Layers Upon Layers: Mixed Media Art

New digital ground products from Golden

by Cyndi on May 9th, 2008

I was recently sent a sample pack of several new Golden products. The first three that I’ve had a chance to play with are the new digital grounds. These products are made to enhance the quality of work done using inkjet prints onto all kinds of surfaces.

It boggles the mind what wonderful possibilities this may open up for artists who like doing image transfers or who like working with non-standard materials. Instead of being limited to toner copies for image transfers, inkjets will now work just fine…including on non-absorbent surfaces! Instead of being limited to pre-coated papers, artists can now create their own, out of just about anything!

Original Image

Transfered Image

Testing them out, I treated a piece of waxed paper to use for an image transfer. It took awhile to treat the surface: the ground tended to want to bead up, but as I patiently stroked it over the waxed paper with a foam brush, it began to spread out and form a film. Then I printed out an image…it was magical! Although the image was still moist, it stayed in place with no running or streaking until I was ready to make the transfer onto a piece of paper that I had spread with a thin layer of matte medium.

Amazing!

Here’s some of the info from the Golden’s website; you can visit them for much more in-depth information.

The Three Grounds
Digital Ground White (Matte) is a porous, opaque, white ground, for use on a multitude of surfaces. Like other porous ink-jet coatings, it allows prints to dry extremely rapidly, making it the safest choice for use with unmodified desktop printers that still have ‘pizza wheels’ or ejection rollers. It is also an ideal starting point for the first-time user looking for the most trouble free application on a wide range of materials.

Digital Ground Clear (Gloss) is a clear ground with a gloss sheen for use on most absorbent surfaces, allowing the underlying material to show through. Similar to other swellable ink-jet receptive coatings, prints dry much more slowly, which can sometimes present problems for desktop printers that have ejection rollers or ‘pizza wheels’. While there are rarely if any problems when used on very porous surfaces like paper, we do not recommend using relatively non-porous substrates coated with the Digital Ground Clear on a desktop printer unless the printer’s ‘pizza wheels’ or ejection rollers have been removed. However, such modifications of your printer are at the users risk and may negatively affect printer performance, void printer warranty, etc.

Digital Ground for Non-Porous Surfaces is similar to the Clear described above but optimized for increased adhesion and performance on non-porous surfaces such as aluminum or plastic. We do not recommend using the Digital Ground for Non-Porous Surfaces on a desktop printer unless the printer’s ‘pizza wheels’ or ejection rollers have been removed. As before, such modifications of your printer are at the users risk and may negatively affect printer performance, void printer warranty, etc.

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POSTED IN: Collage, Digital Art, Mixed Media