Image Transfer on Pottery

Creating image transfer in just black and white, experimenting with pattern.

Here is one of the forms I use to press into the clay to create the dish/tray form. 

Lemon drawing just after being transferred. I still need to clean up edges.

Image has just been transferred on the clay. This is going to be a little octopus dish after I press it into the form. 

Here I am working on a clay form, this is a container I handbuilt from coils and added image transfers of the nautilis shells on the three sides. 

On this platter I decided to get more illustrative with the sea coral and shells. 

 

Image Transfer Drawing on Clay

We've been lucky to have been able to spend the winter in Jupiter, Florida and I have been taking Image Transfer on Clay & Handbuilding Ceramics classes at the Lighthouse Art Center in Tequesta, Florida. I chose to try a new medium which is working with clay and really am enjoying another method of drawing and transferring the drawings onto clay. The drawing is done on newsprint with needle tipped bottles of underglaze and then colors are painted on with colored slip (liquefied suspension of clay particles in water). I have been using white slip as the background.

The slightly wet drawing is then transferred (rubbed) onto slightly wet clay. I am using a red Hawaiian clay because I like the contrast of the dark clay against the light colored and white slip on the drawings. I then press the clay into a form to create the dish or tray and clean up the edges. 

I always think it's such a great learning experience to experiment with new mediums and techniques.

Drawing on paper with the underglaze.

Finished turtle dish

Transferring the (underglaze and colored slip) drawing from the newsprint onto the clay

Finished lobster dish after being kiln fired. Colors aren't perfect, the white slip is varied in thickness which makes it more interesting.

New dish in progress and before kiln firing. Cleaning up edges next.

Little fish dish, the only piece that has come out perfectly formed and painted! Wow!
But I'm still learning.

Little octopus dish in the making

Pot  and saucer I made for my orchid with a ginko leaf design.

Round fish dish with a crack! But still fun to display or use.

In Between Shells

Here is a new handmade book that I created. The covers are made from two large quahog shells that I found locally on the beach. I drilled holes into the shells so I could sew the pages together and to the shells. I will post more photos of the cover at a later date, the book is on exhibit right now at the Providence Art Club Big and Small Exhibition.

I created the pages by cutting them out to fit the outside shell shapes then illustrated most pages with colored pencil, gouache, markers, image transfer and printmaking. I also used different materials to collage pages; old maps, rice paper, decorative papers, marbleized paper. and book pages. I have been working on this piece throughout the summer and while taking trips on our boat, I became inspired with different fish and marine life I have seen and photographed in my travels.

It is meant to be a small journal of my thoughts and travels corresponding to the ocean.

Image Transfer with Gesso

 Here is another type of image transfer I have been experimenting with. I begin with a black and white image reversed and printed out on my laser printer, this can be a photo or a line drawing scanned into the computer. I have brushed a generous layer of gesso on top of my 6x6" Ampersand Claybord and I lay my printed image face down on the gesso. I gently roll the back of the image with a (Speedball) breyer to adhere the paper to the gesso, evenly covering all edges and allow the gesso to dry overnight. For more in depth instructions, see Dana Brown's demo on the Ampersand Art website.

When the gesso is dry, I add a little water to the back of the paper and gently rub with my fingers. Layers of the paper will come off leaving the black and white image on the gessoed Claybord surface.  This process takes a while and you must be patient and remove the paper gently as to not remove the image itself. As you see in the photo, I work small parts of the image at a time and brush off the paper flakes with a soft brush.

 Here is my image with some texture from the gesso, it creates a unique surface in which to add color with colored pencils or watercolor pencils. The gesso alone is a bit slick and won't take colored pencil but the image itself will hold the waxy pencil.

These are my nine 6x6" cradled Claybord panels that will hang together as a series. The seaweed, the nautilus shell and the sea urchin are gesso transfers and the other six are image transfers with CitraSolv as explained in my last blog entry.

I like both of these methods as a quick alternative to detailed line drawings as a base for color. I will varnish these pieces and they will hang just as they are shown here.

Image Transfer with CitraSolv

 I'm working on a series of nine 6x6" ocean themed images to be hung together in a series. For the supports I am using Ampersand Claybord blocks (3/4" cradled). Instead of a drawing on each 6x6" piece, I am using image transfer with CitraSolv and a second image transfer process with gesso.
For this blog entry, I will talk about the CitraSolv image transfer. To begin, I cut a piece of white drawing paper to 6 1/2 " square to allow for extra on the edges, here I used Strathmore 300 series Bristol paper, vellum finish. I also like to use Stonehenge drawing paper by Legion Paper Company.

I take the computer black and white image which I resize to 6 1/4" square and reverse it in Photoshop and print it out on my laser jet printer (won't work with inkjet). This piece is a photograph from a scuba diving trip I took. The photo had a intricate background that I didn't want so I hand cut around the image with scissors. Next I lay my reversed image on my square of paper and tape it on one side so it won't slip. I put a little Citrasolv in a container and brush it onto my reversed image to transfer the ink onto the Bristol paper. Careful not to get the brush too wet so it creates a puddle on the paper. I lightly burnish the image with a bone folder (the off-white tool on the right of the picture) to transfer the ink evenly.

 Here is the reversed image on the paper carefully transferred with the CitraSolv.

 When I take off the laser copy, here is my image transferred onto the Bristol paper and I can work directly on top with colored pencil. I want to warn anyone who tries this method: the CitraSolv does have a strong odor and it takes about an hour or more after the image is transferred to go away. Also, depending on how much CitraSolv is used, it could leave some wet spots on the paper so I will wait an hour or more to begin laying colored pencil on top.

