Making a Carbon Transfer

[Bruce Lee]

Don't have a lightbox to transfer a rough drawing onto a new page? Then you might want to use the method that painters have been using to transfer their drawings onto canvas for centuries. All you need is a good soft pencil ("B" pencils, carbon pencils, and ebony pencils work great), and some removable tape.

Here's the step-by-step visual tutorial:



Loston

[Telekinetic Ketchup]

tried it on my christmas pic for my brother because I had to use my sketch book to put it in and it worked like a charm thanks a bunch Loston.

[Bruce Lee]

Glad to hear that man. This is a very basic and simple technique, but it works. Maybe I old fashioned, but if I don't have a lightbox handy, I prefer this sort of transfer process to doing a blue line/Photoshop sort of method of transfer. Many times it's all too easy to miss some visual details turning something into a blue line for print out. You're also kind of limited to a smaller range of paper types and ply with that sort of method. You can use this practical transfer to copy pencils onto any type of surface that will accept graphite. I've used this technique to transfer lettering done on paper to transfer pencils onto a truck door for later painting.

Loston

[frazman]

And how many people always have a light box handy?

I picked up a similar technique at a artists convention that is nice when working with canvas. It is very similar to what is described here but slightly different.

Tape a piece of tracing paper over the original drawing and trace the drawing with a soft pencil. When finished, cover the back of the tracing paper graphite. Then tape the tracing paper over the new surface and draw over the tracing with a fine to medium ball point pen to transfer the drawing. This works really well over canvas, as opposed to drawing directly on it.

[NickRocks]

or you could just use tracing paper.

lol neat process though.

[Bruce Lee]

or you could just use tracing paper.

lol neat process though.

I think you might be missing the point. You cant paint on tracing paper and it doesn't hold up too well when you ink on it, Nick. This technique is for transfering a sketch or drawing onto better board or paper surface without having to involve a lightbox, a computer, or anything fancy. All you need is some graphite, and you're good to go.

Loston

[Bruce Lee]

And how many people always have a light box handy?

Right. And as you mentioned, this technique is good for transferring a drawing over to thick papers like canvas or illustration board. A lightbox is ineffective on those types of papers and boards.

Loston

[NickRocks]

I think you might be missing the point. You cant paint on tracing paper and it doesn't hold up too well when you ink on it, Nick. This technique is for transfering a sketch or drawing onto better board or paper surface without having to involve a lightbox, a computer, or anything fancy. All you need is some graphite, and you're good to go.

Loston

oh haha my bad. I thought you meant this was for when you need to correct a mistake.

[e_t_i]

And how many people always have a light box handy?

Got a window?

[NickRocks]

Ive done the window thing before.