Image Transfer of Sarah

Having fun with my canvas boards. I was at Dick Blicks a couple of weeks ago and bought a bunch of 6x6 canvas panels. It is a much larger size for me to play with so what the heck. Still playing with my Portfolio oil pastels I made this one of Sarah. I transferred the image onto the canvas panel using Dick Blick brand gel medium and it worked perfectly!!! The image is a laser print not ink jet.

I often wondered why people like to do transfers? What is the purpose of this technique? WELL!! Let me tell you once you do this you will never go back! LOL!!! The image becomes embedded into the canvas. No messy glues or tape to play around with. It takes a little practice but once you get the hang of it you are hooked! If you have not tried it yet you have to!

Here are some tips that I learned along the way...make sure that your background that you are applying your image to is not too dark. The transfer becomes very transparent and you can see through it. As in this one you can see the music paper in the lighter areas of the image. I like the way it looks.

I like to let my image dry first before I take the paper off. I can almost guarantee that it will work perfectly everytime for me. Sometimes if you rub too hard you will take that delicate image off your surface. Been there done that! :) It really is up to the artist and what they want for thier piece of art work.

I have read in many places about this technique that you learn how much or how little to put on. This is true...it was explained to me that it is like spreading mayo or mustard on your sandwich. You do not want globs of the gel medium or dry spots but an even coat. (Who wants globs or dry spots on their sandwich??) Make sense? Just use that indisposable tool that you have your trusty finger and slide that gel medium evenly all over the front of your image, slap it down where you want it (image and gel medium face down) and the next thing that is VERY important is to burnish that image. I have an old brayer that I use. Do this until you know that the image has come in contact with your surface, and its ok if the gel medium oozes out. You want that. It is smoothing out the gel medium so you don't have any lumps underneath.

So now I wait for it to dry. I usually am at my desk with my computer and go play a game of solitary until it is dried. Using that indispensable tool your finger gently and lightly start rubbing the paper off using water. It may take some time to get all the white fuzzy stuff off but it is worth it! Let it dry a bit and rub some more. Once I have it all off I will coat my image with some neutral shoe polish to protect my image from the paints and inks that I will use in my collage. If I get messy and I do it will come right off with out ruining anything.

I was very frustrated with the right side of the panel and could not make it work...so there are about 6 layers of paint, gesso, paper, more paint and finally the oil pastels. I want to add some more to this around the bird house that is not so visible here. Maybe later next week. I like to start something and then finish it off later. The muse works that way some times.

Sarah is another image that will soon be available at Paper Imagery Designs. Watch this site for the grand opening special! You won't want to miss it. The owners of the new company are very excited about their new collage sheets. Collage sheets designed by an artist for artists!