Yesterday's Shadows, Step 2

The Drawing

Having cropped the photograph to my liking, I used my proportion wheel to decide what size canvas I would use and settled on a 24 x 16. 

With soft vine charcoal, I gridded the canvas in 2" increments. Sorry, I lost the photo of it.  :)

Then I printed out the jpg, laid a piece of plastic wrap over it, and gridded it to correspond. 

I then enlarged the photo onto the canvas, by drawing square by square.  To me this is the safest way to enlarge a complicated piece, without losing any of the subtleties.  See below:

At this point, I am only concerned with the placement on the canvas.  It is pretty loose, but I can't get too precise with the charcoal.

 I prepared the canvas by stretching Belgium linen on stretcher bars and then primed it with rabbit's skin glue and Gamblin's Alkyd Ground.  Several times a year I will undertake this procedure and do 10 to 12 canvases at a time in various sizes so that I have them available when I need them.  This particular one I prepared about four years ago.  On the back of each one, I attach a label with the preparation procedure and the date of completion.