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digital projectors for drawing
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Message
Posted
I would like a digital projector , having pondered this for some time . However the one I most like the details of , is around £735 and I simply cant afford this living as I do on the state pension , so setting aside the ones advertised specifically for artists , is there an " office " type one which would perform just as well ? . It would need to be SD and USB capable as a minimum . If anybody knows of an alternative to the " artists" ones on offer I would pleased to hear from you . Alternatively if you are getting rid of one I might be interested .
Steve
Posted
Steve, Have you looked at this website? If you are planning to use it to project your photos on to your canvas for tracing purposes I wouldn´t. I tried that many years ago and it was a nightmare. You will never get it to work without distortion and you will miss lots of areas because the bright light makes you think you have already traced a section when you haven´t.
Posted
Well Sylvia has beaten me to it... there is only one way to learn to draw and that's with practice without any mechanical or electronic aids, there is NO other way.
These projectors aren't any good, not even the expensive ones and the cheapies are completely useless, I know people that have tried them and I've seen them for myself, all you get is a blurred image so forget going on that route if I were you. Many people buy them to 'copy' accurately from photo's of dogs or animals particularly with a vision of making money from it, but it won't happen, not this way for sure.
With practice you will be able to draw accurately, yes it will take time. I can draw accurately, many of the artist's on this forum can, that's because we all practiced on simple everyday objects to start off with, so take the advice that you have received and go it alone.
Edited
by alanbickley
Posted
Sylvia , Pat and Alan - Hmm , thanks , I think you have confirmed my worst fears . My problem is/has always been , that I continually seek ways to make things quicker or easier . I will admit to having mounted a little hand-sized Pico rechargeable projector on an old heavy desk lamp and projected images from my Fuji camera onto canvas with reasonable success but its awkward - room has to be almost dark , Pico must be fully charged , camera has to be set not to switch itself off after 1 minute , and be connected to a mains adapter etc etc , so cables all over the place . So I have determination if nothing else . Anyway I appreciate your comments .
Steve
Posted
Sorry Alan and Sylvia, I am going to disagree in part. Ok, so the pencil is great and cheap and if I was a young thing instead of a Senior Citizen, I would practice every day at drawing. However, not wishing to be morbid and in a very uncertain world, who knows what tomorrow will bring - TRACE. Yes I can hear Sylvia grinding her teeth and she knows about my feelings on "rules and regulations" in art, but, as far as I am concerned there are none. I would agree with Alan that the projectors are useless as I have one - distortion being the main bugbear. Nowadays a graphite tracing paper (Tracedown) is a big seller. Why is it so popular? Because artists don't want to spend their time laboriously drawing and rubbing out when they could be having fun painting.
Come on guys, life is far too short for all this. This is not an ideal world and we need to get ourselves some fun now! So Steve, stop feeling guilty, truth be known lots of artists on here use whatever helps them. Sylvia and Alan and a lot of others have been taught the "correct" start to art and it suits them - great! But a lot of those times have passed now and anything goes!! Lastly, don't forget that some of the "Old Masters" used tracing techniques in their time - if it was acceptable for them, then it will do for us as well.
Posted
Steve, I've used a projector on the last two large works I've produced - get yourself on Ebay or similar and you should be able to pick one up for considerably less than 700 quid.
Sylvia, a grid is a great idea, I worked with that when I first started and there's a lot to be said for it.
I've used various methods, from grids to carbon paper to projectors - I feel no shame. There does seem to be a certain drawing 'snobbery' on occasion, but to me it doesn't matter how you produce your art as long as you're happy with the result. I'm not fussed with drawing but I love painting...so shoot me :)
Anth
Posted
I stand corrected my friend Sylvia - of course those times have not passed but a lot of us are now embracing art and want to do it our way and not what it says in the book. As I have said, life it far too short to observe all the "dos" and donts" - just get on with it in whichever way suits. It's obvious that you are a very confident artist in order to go straight in with brush or pen but, unfortunately a lot of us aren't - so as you said "viva la difference"- although, as you know, I do draw the line at unmade beds!
Posted
What a great thread! Everyone has their point of view it's true but I'm in the Adele camp, if it makes it easier, do it! I do draw my paintings but I've also tried a grid at times and tracing but mostly now I draw and I don't care if one petal on a flower is different to another, so what, I'm doing it for pleasure not pennies. So I will continue doing my own thing, if I do it the wrong way but still get a good outcome I'm pleased.
Posted
Well, I love drawing. I love the challenge of it. Drawing can create an invisible fluidity that tracing cannot achieve. However, that is just my opinion and choice and as I think I have said somewhere before, there is an infinite variety in art and how it is produced. Worth and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Posted
I tend to scale up so I print my photo, add transfer spray to the back and then trace it over an A4 piece of paper, then I cut that paper in quarters and photocopy each quarter to the required size and then piece them together again, add transfer spray to the back of the enlarged picture and trace it onto my surface. Ok, I know it sounds a bind, but I enjoy it and it really works for me.
Posted
I see nothing wrong in using whatever aids help - if I wanted to be pure and unsullied, maybe I'd take my glasses off ... (did that once: the result was quite interesting, I thought: I showed it in the art shop I was working in at the time - customer came in, took one look, and said "What on EARTH is that?" Bravely, I disclaimed all knowledge of it, and shrugged in a "some people, eh?" sort of way).
I do think that learning to draw can save you an awful lot of money, though - I used to trace, lightly, from photographs until I developed the confidence to do without the tracing paper, and really that's all it takes - I think that good teaching helps: not the sort of teaching I had at school, where we were encouraged to draw an egg if we wanted to paint a portrait ..... consequently, our portraits looked like painted eggs; the master was a former Flight Lieutenant, much given to the disciplined way of doing things - drawing freehand was "drawing round the houses"; so we had to draw eggs... triangles; cones - he'd picked some of this up from Cézanne, but then applied a touch of RAF "if it moves, paint it white" mentality; rigid, unvarying. Took me years to get over that sort of teaching - but a bit of confidence and appropriate teaching, that's what you need to save you having to spend money on projectors.