What is Da Vinci Eye?
What is Augmented Reality?
Getting Started: Get to Know Da Vinci Eye!
– Home Page Tab
– Draw Button (Press this to select your own photo and start drawing!)
– Challenges
– Inspiration Photo of the Day
– Helpful Products
– Instructional Videos
– Featured Step by Step Lessons
– Featured Drawings
– Learn Tab: Step by Step Lessons for Beginners
– Saved Tab: Resume drawings anytime
Social Section *Not Required to Use the App!*
– Profile Page
– Privacy
– How to Create a Profile
– What are Inspiration Photos?
– How to Upload your Own Artwork or Inspiration Photo
– How to Start Drawing an Inspiration Photo
– Feed Tab: see what others have created!
Drawing Modes
– Classic Mode
– AR Mode
Tools
– Camera and Focus Lock
– Strobe
– Grid
– Torch
– Filters
– Breakdown
– Time-lapse Recording
Troubleshooting: FAQs
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What is Da Vinci Eye?
Da Vinci Eye is the essential digital tool for non-digital artists!
It is an app alternative to a physical art projector, lightbox, tracing paper, or carbon paper. Using Augmented Reality, artists can virtually project digital pictures onto physical surfaces to trace them.
Da Vinci Eye is used for a variety of purposes like nailing proportions before going into fine details of a drawing or painting, transferring lettering to fabric or cookies, and in more advanced use cases comparing colors and shades of a reference image to your artwork.
What is Augmented Reality?
Using AR, Da Vinci Eye takes an image and overlays it on top of your phone’s camera feed. Your phone will anchor the image you want to draw to an object in the real world. This means that you can move your phone around and you don’t have to worry that your drawing will be messed up. As long as you anchor is in the same place you can instantly resume drawing or paintings without having to place your image back in the same spot.
Getting Started: Get to Know Da Vinci Eye!
Home Page
– Draw Button: The red button located on the top right portion of your screen. Click on this to choose your own photos and start drawing!
– Challenges: A fun way to get to know the app! These are the icons on top of the Home Screen. Complete these challenges and you’ll be a Da Vinci Eye pro in no time!
– Today’s Inspiration: Need drawing suggestions? Try drawing our inspiration of the day and see how others recreated and interpreted the same photo.
– Featured Products: Product recommendations that are helpful yet inexpensive to use with Da Vinci Eye.
– Featured Videos: New to Da Vinci Eye? Scroll through our Instructional Videos on how to use the app and all its features!
– Featured Lessons: If you are starting out and want to learn how to draw, we have tons of step-by-step lessons that are easy to follow. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can learn through repetitive tracing.
– Featured Drawings: You can choose to share your work through the app’s social feed. We periodically check the submissions throughout the day, and if there are any that stand out, then we feature it. If your artwork hasn’t been featured, that does not mean that it’s not good! It just means we didn’t see it. We are only a team of 2 right now but we do try to check as often as we can.
Learn Tab
If you are starting out and want to learn how to draw, we have tons of step-by-step lessons that are easy to follow. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can learn through repetitive tracing.
Saved Tab
Resume your drawings anytime! Every image you have started drawing will be saved here.
To resume a drawing, click on “Continue” below the image.
To delete, swipe left on the image and click “Delete.”
Social Section
Profile Page
This is the social part of Da Vinci Eye. You can, but are not required to, create a profile page including your username and website/portfolio. This section lets you find pictures you might want to draw that other people have uploaded (these are called Inspiration Photos), you can also share your own artwork if you like. This is a great way to get discovered by other artists on the platform and to share your work with DVE’s creative community.
Privacy
The drawing part of the app is completely private. Any picture that you choose to draw stays on your device, it does not get uploaded to a cloud or server of any kind for any reason, and myself or anyone else cannot see those photos. It is not attached to the social part of the app. The only way to share a picture with other people through the app is by going to “Profile” and then “Add”.
Not ready to share your work? Set your profile on Private! No one will see anything that you post but you.
What are Inspiration Photos?
We know how difficult it can be to find images that inspire us to draw. With Da Vinci Eye, users can share their own photos that other users can draw. This can be a photo of your pet, a cool food shot you took, or a selfie! As long as the photo is indeed yours and you are allowing others to draw it, you can upload and share it!
How Do I Create a Profile?
-Select the Profile tab on the bottom of the screen
-There will be a prompt asking if you want to create a profile. Click “Create Profile”
-Enter the username you would like to use, website (if any) and choose whether to have your profile Public vs Private. (When your profile is private, no one will be able to see any of your submitted pictures or profile. When you are public, only pictures you choose to share will be visible to other artists)
-To add a photo, click on “Change Profile Picture,” select the photo you want to use then hit “Choose”
-Hit “Save”.
How Do I Upload My Own Artwork or Inspiration Photo?
– From the Profile tab, click on the “+ Add” button on the top left corner of the screen
– Select the type of image you are uploading (drawing vs inspiration photo)
– Select the image and click “Submit”
– Drawings will be shown in the “Artwork” tab and inspiration photo will be in the “Inspiration” tab!
