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  1. Hi, thanks for your tracing tips. Why didn’t I think of windows. The I Pad tip is great also.

  2. I print out an image from my computer, turn it over and use a watercolor pencil and color the backside of the image. Then I place the page on my watercolor paper and trace the design. When I begin to paint, the watercolor pencil marks blend with my paint and voila no marks showing through

  3. Thank you for information. Especially IPad use. I have a light board, Not a very good Watercolor painter, but do enjoy it.

  4. Hi Hanna, thank you so much for sharing! Tracing newbie here! I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how the kneading eraser fits in to this equation. Would you happen to have a video of your process? Thanks?

  5. I just discovered Pinterest and am overjoyed at all the resources available. I am an 80 yr old Great Grandmother and just taking up watercolors. Just learning by watching demonstrations on line. Love watercolors and wish I had started earlier. Thanks for the tracing tips.

  6. Each of these methods requires a pencil which would then need to be erased at some point, but you mentioned that erasing pencil marks is not ideal. So I’m not completely understanding how this would all be awesome.

    1. Lorie – sorry for the confusion. Using a regular pencil sometimes does not come off as easy as a blue sketching pencil. I like to use a blue pencil since you can lightly trace your outline and erase the lines with a kneaded eraser. With regular pencils, if you use the eraser at the end of the pencil, it leave a mark from that eraser. If you don’t have a blue sketching pencil, you can definitely use a regular pencil, but having the kneaded eraser helps a lot since it just “picks up” the marks and lightens the graphite from the pencil. It’s meant to be used more like you are kneading dough and pushing on the paper vs. rubbing it back and forth like a normal eraser. I hope that explanation helps.

    2. Thank you so much for the tips, I will try them. Really appreciate you and for sharing different ideas.

  7. I appreciate your page. I’m always looking for ways to improve my watercolor skills. I loaded the Softbox app after paying my 99 cents and despite its 1-star rating. I don’t see a setting for colors inside the app so not sure how that color white works . Maybe changer my screen color …?

  8. I am sketching my daughter’s cats onto paper in my sketchbook but I want to paint them on watercolor paper. I don’t see how using a light pad or window would allow me to trace onto watercolor paper—it is too thick and opaque, isn’t it? I’ll try it but I’m so suspicious. I have put off attempting it because I felt it was not going to work, but now I just have to give it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. 🎉

  9. There is an app for the iPad called “Camera Lucida” – use these words only when searching.
    It is an amazing app to let you “trace” a photo on to paper. You can even control the scale.

  10. I have had great results using just a pointy end of something (embossing tool, dotting tool and an orangewood stick from my nail art stuff, the tip of one of my hair accessories—pretty much anything pointy but something WITHOUT ink, graphite, lead, etc) and a window/lightboard/ipad. You just have to make sure your took isn’t sharp, so that it doesn’t scratch or cut your paper. I just trace the design and indent the paper, and it works because the watercolor paper is so thick, I don’t have to worry about erasing or having my pencil color show up in the watercolor. It might be harder to use this trick for more detailed projects, but it works great so that I can keep things in perspective vs trying to do things freehand.

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