When I was a boy my older brother, Bob, showed me how to use an opaque projector. We used it to copy cartoon characters out of comic books. Today we have digital projectors, but they are much more expensive. For years I've been keeping an eye on pico projectors (very small, portable projectors that use LEDs or lasers for lights), but up until now they have been too expensive and too dim.
Recently I discovered the 3M Streaming projector. It costs less then $200 and is relatively bright at 60 lumens. I'm putting it through its paces. Here's my set up.
I put the projector on a tripod and aimed it straight down to project on a table in front of me. I set the projector to project the image up side down so it would look right side up to me. I put the free Roku app on my iPod Touch and used it to send photos wirelessly to the projector. It worked great and was bright enough to work with the room lights on.
I took a photo of a dollhouse that my wife, Kris, built for our daughter. I used The Sketch Club app on my iPod Touch to distort the vertical perspective of the house.
I then projected each photo and traced it with pencil.
Finally I added watercolor and pen and ink.
This worked so well that I want to use it for painting on location. The projector is very small and only weighs 11 ounces and its internal battery lasts for 2 hours.
Jim
