Transferring a Drawing to Watercolor Paper

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Transferring a Drawing to Watercolor Paper

Many of you know that before I began painting abstracts I was a hardcore watercolor painter. I thought I would always be a watercolor painter and not get into any other kinds of media or types of painting. Fast forward 15 years and things have changed a lot for me in painting.

Many of you also know that I was an architect when I began painting and the use of tracing paper is an everyday thing as an architect. Drawing on tracing paper was the way buildings were designed when I was in the biz. Things have changed somewhat with more advanced 3D design software, but tracing paper is still a staple. Using tracing paper is (and was) a natural extension of how I worked for 30 years as an architect. Tracing paper comes in rolls of varying sizes and can be found at any art supply store or online store.

Many years ago when I was trying to transfer drawings from a small 3x5” value study onto a 22x30 sheet of watercolor paper I had lots of trouble. I struggled to transfer the drawing without making erasures on the surface of the paper. Watercolors painters know that continually abrading the surface of the paper creates areas where the paint reacts differently and can make unseemly dark spots and splotchy paint application. I decided to try tracing paper to help me transfer the drawing to watercolor paper, and I never looked back.

(Here’s a side story. Around 2005 or so, I took a watercolor workshop from a nationally known instructor at a very popular watercolor workshop location. I began everyday taping up on the studio windows a sketch on tracing paper to get it onto my watercolor paper. By day 3 of the workshop, 85% of the 24 other students in the class were doing the same thing! They all asked me what I was doing and why. Once I explained it to them and they saw the results, they all decided it was the best way for them. I wonder how many are still using this technique?)

This video doesn’t cover getting the small drawing transferred to a larger scale - that will take another video. I am only dealing with getting the already enlarged drawing to the watercolor paper. The trick is to put the enlarged drawing on the tracing paper first, then trace it onto the watercolor paper.

Once the drawing is on the tracing paper, I typically tape it to the glass front door on my house, then tape the watercolor paper over it, and trace the drawing directly onto the watercolor paper. In this video I am using a light box, which uses the same principle of lighting the drawing from behind so that you can see through the watercolor paper. You can only use 140 lb watercolor paper for this - 300 lb is too thick to see through.

Once the drawing is successfully traced onto the watercolor paper, I save the tracing in a file for future use. These are all my original compositions, so I can paint them as many times, in as many ways as I wish. I never paint them the same way, I always make slight composition changes and use varying color combinations.

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David

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