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Light boxes
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Message
Posted
I bought a light box from SAA many (!) years ago, and have found it invaluable. What it does is to enable me to transfer my drawings...repeat DRAWINGS to canvas/paper/canvas board/ whatever support I am planning to use.
If your works are formalised, as some of mine are, eg; Quirkies, then I work them out carefully and refine them in pencil sketches beforehand as they rely substantially on line work for their impact and cannot be transferred to a support via a freehand method. This is akin to the process used by many designers and illustrators, and where a light box can be a useful tool
Regarding tracing, I find no problem with this (unless of course it is a tracing of someone else's work!) It would be interesting to hear from other artists who use the light box or tracing as tools in their work. Flower painters in particular do this in order to record the detail required. There is nothing derogatory in this.
I believe the means can justify the ends? What do other artists think???
Posted
Ruth you have made me sit up. I never thought of light boxes being used like this, for transferring your own work , why not ,and yes using tracing paper to do the same. I have always been a bit sniffy about Light Boxes I cannot see the reason for using them if you are transposing the work or photos of other people.....Long live your light box.
Posted
Sylvia and alang23, Thank you for your comments. When I was running Microsoft Vista I was able to copy and enlarge my own sketches there and then transfer them to canvas using an SAA tracing paper. But since Microsoft ceased to support Vista and I had to "upgrade" (?) to Windows 10 (a challenge in itself !!) I have been unable to do this. Sometimes my brain feels as though it is being parboiled and sauted! like a potato hash and I am so thankful for my ancient, old fangled aids like the light box and my trusty tracing paper. Is it appropriate here to say that the end justifies the means?
Posted
It is my standard practice to compose my paintings on paper or tracing paper, the same size as the canvas and then transpose it, via carbon paper. there is a light box in the cupboard, but i have had a use for it regarding paintings.
However a light box is an essential tool for stained glass window production:- Laying out the tracing paper design with it's 4mm wide lines and putting the coloured glass over it and scoring along the inside of the 4 mm line. Exacting stuff! It taught me to swear!!
Posted
I don't use a lightbox - but I'd have no trouble with anyone who does; all sorts of artists over the years have used all sorts of tricks, and while it might be interesting to know how they did it, it's the end result that matters.
I sometimes trace, in the sense of doing a drawing then transferring it to a better piece of paper (for instance) by laying graphite on the back and just drawing over the lines, which gives me more than enough detail to work with: I don't actually trace anything else now, but I did - I traced from photographs and other people's drawings (you're a teacher, Ruth: have I put the apostrophe in the right place there? Have I said I've traced the drawings of a whole people?) until I'd learned enough to do without the tracing altogether: it was part of my learning, and I certainly don't despise it.
On the Windows question - I've got very resistant to giving advice over the internet: it's usually a lot easier to sit down in front of the computer giving the problem and work out what's going on or not going on. But so far, and my fingers are firmly crossed here, I've had no trouble with copying and pasting images, my printer and scanner works with Windows 10, and while there are some weird features with which I needed a little help, I don't seem to have had any of the problems others are experiencing. But then, of course, I am young! Quick-witted! Vibrant! And, it goes without saying - beautifully marked.....
http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk
Posted
Windows 10! what an abomination! I didn't want it, and kept telling my PC to not install it, but eventually it installed itself without my permission, and now I can't get the internet on it! But at least Microsoft or anyone else cannot install anything at all. Trouble is I don't know how to use it, so I've reverted to my Apple laptop.
Posted
Re tracing.....I've done it occasionally myself in the past. However, one downside is that you can lose confidence if you resort to it every time. I know someone who always traces particular things into a painting when I know she could do it with her eyes shut. She's lost confidence and I think it shows. It reminds me of translating from another language and always checking, even when you know the word in question. I'm not talking here about needing to produce a design or recreate something which needs accuracy, but about wanting to progress and develop and in this case I don't think tracing is the best way to go.
Posted
Don't worry about the apostrophe - even Lynne Truss didn't get it entirely right. I'm still tearing my hair out with the 'I was sat' brigade - they're breeding at an alarming rate. Sitting, sitting, sitting !!!
Just had a Blackwoods vintage gin with Fevertree tonic, ice, and lemon - note the apostrophes (or do I mean commas?) - and I think I'll have another, and another and.........!
And I'm still puzzling over those who are going to go when they mean they are going - anyway some friends are coming to come tonight for drinks if I'm still capable of serving them.
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