I thought really long and hard about how to start this article. I knew I wanted to deal with the subject of paper but wasn’t sure exactly what to say or where to start. There are so many types of paper available and I don’t want this to turn into a wordy history of paper lecture that nobody will read. To tell you the truth if I ever knew the history of paper--which I don’t think I ever did-- I have forgotten it. So, lets start with the obvious. Oh, I prefer to call this a helpful tips page and not a tutorial. Here goes…
Paper part 1
Question: What kind of paper should I use?
Answer: What do you need the paper to do?
I know, I know, my answer is a question too. No, I’m not being a smarty. Hehehehe, often times in art it is important to ask yourself the right questions. I guess another way of saying it is this:
What you want to use the paper for will dictate what kind of paper you choose. I will explain and it’s actually pretty simple. If you want to write, sketch and doodle ideas and have something to carry around with you, then any kind of paper will do. Even*gasp* binder paper. (Shudders at the thought.) I have drawn on napkins at restaurants(cause I didn’t have a sketchpad with me) BUT I would never, ever, show the napkin to a client or a gallery or turn it in as homework for a grade. I certainly wouldn’t scan it and post it along with the restaurant’s logo and ketchup stain to the fanart galleries here at myOtaku or anywhere else. Get my drift? So my darlings, be clear on what your needs are when you decide on what kind of paper to buy and use and what you are willing/able to pay for it.
Know your needs and know your budget. This logic can be applied to all art supplies…and maybe life too!
^_^
To get around the whole lined paper issue without investing a lot of cash I suggest using
printer paper. It’s cheap and you can get it anywhere. No fancy art store required. The grocery store carries it. Just tuck a stack about an eighth or quarter inch thick in your binder. Most of your tri-fold binders have a clipboard--use it. If not, you can just slip it in under the binder paper. See, easy! Now you have your own “sketchbook” for a fraction of the price. This way if you are bored and drawing during class and the drawing turns out well you won’t have to worry about it being on lined paper. Leave the rest at home or it will get mangled in your book bag. When you run low, replenish your stash. Instead of investing in a pricey drawing board, I suggest buying a clip board. It’s all you need if you work 8.5 x 11 and it‘s easy to carry around.
Another handy thing about printer paper is it’s size. It’s 8.5 X 11 and will fit most scanners and copiers easily. If you don’t mind working small, this is an advantage. It also has a fairly nice surface (texture) and handles most types of dry medium well, especially graphite(pencil.) and ink as long as you don‘t overwork it. Colored pencils and markers work well on printer paper too. There are differing grades of printer paper from really thin, almost transparent to heavy like cardstock. You might want to have a couple different kinds. One for sketching and one for more finished work. Be sure to use a light touch and build up your drawing if working in graphite. If you are too heavy handed(make your lines too dark and heavy), you cannot make any corrections as they won’t erase and your drawing will quickly become smudged and messy looking. Once this starts to happen you need to start another drawing or stop working on the one in progress and transfer it to another piece of paper so you can continue. I will explain a couple ways to do this.
Tracing paper is an absolute must have in my opinion. It has so many uses a few of which I will outline here. You can use it to protect your drawings by using it as a cover sheet and resting your hand on it while you draw and it allows you to work up a sketch into a more detailed and finished drawing by what else--tracing. You can then use the tracing paper to transfer the “line art” to another piece of paper to be “colored” or “shaded.” It acts much the same way layers do in Photoshop or Painter. It’s not too expensive either. If you are working on printer paper you won’t need a pad bigger than 9 x 12. I don’t think you should try and carry it around too much, it’s pretty fragile stuff, but you should definitely have some on hand.
Okay Yensid, I understand how I can put tracing paper over my drawing to protect it from smudging and how to make corrections with it but how do I use it to transfer my drawing to another paper?
Answer: After tracing the drawing you scribble lightly on the back(reverse side of tracing paper) with a soft pencil following the lines of the original drawing and lay down a coat of graphite That way when you flip it back over right side up, you have basically made your own transfer paper. How’s that for cool? Then just hold the 2 pieces of paper steady, one on top of the other or tape them down, and go over the drawing with a pen or a colored pencil(so you know where you’ve already traced) and the pencil line will show up on the new piece of paper beneath. Don’t push too hard or you will get an embossed effect. What I mean by that is you will literally carve lines into the paper’s surface that might show up when you start shading or coloring it later--not good. This is called a “double transfer method” for those of you who are interested. It is a very effective means of transferring a drawing and you can use any color on the back of the tracing paper, it doesn’t have to be graphite. You could use white charcoal or colored pencil and transfer onto black or toned paper for instance. I do this all the time!
other transfer methods
The other way I know of transferring a drawing without using a mechanical device like a light table or projector is to use a window and trace . Hold up the 2 pieces of paper--the original drawing and the clean sheet-- against a window(it must be daylight) and the light will make the paper transparent and allow you to see the drawing underneath providing it isn‘t too lightly drawn. If it’s drawn so lightly you can‘t see it to trace, chances are you can continue to work on the original just fine or the paper you are transferring to is too thick. If the lines are just too light and you want to transfer it using this method, you will need to darken the lines on the drawing first. This will not work with colored or tinted papers or paper that is too thick for light to shine thru it. See the double transfer method outlined previously.
Finally you can always use a
copy machine. If your line art is clean and free of smudges and you want it on a different type of paper, want your lines darker or want multiple copies, you can use any photocopier provided the paper you want it on is 8.5 x 11. This is great when you want to get nice black lines and don’t feel like tracing the whole thing over in ink. It’s also nice if you want to experiment with color or a new rendering(shading) technique/medium and don’t want to wreck the original drawing. You’ll have copies. Professional illustrators do this all the time and it works and it’s fast .If you don’t like the paper at the photocopy place, bring a few sheets of your own. As long as it is 8.5 x 11, the machine will accept it. Of course, if you have a scanner and know digital art programs, this can all be done on the computer once you have your sketch or line drawing scanned in as your first layer to work from.
To recap:
Suggested papers to start with:
*Printer paper, different types, only use inexpensive brand for sketching
*Tracing paper-a must have in my opinion
*A few sheets of better art paper, also referred to as drawing paper
*Bristol board( I will talk about this in part 2 )
Suggested reading:
I don’t know of a book that covers just paper comprehensively, it is usually covered in books about drawing. If you know of one, let me know and I will add it to my list.
Online resources for art information
www.artcyclopedia.com
www.artlex.com
www.wikipedia.com
Online art supply retailers:
www.dickblick.com
www.jerrysartarama.com
www.utrecht.com
* Note: I know many of you cannot buy things online because you don’t have a credit card. The online art suppliers are still a great reference to learn about materials, availability and prices. You can always write down or print out the info and take it to your local art supply retailer to compare. You can also ask your local retailer to special order art supplies for you they may not regularly carry. Smaller stores cannot stock as much inventory as larger stores but most will order what they don’t have. Just ask.*
*If you do not have an art supply retailer in your area, try a college bookstore, they usually carry art supplies.*
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I think I will end this portion of the tutorial here my darlings. As you can see( if I was successful) I played with some coding of the text. I will try and add some illustrations as my skills get better. I will continue with paper briefly and then head straight into mark making(drawing) medium. I will also include some definitions of art terms. These art terms are pretty common so don’t worry, there won‘t be pages of vocabulary to memorize. You will need to know them however or you will not understand any tutorial or art techniques book you read or what I am talking about. Hope this was helpful to some of you and you can always ask me specific questions via comments box, pm or e-mail. If I get the same question from many ppl, I will add it into the tips page. Otherwise, I will try and answer then individually as they came up.
TTFN,
Yensid
