You can buy it by the meter if you wish and do everything yourself. The surface of the canvas is noticeably coarse and the weave is pronounced. It stretches easily.
Art to illustrate on canvas
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Can You Draw Directly Onto Canvas?
There is no reason not to draw directly onto the surface. Some confident artists don’t always need to sketch out every idea, they can work directly using a few guidelines, while others need time to plan out their composition beforehand and make some preliminary sketches first.
The classic preparation would be to sketch out a few thumbnails and get some ideas down quickly, and after seeing something you like, make a more detailed drawing and transfer it to the canvas.
These days most artists will use a pre-primed canvas and it’s easy enough to lightly sketch on the surface. The alternative is to prime the canvas yourself with a gesso base. It’s easy but tedious.
If you want to see how a top professional prepares, draws, and paints her subjects, I urge you to watch Sarah’s intro video on Domestika.
What Pencils Do You Use to Draw on Canvas?
It doesn’t matter as long as you are careful not to score the surface. You can use an HB (#2) graphite pencil to map things out. Some suggest lighter grades, others darker, all that matters is what you intend to do afterward.
Some suggest lighter grades, others darker, all that matters is what you intend to do afterward
If you are laying thin transparent oil glazes or acrylic washes you may well see the pencil lines beneath. That may or may not be desirable. It really depends on your painting style.
I’m a great fan of Raymond Harris-Ching, not a household name but a brilliant wildlife artist who was (hopefully still is) superb at combining a pencil sketch with a finished canvas painting.
Be careful how you use soft pencils,, they smudge easily and lift as you apply thin layers of paint. This can dirty the color.
Can You Use Water Soluble Pencils on Canvas?
Yes if you use water-soluble pencils wisely, this option can solve a few problems. If it’s your intention to paint with acrylic or watercolor you can use watercolor pencils to compliment your color schemes knowing that they will blend seamlessly into the painting process.
I’ve seen James Gurney do this to good effect.
Can You Erase Pencil on Canvas?
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t erase pencil lines on a canvas. If you’ve made a big mistake you can use a kneaded eraser to correct things. Don’t use standard plastic or rubber erasers, they leave crumbs everywhere and there is a danger that you’ll remove the gesso.
There are two reasons you might want to erase pencil lines, first, you’ve chosen the wrong pencil for the job, and second, you didn’t plan your composition properly.
Both of these problems can be solved by preparation. It’s so tempting to take shortcuts and skip over the preliminaries in the excitement of wanting to get started. That can backfire.
Speaking personally, I have always found that a more methodical approach is quicker in the long run.
N.B. I’ve just come across an eraser I have never heard of before and I’m intrigued. It’s a dry cleaning pad. It’s used by restorers to clean paper and documents and it lifts pencil and charcoal cleanly off of the canvas.
Can You Draw With Charcoal on Canvas?
If it was Ok for the great masters it will be OK for you, but there are limitations. Charcoal is a messy medium and very difficult to control.
Using charcoal on canvas is not subtle. The tooth will create strong lines and charcoal will blend with your paint. It won’t matter if you paint in thicker layers but it might be an issue otherwise.
You have two choices, stick charcoal or compressed charcoal pencil.
I suspect that most artists would be more comfortable using charcoal pencils. They are less messy and easier to use, however, they have a drawback. Compressed charcoal is harder to erase and cover with paint.
Willow or vine charcoal sticks leave a gentle line but take some getting used to. They are messy and break easily. That said, it’s easier to paint over and erase fully.
The other option is to use white compressed charcoal pencils on a tinted canvas. This is much easier to disguise in the overpainting process and using a tinted canvas base is far easier than using white canvas.
How Do You Transfer a Drawing to Canvas?
There are different ways to transfer a drawing onto the canvas.
One way is to use graphite transfer paper. This is a thin sheet of paper, coated in a fine layer of graphite.
You place the paper beneath your drawing and trace over it with a pencil. The graphite will transfer onto the canvas, and you’ll be left with a faint outline of your drawing. If you don’t want to lose your original pencil drawings, trace over photocopies.
It’s simple if you secure the paper with low tack tape framers tape. Please note, as with any form of tracing the image must be still, any movement and your tracing will be useless.
Transfer paper is cheap to buy and clean to use, but you can make graphite paper using a photocopy.
Make a copy of the drawing, enlarge it to size, and cover the back with a soft graphite layer. Tape the copy to your canvas and draw over it. The graphite transfers easily. Don’t use too much pressure.
I’ve seen commercial artists in Thailand use this method, except they were tracing photographs not sketches, but the principle remains the same.
Chris has his own way of transferring his images to canvas,
Watch His Introduction
Another way to transfer a drawing is to use a lightbox. Many illustrators use them.
You can place your canvas on top of the lightbox and then place your drawing (or photocopy) beneath the canvas. The light will shine through the drawing and onto the canvas, making it easier to see where you need to place your lines.
Other artists use art projectors to trace out images, especially if they are working on a larger scale. Make sure your canvas is exactly at 90 degrees to your projector, otherwise, you’ll trace a distorted image.
The least efficient way is to grid your canvas and copy your gridded reference photo. it can be a tedious process and I wouldn’t recommend it.
I want to say one last thing about tracing an image, and it’s not something I have read elsewhere. I have found that if you trace an image there is a tendency to trace within the lines and it makes the drawing slightly smaller.
This makes little difference to the overall size and shape of your drawing but it does matter with facial features, especially with the eyes.
Traced eyes tend to be too small. When you are aware of that, you can compensate and draw the eyes larger.
