Exercise. A method to transfer a sketch using watercolor graphite.

This is a continuation of the previous post in this blog. The sketch on top is the first sketch I did, I really liked it, but it has some things that bothered me. I did the sketch directly with pen and ink, there are obvious mistakes, the perspective wasn’t right and I didn’t like the folding of the sketchbook right in the middle of the sketch. I liked the sketch so much that I would make an effort to transfer a corrected one to another sketchbook. 

Here are the steps I did.

1. I made a test. I used watercolor graphite and painted a saturated wash in a piece of paper and let it dry. Then I wrote on it to see how clean the transfer would be. It came out clean. Then I erased the lines to see if it was erasable and it was, this was important since I wanted to retraced with ink over graphite. It looked like the method would work.

2. I traced the original drawing by putting a clean piece of paper on top of the original sketch and traced lightly the basic lines.

3. Then I painted the back of the traced drawing with a saturated watercolor graphite wash, making sure all the  lines of the sketch were covered.

4. I placed the drawing on the blank page with the graphite side facing down. I made sure  the sketch fit and it was centered on the page.

5. I retraced the pencil lines of the sketch applying more pressure to guarantee the transfer.

6. Then I inked the transferred drawing making corrections in the process.

Before erasing graphite lines.

After erasing graphite lines.

7. I erased the graphite lines and some spots here and there and it came out clean! The look I was expecting. Then I worked on details and voila! A new and corrected sketch. And I just found another use for watercolor graphite that I gladly share with you.☺️