How to Make a Transparency

One of the tools we use in the workshops to let everyone self-check their drawing is a transparency.  Since Cindy and I can’t see what the attendees are doing right now like we would in a landbased workshop - look over your shoulder and point and say “fix this and this” - everyone has to do it themselves.

Now, this gave us some pause.  Transparencies?  Should we really be encouraging that sort of thing?  Is it going to harm them?  Isn’t it cheating?

The ultimate goal of the online oil painting workshops is to give everyone the tools they need to self educate and offer some guidance and instruction.  Preferably, everyone works from life a lot/all/some of the time - but in reality a whole lot of work is done from photos.  The transparency is an objective and immediate reference to ascertain the correctness of the drawing.

Do I use a transparency IRL?  No.  But I have used all kinds of transfer and measuring aids over the years, from direct transfer, gridding, opaque projector, plumbline, level, and whatever else I could use to make it right.  Because I wanted to learn.  And every time I could find my errors, that knowledge went in the “lesson learned” file.  Now, I eyeball it and measure with me brain - the fastest way to get it on there to be honest.  All those years of mechanical aids weren’t permanent “crutches,” they were “training.”

So that is the goal - use the mechanical aids with the idea in mind that we’re improving our visual and critical skills, with the ultimate goal of painting from life with those excellent skills in place.

/Lecture.

Here’s how you make one in PaintShopPro:

1. Resize the photo reference to the same size as your painting surface
2. Increase the contrast using Adjust>Brightness and Contrast
3. Make the outlines using Adjust>Edge Effects>Find All
4. Make the lines darker by adjusting levels.
5. Either save to a file and have Kinkos etc print it out on a transparency, or print on any printer using transparency paper.

To use it - after sketching out your composition, lay the transparency over your work to see where you’re off, and see where you’re right.  Fix the errors and check again.  Congratulate yourself on your successes and endeavor to make them permanent habits.