Transferring images to canvas or paper. Tips and tricks (e.g. grid method and proportional divider)

hi there thanks for joining today I want to show you some tips and tricks for transferring your sketch to the canvas first let me show you this I know that a lot of people like sketching with a pencil or charcoal then always make sure that you use a regular pencil HB for instance you have different kind of grades of pencils you have harder pencils and you have softer pencils as we call it with a softer pencil when I take a 6B pencil for instance and you get darker lines but also when you go over it with something wet so paint for instance you see that the graphite will spread and it will contaminate your paint and with HB you see that is hardly the case if you sketch with charcoal you see that it's very easily wipes out and it contaminates your paint very easily so if for instance I sketch with charcoal and I grabbed some grease some yellow paint I misspoke already because what will happen is my yellow will become green when I go over it with paint the graphite contaminates my paint and most of the times we don't like this but I have another tip we can of course try to seal off the graphite and we can do that by adding diluted gesso here is my gesso and I add some water then I grab a soft brush a reasonably soft brush and adjust wipe the diluted gesso over my sketch and you'll see because it is transparent you see the sketch shining through the gesso now I leave it to dry and then I can start painting of course always first check the transparency on a piece of an old piece of art of yours to check if it is transparent enough there we go you see now my sketch is fixated by the gesso and I can paint on it without polluting my yellow and by the way you can also buy transparent gesso nowadays and another thing you can do of course and I think it's the easiest way is to sketch with paint and especially with acrylics that's very nice to do because an acrylics they dry really fast so you can paint over it again and they dry water insoluble so you can paint on top of it and nothing happens but now let me show you how you can easily transfer your sketch or photo to a canvas or paper so the first method is this I have a photograph and say that I want to transfer this person to my SketchBook I just rub in the back side of the photograph and in this case I do use a soft pencil because in this case I need graphite to transfer my photo I turn the photograph around and then I get a pen or a or a hard pencil and I just Trace my photograph so like this oops okay see so now it's transferred and I can start painting of course of course this works best on panel and on paper because when you do this on canvas you might damage your canvas another well-known method is the grit method then you print out a photo or you have a photo on your computer and you divide the photograph in squares after that you want to divide your canvas or your paper in the same amount of squares and as you see when you divide something in squares you can blow it up as large as you want had the amount of square stays stays the same of course and when you've got a grid like this you get a lot of extra landmarks but one thing is very important the canvas or the paper or the panel has to be in the same ratio as your photograph so for instance if you have a square photograph and you're gonna paint on a rectangular canvas then of course you cannot divide divide it in the same amount of squares but if you have a rectangular photo for instance with the ratio of two to three if you have a canvas that has a ratio from four to three then it won't fit either so then of course you can choose to cut things off of your photograph to make it the same ratio so here for instance I have a photograph that I want to paint on a 40 by 30 centimeters canvas in Photoshop I made a grid and I made the photo in the same ratio as my canvas so a four by three four to three ratio and I've divided it in squares and now I can divide my canvas in the same amount of squares so if I want to do four squares I do it like this 10 20 30 and 40 of course I go over here 10 20 30 and 40. then draw the lines the verticals then of course the height as well so every 10 centimeters in this case I have to do some acrobatic Maneuvers again you see there we go when you have bigger canvases you can use things like this a t roller and you can easily attach that to the sides of the canvas and then you can very quickly measure these squares for instance like this and you can draw the straight lines very easily so this is a very useful tool for larger canvases and this isn't even the large canvas when I have very big canvases I still use it so I can do one end of the canvas from this side then I go over to the other side and measure there again and connect the lines now I'll quickly show you how you can approach this when you're when you're painting and personally I like sketching with paint a lot what I always do is I make a color that is slightly darker than the background color but in this case I will keep it fairly dark because otherwise you cannot see what I'm doing on camera and another thing that I always do is I immediately also make a eraser color as I call it the background color so if I make mistakes I can use this to cover them and I make lot of mistakes because that's always the case in the sketching phase if you work with the Grid or freehand or whatever you always make mistakes and that's the way you build your painting making mistakes and adjust them all the time so that's that's normal then I grab a brush and I start looking for landmarks and thanks to the lines I have a lot of landmarks now for instance when I look here where her arm is coming into the frame so to speak that's about here and here you see her arm bending out of the of this Square it touches the line somewhere around here so somewhere above the middle a bit so here for instance so there's a landmark now I can connect these two and then I see that her shoulder goes like this so here at one third about of one third of this line if you divide this in thirds I think it's about one-third there it hits my line the line again so there we go her chin is a little bit underneath the middle of this line here you see so there somewhere there is her chin I think and I can adjust it later on that's no problem