Oil Transfers

The methodology I use for transferring pencil drawings to canvas.

I chose Liam Gallagher as my subject for the future painting.

Stage One: Initial Drawing

First, I cut out a piece of paper the same dimensions as the canvas, in this case, 12″ x 12″. I typically spend a fair amount of time in refining the drawing before starting a painting, and I’ve found it to be much more convenient to perform this step on paper than on canvas or linen. Using a proportional divider or the grid method helps speed up this process.

Stage Two: Applying the Paint

-Once I have a drawing roughly the same size as the canvas, I take a separate piece of paper and coat one side of it with a relatively quick drying oil paint (burnt umber, in this case). Then, I attach the painted paper to the back of the drawing and tape it to the canvas- after that, all that is left is to trace the desired outlines for the underpainting. I recommend using a ballpoint pen for this step- Micron pens appear more visible on camera for the tutorial but can be easily damaged under the pen pressure necessary to transfer the drawing.

Closing Thoughts

There are many benefits to oil transfers, especially that of an underpainting drawing that does not wipe away easily, and that subsequent layers of paint will not be contaminated with graphite/charcoal. For those interested in an in-depth tutorial on the subject, the YouTube channel ‘waddellwebisodes’ has excellent videos on the subject.