Encaustic Transfer: Adding Photographic Images

1. Encaustic Transfer Introduction: Welcome back. In this lesson we're going to talk about how to get a photocopy onto encaustic painting. And this is really fun if you want to have like a really realistic image, like a photographic type of image transferred onto your piece. But not have it be collaged because it will actually show through the painting underneath. That'll have wherever the white area is will be clear. So only the black and white or pigment toner will transfer. So it's a really cool way to incorporate different elements into your encaustic painting. 2. Proper Prints for Transferring: Alright, so let's roll up our sleeves here. I have couple of things prepped for today's lesson, which is transferring photocopy images, which is toner based images. So those could include laser prints or photocopies, anything like a Xerox that has toner or laser, but not ink. We don't want to use inkjet. And the reason for that is that the toner will actually transfer through the heat and burnishing onto the wax, but ink from inkjet won't actually embedded onto the paper. I've also got some water and a sponge because what's going to happen is the toner is going to photocopy is going to get placed face down. So you can imagine that it will be a mirror image. So if I wanted, for instance, if this was reading correctly on the copy, It would be mirror image or backwards on the painting. So I'm not going to use that one. I'm going to use this one because it doesn't really matter. You can use all or part of the image. You can cut it out. Once you have the copy, you can place different places. But we're going to be placing that face down onto the encaustic surface. And then when it's cool, we're going to remove the paper backing using water. 3. Prepping the Surface: So what I want to do first is make sure that the painting, the encaustic surface is really smooth. So I've got some encaustic paint here. This is just clear medium. And I'm going to put an extra layer onto this part of the painting where I want to transfer. That will ensure that all of the details are seen and none of it gets lost. Because if there's a den Torah bump, then not all of that image will transfer in the bump in the group area. Basically. I'm making it nice and even by just adding an extra layer of wax. And then I'm going to fuse it so that it's nice and smooth. And then before it has time to cool too much, I'm going to place my paper face down. If you already had a smooth surface and you came back to your painting and wanted to put something on it. That's cool too, but I would probably just lightly fuse it. So it's not cool, but it's warm to the touch. So pleasing, kinda hot. So that we can really get a nice smooth surface. And of course, the more flat your surface that the painting is resting on the bed. The first thing we wanna do once we have our either Xerox copy or laser print, is to cut out the parts that we want to use. So I'm going to try to print the transfer this whole image, but I don't need all this extraneous paper. So I'm just going to cut out what I don't need. Because the only parts that are going to transfer or the black toner. So this really has to be everything that's just paper is gonna get removed during the process. I've got my paper if I wanted to, I could also layer or I could sort of collage. I could put one here and one here. But you really want the toner to come into contact with your substrate. And this process on a caustic works best when the encaustic surface is very smooth and there's no kind of dips or dense bumps, lumps. So starting with a really smooth and caustic surfaces important. The next step is it can't be really cold in order for the toner to transfer and stick to the encaustic painting it, you need to either have just fused it or in this case, because this has been sitting for a while, I'm going to use the torch to just lightly warm up the surface. Don't need to have a very high flame because I'm just going to warm up the area where I want to transfer. And if there's any parts that need to be smoothed out at this point, you can do that with a higher flame. I really just want to, you don't want it to be like liquid and molten. I really just want it to be warmed. It's too hot and too melted. Then your transfer will actually come out very blurry and you'll get a lot more paper residue that you want. I don't want it to be shiny and liquidity, but I do want it to be warm. 4. Applying the paper: Now I'm going to transfer, place my image onto my encaustic painting and just smoothly start to burnish. Now, you'll notice that I took the piece of paper and I put it face down. And if you think about it, your image is going to get mirrored on your encaustic painting. If you have any writing, which I do in this case, you want to make sure that its mirror imaged before you put it down on your encaustic painting. Otherwise, it won't. It will read backwards. We're just going to burnish and I'll go get a spoon. Like you can use a barren for printmaking or you can use a metal or wooden spoon and just start to burnish the paper that create the contact that's going to transfer that toner to the warmed and caustic medium. So we'll do that. And then we'll wait until it cools because we don't want to start removing the paper until the toner into the encaustic. So for that reason we will, once we're done burnishing, we'll set it aside and wait until it's cooled off again. And then we can start to wet the back of the paper. 