that's always with sketching but this is just about building landmarks and that's always the sketching phase how you go about it so there I see that her hair almost touches the edge so I do it like this then here also as well I can use the negative space so the space that is so that I don't look at this line of her hair but that I look at this form for instance so it's a sort of form like this the the negative space that's surrounding her head there's something like this that's also a thing that you can look at when sketching here you see a very beautiful Landmark here her hair hits exactly this intersection and here we go about like this and then well you see you can with this with a little bit of these squares you can very quickly start sketching you can very easily build your painting well and of course then you can go on as much as you want then we see something like this so first start building landmarks and then gradually build your sketch oh yeah I almost forgot to tell but I've divided my canvas in quite large squares sometimes I see people dividing their pictures in all kinds of little squares one by one centimeter or something like that like that um I would recommend make a larger squares when you have too much of these little squares you get completely crazy then you're gonna count a 1 by 27b things like that and also this way at least you train yourself a little bit looking yourself for forms and proportions and things like that if you use too much squares then it becomes a little bit if as if you're a computer or something so this way you have more easy landmarks but you also have a little bit of freedom to look for yourself I like that personally everything is allowed in art so don't mind if you want to do it on squares by one by one it's also good but I would recommend doing it like this the eyeliner if we draw a a line between her eyes you see a line like this it hits the line here and about here it hits the line here so this is almost at the half of this line the the vertical line so if I do now connect this dot with that dot so in a straight line so of course you mustn't be drunk when you do this because then you don't get straight lines of course but you see this is done the eye line so another landmark I can do the same with the brow of course so if I connect these brows to the top sides of the brows then I see that somewhere here it hits this vertical line and somewhere here at one third like there there somewhere it hits uh yeah it hits the the line over there so you see brow line eye line and here no the nose nose we can see straight away mouth we can see well one third again something like that no you can find all these landmarks very easily it's most of the times beneficial to start looking for the big forms first so first the outlines the big forms if you have the big forms correct it's no use for instance to start detailing the eyes if you don't know if they're exactly at the right spot in the bigger frame you understand so first try to get the big picture now let me show you this fantastic tool it's a proportional divider and I really love it this thing helps to scale a photograph or a drawing of course you see you have two of these pointy things and you have a screw here I can adjust this screw I can put it in other holes to adjust the skill in which I want to draw something now for instance I put the top at the top office here and this one at the bottom office here and then you see that the other side is bigger in this case you see so if I want to paint on a bigger canvas I want to paint the same ear but bigger I can use this to paint it in scale but I'll show you how it works so when I drop it in another hole here for instance so I've adjusted it quite a lot and then I screw it back on again if I now do the same thing you see the top and the bottom side of the ear then you see that this becomes way more larger so now I get a more enlarged sketch let me show you how this works in real life of course this was real life as well but sounds better when I say it like this if I have the proportional divider at this scale you see I cannot reach the top and the downside of his head but then it won't fit on my canvas as well so I have to adjust the skill in which I want to paint this and so first always look at what's important that you want to fit on your canvas if you want to fit only the nose then it's no problem but I want to fit in the whole head of course so I adjust the scale so you see as I loosen the screw and I just try another hole you see so I just show you how you can could approach this so now I'll screw it tight back on I can reach more of the head now but still it is enough and you still see that the scale is too big so I still have to adjust it so there we go again but once you have the right scale you can leave it in the hole and you can do the whole painting in the same scale this is the total size of his head and does it fit on my canvas yes it does and do I like it maybe I would prefer it a little bit bigger then I readjust one slot back now I have the top side of the head and the downside of the neck and you see now I think it fits more nicely on my canvas okay so now we know that this hole is the skill that I want to paint in but I have to check another thing as well the width does the width also fit on my canvas that's all important of course so I just go to the widest part of his head it's something like this you see something like that does that fit on my canvas yes it does so I'm very happy we can start so let me first find the top and the bottom of the total of his head and his neck that I want to have okay so I head over to my canvas and I indicate this is the top of his head and the downside of course I already have the the the lowest part now I'm gonna look for this Landmark for instance where the ear here where that touches the edge of the photograph I can easily find that on my canvas as well because I know where the edge of my canvas is so how high is that Landmark there where does it touch the Edge from scene from below well you see now I know that this is the same amount in scale so I drop here I put a landmark that is where this point where his ear touches the canvas now let me look for instance for the lowest part of this ear and I can draw a line on my photograph a straight line completely horizontal towards the edge