Mixed Media Painting Class: Although I have yet to do a transfer that actually transfers properly I am now going to attempt to describe the process.
- Paint or stain your background with acrylic paint and let dry.
image is too grey to transfer well
- Images should be ‘high contrast’ as in mostly ‘black’ or ‘white’ Most of the ones I initially brought in had tons of gray in them which doesn’t transfer well.
image is now high-contrast and reversed so that lettering & hand positions will be correct after transferring
- Reverse any images with text on them so they will read correctly when transferred. This means all ‘text’ including Arabic script, Chinese characters, etc. plus any non-verbal communications such as my holyman’s blessing.
- We used a fancy-dancy photo copier for this but you can also do it in Photoshop or Gimp if you don’t have access to such a thing. The key is to print it on a LASER printer, not an ink-jet. I think colour laser also transfers and will try this later.
- Trim off excess white paper; otherwise you will have to rub it off and that’s a lot of extra work
- Apply a medium amount of gel both to the canvas and to the PRINTED side of the photocopy, and lay face down on your painting.
the arrows (from left, clockwise) point to: 1. excess gel that you DON'T want to get on the paper backing, or you will never get the paper off; 2 squeegeed a bit too hard and broke through the paper; 3. push any air bubbles to areas without any image to transfer
- Squeegee carefully; air bubbles cause unattractive ‘holes’ in the final image, and if you get gel onto the back of the paper you will never get the paper off.
gently peel the first layer of paper off about two minutes after applying
- Peel the first layer of paper off about two minutes after applying.
transfer of Indian holyman blessing on painted canvas board
- Once it dries through you can rub the rest of the paper off with warm water and a fairly rough cloth, revealing your image
There does appear to be some sort of ‘knack’ to it that I have yet to acquire. However, in a slide-show of some well-known artist’s pieces, Jeanne pointed out lots of broken transfers. Apparently the eye fills in the missing bits, e.g. even though my hand is broken, it stills reads as a hand.
The original photo of my holyman is on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/albatz/4918700937/
Our super instructor’s site: http://jeannekrabbendam.com/ On her site she has her work and offers lots of different workshops and courses.