Ultimately, remember it wasn’t a fluke that you got the drawing you now want to transfer correctly; it’s because of your artistic skills. It’s not essential to have absolutely every bit of the drawing on your canvas to turn it into a successful painting. A painting isn’t simply a colored-in drawing.
Transferring a Drawing From Paper to Canvas
Marion Boddy-Evans is an artist living on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. She has written for art magazines blogs, edited how-to art titles, and co-authored travel books.
Updated on 05/06/18
Don’t be intimidated by transferring a drawing from paper to canvas. Many methods can be used, and some have been employed for centuries.
Pins & Charcoal
If you’re not worried about keeping the drawing pristine, you could treat it as a cartoon (the old masters meaning of the word, not a comic strip). That is, you could place the drawing on a cork board or carpet scrap, then take a pin and prick the drawing full of holes. Next, attach it to the canvas so that it doesn’t move and “pounce” on it with charcoal (powdered charcoal in a bit of cloth), which then goes through the holes and transfers the design. Having an apprentice to prick the holes, like one of the old masters would have had, would help retain your sanity. You’d also likely want a very smooth canvas for it to work well. The National Gallery in London has a bit more on this in the literature on its Leonardo Da Vinci Cartoon.
You can cover the back of the drawing with charcoal, pastel, or soft pencil, then run a stylus or anything hard but blunt (such as a teaspoon handle) along the lines of the drawing on the front to transfer it. Tape or clip the drawing in place so it doesn’t move as you’re transferring the lines.
You can buy transfer paper that does the same thing (or make your own with a very thin piece of paper like newsprint and charcoal). If you’re using anything called “carbon paper,” make sure it’s wax-free or there’s a small chance it might create problems with your paint adhering to the canvas.
Using Grids
If the original isn’t a particularly detailed drawing, you can draw a grid on the drawing (or overlay it with a grid or fold the paper to create the grid over the image). Then you scale the grid to the canvas and proceed to draw in the main lines by eye. This method allows you to keep the proportions of the lines and features of the drawing, one grid area at a time. Keep the original on hand when you start to paint, to guide you in filling in the details. You can also use a small brush and thin paint to “draw” the lines rather than applying pencil lines to the canvas.
You could take a photo of the drawing and pay someone to print it on canvas for you. Then you coat the canvas with a layer of transparent acrylic medium, and paint on top of that. If it is a smallish canvas that you’re going to be painting, you could use a camera lucida or overhead projector. There’s even an app for that.
The Debate Over Transferring a Reference Photo to a Canvas
There is some debate among artists about methods of transferring your reference photo.
Some say a true artist shouldn’t use any method other than drawing. Some even frown on the use of reference photos.
Personally, I believe there is a whole lot more to painting than just drawing your reference so it really doesn’t matter.
Modern equipment and techniques have made it much faster to get your idea on canvas, but a good painting also involves understanding colors, tones, shadows, and highlights as well as a whole host of other things.
The old masters such as Leonardo da Vinci did not have access to modern technology to make the process of doing the initial drawing go faster. They used what they had available at the time such as the camera obscura to get the basic shape of their subject drawn onto the canvas.
A camera obscura is a box with a small hole in it that allows light to go through and project an image onto the drawing surface. See the image below.
For me, well… canvas + pointy pencil + Parkinson’s is not a good mix. :). I use other methods to transfer a reference photo to a canvas.
Drawing Your Reference Photo
If your drawing skills are good, the easiest way to transfer your photo reference is to free hand draw your reference onto your canvas using a pencil.
This method is fast and more convenient if you are painting from imagination or memory.
The downside is if you make frequent mistakes and have to erase them, you can end up with a dirty or damaged canvas.
If you are using acrylic paint, try using chalk or a watercolor pencil. They can easily be removed with water.
Having a good reference photo and looking at it frequently is the secret to getting an accurate drawing. Use a ruler to get a straight line and double-check proportions.
Don’t press too hard with your pencil. Light marks are easier to erase. If you erase a lot, clean your eraser frequently on a blank piece of paper or rough cloth to prevent smudges on the canvas.
A detailed drawing on your canvas isn’t necessary. You just want an idea of placement for the overall elements of your painting.
If you have an iPad you can use it to display your reference photo while you draw and paint. You can zoom in on details or crop your photo for a better composition.
Grid Method of Transferring a Reference Photo
A second option is the grid method. I find this the most time-consuming. This is done by drawing grid lines that form equal squares on your canvas, let’s say one-inch squares, and then drawing the same one-inch squares on a copy of your reference photo.
You then draw the contents of each square in your photo onto your canvas. You can use this method to enlarge your original image to fit on large canvases.
So if you have an 8 x 10 photo and a 16 x 20 canvas, you draw 2-inch squares on your canvas.
You can also use Photoshop or any of the free photo editors such as Gimp to print a grid onto a copy of your photo rather than drawing them out yourself.
For more information on how to use the grid method to enlarge a reference photo that you want to transfer, see my post on Enlarging a Reference Photo.