of the photograph again and I can measure this so there again we go and then I have the same size and scale for my canvas again so I drop it here at the edge of the canvas so now I know here if I draw a horizontal line here somewhere here is the is the lowest part of his ear same I can do for the highest part of this here it's just an example F of how to use this I mean you can start measuring other things as well that doesn't matter so again I look at the things that I certainly know and I certainly know where the edge is and now I know where the absolute height of his ear is so I've adjusted my skill divider and then when I go over here I know the down the the lowest part and I know here that here I can put again a horizontal line between these two lines his ear will fit in my painting in the end now let us say we want to find this line of his the the pla the line where his ear hits the side of his cheek if I connect this line with this line I get a landmark here and I already have this line but I don't have this Landmark yet so now I measure this Landmark so I'll grab the divider again and I'll put it like this so this is the small side this is the largest side I go to my canvas and now I know that this is the this point this point so here his ear does something like this and this line goes up a little bit and you see if you compare this sketch line with the edge of the photograph you see that it tapers a little bit it goes a little bit like this I think when I do it freehand I think somewhere here we'll get this Landmark but you can check I look at that horizontal line so like this now I go back to my painting and you see I did it reasonably right so this line is this line of his cheek now and of course then you can measure all kinds of things but you can also now freehand have from this point I can say ah I have a negative space over there like this so and from there from that Landmark it goes a little bit like this his ear now let us for instance find uh the the this part his the the downside of his chin so again here I draw a horizontal line so the chin line I'm gonna find I'm trying to find so again I go to over to this Edge because that's the certainty that I have then this is the height and I go over to my canvas so at this height somewhere here on this horizontal line his chin will connect first let us make a sort of a rectangle in which his head fits so if I go upward from from this horizontal line like this I try to find a place where I can make a vertical line and just as vertical as the side of my photograph because then I have certainties you see like this if I can find this line in my picture here then again I can have a lot of landmarks because I know that here his cheekbone hits that line and here his eyebrow line hits that line and these other things I can easily find as well then so this can be a very important line and the same we can do at the top of his head from this line so you see there it hits the top of his head it's a straight line horizontal but let me do this line first so where is this point we have this horizontal line already I grab the scale divider and these are two certain points that I have I have them here and this line I have as well on my canvas then I turn the divider around and go over here and here is my Landmark my spot the corner of this line so from here I can go upwards and yeah you see this is it's it's it's such fun to do this okay now we're gonna find this point had the highest point of his head on this line I'll put it between these two points you see then I head over here and there we go there is that we knew that already of course I forgot that I already searched for the the the height of his head but there you have it so his whole head must fit in this rectangle because we have that on the photograph as well so let us look for some more landmarks don't you think for instance where does his chin end now measure between these two points there it goes here the chin of this man ends and it goes upward like this I don't and and again freehand sketch I can't do like this I don't know where it touches exactly touches this Edge but I'm gonna find out so now I go over to our Landmark where his cheekbone touches the the line you see between these two points I take it over to here I hope I I have to make all kinds of acrobatic moves again to try to show it the best as I can but here his cheekbone hits that line so now I know that the rest of his chin and you can always adjust it later on but it is something like this and here something like this will happen I know already a little bit you see sketching with with paint and then his brow hits this line somewhere but we can again we can measure so here and here bam there we have it I go over to this side and you see I was a little bit too high is that true what I say yeah here it hits it so my sketch wasn't good you see I can correct myself now here his eyebrow hits the the side of the canvas so I have to do it more like this so again here that's why I have this light paint I can erase the wrong sketch lines that I've made you see so here is his cheekbone there goes his line like this so so his brow is somewhere like here so if I search for this point there we go again I grab this and this get it over here there we are and then his hair goes something like this and this don't know where it has to stop or from this point to here for instance how big is that distance and I have to be sure that I'm on a vertical line so if I measure it like this it's not gonna work of course so this is a vertical line then I go over here here I was almost right you see and then it goes a little bit like this of course and then we have here that his forehead comes out something like this I think I must go on more towards this side like this so let's check this point for instance here you see now I start sketching freehand as well and then I can easily check myself you see this is correct so that first line I already saw moon it's not gonna work and now that we know that his brow touches this line for instance if again I look for a brow line you see I can make a straight line between the Brows you see it is a little bit diagonal because it's a three-quarter portrait so that's perspective but then you can see if I find this point I can connect this point with this point so where is this point I drop a line