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.

[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

[Brian Germain]

Right and you know what's really screwy is entire computers get smaller and thinner but they can't even make a think portable lightbox cheap? someone needs to make and market those!

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

[e_t_i]

And how many people always have a light box handy?

Got a window?

[Bruce Lee]

Got a window?

Images of comic artists falling thru their windows after trying to trace photos suddenly entered my head...

[frazman]

Images of comic artists falling thru their windows after trying to trace photos suddenly entered my head...

To say nothing of cloudy days, condensation, or the sheer pain in the butt of standing next to a window trying to transfer an intricate drawing.

[dxdragon]

And how many people always have a light box handy?

I do...for years now.


Here's an easier way...go to your local art store and buy a jar of "Powder Graphite" all you need to do, is to sprinkle it on the back of any paper and get some tissue or cotten balls. You'll be actually making your own carbon paper.

It's cheap and it'll last you forever.