My first gel medium transfer.
In the “One Year in the Life of an Art Journal” group I came across a page
Denise made, and she’d used a technique called “gel medium transfers”.
It is a way to use gel medium to copy a photo onto your page and it had
my attention right away! So I googled it to find out how it works.
I found this tutorial about that technique, and I spend the rest of the
afternoon playing with it. In fact, I spend the rest of the weekend trying
to get it done ’cause my first attempt failed miserably!
I had to cover the ruined page with gesso and start all over as I was
determined to get at least one photo transferred.
Here’s a detail of the final page… just to show you what marvelous
textures I found on my page when I was done.
The transferring thing needs practising, but I managed
to get a photo on my page…
Here’s the art journal page I made. It’s a letter to my son (in Dutch) and I’m not
going to translate the whole thing ’cause it’s basically saying that I used his pic
to try out a new technique and that it is appropriate to use that photo ’cause
it’s Valentine’s day and blahblahblah – just rambling…
I will have to experiment with different kinds of paper to print the photo on.
I used normal print paper the first time and it kinda worked (it failed for other
reasons) This one I printed on photo paper. For those who read the tutorial:
I didn’t peel the paper off while it was still wet – I let it dry and used water to
rub the paper off later.
So the background is gesso (to cover the failure) with a little bit of spray ink
(butterscotch, raisin and terracotta). I used an orange marker for the lines
and a black permanent marker for the journaling. I stamped with bubble wrap
plastic and doodled with a white and golden marker.
Detail:
There are grey
spots on the
photo still.
I could not rub
these off without
damaging the
picture so I
presume I have
to use more
gel medium
next time…
I definitely am going to give it
another try soon, ’cause I like
this technique!!!
If you tried it and have any tips,
please share!
And something else:
A few of you asked about my father’s eye (read this post if you don’t know what
this is about…) Well, he partly got his vision back after the surgery.
His eye wasn’t well before and it’s worse now but he can see with it, and drive
a car. He closes it while reading and reads with one eye only (but he did that
already!) The difference between the two eyes is too big to focus well, so
reading or handling small things – like repairing a wall socket – are difficult.
But all in all, he’s doing well! Thanks for your concern!!!
Lesson #5 for my workshop is up in the workshop community group this
morning, and I already noticed it’s going to be a real challenging prompt
for some of the ladies… I’m curious to see what everyone will make this time.
Have you looked at the public gallery on my website yet?
You can admire student’s layouts there and I publish more as the workshop
progresses – they sure make beautiful art work each time! I’m such a lucky girl
to have such nice and talented ladies in my workshop group!
I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s day yesterday and a nice week ahead,
see you soon!
Je t’embrasse!
February 15th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Photo transfer is something I have always wanted to try. When I was a kid, there used to be a product that was just for that exact application. It came off the market. Nice to know I have another option.
Now I am headed off to see what the next lesson has to offer.
February 15th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
I went through a period last year doing lots of gel medium tranfers, and also using packing tape for tranfers. It’s fun but I got more into painting and haven’t done it lately. I like the imperfection of the image but I know from experience that there are so many factors involved in the process – the brands of gesso, paint, and medium, the surface of the piece, the type of paper the photo is printed on, whether you used an ink jet or laser, etc. etc. Have fun – it’s an adventure! So happy to read that your father is some better. I am a very visual person and eye problems always scare me. Have a creative week!
February 15th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
glad to hear your dad is doing well. the gel transfer looks fun – have fun doing more experimenting with it!
February 15th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Yours looks pretty amazing Marit! I like this technique because it’s not meant to be perfect! I love the effect on canvas.. 🙂
February 15th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Photo transfer is zo`n leuke techniek, hierbij een linkje van een transfer die ik op stof heb gemaakt http://vivscrapaholic.blogspot.com/2008/12/work-you-soul.html
Je transfer is erg goed gelukt en wat een prachtige pagina heb je ervan gemaakt, helemaal top!!
February 15th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
wat een gave lo met de foto transfer…wil ik ook eens gaan proberen!
vervelend dat je vaders oog niet helemaal hersteld is, maar gelukkig dat hij wel ‘gewoon’ de dingen kan blijven doen!
February 15th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
This is amazing, TFS!
February 15th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
That is SO AWESOME! That takes patience. beautiful work!
February 16th, 2010 at 12:49 am
I bought gel medium months ago and haven’t tried it yet. I must have a go. Thanks for the inspiration!
February 16th, 2010 at 6:27 am
turned out great!!
February 16th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Marit! I love your image transfer! I tend to love the imperfect “perfectness” of image transfers. You can never tell how they are going to come out. I want to play more with gel medium. I’ve done a LOT of simple packing tape transfers but the packing tape is really shinny, you can also sand the packing tape to take some of that off. They come out really cool too. Your blog is marvelous! I’ll be back often! Lots to see! Cheers!
February 16th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
I’m glad you had successful with the transfer – I tried 3x and set it aside for the rest of the weekend. Will need to keep trying though as I love the result!
February 17th, 2010 at 2:54 am
i love the way the transfer turned out. i’m going to have to try this again. i tried doing this several months ago but had no success. thanks for the link. i don’t think i was using enough gel medium. i would like to try it on canvas.
February 17th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Hi, Marit! Thank you for stopping by my blog for a visit! I adore this page with it’s lovely transfer. Awesome work! Hugs, Terri
February 17th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Thanks for the update on your father! I think I asked a while ago, but you didn’t answer, and I forgot. I’m glad he is getting along!!
I may be trying a gel transfer today in fact!! We will see how far I get. I will let you know how it goes!!
February 19th, 2010 at 4:32 am
Love the idea of the gel transfer Marit! I’ll have to try it sometime. Happy your father is doing well too 🙂
February 21st, 2010 at 5:11 am
Your transfer is wonderful and it looks great on that page. And thanks for the close up too. Great to see the details.
February 27th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
thanks Marit! I’m going to try this today. Your tutorial makes it look easy & great results!