How do you get from photo to canvas?

[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.

[Richard Budig]

Mike:

I have a book about Norman Rockwell in which he is quoted as saying that he first did a drawing (in ink, I think, but maybe charcoal), and then preserved it with a coat of shellac (sp?). That way, he said, he could always wash a little spot and find his original drawing. Same idea as yours, it sounds like, to me.

[Mike McCarty]

Richard,

I don't think this would work for me. My oil painting method requires many layers of paint. At the end of each session I smooth the days work with a fan brush. Toward the end, when I am confident in my drawing, I begin not to smooth. Each layer is essential to the final outcome. If I had to dig through these layers looking for a drawing all would be lost.

I can, using the method I described above, quickly verify the critical points, right on top of my work.

I can also, by skewing the math, elongate or otherwise caricature the subject.

[Allan Rahbek]

Mike,

If we put our heads together to make a bigger processor and combine all available techniques, I think we could manage to mark a certain point on a canvas.

The way of using the Photo Shop should be effective, (for those who got one).

But I came to think of a simple way of remembering the drawing.: When the drawing is laid, you place a transparent acrylic plate in front of your canvas and draw the main lines on it with a White board Pen. In that way you can always compare your actual drawing to the original one.

Just a thought.

Allan