May 22, 2015

Transfer & paint over technique

Hallo friends,

At the regular painting class that I tutor, the students really enjoy learning these fun techniques that you can combine in your art, or your enterior for that matter. You can transfer almost anything!

HOW DOES IT WORK? Well...I am going to show you!

This is what you are going to need!

-acrylic gel medium or mod podge or crea podge(matt ,satin or gloss)

-a piece of wood(natural)

-a brush

-a photograph of choice printed out

-a wet sponge(an old one is fine)

-paint(colors of choice)

-glossy accents

My wooden block measures 10 x 10 cm and I have chosen a part of my photocopy, that I like most, to transfer onto my wooden block.

Put your wooden block on your paper and mark the edges, so you can cut it to size.

cut out your image

make sure it fits, by putting your photocopy face down on top of your wooden block. PERFECT!

Put an even layer of mod podge or acrylic medium on your wooden block. (NOT ON YOUR PAGE!)

Use your brush to even it out.

NOW....lay your "copy" face down onto your wooden block.

Using a palet knife or a old credit card......rub/scrape from the middle to the sides, each time making sure that there is no medium on your knife/card. You MUST avoid getting the medium on top of the paper....when that happens, you are "decopaging"and will not be able to transfer the image.

You should now leave it for 24 hours OR dry it with a hair dryer or heat tool. I dried mine for about 6 minutes(10 x10 cm block).....make sure there is no "wet medium" trapped under the paper.

Wet you sponge. (it might be a good idea to do this part on an old towel)

Using sufficient water, wet your image....(don't rub yet)

Slowly and softly start rubbing over your image in order for the paper pulp to come off. Don't rub to hard, you could rub your whole image off!

When you are finished....it would look, something like this.

It is now time to start painting, but, before you do....did you notice something??? Your image is now in mirror image, because you transferred it! Remember this, when you want to transfer a text. You should then, before you print your image out, 'mirror image' it ,using a photo app or program.

This is my painted version....it is slightly different to the image transferred, as I did not take step-by-step photos to first time around. So I actually went back to my computer, looked up my holiday photograph...printed it out again and did the whole process over to show all of you how it is done. ( I know, I am a saint! Hi-hi-hi!!!)

GREAT TIP: Cover your image with a layer of glossy accents, using a palet knife or credit card. Make sure that your layer is even and without air bubbles. (NEVER shake your glossy accents). If there is any bubbles....use a straw and blow the bubbles out. LET IT DRY....the end result.....a fantastic tile....that looks as if it is covered by a layer of epoxy.

Here is a great photograph of two tiles, on the left, a tile after the image has been transferred. On the right an image after being painted and a layer of glossy accents has been added.