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TRANSFERRING AN IMAGE - 1 -    Choices

 

 

You have a reference image and want to work a picture from it.

How should you set about it?  

What are the alternatives ?

 

Drawing skills are something which if not natural to you, but CAN be acquired through practice.

Drawing sketches from actual subjects on a daily basis, builds up the skill to see and assess the relative position of parts of an object or scene and transfer the three dimensions you are looking at to two dimensions of paper.  Even an expert can get shapes slightly wrong, though, and need to correct, so it is always good to know how to transfer an image from a two dimensional image to clean working surface.  If your drawing skills are not brilliant and still in need of improvement, then take my tip and practice.     

In the meantime, you may want to get on with developing your colour skills, so the methods for transferring an image from either a sketch or a photograph are very useful ones.  A photo may well have distortions due to the way the lens has processed the scene, so your image may need corrections before you start to paint. You may be merging images to make a composite picture.  Whatever the reason, it is an advantage to have a fair copy you can go back to and repeat if your colour image starts to go wrong.

We will look now at the various methods for transferring an image from one surface to another.

 

Measuring, Gridding, Tracing, Projecting

There are a host of ‘methods’, and all of them are short cuts to sitting down and drawing out the image from scratch on a plain piece of paper.  Artists have used short cuts for centuries. It is now virtually accepted that Vermeer used a lens system for his precise interiors. These days some artists are prepared to pay substantial sums for fancy projectors and  slightly less  for light boxes. I don’t comment on whether such systems are good or bad, I merely list them here as alternatives.

 

The most basic system is to draw out the image from scratch on your working surface with the aid of a ruler.  

No, we don’t aim to do the artwork in straight lines !  We just want to measure out the position of some important edges and features.       First measure the outside edges of your reference image.  Then measure your working surface and decide on the best ratio of original to artwork.  You might decide to work at twice or three times the size of the original - or even larger. I suggest that you keep the proposed artwork size to well within your paper allowing room all round for extra ‘elbow room’ to expand a little if necessary.

I will assume we are working double size, for the moment, but suggest you keep the ratio simple.

Measure and mark your centre point along each edge of your picture so you can see where your centre will fall, and mark the reference similarly at the edge of the image.

Identify the cross references of essential points within the picture, re-calculate for twice size, and measure and mark lightly the positions in your working area.

You can now set out with some guide marks to draw in your image freehand and ensure that the proportions will be about right.

 

The next option on from this is to employ a grid system

Here you either draw a grid over your reference picture splitting it into useful sized boxes.

(a common arrangement is to split the picture into four sections each side, making 16 boxes),

Or, if you work from references printed out to a standard size, you can use a grid printed out on clear plastic sheet which sits over the reference picture - and saves damaging the original reference image with lines. You now draw out the ‘scaled up’ 16 boxes with light guide lines on your paper (use CP for this and avoid Graphite) and then more easily draft out your picture by reference to the grid lines and position of the elements of your picture within the boxes.  This system gives you the ability to move elements of the picture around  as you draw.  Your picture will still be freehand, but under tighter control.

 

Tracing is a well used system and can be done in a variety of ways.

The limitations here are that you will finish up with an exact copy of everything in your reference placed exactly as it was and same size.  To move an element of your picture about will involve some clever drawing.

Tracing paper can be used, or these days people like the SAA sell wax free transfer paper - which is just like a re-usable graphite carbon paper and works by transferring the image directly through to your work surface.  Snags with this for CP artists are the fact that in pressing down on your reference image with a pencil to transfer the line through the transfer paper to the paper below, there is a real danger that you will also indent a line into your work surface.  

This may later show up as a light line in your artwork.  Graphite on your work surface is also best avoided - unless you intend to incorporate the lines in your picture - as the graphite may get locked into the later layers of wax pencil.    I do have a variant of tracing that I use with students as a time saver, and which avoids the risk of an indented line.  

See the second page of this section ( Transferring images 2)  for details.

 

The ‘old fashioned’ tracing method is to trace from your original on to tracing paper. This gives you an option to move elements of your picture around, as you can see what you are doing and can re-compose your picture.  However, the image is still life sized.  By then laying down a layer of even colour (it used to be graphite pencil  but this is usually avoided for CP work) on the  back of the tracing paper, the image can then be transferred - still with the risk of an indented line from the transferring tool.   Make sure your layers of paper don’t move about while you are doing this. I use a few blobs of white tac to hold down the layers of paper when I transfer any images and restrict myself to  a blob in each of three corners. This holds down the paper layers well enough, but still enables you to lift up one corner to see if the line is being transferred adequately.  There is nothing worse than doing all the transfer work and then to take off the top paper and find your lower mark is too feint.

 

Use of a light box enables you to place your working paper on top of your reference and put the two on a light table with a strong light coming through from below.  provided your working surface paper is translucent enough, it is then possible to draw your picture image straight on to your work surface. Again this will be ‘same size’.  Using a light box enables you to re-compose your picture easily.

