Month: September 2011

See Part 1 and Part 2 to catch up.

This is the back side of your tracing.

Once you have blacked the back of your tracing paper, you are now ready to transfer your drawing. Remember, you only need to black the area that corresponds to your drawing.

Now you can flip the tracing over and start transferring your drawing! Place your tracing in the exact spot on your strip were you want the drawing to appear. Now trace your drawing, paying close attention to the lines that you want to capture. A lot of times you don’t need to put in a lot of detail. In my case I was just after the gesture and proportions of my original sketch.

Presto! There is your original drawing, exactly where you want it on the page! It’s a great trick and I use it when I feel the need for speed! Looks great doesn’t it? Be sure you don’t dig in too much with your pencil just in case you need to erase and reposition your drawing.

I don’t consider this cheating by the way, since I drew the original drawing. It’s just that I drew it on my sketch pad and wanted to place it at the right spot inside my comic strip. Here are some examples of drawings I transferred recently.

So you have selected the drawing you want to transfer. The next step is to trace it.

Note the tracing paper and original drawing are taped to the table to prevent slipping (orange arrow). Now carefully trace your drawing using a soft pencil. Do not make deep lines or dig into the paper, you just want a nice outline.

Once the tracing is done, it’s time to prepare the transfer. Turn the tracing over. Using a very soft pencil (3B or more) apply lead to the underside of your tracing. The best way is to use the flat of your lead (using charcoal is fine too).

Tomorrow we’ll do the transfer! Stay tuned. 🙂

Read Part 1 here!

Read Part 3 here!

As mentioned last week, here’s a cool trick to use when trying to copy or transfer a drawing. Often you will practice a drawing a few times to get it right, a lot like a musician practices a riff to get the ‘swing’ of it. When you get that drawing right, you can keep practicing it to memorize it, or if you are on a tight deadline (like I often am) you can transfer it.

Here is a practice sheet of Freeze walking. After several attempts I got a drawing I liked (circled in blue). In part 2 I will show you how to trace it then transfer it to your comic. Tune in tomorrow for part 2.