Vivid Atelier

As promised… the step by step stuff.

It all started with some photos I snapped at the garden show and some image transfers.

Here’s what you need to get going:

• Your own digital photos, printed out on regular printer paper
• Gloss medium (I like Golden, but any brand should work)
• Palette knife or any other sort of “spreader” you like
• Canvas, or any stiff surface that you want to transfer the image to. I’m using Illustration Board
• Brayer
• Baker’s parchment paper
• Spray bottle

Step One: The Image Transfer.

Once you have the photos you want to use printed out and you’ve chosen the surface to transfer them to, spread a thick layer of gloss medium onto the surface. Think of it as layer about 1/8th of an inch thick.  Since I am using illustration board here, I’ll refer to my surface as illustration board from now on to keep things simple.

Next, take your photo and place it face down on the illustration board and cover your photo and the illustration board with baking parchment paper. The parchment protects your brayer from getting gloss medium on it, which can ruin it for other uses. Use a brayer to push all the air bubbles out, and set your photo aside to dry for a couple of hours to overnight. PS. Once you’ve got all the bubbles out, remove the parchment paper 🙂

When it’s all dry…. get it wet!

This is a bunch of my photos that I think I may use.

I’m going to spray the backs of the photos and rub away the paper with my fingers, but you can try a sponge or a cloth. That’s it for this part of the tutorial. See you tomorrow!