It looks like I forgot to publish this post, which should have come before the last one! We’ll pretend that I just finished my drawing and am ready to transfer it to the canvas.
Here’s my canvas being unpacked. I special order all of my canvases from The John Annesley Company, who do top-quality work. They are thicker than the off-the-shelf variety, and are very sturdy. They offer many different canvases, but I’ve settled on my favorite, an oil-primed French linen with a bit of tooth to the weave. I like some texture on my canvas to catch the brush strokes. When a canvas is too fine and slick, it’s not ‘grabby’ enough for me. If it’s too coarse, I can’t get fine detail. Each of my canvases is a unique size. I always design my composition first, and then order the canvas. I never begin with a canvas and design to that size.
Here’s the blank canvas, waiting for the drawing!
After I traced the drawing onto a piece of tracing paper, I scribbled pencil on the back side. Then I taped the tracing paper to my canvas and traced over the lines with a sharp 2H pencil.
Here’s the drawing transferred to the canvas. I’ll now need to check and re-draw many lines. I find that whenever a drawing is transferred, it needs to be redrawn while looking at the set-up. Any line that is drawn without observation of the object (as happens when a line is merely traced, and not drawn from reality), will not be accurate. Distortions creep in when reality is not consulted, no matter how hard you try to follow the lines when tracing!
Linda Mann Artist 