vertically from the hairline so at this point I have to find first so there we go again measure measure that's over here from here if I drop a vertical line downwards then somewhere I have to hit this point so I measure where how high does that point has to be there so now I can connect this pointer that was this point with this point and then I have the brow line and then I know a lot more already the eye socket will go like this you see and so you build and build and build you can go on so if you if you look with the Sketchers eyes her eyes of someone who's sketching then you can simplify this by seeing it something like this so this point is an important point and I can easily find it because I have this vertical line now in this vertical line here so I measure this distance between these two dots first the height how far do I have to drop the point down on that line it's over here then I measure the width between these two something like this yes there we go so this has to be a horizontal line so now I know this part so his hair goes on like this and then it goes something like this and then there's a line that goes towards his ear so there you see so it gets easier and easier you get more landmarks it gets easier to draw freehand as well so now if I do it a little bit freehand and then I can start sketching because now I know a line will go a little bit downward like this from here you see and then it reaches the back of his head and here is a little bit of hair that's a bit upright like that and here's a line that's more like this diagonal upward so there we go his nose this line a diagonal line again it is parallel at this line because it's the same goes for the mouth line like this but this is an important point for instance the the the bottom of his nose I can drop a straight line down here and measure this okay so over here then I can go upward see somewhere there and then I measure this it's here so now I know okay this diagonal has to be parallel to that one then his nose will somewhere will be somewhere around here you see and then you can drop in more lines and you can do a little bit freehand again and now adjust so another point on that vertical line is the this point of his mouth so between the lips the darkest part there so I grab that distance and I drop it in here then I know that his mouth the line of his mouth is somewhere here here is done and then I well I'll sketch myself a little bit the top of his the top lip bottom lip darker part here underneath his lip of course a little bit of a beard thing so and then it goes like there oh yeah his mustache this point where is that so I'll drop a vertical line here so like this whoop and yep I drop a vertical line in here and measure the height of that line it's there and there so here his lip can be a little bit longer as well so you see and hear his mustache stops and that's quite an important point to know because then as well we have a little bit of this bearded side here his cheekbone well and then we go from here we see the neckline and here we can drop the neckline as well this is this color whoop there we go like that and here it goes like this and something like this so and then of course he has brow and then the eye socket there we go an eye like this top of his nose but you get the idea I hope so it's very fun I like it very much but but I like puzzling I have to say so uh yeah maybe I'm a little bit strange I don't know I go upwards so here his nostril will end okay that's much wider than I have done here you see I was completely off so side of his nose root eye socket here his tear duct for instance you see if I drop this line upward again I have another landmark and you see I can so I can prolong this line more like here here's somewhere his tear duct has to be but how high we can check boom boom and go over here I was quite a little bit right another way of saying that your way off a little bit right so and these are the first steps to a new piece of art for in the museum of course and of course there's another way that you can transfer your sketch or photo and that is by using a beamer or a projector or something like that personally I find it rather difficult I have a kind of a beamer let's take a look I don't use them that often where is it it's over here so it's a thing like this I'm always struggling with the settings of this thing and adjusting it and things like that you you you you can have distortions very easily if it's not projecting at the right angle and all kind of stuff like that and then you have to be painting in the dark I don't like painting in the dark so but but other people like it and it's great it's a great tool but don't ask me too much about these things I don't know enough of them so I cannot tell more than that to be honest I only use it when I have to paint very large canvases then it's uh then it saves me a lot of time oh yeah and by the way that's an important thing to mention of course we use all these tools to save time because we can sketch freehand but it takes hours and hours you know that as well as I do if you want to do everything correctly if you want to have the proportions told totally spot on then that's very difficult when you do it freehand it just is a lot it is fun but I wanted to mention that shortly because sometimes people look at it as a sort of cheating but I don't see it that way you can in art you can you are allowed to use everything you want all tools that you can get it's always been like that and of course it's very good to train yourself drawing on site so freehand but you can do that at moments that it suited you suits you so I mean by that I I personally still like drawing freehand as well but I do it at the moment that it suits me that that I I like to do that but when I want to make a painting I just want to quickly begin painting as quick as possible so that's that's the way I go about it and but there is no cheating because the only thing I think is cheating is that when I grab the Mona Lisa or out of the Louvre and I put on my own signature that's uh that's kind of cheating but no I hope that was helpful thanks for watching see you next time

Channel: Toon Nagtegaal

Views: 17,871

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Id: ia6nRl8F5PQ

Length: 33min 54sec (2034 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 04 2023