Victoria - Part 3 of 5

Today you're seeing Victoria, Matthew and Christina's 3rd child. Vicky is 6 now and really losing the little girl persona and turning into quite a little miss. She has her own sense of style and knows what she wants.
Vicky has a pink and white striped shirt on in the photo I used for the transfer. I needed to find a way to work with the pink without having it fight with the colors I used on the other cards. The green-gold combined with the soft red-brown seems to have worked well. The argyle ribbon adds an extra bit of fun. Enjoy and Happy Easter!

Kristian - Part 2 of 5

This is the second 5x7 card in the series I'm putting together. The heat set photo transfer of Kristian was done first, followed by some glazing to boost the color in the transferred image. Since Kristian enjoys seashells I chose a seaside theme. I used some shells, shark teeth, and beach glass that I picked up from the beach during our visit to Puerto Vallarta last December.
Enjoy!

Part 1 of 5 - Matthew's Family

This transfer was done on a chipboard surface that had been prepared with white gesso. I used the heat transfer process that I described in detail on March 20th. Then I painted a black border around the transfer and overpainted parts where the colors were washed out. Then I added "Hannah" lettering and the stickers and overpainted a bit more. The wool yarn is woven through holes I punched with my new "Crop-A-dile II Big Bite" (cheap - $34 with a coupon at Michael's). I added some metal beads to the yarn just for fun.
I'll be doing 5 of these panels as a gift (a very long overdue birthday gift). Each panel is 5"x7". The holes on both sides attach the panels to eachother and make a zig-zag booklet of sorts. This one will have a panel for each of Matthew and Christina's children plus a bonus one because something has to be a surprise. Enjoy!

New mixed media painting

I've been puttering on this for the past week after the transfer I posted on March 20. I've got plenty left to do but I've been finding the creative process sluggish & challenging lately. I blame it on all the numbers I've had to look at over the past 10 days - yuck!

I hope to finish this over the next few days and when I do, you'll see it here again.

p.s. for those that know Chuck - mum's the word until the big bday is over - thanks! You might also take a minute to compare this photo to Erin's baby pics - it's uncanny how alike their mouths are!

Transfer with heat...

I'm having fun playing with transfers again. Here's how the steps to this one went.

Photo 1 - Prepare watercolor support and transfer image

• This time I started out with a bit of prepainting on the 140 lb watercolor painting. I wanted a bit of color beneath this transfer. Once that's dry, I determined the exact placement for the transfer. A few pencil marks for guides is a good idea.
• I put a single layer of Golden Soft Matte Medium over the area receiving the transfer AND over the image. [Cross-directional strokes will result in a nice linen/woven affect.
• Once both dry I aligned the transfer atop the support and lightly secure it (a bit of tape holds it temporarily)

Photo 2 - Image transfer

• With my preheated Versa Tool, I carefully and thoroughly heat the paper back of the transfer with a circular motion. The heat melts the two layers of medium together, fusing the ink into the surface of the watercolor paper.

Photo 3 - Removing the paper backing to reveal the transfer

• The back of the support can now be carefully wet and the paper will roll off to reveal the transfer underneath. This takes old fashioned elbow grease. Roll your finger back and forth until a bit of paper grabs on and begins a roll.
• Wet and roll, wet and roll. The key factor to get the paper rolled of with no tearing is to wait for the transfer to cool completely.

I've had a couple of great results with this method and frankly, I plan to stick with it. Enjoy!

New collage start

I've started a new self-portrait style collage. I learned quite a bit from Ann Baldwin's DVD "Telling Stories With Collage and Paint". One of the things she says is that it is usually best NOT to lay down your most important image first. Immediately after saying that she does exactly the opposite, as I've done here. At least she had a plan before she dove in. Me? Not so much.
I began this by covering a piece of illustration board with gesso. Once dry I drizzled ultramarine blue and quinacridone burnt orange vertically down the surface and sprayed water to join up the paint drips.

After that dried I attempted an image transfer using Golden softgel gloss. It was about 50% successful but I decided to go ahead with a further step. I coated an identical transfer and the surface again and after they were dry I carefully laid the new image atop the previous transfer. I taped it securely in place before I used my Walnut Hollow Versa-tool to melt the image onto the surface. Once cool I wet the paper backing and simply rolled the paper off the image. I've only done this a few times but every time it gives me a very good image with just enough raggedy edges to make it interesting.

I used some Golden light molding paste over a box stencil to add the texture to the right of my shoulder. Then I painted into and around the image to bring it to life a bit. I like it so far. I'm going to be working on this again in class tomorrow to see if I can get a few more steps down the path on this collage.

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday...

ATC's..... All Through Creating Artist Trading Cards

Sorry to get so punny but seriously, I really had no idea how long it would take me to produce 16 ATCs for my class. Part of it was the learning curve on image transferring and I feel like I've learned a lot about that process over the past 2 weeks. It's all about timing and patience. Since I'm waiting for a Currys Art Store order (thanks Doug and Candice for the gift certificate), I don't have any Golden's Soft Gel Gloss... that is supposed to be the best medium to use for transfers. I used cheap Rheotech liquid gloss medium and it worked really well on these small transfers. Sure, I had some disasters but I think the constant puttering at it has paid off.

