For my next painting in “tracing class”, I’ve selected a photo from a book on villages and town in the Northwest. This one of a barn was taken in Joseph, OR, which is in the northeastern part of the state. My thought was it might be good for me to have a building up close and personal to work on. Before i could begin, though, teacher said not a good idea for barn (see reference photo, below) to be facing out of the picture. Since she wants us tracing the general outlines (and then some!) and not drawing freehand, i wondered how i was supposed to turn the barn around. Turns out it’s pretty simple, once you think of it (which i didn’t — had to be told!). So — traced the whole picture onto acetate, leaving the barn out. Then, on a separate sheet of the plastic, i traced the barn. Then, when i transferred the tracings to the canvas, i just turned the “barn” tracing over, and voila! — barn faces in the right direction. Of course this means the lighting and shading will also be different. I’ve reproduced the tracing below. You may not be able to see it well. Apologies. Stay tuned for when i begin painting next week. Oh — forgot to mention that teacher also suggested i do the painting in landscape, rather than portrait mode. (Canvas is 9″ x 12″ — so as usual, another small one for this class, as per instructions.)
LJ and NJ 