5. Removing the paper: Alright, went back. It's nice and cool. And what we're gonna do now is take the paper off using water. Because one of the great things about encaustic is that water just beads right up on its surface because the wax resists the water. We don't have to worry about damaging the painting. We're just going to get the paper. And the best way to do this is to use as little water as you need, but enough water so that the paper comes off easily. So I just saturated and keep it saturated. And you'll see that the surface starting to peel off. This part is a little bit messy. But if your patient, then you'll start to see. You can also rub lightly with your finger. You don't want to rub too aggressively or the whole thing will come off. And if you soak it too much or too much water, then the whole image will come off as well. So it's starting to kinda come off right there. I'll just keep keep rubbing gently. I'm not pushing down. I'm just basically letting the sponge in the water do the work. Again, you want to be gentle, not aggressive. We can start to see that the paper back and it's coming off and leaving the image. Potomac. Beautiful. Just a slightest pressure. And if you need to, you can add a little bit more water, but generally just enough to soak it and then just lightly rub. I use the soft part of the sponge. I don't use the rough part again because that would be too aggressive. There are parts of the white paper that can just come away. Then you can use your finger to do that. Once it comes off, It's not like you can put it back on and try to get an image, some other image back if you get a piece that's missing. So again, try to be patient. The water is not going to hurt the surface of the wax at all. Back. One of the things I like about encaustic is that you can put them in a bathroom because the moisture won't affect won't affect them negatively. So this works really well. The flatter again, the surface that you put the paper on, I can see that right here there. It looks like there was a little dip. So I might have an issue there, but because like right here where I thought maybe there was a problem seems to be doing just fine. Just slow and steady and sometimes you won't know that you've gotten it all until it dries. And then you'll see some of the little paper, paper residue, some of that will burn off when we fuse it or melt into the wax actually, but you don't want to leave this amount of paper on. You want to make sure that you'd get most of it all. Or it will be the texture will be different and it can be hazy and you'll be able to see your image. But all this light gray then all came out, which is pretty amazing. Practice helps knowing when the right temperature is to put the copy down, knowing when to start the water process. That's just practice. Because I felt it and I could tell when it was ready. But I can't really I can't really tell you exactly what, you know until you feel it and you now you can see how the paint from underneath is showing through. So that's just a really nice quality about this technique. Then we'll let that dry before we fuse just very, very lightly because we don't want to make it all like mushy, like this part. We really want it to be look just like it does right here. And you can take a rag if you want to speed up the process, but it's not necessary. Can feel a little bit more of the paper. So I'm just going to try to get some of that off. So go slow and be gentle because if you are too aggressive and the toner hasn't completely stuck, then you're going to pull it off In Cost Stack. So kinda like that. And if there's any dips in it, like irregularities in the surface, that might leave a void as well. So if it's doing that a lot just continued to wet the back and the paper will dissolve. So take your time with this. Just continue until all the paper has been removed. 6. Final Fusing: So here's a soft cloth that I can just lightly dry it, dry it off with. You'll notice that with all the rubbing, the wax got really shiny right here. You can make that the entire surface just with a soft cloth that you buff the surface. And it will, the DMR resin in there will actually make it polished like that. So that can be a final finishing technique. Some people like that, some people don't. But one thing to note about being caustic is even though it's cooled, it's not cured. It takes several weeks for it to cure. And during that curing process, it can get foggy again and you'll think, Oh it didn't. I have that nice shiny surface. Just take a cloth again and just wipe it off. And you'll see that it comes right off. It's just part of the curing process where the gases from underneath start to come to the surface. It's nothing to worry about, but it does happen and it's something to be aware of. At this point. We want to fuse it so that it's the wax surface you can see it's a little bit of a different texture. And then we can add more wax or more techniques and scratching and things like that. So take our we're not going to turn on high, we're going to turn it on very, very light. And we're just going to wick the surface until it changes from that matte texture to the same texture as the surrounding areas. Notice I'm just sort of wicking it. I'm not lingering. And there's some of the paper that's sort of melting in C, that part. But this is to ensure that it just melts in and doesn't start to blend and bleed into the rest of the painting because we don't want it to get unless you want that. But I don't want I just want it to get fused in. Don't want it to stay looking like it did when I put it on there. And this is one of the nice things about working with the torch versus the heat gun is the torch you can just really get super light, super faint. And then now I can touch it and I'm not going to smear it. I'm not going to take anything off. It's in there for good. And I can put on another layer of medium or any other additional things that I want to do. Then we take our torch and make it go way down so that we can barely see some of those areas with the paper. Well go from Matt, too shiny. And that's because they're dressed, melting into the surface of the wax. Want to be very delicate. Your torch work down here. That's it. Now successfully transferred a toner based image onto an encaustic wax surface.