Embracing Tracing: Transferring Reference Images for Watercolor

It can be tempting to rush through a sketch to start painting right away, but having the proper foundation before beginning painting can make or break a piece of artwork. However, drawing and painting are not the same skill, and one shouldn’t hold you back from exploring the other. This is an especially pertinent distinction when following online classes and tutorials, yet this topic is one that carries a lot of stigma in the art community.

In this class, we are going to start from the very beginning so that we can start every watercolor painting with clean and accurate line art – without guilt or judgment.

We will:

• Discuss the importance of using reference.
• Discuss the stigma of tracing reference images.
• Explore three methods of transferring your reference photo accurately.
• Compare the different methods of tracing to decide what method works best for your creative process.
• Determine what information in a photograph is useful to transfer to your line art.