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Pencil smudging when using oils

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Anth Knight

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Posted
I think someone posted this recently but can't find the thread, so here goes. I don't normally draw with pencil on canvas as I use carbon paper, which has no issues when I paint over it. Today, I've used a projector to draw onto a very large (1M square +) canvas, using an HB pencil. I've had issues before, mainly with light colours, where the pencil smudges when painted over, so I wondered what the easiest was is to avoid this?

Sylvia Evans

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Posted
Spray fixative !!!!
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Robert Jones, Napa

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Or go over the pencil lines with a turpsy wash of neutral colour, say a thin mix of blue and burnt sienna. Let that dry, then paint over it - shouldn't smudge. Or you could even use very thin acrylic paint to achieve the same result.
Moi 17

Linda Wilson

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I either use carbon paper or draw with coloured pencils, according to the colour that will cover it, so smudging does not matter.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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One of the traditional ways of course was to use charcoal, and then to dust the excess away, leaving a very faint but still recognizable impression: or you could paint over the charcoal with the turpsy wash previously advised. Because charcoal is powdery and not shiny graphite, it may sully the paint a little but it soon dissipates. I quite like the coloured pencil idea - and some people use oil pastel, or those oil painting sticks you can now get: you'd find it hard to get a sharp line with the last two, though. Like Syd, I very rarely draw anything on the canvas/surface with anything other than a few brush marks - but you wanted something very accurate, I think, from the sound of it.
Moi 17

Linda Wilson

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Embroiderers use a technique called pouncing. It involves puffing powdered chalk through fine holes.

Ant Holder

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Posted
Coloured pencils for me....then spray with hairspray then wash over with a clear gesso seals it all.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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I doubt you'd even need the hairspray - depends on the softness of the coloured pencils, of course. I knew someone - well, I didn't; read about someone, we like to be accurate! - who drew out his watercolours in watersoluble pencil, in more or less the colours he was going to use for whatever he was painting, and then just added watercolour or even just wetted more watercolour pencil marks. I thought "I must try that..." - and have I? Nah.. I'll try it, if I remember, next time I tackle a watercolour. It might work well on Syd's flower....

Anth Knight

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I'll bear all this in mind next time! Coloured pencil looks a good bet, I've done it before (although I did find that red pencil bled slightly compare to other colours, now that I think of it). Clear gesso's interesting, never used that particular item so might invest in some and give it a go. Thanks again all for the information :)