acrylics transfer methods

Transcription

1 Hello groovy art gang! Today we are going to create a mixed media art page that includes some image transfer techniques and some fun wax techniques too! The personal development focus today is on 'mindfulness'. Mindfulness, as in: being mindful (or aware) of your inner world: feelings, needs, thoughts, physical sensations can work as a gateway into healing and inner peace. Too often and too much do we dream about the future, get lost in the past or we can get stuck in our inner dialogue; we identify with the mind and the endless thought streams it produces so much that we become distracted from our inner world and -the now-. This distraction can lead to dissatisfaction, unhappiness and dis-ease. By practising a mindfulness routine, you can help yourself 'wake up' to the now and your inner world and your inner responses to your outer world too. The method I encourage you to explore works as follows: 1. Become still for a moment, close your eyes 2. Take a few deep breaths and connect to your breathing, noticing your stomach extending, connect to your body, your physicality 3. Start scanning your body, notice if anything is 'asking for your attention' this could be in the form of: anxiety, aches/ pains, words coming to you, warmth, anything that you're noticing. Pay attention to whatever draws your attention and 'have a little chat' with it. Also: assign imagery or words to what is asking your attention (you will use these images in your art later). 4. Once you've explored your inner sensations, open your eyes, write down any comments/ words/ images you want to remember then, notice your immediate surroundings and be aware of any responses you have to your immediate surroundings. Be aware of the interaction between your outer surroundings and your inner responses again: assign imagery/ words/ feelings etc Write down any significant words/ images/ feelings etc 5. Now, focus your attention further out. Consider the globe, the people on it, the trees, animals, nature, or go further out to include the entire universe or God, or the entire vibration of all life force and again, notice your inner responses to it. Now too: assign imagery/ words/ feelings etc Write down any significant words/ images/ feelings etc

2 Supplies used this week: Graphite Pencil For image transfer: gel medium or hand gel + either printer paper or transparency film If you're doing the wax stuff: bees wax and/or wax crayons + quilting iron Image found on google informed by your mindfulness exercise Collage papers for background Matte Medium for gluing Water-soluble Crayons Brayer (Optional) White Gesso (Optional Beeswax Wax Crayons (non-watersoluble) Quilting Iron acrylics transfer methods So the image transfer can be a bit elusive to people and to be honest; they can be a 'hit or miss' kind of affair! Over the years though I've come to love including them in my more 'vintagey' art and I have researched & found methods that do truly work, but certain things influence the quality of your transfer, namely: type & brand of gel medium, the type of paper/ material you print your image on that you want to transfer and also: the paper/ type of material you're transferring on to. In the lesson today I show you three different ways of transferring an image, my most preferred way is with: Golden Gel Medium (heavy/ matte) Transfer from printer paper onto: watercolour paper

3 Here you can see the 5 (6) different outcomes of the 5 (6) different methods: These were all transferred from a Transparency Film with different mediums: from left to right: 1. Transparency film onto: Liquitex Matte Super Heavy Gel 2. Transparency film onto: Golden Heavy Gel (Matte) 3. Alcohol-based Hand Gel The thing I don't like about using the Transparency Film is that it seems to mostly pull off the blue inks and is very faint on the other inks. You could experiment with this and see if you leave it on the medium for longer if it may pull of more colours, but so far, mine just keeping being blue which doesn't happen with printer paper. These two were transferred from printer paper with different mediums: Left image was Liquitex Matte Super Heavy Gel, the right one was done with Golden Heavy Gel (Matte) both came out almost the same, but the Golden pulled through a bit more of the colour more accurately. Note: the Hand Gel does not work with normal printer paper.

4 Creating your page step by step Step 1. Sketch your lady. In this pose, the girl is bowing her head down, so her facial features are all a pinched together more and more of her hair and top of the skull is exposed.

5 Step 2. Add colour to your face. I used my usual method with watercolour crayons, graphite and white gesso for highlights. Step 3. Add colour to her hair and her shirt/ chest area. Acrylics transfers can be done over paint (just make sure the layer is dry.

6 Step 4. Print out your chosen images. Either print them out as a photo collage (that you've prepared in Photoshop; refer to the video where I talk about this) or print them out individually. NB: make sure to reverse your images in Photoshop if you want your transfer to appear as you see it now (particularly with words!), otherwise your transfer will come out as a mirror image. If you're doing the transfer, note that you can overlap transfer images, you would need to do them each individually to get transparency, or if you don't care about transparency, you can lay them all out together over 1 layer. If you are going to do multiple layers of transfers make sure to dry your layers each time after you are done.

7 If you don't want to do a transfer you can collage all your images into the shirt/ chest of the girl. I created a photo collage in photoshop so that I had both transparency and ease with just doing 1 transfer instead of many. Apply your layer of chosen medium to the chest area (I went with my golden gel medium) and place your image face down onto the medium. Smooth out the medium under the image with a brayer or other hard implement, then apply a layer of water over the back of your image with a brush, I find it helps with pulling it off later. Step 5. Leave it to dry for about 5-10 minutes, you can keep checking the corners, pull them up a bit and see if some of the transfer is coming up, if not yet, leave it on for longer, if you see it clearly then your transfer is ready and you can pull off your paper. Roll/ rub some of the access paper off with your fingers.

8 Aweee pretty!! Step 6. I loved how my transfer came out, so I wanted to leave it mostly as is, but I add some colour and a few words to and around the transfer. Step 7. Then I started working on the background. I added vintage collage to the background and went over with some gesso & brayer.

9 Adding wax to your page Wax is a wonderful (yet can be tricky) medium to add to your art. Beeswax adds an aged/ vintage effect and also works as a sealant and protective varnish, not to mention: it smells delicious! ;) To add colour to your wax you can do a few things: 1. You can look into encaustic wax (but I hear it's quite toxic) 2. You can add spices and pigments to your beeswax or 3. You can use wax crayons to add colour. In my lesson today I added plain beeswax and also melted wax crayons to my art. To melt your beeswax you can either melt it in a pan on the hob and apply it over your painting with a brush (though you might ruin your brush a bit!) or you can get yourself a quilting iron, or other small hot tool that can melt the wax straight and apply it that way.

10 You can place the quilting iron straight onto the block of wax and let it melt onto the section where you want the wax to be, then you can reheat it and move it around over your painting. Once the wax is dry you can add extra texture by scraping into it with a sharp implement like scissors or an awl.

11 In order to add colour wax to your page place a crayon onto the quilting iron, let it melt for a moment and apply it to your page. You can create interesting marbling effects and grungy smudge effects with wax. You can also overlap the wax and mix the colour with each other and or the beeswax.

12 Other cool waxy fun for inspiration:

13 And here is the final page:

14 I hope you had a fabulous time creating your page today sweetness! I wanna see your art, post it yes? :) I also hope that the mindfulness exercise was of use to you. Going into the body and noticing its responses/ sensations to your inner world/ outer environment and global/ spiritual matters really helps processing your stuff, it's about continuing to connect to your inner world with an awareness and mindfulness. :) Thanks for being with me today! I am honoured to be your host and guide on this beautiful journey. Big love & Gratitude Tam x