Canvas painting method?

Factual Questions
1

What is the best method to get a line drawing I have onto a canvas so that I can paint it?

I have the image I want and I even have it sized correctly for the canvas. I just don’t have a good method to get it transfered.

2

Can you make up a slide and then project it onto the canvas? Or find an old opaque projector or Elmo. You can then trace the image onto the canvas.

3

IANAA but to the best of my recollection the two standard methods of transference involve either:

(i) place line drawing on canvas, use pin/needle to prick along the lines to be transferred, remove drawing and join up the dots (or “pounce marks”). Leonardo used this for Virgin & Child.

(ii) place sheet of carbon paper on canvas, place drawing on carbon paper, trace lines on drawing to leave carbon trace on canvas.

alternative (ii) rub chalk on back of line drawing (I remember using red chalk) and retrace lines on drawing to leave impression on canvas

4

Any art supply store will carry a carbon-like transfer paper for just that purpose.

5

Here’s a cheap-ass way that should work:

  • Get a piece of tracing paper (as big as the image, obviously)
  • Lay it over the line drawing and trace it (with pen or pencil)
  • Flip the tracing paper over
  • On the back of the tracing paper, trace the image you just traced, using a soft, heavy pencil (6B, 7B, or 8B). You now have a piece of tracing paper with the regular image on one side and the same image, reversed, on the other.
  • Lay the tracing paper on the prepared (gessoed) canvas. The side with the heavy pencil should be in contact with the canvas, and the side facing up should be the regular image in its proper orientation (not reversed).
  • Scribble over all the lines with a pencil. This will transfer the heavy marks on the other side onto the canvas.

You should now have the lines of the drawing on the canvas.
If you want, you can even skip the tracing paper altogether:

  • lay the paper with the image face-down on a lightbox, or tape it onto a window (face against the glass); now, you can see the lines through the paper
  • trace the lines with a soft, heavy pencil, just like above
  • follow the rest of the directions as above
6

Sorry: such as this paper.

7

If you’ve got a large window with bright light behind it, and the original image is on somewhat transparent paper (or can be traced onto it):

Tape the original image to the window.
Mount (heavy tape or stand) the canvas over it.

Most canvases are pretty translucent, even after being primed a few times, so you should be able to just trace onto the canvas directly with vine charcoal or some other easily-removed mark (I don’t like pencil, it leaves visible lines under acrylic paint, and oils sometimes don’t like to stick to it.)

You can also buy something called an “Art Tracer” – there are several models, starting at about $30. It’s pretty much just a cheap opaque projector. This has the opposite limitation – the room has to be really, really dark.

8

I am an artist.
I do this all the time. The best way is to use an opaque projector. Many companies make them but Art-O-Graph seems to have the least distortion and light leakage. The advantage of these machines is that you can sketch at a small comfortable size and adjust the image size projected onto the canvas. Then just ‘trace’ over the projected image with a soft lead or vine charcol.
You can, and I do, use commercially prepared graphite paper.
Note that the projectors can be tempting to trace photos from mags, etc, but don’t - it’s usually illegal. YMMV.