Check it out and try experimenting with the techniques used by the Skagen painters.
When you have finished your drawing, feel free to hang your works of art on the wall or leave them for new experiments.
We are grateful to Arctic Paper, Chalk Copenhagen, and Viking for donating super painting equipment.
Please help us to keep the Drawing Workshop nice for everyone by remembering to tidy up after yourselves.
Drawing with a camera lucida
Perhaps you have seen the drawings by the Skagen painters and wondered how they made it look so easy? Apart from drawing every day, they also experimented with camera lucida – Latin for ‘light camera’. The one you see here belonged to the Skagen painters Michael, Anna, and Helga Ancher, who lived here in Skagen.
When you use a camera lucida, you see what you want to draw through a mirror while looking at the paper in front of you. This means that you can follow the lines and marks of what you see and draw them accurately on your paper.
By using the camera lucida technique, you can practice getting the proportions right in your drawings. Proportions are about getting the size of the things you draw right in relation to each other. For example, if you draw animals, the camera lucida technique will help you to place the eyes, nose, and mouth correctly.
Why not have a go yourself? Find an object on the shelf and explore the camera lucida technique.
- Place the paper on the table in front of you.
- Find an object on the shelf and place it in front of the camera lucida.
- Look through the camera lucida and adjust it until you see the image on your paper.
- Use a pencil to draw the picture you see through camera lucida.
