Rate the instructions: How to make a Camera Lucida

In general, we think that the instruction “How to make a Camera Lucida” cannot be considered as very helpful. There are certain positive aspects but the negative ones are predominant. First of all, the heading of the instruction is misleading because it only mentions how to build a Camera Lucida but not how to draw with it which is explained in the second paragraph. Therefore the heading should be changed into “ How to make a Camera Lucida and how to draw with it”. The structure of the two paragraphs which divide the instruction into two parts is confusing.  The first paragraph contains too much information and, therefore, should be split into three smaller steps. Besides, the first four pictures should be placed directly next to the corresponding steps. The second paragraph is even more confusing as it skips important information. It should also be divided into several steps which should explain how to build the frame where the camera lucida is fixed on. Further, the recommendation of David Hockney is embedded in the text  and can be easily overlooked. It should be added separately so that it can clearly be seen that it is a hint. Apart from the confusing structure, a list of the material needed is missing which should be added right at the beginning. However, we believe that the pictures are useful as they contain a lot of important information for example the measurements of the card, the piece of plastic and the frame. For us, this is the only positive aspect. It would be difficult for us to build and use a camera lucida with this instruction.

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