Being out of tracing paper, and wishing to transfer a drawing to a support so I could paint on it tomorrow, I used GIMP and a reference photograph to work around it.
I open the photograph in GIMP and use the Rectangle Select Tool to crop the image.
Toolbox - Rectangle Select Tool
Image - Crop to Selection
Because the image is straight from the camera, it's a bit unwieldy for my puny computer at around 3600 x 2500 pixels even after cropping, so I scale the image to reduce the size.
Image - Scale Image
I reduce the image to 1000 pixels across and 718 pixels high. This makes it easier for my underpowered system box to hump the pixels around while I'm doing this.
I open the photograph in GIMP and use the Rectangle Select Tool to crop the image.
Toolbox - Rectangle Select Tool
Image - Crop to Selection
Because the image is straight from the camera, it's a bit unwieldy for my puny computer at around 3600 x 2500 pixels even after cropping, so I scale the image to reduce the size.
Image - Scale Image
I reduce the image to 1000 pixels across and 718 pixels high. This makes it easier for my underpowered system box to hump the pixels around while I'm doing this.
The idea is to print out the photograph on some A4 paper and chalk the back of this so I can draw around the image to transfer the outline to a piece of primed board. To save toner and have a clear image, I need to reduce the image to mostly just an outline. To do that, I use an Edge-Detect filter.
Filters - Edge Detect - Edge
Algorithm - Sobel (Like I know what this means.)
Amount - 2.0
This picks out all the edge detail in the photograph but turns everything dark. So now, to get minimal black on white lines, we go to
Colour - Invert
This leaves us with a fairly clean line image, which is still in colour. To get rid of the colour, use
Colours - Posterize
and select 2 colours. Then go back into
Colours - Desaturate
where you will have the choice between choosing your shade of grey based on Lightness, Luminosity, or their Average. They're all subtly different, and it's worth trying out all three before you choose the one that suits your image best.
where you will have the choice between choosing your shade of grey based on Lightness, Luminosity, or their Average. They're all subtly different, and it's worth trying out all three before you choose the one that suits your image best.
So now I have the image I need, but is it the right size for printing? Go to
Image - Print Size
I choose 'inches' because I don't do metric. I change the width to 11.000", and clicking on the height automatically changes that to 7.898" in this case. That will fit on a sheet of A4 and give me the size of drawing I need. Press 'OK'.
To print it out, I go to
File - Page Setup
and choose Landscape. Then I go to
File - Print
This brings up another dialogue in which you can check your settings before you commit to a print. Check the tiny preview on the Image Settings, and if you're happy with that, click Print.
And I end up with the image I want on a sheet of A4, ready to transfer to a 10" x 12" primed board. You can do this by covering the rear of the paper with pastel, taping it to the board and going over the outlines with a ballpoint.
Just to be clear, this isn't going to turn into a slavish copy of a photograph. That would be pointless at best. It's just a quick way to get an image outline onto a support. That outline is still subject to all the painting decisions I'll make in front of the real subject. Trees will be moved. Colours will be pushed, squished, or otherwise abused. Individual blades of grass will be cruelly ignored while I make bold and decisive brush marks in juicy paint. Skies will be invented, applied, and discarded.
