What should I use to draw under oil paint?

Question

I was drawing onto my primed canvas in pencil, in preparation to paint over the top in oils, but a friend told me that I shouldn't do that, since over time the graphite will rise to the surface of the painting.What should I use instead?

Answer 1

There’s some different techniques that can help prevent the graphite or charcoal from bleeding through. Some artists like to apply fixative on top of the pencil lines before painting. Another method is doing the outline in light gray acrylic paint instead of pencil before painting with oil, or doing the drawing then on top of that doing the gray paint lines. I would suggest trying different methods and then seeing what works best for you.