Tomorrow I'll get close-up shots of the rest of the ATCs... and then I'm going to paint something BIGGER!!! [before Wednesday hopefully].

Tea Party gone digital

I had just a few minutes to do art today so I decided to play with the image digitally before attempting it again. These images are the results of my experimenting with the image in photoshop elements. This method is similar to experimenting with an acetate sheet over the painting - nothing is permanent and you get a pretty good idea what will work.
I'm pretty impressed with the results of the first stage of my editing BUT I'm pretty sure I don't have a "clone stamp" tool in my painting kit. It's neat how you can pick up the surrounding pixels and paint them over top. For example, the cut line behind the ladies was quite sharp and noticeable but after painting over it with the clone stamp tool and a watercolor brush (digital of course) it is much less noticeable.
In the second stage (layer) I picked up some of the darker pixels and used a "heavy stipple" wet media brush to to move that color around in the painting. I'm not quite sure whether this is working but it shows what can be done quickly to get an idea about the next step to take with the paper version. Enjoy!

Tea Party part 2

I found a neat copyright-free photo of 4 ladies sitting around a quilting frame working and visiting together. I printed it onto an overhead and attempted a transfer onto this monoprint using acrylic medium. As you can see, not much of the photo transferred and portions of it stuck to the surface and lifted paper when I peeled it off. I'm still getting used to the BFK Reeves paper. I find a huge difference between transferring onto bare paper and a print or painted surface. More practice I suppose...

So, on to plan B - since I damaged the paper I felt the best option left was collage. I reprinted the image onto tracing paper and used acrylic medium to collage it over top of the first mess. And now I've got other challenges... I'm going to need to creatively integrate the image into the print. I have a few ideas to try - more new territory for me. This photo shows where the piece is at this evening. I hope to have some time to work on it tomorrow so stay tuned!

Abstract with Transfer

Here's another of the monoprints that I've been working to finish. The first photo is the Yupo plate just before printing - I could have left a larger opening and had a bigger image transfer... The second photo is the finished product on BFK Reeves printmaking paper. The image transfer is my Mom at about 10 years of age. I used acrylic medium to transfer the photo to the printmaking paper, then some acrylic to enhance the image in places. I also strengthened some of the areas of the monoprint with solid watercolor and various textures.

I'm becoming a bit more comfortable with abstraction but I struggle to know when I'm done ;o).

[double click on either image to see it larger]

Enjoy!

Transfer Experiments

Good news - my laryngitis is abating and I am no longer squeaking when I talk. Now I sound like a gangsta. AND more importantly, I've felt like art again today - yippee!
So, on to my transfer experiments. All of the following examples began with small (2x3) photos printed on my Canon Pixma MP830 Ink-Jet printer and all are acrylic medium transfers.
Summary - There are numerous methods for transferring images to art paper to make them part of a mixed media work. I can use images printed on my MP830, either on transparency or paper, to transfer images to printmaking paper. The critical factors are moisture content and contact time. I found gel medium and water mixed to be superior to straight gel. It was helpful to spritz the printmaking paper lightly before transferring so that it doesn't rip when lifted.
If you'd like to see image transfer methods in action, go to YouTube.com and search on "image transfer" pretty cool stuff there!
I'll begin with the most successful and then show the disasters and what I think went wrong.
A. Materials - Rives printmaking paper, Golden Gel Medium (gloss), water, paintbrush, photo printed on transparency.
I began by brushing a mixture of medium and water onto the printmaking paper in the shape of the photo. I quickly laid the transparency photo onto that wet area, burnished it with my finger for a few (3-5) seconds and then lifted off the transparency slowly from the corner. There are a few small spots that didn't transfer on both images and the faces could be clearer but the images are recognizable for sure.

B. This second set were done using the very same method as the first but pressing a newly printed plain paper photo into the medium, burnishing with thumb (3-5 secs) and lifting. They don't have the darker values the first method gives but they have a nice soft sepia tone to them that I like. I'll need to practice more with this method to make sure I get the right level of moisture and the contact time down pat.

These are some of the transfers that didn't turn out:
C. I used Rheotech matte medium brushed directly onto the printmaking paper, applied the transparency, burnished lightly and lifted. The problem on the left was uneven application of the medium. When I lifted the transparency the centre was blurred and gooey but the top left corner was stuck to the paper and it ripped. What a mess that would be on a project!
On the right hand side you can see what happens if you don't get the transparency lifted off in time - it adhered to that paper and would have ripped the whole area off if I had kept lifting it. Again, a mess.

D. Below left the image is visible but it's mostly blurry. I used the same materials as in A. but I dampened the outside edges of the transfer area with water. Then I brushed the area with gel/water mix, applied and burnished the transparency and lifted. The problem was too much... water and medium - it transferred the image but when I lifted the transparency the goo moved around and it made "meringue" peaks in the medium. If the right parts were crisp and the outside blurry it would look pretty cool in the right piece.
The image on the right was almost okay - just a bit too little of everything here... yep, it's picky! Reminds me of water control in painting... CRITICAL

E. The images below were done with close to the right mix of medium and water - just a bit too dry on the edges so the paper ripped.

Happy Friday!