How to Start Drawing an Inspiration Photo
– Once you find an inspiration you want to draw, you can click on the camera icon below it, and select “Draw Now”.
– Hit “Start Drawing” and choose the drawing mode you would like to use!
– Pro Tip: To be sure your drawing is linked to the right inspiration photo, you must click on the photo’s camera icon to upload your drawing/start drawing!
Feed
-See what other Da Vinci Eye artists have created or find a photo to draw!
-You can even filter what images you’d like to see: Newest Drawings, Featured Drawings, Inspiration Photos, Featured Inspiration Photos.
Drawing Modes
Classic Mode
*With Classic mode, it’s important that your device does not accidentally move. If you are using a tall glass, its best if your phone has a case because if not, it will slide around. If using a phone stand, we highly discourage the use gooseneck style stands as this type of stand constantly wobbles making it very difficult to draw.*
- Open the Da Vinci Eye app to the Home Screen
- Press the “Draw” button on the top right corner of the Home Screen
- Select a picture you want to draw, then select “Classic Mode“
- Place your phone on a tall glass (or a phone stand)
- Position your glass on top of your paper
- Press the “Move” button on the bottom left corner of the screen and adjust your picture to be the right size and position you would like on the paper.
Pro Tip: By default, the “Picture” option is selected but you can also select “Camera” to move the camera instead of the picture! - Press the “Move” button again to lock the image in place
- Press the “Opacity” button and adjust how transparent you would like the reference image to be
- Look at your phone’s screen; you should see your image and the paper at the same time.
- Now you can start tracing the picture!
AR Mode
*With AR Mode, you can move your phone around and you don’t have to worry that your drawing will be messed up. As long as you anchor is in the same place you can instantly resume drawing or painting without having to place your image back in the same spot.*
- Open the Da Vinci Eye app to the Home Screen
- Press the “Draw” button on the top right corner of the Home Screen
- Select a picture you want to draw, then select “AR Mode“
- Now it’s time to create your anchor! Press “Tools” > “AR” > “Anchors” then hit the “+” sign. Follow the instructions on the screen to make your anchor
- Tape your anchor (so it stays in place) to the top part of your paper
- Place your phone on a tall glass (or a phone stand). Now, if your anchor is in view of your camera, your reference image will be a superimposed relative to its position.
- To position your reference image on the paper, you should pinch the screen to bring the full camera feed into view. Then press the “Move” button to move your image relative to the anchor. You can enlarge, shrink and rotate the image.
Pro Tip: By default, the “Picture” option is selected but you can also select “Camera” to move the camera instead of the picture! - Press the “Move” button again to lock the image in place
- Press the “Opacity” button and adjust how transparent you would like the reference image to be
- Look at your phone’s screen; you should see your image and the paper at the same time.
- Now you can start tracing the picture!
TOOLS
After selecting a drawing mode (Classic or AR), you will have the option to use several tools to assist you with creating your artwork. You can find these by clicking on Tools on the upper right corner of your screen.
Camera:
Front Camera: switches device to opposite camera view
Pause: You can use this to compare your drawing to your reference image
Focus Lock: Use this option to lock the focus where you want. In AR mode, press Tools> AR> Lock Focus.
Strobe: Activates onscreen alternation between subject photo and camera’s view of paper. This provides artist a second method of comparison while sketching.
ON/OFF selector button
Speed: slider controls frequency of alternation
Grid: Superimposes grid of parallel horizontal and vertical lines on the subject photo
ON/OFF selector button
Color: [+/-] button selects eight optional colors to contrast against onscreen view
Grid Opacity: slider selects brightness of grid against subject photo
Torch: Turning this on will activate your device’s flashlight. This is useful for when you need extra lighting while drawing
Torch: ON/OFF selector button
Brightness Slider: use this to dim or brighten the light
Filters: Opens a screen displaying twenty-five types of photo modifications. Many of these in turn have sliders which further adjust each class.
Choose filter and hit “Apply Filter”
ON/OFF selector button. Applies or removes chosen filter to image.
Breakdown: Breaks down your image in shades to make it easier to draw. This tool assists the artist in visualizing their subject in progressive phases. See DVE tutorial video, “Live! Breakdown Mode / Step-by-step “ for additional user hints!
ON/OFF selector.
ON replaces screen with subject photo accompanied by options:
Cutout: ON/OFF selector offers two styles of visualizing the subject photo.
Steps: [+/-] selector offers many subdivisions of previsualization. We recommend a relatively small number (4-5 steps will work best!)
Exposure: Use this slider to adjust the exposure level you want
Color: [+/-] button offers four choices to contrast against onscreen view
Record:
ON/OFF selector: This opens instructions on how to make a digital recording of work in progress. Tap the “Start Recording” button to begin recording or Cancel to return to the Tools control bar.
Hit the red button or the ON/OFF selector again to stop recording. Choose your desired video length and hit Export to save it to your phone!
Troubleshooting
FAQs