Transparency Sketches

Use matt finish acetate .25 to .12mm thick. This will later be fixed to Perspex for presentation.

You will need rigger brushes in sizes 0, 1, 2, and 4 for doing the lead lines and other areas of graphic delineation. In using these brushes for lead lines, you want to maintain a line that is consistently thick. It is a different feeling from general image making and you may want to try locking your wrist to maintain a greater consistency of pressure.The paint for the lead lines can be a calligraphy ink or a black acrylic paint. The lead lines and all other tracing is applied to the matt side of the acetate.

Once the tracing lines are all completed, start laying the colours on the backside, the smooth side. The brushes to use are bulbous pointed sables in sizes 2, 3, 5 and 6. The application is in a "floated" versus a "stroked" manner of application. Stroking has a tendency to hasten the drying resulting in streaking. You may find this a bit of a trick at first. It is advisable to place colour throughout the design so it has time to set up and dry a bit, as opposed to putting wet against wet.

When the colour has dried, one can emulate matting on the matt side with an ebony pencil. And if you want to take out some lights, that can be accomplished with carefully placed extender. The extender is also used to make the piece transparent and to emulate a variety of textures available in glass from reamy to seedy.

When the colours are dry, mount the sketch on 3mm Perspex to stiffen the presentation, provide weight and give the presentation with some "substance”. You can also add double matt board doors hinged with smooth electrical tape to keep the lacquer colours away from sustained sun. Also when open, they support the sketch during the presentation.

When putting matting boards around the presentation sketch, they should be much wider than a drawing or water colour so that ambient light from behind is modified by a greater expanse of black or dark matting board.

Edited from emails by Richard Millard