Drawing Backgrounds by Tracing Photographs

Tracing photographs is a method for doing backgrounds for those who find drawing in perspective difficult or for intricate exteriors.

1) Prepare some photographs as materials. 2) Photocopy to the desired size. Expand or reduce the size of the photo using a copy machine. 3) Tape the photocopy on the back of the page. Tape the photocopy with drafting tape to fill the frame as desired.

4) Outline using a tracing table. Turn the tracing table light on and trace around the lines of the copied photo. Tracing every detail is not necessary. Choose which lines you want to include. 5) Turn the light off and view the drawing. After finishing the outline, turn the tracing table light off and check the drawing for unconnected lines. Turn the light off periodically while drawing to get a feel for the finished work.

6) Ink over the outline with a pen. Add in ink with a pen and finish the work. 7) Fix problem areas with white. After inking with black, put the finishing touches on with white.

Other Uses of Tracing

For those that find drawing faces at one angle difficult, try reversing the angle using tracing paper.

When adding tones sometimes it is hard to see the lines of the drawing and/or cut the tones. Using a tracing table helps.

If you don't have a tracing table ...

A table helps when doing difficult to cut coarse tones. This technique is a little ti works. On a sunny day, take your pages to the window and start tracing. try using a glass table placing a desk lamp under the table.