Fixing the Sketch
 

Hi,

I do (mostly) a charcoal sketch on my gessoed hardboard. Before I start with the first wash of oil, I do a last thin white gesso layer on it. Is this Ok, or not? I think it is better than fixing the sketch with a spray and it covers the dark lines more.

Secondly, if I start (caused by unidentified interstellar radiation) totally wrong with pencil, how can I prevent the "rising up" of the graphite?

Thanks in advance.

Leslie

Spraying fixative over charcoal
 

Hi Leslie,

I probably can't be of much help here but I'll try. Recently I have been doing my sketch in charcoal on white canvas. Then I use KRYLON Workable Fixatif and spray over that charcoal. After as little as half an hour the fixative is dry and then I wipe on a wash of burnt umber and turp to get a toned canvas. Then when that's dry I start painting.

The fixative is amazing and prevents any 'rising up'. You might experiment with it and see how that works for you.

Hope this is of some help Leslie!

Joan

Hi Joan,
Charcoal is a good choice of course, but about pencil (graphite) wrote Bill Creevy in his book:
Although he wrote about fixing with spray, as you suggested. It means that in despite of fixatif, graphite is bad for sketching, isn't?
Cheers.

Here's what I learned in Tony Ryder's workshop: he taught us to do our sketches using vine charcoal, erasing any un-needed lines.

Then we drew over those charcoal lines with a VERY thin mixture of burnt umber and mineral sprits. This is dry quite quickly and as soon as it is, we brushed off the charcoal completely (using a soft cloth like a chamois). Voila -- no charcoal or graphite to have to cover or fix, just a nice clean under-drawing in very thin paint.

Usually I trace the drawing and transfer it to the board (gessoed masonite) using conte as a transfer medium. Then I spray fix it (Krylon Workable Fixatif), let it dry, and then start with an oil wash (with turpentine).

Spray Fix, if sprayed heavily, changes the surface of the gesso, making it noticeably less absorbent. So on my last painting, I decided to spray the Fix on much lighter to try to keep the original character of the gesso.

However, much to my surprise, when I did the oil wash over this tracing, the turpentine melted the drawing completely--and I mean completely. It was a pretty complicated, multi-figure thing, but luckily, I had the original tracing. All I lost was a couple of hours, which was highly annoying, but not a tragedy. Never had this happen before, but clearly, with an oil wash, the SprayFix on the drawing has to be pretty thick.

Ken

Many thanks for your tips!

Michele, your method sounds interreresant. You "draw" practically once again with thin oil ---with a tiny brush-- like ink? Right?

Ken, thank you too, it was certainly very annoying! I noticed: spray thin.

Yes, Leslie, that's how it works. In fact, Tony Ryder calls this step "inking in", though I think some people might be confused by that term and think he actually recommends using ink, which he does not.

The thing I like best about this method is that nothing is left on the canvas that might interfere with the painting later: no chemical fixative, no graphite, no charcoal, just very thin burnt umber is all you're left with on the surface.

Well, spray thin if you want to keep the absorbent nature of the gesso. If you want to keep your drawing, you should probably spray thick.

"Inking in"
 

I use a couple of methods to "ink in" my image on canvas, or on gessoed masonite.

Sometimes, I trace it on from a drawing, and then go over it with hard charcoal. I wipe off as much charcoal as possible. It leaves a "ghost" image which is plainly visible. Then, I use a thinnish wash of either raw sienna with a little black, or thinned raw umber using a #2 brush for a fine line.

If it's an important portrait, I'll draw over my tacing with slightly diluted india ink, using one of the finer pointed speedball pen points. It leaves an indelible image that, at first, you think you'll never cover with paint. But it slowly gets covered as you work along. The nice thing about the ink drawing is that if you get utterly desperate, you can dig down until you find your original drawing. But I've never had to do that. The india ink stays visible for quite a long time.

Joan, I am curious, oh and anyone else can jump in here too! My question is how much fixatif do you have to apply to be able to apply a wash without losing the drawing.

For instance do you spray a coat on and let that dry then apply a second coat let that dry then apply your wash?

Also you say you wipe on your wash could you explain what you mean by wipe on, do you mean with a rag or brush?


One more question, have you tried this on a gessoed board? This is what I am using ... a 8"x10" gessoed board oh and I guess I am braking all the rules here, I used pencil not charcoal.

Anyway, looking forward to your response!

Mark