How To Set Up a Projector in Your Art Studio For Tracing: 7 Easy Steps

Amber Stefanson | Nov 17, 2023

Projectors can be great tools for getting started on an art piece, significantly speeding up the drawing process. Yet, with so few projectors designed to fit the needs of artists, it can be difficult knowing where to start.

In this article, I’ll cover all the basics:

• How to choose a projector
• How to set up your projector for tracing
• Tips to making sure the process goes smoothly

But before we get started, I need to address the elephant in the room. The big question: is it cheating to use a projector?

Every time you look up anything to do with using a projector in your artistic process, you’ll find blogs and forums with arguments from both sides. Most likely you found some on your way here. No matter where you go, this question seems to cloak projectors like a miasma.

Is it cheating to use a projector for art?

Every artist uses tools, and it’s up to you which tools you want to use. By definition, you don’t need to freehand everything to be a “Real Artist” — you simply need to create art. Yet some artists consider using a projector in the early stages of a piece of artwork to be cheating.

In fact, some consider an artist’s use of many modern tools to be cheating, including lightbox tracing, reference images, and even digital art in general. The more digital the tool, the more highly contested it seems to be.

Many great artists have used projectors

However, artists have always used the latest technology to expand their artistic toolset. As early as the 1500s, artists were using Camera Obscura, an early form of projection thought to have been used by old masters like da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.

1755 Camera Obscura illustration by James Ayscough (Credit: The British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Camera Obscuras project an upside down replica of a view into a dark room (Credit: redditor u/camdoodlebop)

When it comes to contemporary art projectors, instructor Lee Hammond argues that there’s no promise of quality in the hands of an unskilled artist.

Hammond’s beginning art students were unable to effectively trace an image using a projector. Without drawing skills or background knowledge in composition, they didn't know which details to highlight and which to leave out.

The tools don’t make the artist

All of this to say, your skill and identity as an artist far outweigh the importance of which tools you use. The tools you decide to use don’t determine whether you’re making “Real Art", and other artists don’t get to decide that either.

Ultimately, each artist must decide for themself how they approach the creative process. If you want to use an art projector, then go for it! There are several advantages of using a projector, especially for professional artists.

The benefits of using an art projector

In the hands of a skilled artist, an art projector can help speed up the processes of getting started on an art piece. In fact, using a projector can help in many ways, including…

• Speeding up commissions, especially portraits where the finished piece needs to be highly accurate
• Quickly combining elements from multiple compositions
• Upscaling an image or sketch to a larger size
• Making it easier to draw repeating patterns

If you’re ready to reap the benefits of using an art projector in the early stages of your creative process, read on and I’ll go over all the supplies you need to get started.

What You’ll Need

Which kind of projector should I get?

There are two common types of projectors used for art projection: opaque projectors and digital projectors. Which one you should choose mostly depends upon whether you want to be able to use digital references from your phone or tablet.

Digital vs. Opaque Projectors

Opaque projectors are a kind of projector that takes a small drawing or photograph and projects it onto a larger surface area. The opaque projectors marketed towards artists are essentially compact versions of overhead classroom projectors. The industry leader in opaque projectors is the Artograph Prism.

Digital projectors, on the other hand, take digital files and reproduce them using LEDs, lasers, or spinning color wheels. There is a wide variety of digital projectors and no real industry leader for art projection.

Opaque projector

Digital projector

When choosing between these two projector types, it’s important to consider your current creative process. Do you use physical drawings, digital references, or a mix of both?

Would you rather use a digital projector and need to digitize all physical drawings? Or would you rather use an opaque projector and need to print out all digital references? Whichever you pick, there are trade-offs when it comes to cost, corrective settings, and ease of use.

Ultimately, opaque projectors are a simpler solution when all you need to do is upscale physical drawings and sketches.

If you want versatility in your studio, opt for a digital projector — they’re great for reproducing digital images and digitized sketches at any scale.

How to choose a digital projector

Many of the projectors marketed towards artists are heavily simplified, lacking important features like USB ports and keystone correction that make them more functional. Meanwhile, media projectors that have all the bells and whistles are often too large, expensive, and finicky to justify using them for an art piece.

My goal is to help you strike a balance and find a projector that is affordable, lightweight, and easy to use. Below are some features you should look out for when choosing a digital projector for tracing.

