How do you get from photo to canvas?

[Morris Darby]

I would like to say that I use the grid method for initial proportion translation, however, I have an approach different from any I've seen here.

I use rubber bands on my photo and my canvas/board. The very first photo I used to do a portrait from, the client told me to guard it with my life. So, I placed it ( 8x10) on a clipboard and put rubber bands every 2 inches vert. and horiz. I then took larger rubber bands and put them on my canvas the same way, say at 5 inches apart. I then sketch into the squares.

Now, I will say the only time I use a "method" of scale transfer is when the reference is small and the painting is large. I still enjoy the fact that oils stay wet for a long time giving me time to make all the adjustments for the likeness.

[Meera Bakshi]

I have now started using newer technology to help transferring photo to canvas. Scan the photo and save on computer with a file name in "jpg" format. Using "Irfan view", I select that file and mark the area that is to be painted. Now from edit mode, select "crop the image" and than save as giving the file name again in "jpg" format. Print the newly saved image selecting margin (vertical and Horizontal 2.00 which leaves 1" margin on all four sides). It's easy to use that black and white image as a guide-line with square grid drawn with pencil. Image on the canvas can be multiplied as big as we need.
Meera Bakshi

[Richard Budig]

I finally put photoshop in my computer. I also bought a printer/scanner/copier. I can scan photos into my computer, bring them up in photoshop, crop them to make a reasonable composition, and then resize them to match the canvas size I plan to use.

For example, if I'm planning a 20X24 inch canvas, I can resize my image to 20X24 centimeters. Then, you can mark off a grid in centimeters, which will square up easily to 20X24 inches. Doesn't matter what the units are -- cm's or inches -- so long as they are all square.

Just some more thinking on this subject.

Finally, someone was talking like they were feeling guilty for measuring and for using other lens-type equipment in transfering to the canvas. I once had an instructor who used to say a couple of things: There is no cheating, and "MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE."

I add the measure thing because I've read the alleged words of many fine painters who said the same thing -- MEASURE. My goodness, we're painting human faces, here. It's okay, in a landscape, to move a tree or a rock a little this way or that way, but if you move the nose an inch two this way or that way, it ain't gonna look like uncle Fred. We simply have to be as precise as possible when we're doing faces.

[Chuck Yokota]

When working from a photo, I've simplified the grid method for me by printing out the image at exactly the size it will be on the canvas, even if it takes several sheets. After creating the grid, I cut the prints into long strips 3" wide running across the canvas. I lay each strip onto the canvas so I can see both the area I'm drawing and the same area on the print at the same time. Thie eliminates all the conversion of scale and the turning back and forth between canvas and print. This makes the actual drawing process go much faster and the drawing more accurate, more than making up for the extra preparation time.

[Sharon Knettell]

Why not have your photo ink-jetted onto a canvas and retouch it?

[Richard Budig]

We all use one method or another. Gridding, or squaring up, has been used since art began. It is written about in regard to Da Vinci, Michealangelo, and all the other biggies. If it was okay for them, isn't is okay for us?

[Mike McCarty]

I find that whatever method I use, it is crucial that I be able to get back to a known point at any time in the process. For me, I have to continuously reestablish the critical measurements. I find that the corner of an eye, the corner of the mouth, will drift often, and substantially enough, from the initial drawing.