Tracing

A great way to get a nice clean picture of something you are attempting to re-create is by "tracing" or "stenciling" it. turns out most people do this, would of been nice to know that A YEAR AGO!! Let me explain what this means.

Step 1: you find a picture you want to paint and print it out, or if you find it online and do not have a printer, trace off the computer screen (can be difficult). 

For the example, I printed out a picture of a guy with a cuckoo bird in his head.

 Step 2: Place the tracing paper of the picture and trace all of the lines you wish to re-paint using a fine pencil (I left out the blue tattoo ink on the man and the borders)

Step 3:  Get your water color paper and put the tracing paper over it (line it up how you want it to appear on your paper)

Step 4: Slide the black transfer paper over the water color paper, and under the tracing paper (a.k.a. Tracing paper, transfer paper, water color paper - stacked on top of each other)

side note: Dark black side should be facing the water color paper/ down, NOT towards tracing paper/ you)

Step 5: Re- trace the lines on your tracing paper using a fine pencil, remember where you have traced because when you lift up the papers "what you see is what you get!" unless you want to erase it all and start over again! (yes, the transfer paper comes up with eraser)

Step 6: Re-trace the lines of your image on your water color paper with your artist pen/ calligraphy pen. (yes, this is a lot of tracing! but it is a clean exact copy) After you finish tracing with pen, take your eraser and rub down the whole image so the transfer paper image is gone. You should be left with a dark permanent ink outline of your image and ready to be filled in with your talent. Just like a coloring book picture!