Whilst this deep snow is blanketing the ground I’m getting stuck into my own world of whiteness and how best to break it up with the thin black line. Of a tattoo design to be more specific. I know what the image is of since it has been fully discussed with the client, I know the size of the image since he’s told me specifically, I know how to draw since I’ve done it on numerous occassions over the years,  and how to colour in. So, really, you would think that it would be easy enough after that. And yet, it isn’t.
Part of the problem is the original drawing to show the client was done in pencil on white cartridge paper. Nothing wrong with that, that’s what artists normally do. The problem to be more specific, is after the pencil drawing has been drawn out on an A3 sheet of cartridge paper I need to transfer that pen drawing to another identical sheet of paper, and keeping the image exactly the same. And before any of you clever people mention the word *photocopier* I will add that the piece of paper in question is larger than my photocopier takes, and also that somehow a photocopier doesn’t pick up the fine lines of a drawing in the same way as a copy should do. So, its down to artist herself to make a copy. But the artist herself knows that she will probably have to make more than one copy as well. Due to the fact that there might have to be a couple of a
ttempts at the shading just to get the colouring correct. And I don’t want to have to use the first drawing as I want to keep that pristine as my working drawing. So, how do I make a copy easily, time and time again?
The answer is with a light box. A clever invention that is basically a large shallow box, with a sheet of obscure glass with a light under it. You place the picture you want copied on the light box, you carefully place the blank sheet of paper over the top of it, and hey presto, the light shines through, and all you have to do is copy it line by line  and when you take the piece of paper away it is an exact replica of the drawing underneath. And whilst its a fabulous piece of equipment, there is just one small problem. And that problem is I haven’t got one.
So, what do you do, when you need a light box, but haven’t got one?
You look to the skies. Well, more exactly, the window actually.
And fortunately its been a bright day with sunshine reflecting off the snow outside, so all I had to do was put the original drawing flat on my window, put the blank sheet of paper over it, and carefully draw over the top in the same black pen. Ok, it was vertical which wasn’t ideal, but far easier than having to re-draw the whole image again from the start. So now I have my light box copies and a way of making more copies if need be.
 Yay! And now I can get on with putting some colour on it!