The NeoLucida XL

I’ve invested in some new gear. This has been on the cards for a while but it was having to measure out three grids of different sizes for the Peter Green painting that finally tipped me over the edge. That little box with the bendy arm and the clamp is the NeoLucida XL, a clever arrangement of lenses and mirrors that I can look through and see an image of the subject in the paper that I can then trace.

I’ve also had to buy the thing that you can see holding the iPad so that it can be held vertically without falling over. And I’ve filled an old wooden box with stones so that I can clamp the NeoLucida to it so that it’s far enough away from the paper for me to be able to see the whole sheet. I even have a sheet of paper with marked up rectangles to help me set things up.

It’s going to take a while to get used to. The two hardest things are:

• positioning: getting the iPad, NeoLucida and paper into exactly the right positions so that the image is the right size and orientation and positioned correctly on the paper
• skill: getting the drawing down quickly enough without jogging the NeoLucida so that the image and t( partly finished drawing are no longer aligned

With practice, this will all become second nature though. I have a good feeling about this new tool.