Photo Transfers

Well, the first week of March is drawing to an end and the weather has been most uncooperative, forcing me to confine my projects to indoors.

My latest obsession is with photo transfers, i.e. :  using my own photos and transferring them to stretched artist canvases using a "Gel Medium."

Here's a photo of my 1st successful attempts, a series of shots of one of my antique clocks.

The photos were printed in black and white on my laser printer and tinted with water colors after all the applications were finished. 

I'll try and give you a step-by-step if you'd like to try this yourself.

1)  the raw materials :  black and white photos printed on a laser printer, Liquitex Gel     Medium ,  stretched artist canvas and a paint brush.

 

Here are some photos of a

trumpet that I put together

on a 16 x 20 canvas.

2)  apply a generous coat of Liquitex to your canvas and place you photo face down.  Burnish well and allow to dry overnight.

3)  mist with water and using a damp sponge gently rub to remove the first layer of paper.

I prefer to let this dry and then mist again to remove the final layers of paper.  I do this by gently rubbing with my fingers.  Use care here to avoid rubbing off all the image resulting in bare canvas showing.  It's normal to have a few spots like this on your transfer but I think it adds to the overall affect.
There are many tutes on YouTube showing various transfer methods but this is the one that works best for me.

Here is the Trumpet Canvas and 2 more showing an Iris, Positive and Negative.

 

 

It's your option to tint the photos or not, but be sure to apply 1 or 2 coats of your medium over the

completed image.  If anyone tries to do this please be sure to let me see your results.

 

 HAVE FUN !