, In Design, and Power Point. He also teaches landscape architecture design theory courses and hand graphics. Buitrago has a BS in landscape architecture from Pennsylvania State University and an MLA from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.