Transferring a Photograph to Canvas

Video Transcript

"Now perhaps, as an artist, you're gifted enough to where you can just take a picture, like this, on a canvas and just "whip-up" a drawing. Hey, there you go, it's a nice little freehand drawing and you'll have everything that you need for your painting. Now, if you are not so inclined, you can keep in mind, a couple of other options. One of those is, of course, very quickly looking at the photograph and using that as a basis to free-sketch it onto your canvas. You can do that. Another option that you can do, is if you have a light box. Light boxes work where you basically put the picture, first, on the light box. You turn the light box on. These operate by having light, which then casts up through your photograph, respective drawing or whatever you have, and then it will make the lines become more clear. Now, you can use this to help draw on your canvas or something else, that people do, is that they'll put the canvas over the picture. This is because you can start to see hints of the lines. Especially, if you put the picture on the very back, like so. You can see actually how that, now you can do a little quick trace-job, if you want. Now, there's different styles for different artists. There's no "right" or 'wrong' way to do this. I will say, that if you really want to get to the painting fast, this is somewhat of a shortcut, if you'd like. However, if you really want pure art, going from beginning to finish, I tend to do the drawing and also the painting. Now, there's no right or wrong way to do this. I prefer drawing and painting for my art, but you can certainly do it where you use a light-box or not. It's really up to you."