Tranferring a Charcoal Sketch to a Painting Surface

A common method for transferring a sketch to paper or canvas is by rubbing charcoal on the back of the sketch, but charcoal dust gets everywhere and the surface gets dirty. Here is a method I use when I am working in gouache and oils.

Materials: Pure Powdered Charcoal General’s, vegetable Glycerin, sharp hard pencil 4H, painting knife and a small soft sponge. I mixed the charcoal on my tempered glass palette as shown below:

 

Mix a few drops of glycerin with a small amount of charcoal, mix with a painting knife until the charcoal is completely wet. Apply mixture with the soft sponge to the back of sketch and let it dry for about three minutes. Carefully fix the sketch to the canvas; hold it in place with masking tape so it does not shift. Transfer the lines by going over the sketch with the hard pencil [a fine ball point will work well too.] Glycerin temporarily binds the charcoal to the paper and stops it from flying everywhere. The charcoal drawing will still come off so this is the time to trace it more permanently with dark [under-painting] acrylic, oils, etc depending on your painting technique.

This is the original sketch:

 

Glycerin dissolves in water and does not affect the subsequent application of gouache, acrylic, watercolors or oils. This is how the charcoal, wet with glycerin, looks like after applying it on the paper with the sponge:

This is how the transfer looks on poster boar covered with a layer of acrylic primer [not gesso]. I believe this is a cleaner method.