
        Hey ho.  Just Cthulu here professing a justification of what you are
about to see below (or rather, in the next few files.)  You may notice that
the two following ANSI files look like blatantly GIF2ANS'd pictures.  There
are several things to keep in mind, however.  To start off, Questor did draw
these by hand, using a square ratio (80x50 mode which GIF2ANS does NOT save
to).  In addition, GIF2ANS will not convert to ansis over 100 lines, both of
which these pictures are.  If you seek proof, there are preliminary sketches
of the Christy Turling pic in the archive QT_HAND.ZIP.

        There is little we can do to convince you further if you refuse to 
admit that they are genuine, but we offer this in the manner of logical 
compensation.  Surely one with the talents of Questor would not need to resort
to GIF2ANS.  Look at the preceeding picture and his skill will be apparent.
He has no claim in the art scene and refuses to draw advertisements for
anyone, meaning that what he draws is intended for his own pleasure and not
yours.  If you think that it's ugly, well, good luck finding a way to render
into ANSI format so completely a photograph in a way which is more visually
appealing in 80x25 mode.  Yes, we admit, you will need to probably view the
ansis in a high-resolution viewing mode, but when you see the end result,
the accomplishment that Questor has made should be apparent.  His skill and
curiosity has resulted in a creation that until now would have seemed
impossible without the aid of a computer.

        Thus, it is in keeping with the knowledge that some people will remain
fast in the belief that the pics are scanned and that others may begrudge us
that but still fail to see the point... he did it because it was there.  A
graduate of the Integrity school of art, surely those of you who were around
back then will remember the greyscale experiments that Darkforce was making
at that time, while tutoring the other members, including this one Questor.
If anyone would be capable of doing by hand what a program did, it would only
be a member of Intgrity.

        Well, Integrity has been dead for a long time, so he's had a lot of
time to perfect his technique.  From a technical point of view, here's how
he prepared the image before beginning to ansify it.  He wanted to draw in
greyscale because there are twice as many shades to utilize (blacks, whites,
and both greys) but not so many as to use the entire palette (that would be
mind-boggling) so he photocopied these lovely ladies from magazines on a
black and white photocopier with the contrast up real high so he could get
an idea of the outlines he wanted to draw around.  Once he did that, it was
simply a matter of filling it in with the proper greyscale shading, bit by
bit.

        In conclusion, here are some of his own words regarding these ansis
in his own uncaring defense, should you still seek a quarrel with these
items.

...

date: 12:42 am  Mon Dec 23, 1996       number : 13 of 16
from: Questor                          He said: Private Mail
to  : Cthulu                           refer #: None
subj: QT-ANSIS.ZIP                     replies: None

hey, Cthulu.... i've left for twilight.... just kidding... uh... here're a
couple of ansis i've been working on over the vacation...  i don't know if
you'll want to use them or not...  they're not your conventional comic
rips...  they're a bit....  abstract?  i don't really know...

they're reminiscent of the b&w stuff Darkforce used to do.. i'm sort
of experimenting a bit with doing ansis only in shades of grey.... i find
them the most versatile... they're both in 80x50 mode.. you should be happy
that someone's actually using that mode.... i like it for drawing... it's a
higher resolution than 80x25 (though, i use the term 'high-resolution'
loosely)... the only problem is, they're twice the amount of blocks to put
in.. :(
 
i was trying to see how accurate a reproduction i could do with the greys and
text blocks... i think i'm going insane.... i probably wore out the
alt-v keys flipping between textmode and vga mode.... ansi was getting a bit
boring, so i figured this would be a bit of a challenge... i even tried
anti-aliasing in text mode! god, i really _AM_ insane.. :)
 
i did qt-dpest.ans awhile ago... it's my first try at b&w... it's
not bad, i guess... but it doesn't look too accurate.... there isn't enough
contrast... the second one looks pretty good... i used up my buddy's toner
printing the original image out nice and dark :).... uhm...
 
use them if you want to.. you don't have to.... the art scene can be fickle
about stuff like this..... people don't seem to like anything that deviates
too far from the norm... oh well... their loos.... i personally think these
two ansis are better than my comic rips... i think after i finish off that
joint with mage et al. i will just do these kinds of ansi.... yeah..... i
think i'll do an ansi of myself next.. :) well... i seem to be blathering on
a bit here..... i think i'll go slit my throat now.... bye...

The following has been attached:

Filename.Ext Bytes   hh:mm:ss
------------ ------- --------
QT-ANSIS.ZIP   39890 00:00:27

...
and further discussion...
...

i don't really care how you release them... i've also adapted the 
style for color pics too (the over shaded sort.... less f4's, replaced with 
shade blocks.... black space covered with f1's..)... i remember back with 
integrity, inquisitor was replaces the f4's with f3's, and eerie was replacing
the f7/f8's with f1's... i liked that style.... and 80x50 is better for 
ansi... square aspect..

C> Keep talking..
C> 
C> this kind of background is important in case we need anyone else to back up 
C> the claims of this peculiar integrity hobby.

haha.... integrity hobby, eh? yeah... i guess it's kind of peculiar... but 
then again, most integrity artists were fairly jaded and bored with the ansi 
'standard' then..

C> Hey, can I have a few files of outlines, while we're at it?
C> I want to release these with as little fuss as possible.

sure... i don't think i kept any of the uh... qt-dpest.ans... i wasn't too 
particularly pleased with that one... but i kept a few progressions of the 
other one... i think i've got 2 or 3 of them... let em rename them to some 
more.... explainatory filenames and zip em... ok... got it... uhm... i 
wouldn't bother releasing them if there isn't any uproar... cuz i'm not sure 
if anyone has tried the edge detection/outine thing yet... 

...

those progressions are in the file QT_HAND.ZIP, as noted earlier.

well, that's all we have to say about that 8)
SAUCE00Justification of the pics below    Cthulu / Questor    MISTFUL OF STEEGRIS 19970113[                                    