✍️ How to Transfer Images for Painting: Carbon, Saral, and Homemade Graphite Paper

Whether you’re painting in watercolor, oil, or acrylic, getting a clean, accurate drawing onto your working surface is often the first step toward a successful painting. Freehand drawing is a wonderful skill — but sometimes, especially for complex compositions or portraits, image transfer methods save time and preserve proportions.

Today, we’ll explore three tried-and-true ways to transfer your drawing or printed image onto your painting surface:

  1. 📄 Carbon Paper

  2. ✨ Saral Transfer Paper

  3. 🏡 Homemade Graphite Transfer Paper

Each has its quirks and best uses. Let’s dive in.

📝 1. Using Carbon Paper

Carbon paper is the classic, old-school method — and it still works beautifully.

🧰 What You’ll Need

  • Your drawing or printed image

  • A sheet of carbon paper (graphite side down)

  • Your painting surface (watercolor paper, panel, canvas, etc.)

  • A pencil or stylus

🪄 How to Do It

  1. Tape your surface securely to your work table.

  2. Place the carbon paper graphite-side down onto the surface.

  3. Position your image on top, aligning it carefully.

  4. Tape the image in place so it doesn’t shift while tracing.

  5. Using a sharp pencil or stylus, trace over all the lines you want to transfer.

  6. Gently lift a corner to check progress, then finish the rest.

⚡ Pro Tips

  • Use light pressure — carbon paper can be quite dark, and too much pressure can leave indents.

  • After transferring, lightly erase or soften the lines if they’re too bold before painting.

Best for: Canvas, panels, and heavy watercolor papers. Excellent when you need a quick, clear transfer.

✨ 2. Using Saral Transfer Paper

Saral paper is a modern, artist-friendly version of carbon paper. It comes in rolls or sheets and various colors (graphite gray, white, red, blue, etc.), which is perfect for different surfaces.

🧰 What You’ll Need

  • Saral transfer paper (choose color for your surface)

  • Image and painting surface

  • Pencil or stylus

🪄 How to Do It

  1. Place Saral paper chalk-side down on your surface.

  2. Tape it in place.

  3. Position your image over it and tape that down too.

  4. Trace over the lines you want to transfer.

✨ Why Artists Love Saral

  • Erasable: Lines can be gently erased without damaging the surface.

  • No smudging: Unlike carbon paper, Saral doesn’t smear.

  • Reusable: One sheet can last through multiple transfers.

  • Color choice: White works beautifully on dark panels; red or blue can be easier to see than graphite on light papers.

Best for: Watercolor paper, gessoed panels, toned grounds, and surfaces where smudge-resistance matters.

The Art of Mixing Black: Recipes for Watercolor & Oil Painters

Black is one of those colors that can make or break a painting. A flat tube black can sometimes feel dead — lifeless shadows, muddy details, or chalky overtones. But when you mix your own black, you can control its temperature, transparency, and depth, giving your work a richness that store-bought blacks often can’t match.

Today, we’ll walk through two classic approaches:

  • 🌊 Mixing a beautiful black in watercolor

  • 🛢 Crafting a deep black in oil paint

Let’s get mixing.

🌊 1. Mixing Black in Watercolor

✍️ Classic “Velvety Black” Recipe

  • Perylene Green (or Phthalo Green) – 1 part

  • Alizarin Crimson (or Quinacridone Rose) – 1 part

  • French Ultramarine Blue – 1 part

🧪 Instructions

  1. Start with Ultramarine: Lay down a rich Ultramarine Blue puddle on your palette. This gives the mix body and a slightly warm undertone.

  2. Add Crimson: Slowly introduce Alizarin Crimson, stirring until you get a deep violet. This is your “shadow core.”

  3. Introduce Perylene Green: Mix in the green a little at a time — you’ll see the violet swing toward a neutral, almost black tone. Adjust until it looks nearly black in the palette.

  4. Test on Paper: Always stroke it on watercolor paper — blacks can look deeper wet than they’ll dry. Adjust temperature:

    • Too warm? Add a touch more green.

    • Too cool? Add a bit more crimson.

    • Too flat? A tiny flick of Ultramarine wakes it up.

💡 Tip: If you want a transparent black for glazing, thin the mix heavily with water and layer it gradually. The triad of complementary pigments builds luminous depth when glazed rather than plopped on thick.

🛢 2. Mixing Black in Oil Paint

✍️ Rich “Painter’s Black” Recipe

  • Ultramarine Blue – 2 parts

  • Burnt Umber – 1 part

This is a classic warm black beloved by landscape painters.

🧪 Instructions

  1. Start with Ultramarine: On your glass palette, squeeze out a generous ribbon of Ultramarine.

  2. Add Burnt Umber: Place half as much Burnt Umber beside it.

  3. Mix with a palette knife until you get a smooth, even blend. The warm umber knocks back the blue’s intensity, creating a neutral black that leans ever so slightly warm.

  4. Adjust to taste:

    • Want a cooler black? Add a touch more Ultramarine.

    • Want a warmer black? Lean on Burnt Umber.

    • For maximum depth, introduce a smidge of Alizarin Crimson — this gives the black a subtle inner glow.

✨ Alternative Cool Black Recipe

  • Phthalo Green + Alizarin Crimson — equal parts → a stunning, deep, cool black.
    This combination produces a near-inky tone with high tinting strength, perfect for dramatic shadows or night skies.

🌟 Why Mix Your Own Black?

  • Control temperature: Warm vs. cool blacks affect mood and realism.

  • Depth: Mixed blacks have subtle undertones that make shadows feel alive.

  • Harmony: You’re using the same pigments already in your painting, which keeps your palette cohesive.

  • Avoid chalkiness: Tube blacks (like Ivory Black) can dull mixtures and sit flat on the surface.

🧠 Final Thoughts

Whether you’re working in the luminous transparency of watercolor or the buttery richness of oil, mixing your own black gives your paintings a living, breathing darkness. It’s less “dead void” and more “rich velvet curtain” — a backdrop that lets colors sing.

Once you try these recipes, you might find that tube black gathers dust in your paint box. 😉

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