A cheaper alternative to this is to choose a sunny day and Sellotape your reference on to a brightly lit window. Place your working paper on top and follow the image showing through.  The angle of work will be awkward, but the cost will be negligible.  This does work best on a sunny day though, and not at all well at night !  I have heard tell of someone who uses a glass topped coffee table to do the same job, with an Anglepoise lamp set underneath

 

The expensive end of the market is Projection.  Purpose made projectors are sold to place an enlarged image on your work surface for you to draw around.  Snags are several.  

You have to project in a fairly dark environment to get the benefit of seeing the image well enough, and this is not good for  seeing what you are doing - especially if you are trying to avoid heavy lines.  You have to work from a position in between the projector and the paper surface to draw your line - thus blocking the projected image where your hand is.  You can also  get distortions in the picture through the positioning of the projector.  I don’t feel the hassle factor is worth the cash outlay, particularly when there are so many simpler and cheaper alternatives

 

SEE IMAGE TRANSFER NOTES 2 on the next page

 

TRANSFERRING AN IMAGE - 2 -    An alternative for CP work

 

Part 1 - Development

In an ideal world, we would all have time to spare and accurate drawing skills so that we could put down an perfect image on to our working surface and then develop it in colour.  We don’t live in an ideal world, so we must find ways to save time and also to get a good outline drawing on to our working surface

Firstly, we will assume that the need is to get an outline image on to our drawing board from one or more photographic originals, accurately enough to be able to develop it.  For example, a portrait must be accurate, otherwise the likeness of the sitter will not be there - and the commission cheque will also be absent at the end of the day as well !

Taking an original image, we can size it on the computer and trace off the outlines on to ordinary tracing paper.

Then place the traced image on to a white board and layer a fresh piece of tracing paper over the first tracing. You should use BluTac to secure the layers to prevent sideways movement.  Now refine your drawing by re-tracing and adjusting as you go, adding detail where necessary.  This stage can be repeated as required.  Keep all your successive tracings and number them as you go, in case you wish to return to the subject later.

This is also the point you can reach very quickly by a trace down direct from a blown up photograph.  If you wish to amalgamate photos or to  include an extra element - or even exclude one - then you can apply the ‘re-trace’ method above and develop your image.

 

Part 2 transfer

Eventually you will have a fair copy of your chosen outline on tracing paper which you will use to transfer the image on to your working surface.  Transfer of images by tracing comes up against one or two snags. Using a carbon paper or wax free transfer paper involves placing a second layer of paper between the trace and the working surface. This leads to inaccuracies in the transfer process.  Graphite on the working surface from the back of the tracing paper is also unwelcome.  Additionally, the pressing of a pencil following an outline is inclined to indent the paper and that can cause problems later on with an indented line where one is not required..

What we need, is to be able to transfer the image accurately from the traced image without indenting the working surface,without using graphite or an intervening sheet of paper.    

It can be done!

In order to take a clear sharp outline of my final reference, I trace using a fine point (0.1mm) pigment marker pen. This ensures that the line I follow is a fine accurate one.

 

Next, select a soft Coloured Pencil of a colour which generally tones with the eventual image. I have found that Aquarelles work better for this process than dry point pencils - the wax /oil content may lock the colour on the paper more securely.  Surprisingly, Staedtler Karat work best of all the brands tried and they are one of the hardest .  They do sharpen to a very fine point and that can also be a great help

This Aquarelle will be the marking medium on to your work surface.  Sharpen your pencil to a fine point (and try to keep the point sharp as you work - for accuracy). It is worth considering the use of more than one colour as the line needs to blend in with the final artwork, though the CP line can always be lifted later

 

 

I recently came across an alternative suggestion from Artist Pauline Longley who works in Coloured Pencil,

and she uses a Pastel Pencil to lay down the coloured line as this transfers easily and any colour left on the working surface merges into the artwork.  I have not tried this myself, but Pauline’s results are excellent, so it must go down as another possible option.

 

 

Turn over the fair copy traced image

so that you are working on the back of the tracing paper (the side which will eventually face the working surface) and methodically work over the pen outline trace so that you transfer all the fine lines of the image, in reverse, to the other side of the paper.  If you use a suitable Coloured Pencil, then you should be able to see exactly where you have been and where you have missed.

You now have the detailed image on both sides of the tracing paper.

Now to the good bit.   Fix the top of the tracing paper securely  to your working surface and lightly fix the bottom so that the whole thing can’t move, but a corner of the trace can be lifted if required without changing its position in any way.  Take a smooth hard plastic or bone type material ( I try to avoid metal  - a piece of shoe horn is good, or a bone used for scoring card for folding when making greetings cards -  it is hard but smooth) and rub firmly over the top of the trace.  Cover the whole of the surface and work in several directions so all the surface is covered and pressed down.  You need to avoid any indentation, the pressure should be firm but even.

Now check carefully, by lifting the bottom of the trace, and see if the coloured image has been transferred to the board.

It may be that you will have to repeat the rub down in some areas.

Hopefully you will have a feint but accurate coloured outline on your working surface so that you can ensure that your  proportions are correct.  Keep your trace as it could be redrawn in colour on the reverse and the image repeated if the first attempt at your masterpiece goes wrong.

You can easily remove the feint line as you work, but if your colour choice for the transfer has been a good one, it will just merge in to the finished work.

ART POINTS

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