Here is my finished drawing, hand colored with colored pencils. A quick way to skip the drawing process under the colored pencil! Plus you have somewhat of a value study underneath to help with values.

Coffee? Or Tea?

These are my latest small works in colored pencil. These are four 6x6" Utrecht Artists Wood Panels made of smooth basswood. I don't prime the surface, it will accept colored pencil very well although layers are limited to about three or more if using a very light pressure. My designs are transferred on using the image transfer method which I outlined in this previous blog entry. I use the transfer to skip the drawing step and add colored pencil directly onto the transfer, then I play with the background design for each cup. When I am finished I spray with two good coats of Krylon UV Resistant Clear and then brush on five coats of Golden UVLS Polymer Varnish, letting each coat dry in between. I photographed them together but will display them separately.

These two photos are of an exhibit I went to called Paper-Made at the Jamestown Arts Center, Jamestown, RI. These are two photos of an overall view of the largest gallery. Eighteen regional, national and international artists were selected for this wonderful exhibit of works all made of paper. The curator states the paper art is an emerging global phenomenon and as an artist who works on paper, I am intrigued by the use of papers as a form of 2D and 3D sculpture. This exhibition has given me the inspiration to create another hand made book.

Bookmaking: Accordion Style Star Book

Over the years and through my travels in different parts of the world, I've taken photos of windows. I've been collecting photos and thinking of what I would do with the images or how I would present them in a piece of art. Earlier this year I took a book making class and decided to make my own book and incorporate some of my window drawings. I selected 14 images and drew them out in colored pencil, some with the image transfer technique first. I've been intrigued with the accordion style of book that opens into a star shape so I decided to try to put one together. It's a small book,  just 6x6". Top photo shows my drawings before I glue them onto the backing pages. The bottom photo is the book almost finished, my next step is to find a decorative paper to use for the cover and put the cover together. It's great fun to find a challenging project, something using my hands besides just drawing.  

Coffee and Tea

I did an colored pencil demo for Hope Gallery during the Bristol/Warren Art Night last week. I brought samples of my smaller works and did a demo of colored pencil and solvent on 6x8" cradled Ampersand Gessobord. My subject is the pair of red sneakers which are in front of me and I am also working from a photo of them. The lighting and the shadows in the photo are just the way I want them to be and that way I can keep the lighting consistent if I work in different locations. Approximately 80 visitors came to the gallery while I was there, many were friends or fellow artists and I really appreciated the wonderful turnout. I must also thank Krzysztof Matthews for taking this photo of me and give him the photo credit.

Here are three 6x6" image transfer and colored pencil drawings I have done on Utrecht wood panels. The question I am asked most is if I prepare the wood and the answer is no, I work directly on the wood. First I transfer my black and white image on the wood as I described in this post, and then I work right over it with colored pencil. I added backgrounds to the coffee cups and left the natural wood background behind the tea cup and pot showing. These three pieces are hanging at Angelina's coffee shop in Bristol, RI during the month of July along with several other works by myself and other CPSA members from New England; Debbi Friedman, Naomi Aho, Kathie Miranda, Kathy Clericuzio and Liz Patterson.

New Grouping of Boxes

Started another grouping of my Ocean Life boxes on 5x5" Ampersand Claybord boxes. I have sold several of the last series of boxes and decided to create another series of boxes. Shown here are seven new cover drawings and three new inside drawings. All of the cover drawings are worked on white Stonehenge paper with image transfer and colored pencil. I adhere them to the Claybord surface of the box top with Grafix Double Tack Mounting Film. I like the bottom drawings to be sturdier so I use white Strathmore rag illustration board, again with image transfer and colored pencil and glue them onto the bottom. The box top drawings are sprayed with one coat of Krylon UV Resistant Clear, three coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish and then several layers of Golden Polymer Varnish with UVLS to make them smooth and glossy.

In the last series I left the natural wood box sides showing and varnished them for protection. In this series I've decided to experiment with painting the wooden sides or collaging some of the box sides with rice paper. I'll explain that in my next post about the boxes.

Ampersand Clayboard Boxes

I purchased nine 5x5" clayboard box kits from Ampersand with the intention of doing a series of drawings on the tops of the boxes and inside the boxes when the covers are lifted. I've chosen ocean life as a theme and worked on the drawings for the tops of the boxes shown here, placed close together. Because the clayboard is too smooth of a surface to draw on, I'm using white stonehenge paper or white bristol paper, although the turtle is drawn on cream stonehenge. The mediums I have used are image transfer and colored pencil. Image transfer is a process in which I take a Xerox copy of a drawing or photograph and transfer it onto the paper with a Chartpak colorless marker. Of course the image will come out in reverse so I have to switch it accordingly. Next I add colored pencil to the transfer and around. Some of the backgrounds I chose to leave white and some are colored.

My next step is to decide what smaller images I want to place inside each box and work on those. I'm doing this series for my upcoming exhibit at the Providence Art Club in October. I will show these boxes on pedestals as 3D artwork and most likely in smaller groupings.

Also, Ampersand has used my colored pencil piece on Gessobord Patti's New Bowl in a recent blog entry for the company's fall sale on the different boards.

Nine Bugs

On Monday nights I have been taking a sketchbook drawing class at RI School of Design which I am really enjoying. Our instructor, Johnny Adimando has been encouraging us to incorporate different art mediums into our works along with drawing. We've been experimenting with image transfer, relief printing and graphite rubbings. I've found the class projects a great way to kick up my creativity a notch! I took it one step further and decided to create some works beyond my sketchbook. This is a series of bugs on 4x4" wood panels, I began each with Xerox image transfers for each insect then added colored pencil on top. I'm going to present this series of nine pieces as sculpture, on a table top rather than hung on a wall.