I remembered a technique from college, where you brushed 10+ layers of gel medium over glossy magazine pages, letting them dry in between. Then you wet the magazine page and gently rolled the paper away with your fingers to reveal the image had been transferred over to the gel medium. The result was a plasticky, translucent image to do with what you pleased. This is one version of a print transfer.
When I perused Golden Paint’s site for info, they had a really cool project idea using this technique, and an easier one. I thought it would be fun for Fen to try, and I was right (as usual). She loved it. This is a good intro to printmaking and mixed media techniques.
1. Make a painting. We used small canvases, but we’re going to try some on art boards, too.
Doesn’t this blank surface look enticing?
Materials:
- small canvases
- pencil
- paint – acrylic, tempera or watercolor. We used acrylics.
- paint brushes
- acrylic gel medium. We used Golden brand soft gel in a gloss finish, but they have matte and semi gloss, too. I wouldn’t pick a heavy gel, because it’s thick and goopy.
- Ink Jet or laser print or photocopy of image to be transferred onto the canvas.
1. Sketch. I asked Fen to sketch out a scene, leaving an open area where she wanted the print of herself to be.
2. Paint it. I squirted out the following acrylic paint colors:
- titanium white
- cadmium red medium
- burnt umber
- cadmium yellow medium
- cobalt green
- green gold
- light ultramarine blue
When your child is learning to mix colors, it is better to have fewer color options to choose from, otherwise they will want to use EVERY color and the painting will look like rainbow vomit. Reign them in at first by giving them just a few colors to use in the painting. They can experiment with mixing the colors they DO have together to get new colors.
We use a large cutting board wrapped in foil or contact paper as our paint palette
3. Let the painting dry thoroughly. Prepare your print-outs by cutting neatly around the image you want to transfer. Keep in mind that when you transfer the image, it will be a mirror image of what you see, so print it out backwards if you want it to show up the way you see the print. (Make sense?)
4. Use a wide brush to apply the gel medium to your painting. Use a good amount. We brushed it on the whole canvas going horizontally, and then again vertically.
5. Place your printout down upon the gel wherever you want it and press it thoroughly, but don’t wiggle it around. Let it dry overnight.
6. After thoroughly dry, grab a little dish of water and wet the back of your printout. Gently rub away the wet paper in a circular motion until it’s gone. Your image will remain! Leave as is (we did this) or brush another layer of medium over the whole painting.
Fini!
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Oh I love this idea! Can’t wait to try it with my son.
Tihs is gorgeous and I am going to get the only thing we don’t have on hand – the acrylic gel. Not that a trip to the art supply store is ever a chore – thanks for such nice clear instructions, too!
Capability recently posted…A Healthy Start
Sorry typed on my iPad I meant This!
Capability recently posted…A Healthy Start
Definitely do it! It’s one of those projects where they think it’s magic and are very proud of it. (also if you do
Jeanette Nyberg recently posted…Print Transfer Project For Kids (You’ll Want to Make One, Too!)
Also if you do it, I wanna see!
Jeanette Nyberg recently posted…Print Transfer Project For Kids (You’ll Want to Make One, Too!)
Oh, thank you for saying that! You don’t realize how hard it is to explain a project until you try to write it out. I’m glad it makes sense.
Jeanette Nyberg recently posted…Kids’ Cool Coolness
OMG I loved this! this is wonderful. In 1998 I worked at a photolab and had a little retail digital department. we use to pay tons of money for transfer material (and sadly charge clients a lot) to print their picture on the transfer material and then iron it on to t-shirts. do you by any chance know how we can do the homemade version of putting pictures on mugs? that would be so cool. thanks
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Ya know- I think you have to buy an expensive heat transfer machine if you want to do mugs at home. But have you been to Zazzle? You could upload your images there and order mugs.
Jeanette Nyberg recently posted…Tea for Tots
Wow. That is so cool! You are amazing! How long did the project take and how easy is the image transfer to actually pull off? We are not crafty over here!
PragmaticMom recently posted…What Do You Call a Cottonelle Clean? Clean Tushies!
So awesome that you posted this today. I was just thinking today about all the xerox lithography that I did in college, and how I would love to do it again. I always used gum arabic, but the gel medium might be more easy to use. I love the way you did this with your daughter! Can’t wait till Simon is old enough!
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The great thing is that Fen did this entirely herself, so I imagine it would be doable for ages 7-8 and up. I must say, I was happily surprised at how easy this was! You could always practice with a few prints on plain paper before applying a final print to a painting.
Jeanette Nyberg recently posted…Google’s Doodle Contest
I wish I had done more printmaking in college- I couldn’t really get the hang of etching so I abandoned it… this is a fun project and just a good way of introducing printmaking to kids. Simon should be old enough soon….in the meantime, you should probably practice doing this for yourself!
Jeanette Nyberg recently posted…Kids’ Cool Coolness
Such a fun idea! I can’t wait to try it – my fingers are tapping with excitement! Love the art boards too! The finished product is AMAZING! I love it – you have to hang that!
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