Transfering an Image
There are lots of different ways to take a preliminary sketch or photograph and transfer it to watercolor paper. I typically combine one or another technique with freehand drawing. Using technology is not cheating, and as I once read, if you can’t draw, you probably won’t have a great deal of luck painting either. Artists have been using various techniques to reproduce images onto canvas or paper for centuries. See for example Camera lucida or Camera obscura. I am going to try using my large printer to transfer digital images to watercolor paper sometime in the near future
Tracing
This is probably my favorite method. I first learned it in elementary school from our art teacher, Carolyn Crow Ryan, who sadly died unexpectedly in her 30s from an inoperable brain tumor. For smaller images I have an amazing light box — literally as thin as a magazine. For larger images I use a window — and before I could afford a light box, I only used the windows. The goal is not to capture a detailed copy, but preserve the composition and general layout.
Step 1. Photocopy your image, enlarging it if necessary (thinner paper is better)
Step 2. Outline your photocopied image with a dark pen or pencil.,br.
Step 3.Trace onto tracing paper — this is available in tablets or rolls.
Step 4. Rub the back of the tracing paper with graphite — a soft pencil or graphite stick
Step 5. Laying the tracing paper over your media, carefully (not too forcefully) transfer the image the onto your art paper.
It is also possible to simply apply graphite to the back of the photocopy and trace from that.