Shop for these important features

Conversely, there are projector features that are prominently advertised but won’t have a strong impact on your tracing experience. Save some money by passing on these features.

Pass on these expensive features

My personal favorite, and the projector I’ll be using in my demo, is the NexiGo PJ01. It’s completely wireless and roughly the size of a soda can.

It comes with automatic keystone correction, universal compatibility, and a touchscreen interface — meaning you won’t need to worry about losing the remote control.

The PJ01 has touchscreen controls on top and a focus dial on the side.

There’s also a tripod thread on the bottom for easy mounting.

Note that this is a medium/long throw projector. It’s versatile enough for small pieces as well as some larger work.

However for mural work, I recommend something with a shorter throw, like this one from Kodak. It has many of the same features, but requires less than half the distance to cast the same size screen as the NexiGo PJ01.

Now that you know what equipment you need, let’s get into how to display your reference image and start the tracing process.

Step 1: Upload your image onto your projector

First, you need to figure out how to upload images onto your projector. There are three ways to go about this, but your projector might not be compatible with all of them.

Ways to upload your photo

If you decide to use a USB drive, make sure that you upload images in a format that your projector can read. Follow the steps below to correctly upload your reference images.

How to upload to USB

Step 2: Secure your drawing surface

Next, determine your drawing surface and secure it into place so that it doesn’t move around while you’re in the middle of tracing.

I’m going to be tracing onto some paper, so I’m taping it down onto my table with some thin artist’s tape so that it stays in place while I trace.

Taping my paper to a tabletop

If you’re tracing onto a different drawing surface, you may need to find another way of securing it in place.

Recommendations based on drawing surface

Step 3: Mount your projector

Now that your drawing surface is secured, it’s time to set up your projector. Determine how to mount your projector based on the type of projection you need.

Recommendations based on the projection type

Also figure out how far your projector needs to be from your drawing surface so that it fills the whole drawing area. Keep your projector further away for a bigger image or closer for a smaller image.

I’m going to be projecting down onto a horizontal tabletop, so I’m mounting my PJ01 on an overhead tripod. It only needs to be about 2 feet above the table to fill the entire width of my 11x14 paper.

Projector mounted to an overhead tripod

Step 4: Make sure it’s dark

Before you finish setting up your projector, turn off the lights. This will help you see all the fine details in your image which could be washed out by bright lighting.

Don’t worry about being able to see; your projector will provide ample light for you to be able to see what you’re doing.

You can see the image much better when the lights are off

Step 5: Calibrate your projector

Before you make any adjustments, carefully position your projector so that it’s as close to perfect as possible. The fewer digital adjustments you need to make, the better. If there’s too much to fix, you’ll spend way too long stressing yourself out trying to make it perfect.

Keystone correction

Once everything’s in place, turn your projector on and navigate to Keystone Correction. Usually, you can find it in Settings Menu > Display. Occasionally you can find it on a dial on the side of your projector. (If you’re using the NexiGo PJ01, you can skip this step entirely, since it features automatic keystone correction!)

Follow the on-screen instructions, or adjust the keystone dial until the corners of the projection align with the corners of your drawing surface.

Focus

If your reference image is blurry, you must also adjust the focus. Typically, you’ll also find focus in Settings Menu > Display or on a dial on the side of your projector (this is where it is on the PJ01).

Follow the on-screen instructions, or adjust the focus until you can see all the details of your reference image clearly, paying extra attention to the corners.

Out of focus

In focus

Step 6: Find the right material to trace with

Image credit: Met Museum

Finally, you’ll need to find the right utensil to trace with. If you’re used to tracing with very faint pencil marks that are easy to erase later, you’ll need to find an alternate solution when tracing with a projector.

It will be more difficult to see faint marks under the light of a projector, so be sure to pick a darker sketching utensil. These are a few recommendations based on the medium you’re planning to use for your finished piece.

Recommendations based on medium

Step 7: Go for it!

That’s it! Now that your projector is all set up, you can go ahead and start tracing. Here are a few tips to make sure the process goes smoothly:

• Don’t trace every detail. Focus on larger shapes and major reference points.
• Your hand and tracing utensil will block part of the projection. To trace certain sections, you may need to move around and trace from different angles.
• If your projection doesn’t fill your whole surface, make marks around the edge of your reference image so that you can easily line up the projection if you take a break.

Like what we do? Stay tuned for more.

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