Take Over Line Drawing Or Sketch

[Alexander]

I am wondering in wich ways one can take over the line drawing/design/sketch on to the workpiece.

Was this technique already described somewhere?

By wich - different - ways are you all doing this?

 

Thanks in advance for your information.

[Robert Palmer]

I am wondering in wich ways one can take over the line drawing/design/sketch on to the workpiece.

Was this technique already described somewhere?

By wich - different - ways are you all doing this?

 

Thanks in advance for your information.

I can only speak for myself of course, but for me the center line & Landmarks are the key issues of successful design. If the material is flat or slightly curved and thus allowing the glueing of the pattern to the material after transferring of design to Tracing paper is the simplest. But be forewarned care is required when glueing tracing paper to any material because it (tracing paper) stretches quit easily. Once dry though the pattern is simply cut away as the design is developed. But whether the above method or simply drawing is used, one soon discoverers with both simple & complex designs that without the "CenterLine & Landmarks" getting lost is easy. To insure you don't establishing of Centerline & Landmarks on both pattern and material from the start aids tremendously in ensuring success. And redrawing then when cut away as soon as possible goes a long way in ensuring success. I hope this will be of some help to you & good luck. Ragnar

[Sandy Seton-Browne]

I find with bone a fine water pased pen (very fine) on tracing type paper then applied and rubbed onto bone which has been slightly dampened works very well but you have to remember to do the design in reverse!!!

[Dennis Hoshield]

Hello, Alexander ...

 

It depends largely on the medium and what you're doing with it....

Working on flat light colored wood ... usually dark tracing film .. dark wood, then white or yellow tracing film.

Ditto on antler. Some antler crowns I texture first before doing the carving, so transfers are pretty tough and not worth the effort.

I usually polish antler slices before carving to at lest 2000 grit. Most of the time I hand do the carving, but for something that I want to clone, or really to accurately, I'll trace with black/dark gray tracing paper.

 

I'm more of a craft person than an artist... I have a difficult time coming up with original, properly scaled drawings. So ... I take other images or ideas I find on the Internet , books, etc, then edit them on the computer. This doesn't always have to be terribly technical. The finished drawing can then be simplified (too much detail in a transfer is usually a waste of time, for me), scaled. Then I cut around what I want to trace to the medium. I now have my tracing original. I file the original, and play with a couple copies.

 

Actual tracing always seems clutzy!

 

Someone else mentioned about center lines and landmarks. Good Idea! .. at least, if you WANT things centered, balanced, or symmetrical. I usually just use a pencil for this on bone and wood, and egg shells, as I've not played with too much else. Working with round or parallel egdged medium ... this isn't too difficult. ON odd-shaped things, like elk or dear crowns, I will often trace the outline of the crown on a piece of paper, then play around with drawing horizontal and vertical lines, measuring, etc .. trying to find the visual vertical and horizontal axis ... that will give you a feel for where the natural 'center' of the piece is. Then I transfer those horizontal and vertical axis/center-lines to the medium (at least to the edge .. or try to make inconspicuous). I then place my tracing original over the test crown trace, and see where I want the design to be ... center of design on the center of the medium? ..... higher, lower, etc. Mark the center of the tracing original, then I fold it on hit's horizontal axis, after it's been placed on the tracing paper. Then, just line up the fold with the centerline marks on your medium, also positioning the center of the trace original to the center of the medium. Hold the trace original and tracing paper in place, and unfold the other half . Trace with a small stylis.or pen, making sure your tracing paper was put right side down on the medum! ... and doesn't move on you, while you trace. Often this is easier said than done! Pick up your tracing paper from time to time to make sure you are getting good lines transferred.

 

You can certainly transfer drawings to flat wood the above way, but I usually 'burn' them on! Not normally recommended for Antler or bone, as it 1) stinks, and 2) usually scorches. I sand the wood to a high gloss .. hard woods often up to 800 or 1000 grit, but usually 600-800 is sufficient. Then I flip the sandpaper over, and burnish the wood with the back side of the sand paper ... whatever it takes to get a hard, smooth, preferably shinny surface on the wood. Take your tracing original, and if on the computer, reverse the image, so it is a mirror image of itself. Print it out on a LASER printer. You may need to experiment with the thickness of your lines, but usually, even small detail lines come out well. Now take your reverse image, find center , as above, and place over your medium with the printed side DOWN. Hopefully, you can see through your paper to see that y our images is oriented correctly.

 

Several cheap woodburning 'kits' are avaiable, that include a large, round, usually brass 'tip', that's 1/2" or more in diameter. One of these is a Weller 2161404 wood burning kit. Put this tip on the burning iron, plug in, and let heat up. OK .. This part takes some experimenting .. if the iron is too hot, you could scortch your paper, and in tern your wood. Too cold, and nothing happens. Just right, and you have a transfer tip on your wood burning iron. This is much like the fuser portion of your laser printer .. it heats up the toner and paper, and 'fuses' the toner to the paper. Re-heating this, allows the toner to come back OFF the paper, and stick to your medium. Take this, flat side down, over the lines of your drawing (yes ... it's hard to see, because it's on the other side of the paper! :-) .... pressing down as straight and hard as you comfortably can, keeping the iron moving slowly all the time.... starting at the 'far' end (if you're right handed, one would usually start on the left side of the trace). With your other hand, lightly pull up on the heated portion of the paper, while you keep moving the iron into unheated areas of the image. You should be able to continually peal up the paper, to reveal your image transfered to the wood. If not ... apply more heat (simply move slower over the paper), and/or more pressure. If you notice a piece of the paper stuck on the wood, put the paper down, and re-rub the iron over it to heat it up again. You can usually 'pull' it back up. Mearly picking these pieces of paper off the finished transfer, usually results in pulling the toner off the drawing underneath it also. Go back and fill in any lines you inadvertently missed, with a pencil.

 

Sorry I rambled on so much. I feel I've made a mountain out of a mole hill!

 

Best of luck,

Dennis

[Juan Cronje]

Hi.

I use tracing paper with a pencil, spray a very light layer of clear lacquer over the finished drawing. The pattern doesn't smudge or go feint from touching.

Juan

[Colin]

Greetings Alexander, I also suffer from the art thingy,but if you are using stone as your medium to carve, this may help it's how I do it. Copy from the internet or draw by hand on computer paper or such like. Cut to appropriate size and attach it to the stone (or wood ) with double sided selotape. You can the use a fine tool (diamond or Carving) to go around the outline by cutting through the selotaped paper. It's easy to pick off the remainder and seems to work OK...Colin