Playing around with image transfer

Still nursing a very persistent cold, but getting better slowly. But I didn't want to miss another Paint Part Friday, so I dragged myself off the sofa and into my studio to experiment a little in my art journal. I really like the technique of image transfer. I've learnt different techniques in different e-courses, and even bought a whole book just about image transfer. But my first attempts weren't really very successful. So today, I decided to give it another tr.

This is the image I chose for the transfer. I took this during a glorious winter morning walk. Well, I admit, it wasn't actually snowing that day. I added that later in Photoshop, but never mind...

I wanted to create an earthy, natural page matching th colours in the image. And what's more earthy and natural than Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Burtn Sienna.

And in addition some Payne's Grey and of course Titanium White.

For the image transfer, I used gel medium. The first attempt didn't work at all. Although admittedly that was because I applied the gel medium to the wrong side of the image. Always remember: the gel medium goes on the printed side, NOT the backside... I decided to use the image after all and just pasted it on to the page.

The second attempt was much better. It actually worked! Okay, I admit, it does not look that great. But compared with my former attempts, this is actually very good indeed. Choosing similar colours for the painted layer underneath probably also wasn't such a good idea after all.

 At the bottom, I tried some image transfer using book paper. And that really worked very well.

I really like the book paper transfer. Though I'm never really 100 % sure when and if I've managed to remove all of the paper. It's delicate, this image transfer thing. If you rub too much, the whole printed part starts coming off too.

I decided to try and add some words. When transferring words, remember to invert them before printing them out, otherwise you won't be able to read them properly. That's obviously what happens when you transfer book paper, although I think it doesn't really matter much here, as you're not really going to read the text. But with words, it's another matter. It's also a good idea to cut off as much of the paper as possible. Less paper means less rubbing.

Patience isn't really one of my strenghts, but with image transfer, you have to be patient. When transfering on to a painted surface, you'll have to let it dry completely before you can wet it again and start rubbing the paper off. But also when you print out images, or words, you'll have to let the ink dry first before attempting to transfer them.

So I decided to play around with some photos in the meantime. I used an old photo of some English castle, cut it to a square format, and just painted over it with acrylic paint. I have a whole pile of old photos I meant to throw away, but now I'll hang on to them for experimental purposes. This is really fun :)

Of course I needed to extend my palette for this: some beautiful Cerulean Blue to transform that dull grey English sky into a bright blue summer's day.

When I was done with that, the ink was sufficiently dry, and I transfered the words on to the page to finish it off. I didn't manage to get all of the paper off at the end. The ink started to smudge when it got too wet. But I'm not too bothered about it. I think it works well enough. Maybe a laser printer would be better for this?

All in all, I'm quite pleased with this morning's image transfering. Not perfect yet, but I'll keep on experimenting.

My palette is getting a bit messy. Maybe I should give it a good clean. It doesn't bother me to work with it like this, but it doesn't really look so good on the photos, with all these layers...

Happy Paint Party Friday! Do hop over and have a look at all the talented and inspiring artists there!

Everything got into one long post this week, so I'm also linking this up with Palette & Paint. Do go and visit and see what everyone else has on their palette!