Reversing Tracing Designs

For the purpose of making both halves of a design precisely alike fold a thin piece of paper and on one side draw half of the design. Then fold again and by rubbing briskly on the back of the paper with any hard substance, the design will even appear sufficiently legible to be penciled over. It can then in turn be transferred to paper that is not creased.

The method is shown in Fig. 8. The heavy lines represent the half first drawn, while the dotted lines show the folds and transfer. If the subject is a wreath an initial may be added. In the upper right-hand corner is shown half of a “B” started in this manner.

Fold a piece of paper in the middle (Fig. 9). Draw half a butterfly on one side of the fold; transfer it. Pencil the transfer. A very pretty and interesting variation of this exercise consists in using colored chalks instead of pencil, and then intensifying the transfer.

Take a piece of drawing paper about four inches square and fold it four times, according to the straight dotted lines in Fig. 10. Fold towards you, and open the paper after each folding. In one of the spaces, as at A, draw a design similar to the one shown. Crease and make a transfer, as at B. Pencil the transferred line. Fold at Cc.

Transfer the quarter design to the space E. Pencil as before, fold at DD and transfer to FFFF. Then pencil the transfer. Medallions can be drawn in a like manner by making the outside of the design follow an eighth of a circle, as at G.

The designs “e” and “f” are composed principally of the units a, b, c and d transferred, reversed, inverted and repeated somewhat according to the methods described in the chapter on Pastel-Stenciling. For exercise draw the same units or others, and construct other designs in a similar manner.

It is advisable to make tracings of both front and back of each unit. If the face of a tracing is rubbed for the purpose of transferring lines that are on the other side, the lines on the face will no longer transfer.

For general use as a tracing point or stylus, the 6H pencil is very good.