Continued problems with image transfers in my Mixed Media Painting Class…

• If you are using cheap canvas panels, paint the back with medium to stop the panel from warping, and the front with another layer of gesso. The panels are cheap for a reason and extra gesso is needed because the original gesso is so thinly applied that it doesn’t have enough acrylic in it to create the ‘stickiness’ needed to transfer images.

scribbles created while trying to get my plotting pens to work

• my ‘scribbles’ transfer went slightly better than my previous ones, with only a few holes!

image transfer of scribbles onto a painted base

• I had it with the black inverted scribble area on top but my friend Sandy decided she liked it sideways better, said it looked like two bramble-covered cliffs plunging into the sea.

• I think I will add some big splotches of black ink to cover up the holes in my transfers. • Found a big bottle of ‘India ink’ and started splashing it on the ‘mistakes’ when I noticed that the label, barely visible under a smear of ink, said ‘China ink’. But China ink and India ink are the same, right? Wrong! India ink is waterproof; China ink isn’t and will smear when you try and paint on top.

India ink is supposed to be waterproof, but isn’t on acrylic.

• LATER: actually it was India ink, and it IS supposed to be waterproof (it turned out that I was looking at the French part of the label). However it isn’t waterproof when applied to an acrylic surface which is a type of plastic, and if you want waterproof ink you have to use another product I have never heard of called ‘acrylic ink.’

• To try and seal it I sprayed it twice with ‘Crystal Clear’, foul stuff with poisonous vapors. Last little bit I wiped didn’t smear like earlier but did ‘crack’ off

the ink runs but I rather like look of the bluish acrylic medium dribbles

• Next I tried spraying it with acrylic medium but my little windex bottle sprayer almost immediately clogged up and ran gray drips all down my painting. I wiped off the most offensive drips, and took a photo. I kind of like the bluish tone of the drips on the black but of course they will dry clear.

Now what? I am turning to Cy Twombly for inspiration. He has some great ‘scribble’ and ‘dribble’ paintings: http://www.google.ca/search?q=cy+twombly&sa=X&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAGOovnz8BQMDgwYHsxCnfq6-gXFaYV6FEphpapRnkqTFF5BaVJyfF5yZklqeWFls-UWiwZP17OtNzJ__Xar6KjvxEc8rAN9uUi1FAAAA&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=wnrDUZX3OKfjiAL80YF4&ved=0CNEBEIke&biw=1379&bih=935

Our super instructor’s site: http://jeannekrabbendam.com/ On her site she has her work and offers lots of different workshops and courses.

Mixed Media Class Experience:

• My first mixed media class – selecting images suitable for transfer
• I am frantically wondering, “where’s the undo button?“
• Mistakes and more mistakes (using my scribbles as an example)
• How to do an image transfer, method # 1