After I’m finished with my preliminary drawing my next step is to transfer that drawing to a nice piece of watercolor paper. I use a 300 pound hot-press paper, made by Fabriano. It’s a very thick paper with a flat surface. The flat surface is much easier to draw on than the rougher cold-press papers and the thickness allows it to absorb a lot of water and paint without buckling.
I use a lightbox to help me trace the drawing onto the watercolor paper with a hard (H or 2H) pencil. I like the harder pencil in this case because leaves a light line which I can easily erase. When I’m tracing, I try to do it quickly and accurately, but I try not to get to hung up in details, because with the light shining from behind the image I can’t really see the paper very well. After I’m done tracing, and I take the paper off the lightbox, then I very carefully add details, and adjust the drawing. This is the final step before I start applying paint, and I want to be sure everything is just the way I want it.
When the drawing is done, I soak it in water for 5 minutes and then staple it(while it’s still wet) to my painting board. The board is 1/2″ plywood. After the paper dries, it will be ready for painting. Because it’s been presoaked, the paper the surface will remain flat as I paint on it.
