Tracing Tool

A lot of people like to use a ballpoint pen. I do not. Marking up the tracing paper w/ ink always bugged me as I’d get it on my hands and ultimately on the project. I tried various sculpting tools settling on the rounded point end of a Schein PFI W3. No clue if these are available anymore, I think it’s an old 80’s dental tool. I imagine there are equivalent tools on the market.

Some other tools I tried:

  • multiple flat tipped sculpting tools
    • the almost-bladed nature of the tools made it impossible to get smooth curves
  • ball tools
    • Could work, but mine were always to wide in diameter. You’d have to find a really small one
  • dull sculpting blades
    • would just cut through the tracing paper

Tracing Paper

Discovered transparencies. They work really well as tracing paper, but a laser would still be far faster and easier on your fingers. Requires laser printing rather than inkjet for best results, though variants for both printing methods exist.
– They’re completely water resistant
– The warping is pretty easy to work with
– Ideal for lining up and can use a sketch rather than finished line art
– tape removes a small amount of ink but not enough to matter
– highly preservable. can probably get 6-10 traces out of 1 sheet