color sketch
Tissues for transfer
Egg Tempera painting
Original sketchbook conceptMoving out from your Sketchbook
You may have drawn something in your sketchbook that you like and are considering using as the basis for a painting. There are several ways to transfer your art from the book to a painting surface. I am going to tell you about one method. It involves the use of a copy machine, tracing paper, a standard #2 pencil, tape (blue painter’s paint), a soft eraser, optional fixing spray, a soft pencil* or charcoal or conte’ crayon and a ball point pen.
First, scan your sketchbook image into a copy machine. You may want to printed image to be larger than your drawing.
Lay your resulting print on a firm surface. Tape the corners with an easily lifted tape, such as the “blue”. Put a layer of tracing paper over your original and, using the #2 pencil, copy your artwork onto the tracing paper.
Take your newly made drawing and turn it over, setting the sketchbook aside. Apply the soft pencil, or charcoal or conte’ to the back. You can buy transfer paper already covered with graphite at the art supply store. It is less messy.
Place the tissue with its coated side down on the paper or canvas you wish to use. Tape the tissue at the corners. With a ballpoint pen, go over all of your lines. I like to use a blue pen so that where I have traced is clear to see. You can lift a corner and peek, checking to see that you have transferred all the bits and pieces. I check frequently.
Remove the tracing paper. You may want to spray a light coat of workable fixative. If you are planning a watercolor, use pencil only and do not spray. You are ready to paint.
Being able to move from your sketchbook to a larger surface, either to paint or to carry the drawing to another level, gives a new meaning to your impromptu drawings.
I am including the steps I took to create a tiny egg tempera painting. It is 4x4" on a gesso panel. Egg tempera is , well, just what it sounds like: you take powdered pigments and "temper" them with egg. Tha egg, with a little water mixed in, creates a glue , holding the dry colors to the surface of the white chalk-like board. The gesoo is absorbent. The water sinks in and dries along with the eggy surface. The resolting colors are somewhere between transparent and opaque. They are lustrous and the work has an inner glow. My experience with the medium is that it encourages detail and can seem a bit reluctant to blend. I had not used egg tempera in maybe fifty years. I decided not to try anything too ambitious.
Step by step: I found a Punch and Judy sketch I had done a while back. It has a lot of vitality, with scratched over lines and an emphatic mood. The original is 5x5." The panel had already been prepared at a smaller size. Normally I would have popped it on my copier and downsized. my copier is not working, so I eyeballed the downsize. The first attempt was quite rough.
I redrew, again, on tracing paper, this time looking at the mood of the original, trying to capture what I liked about it.
When I was satisfied with my line art, I made another very loose sketch of what I had on the tracing paper, but using ordinary copy paper. I added a hint of trees and the water. I put a suggestion of patterning onto my figures, and I indicated the color scheme.
Going back to my tracing paper drawing, I now transfered it to the panel. I began painting by making a weak solution of egg and brown color to paint over the chalky line. As with water colors, you dare not spray fix your drawing because the water proof spray will ruin the absorbency of your surface.
Egg tempera is slow and takes patience. I made myself stop, walk away, let it dry, come back later, many times. There is an excellent book on this medium by Koo Schadler, "Egg Tempera Painting," which you can purchase by going to her web site.
