Layers Upon Layers: Mixed Media Art

Waxed paper transfer collage

by Cyndi on July 8th, 2008

Technique Tuesday!

Here’s the image that I started with for this piece:

It wasn’t high resolution or anything: just a pretty picture. I used Golden’s Digital Ground White, and stroked it onto a piece of waxed paper, adding a few layers until the piece was covered where I planned to print. The image printed out quite well, and stayed a bit wet for awhile. I didn’t worry about that, though, since I planned to do a transfer. The transfer was made onto plain white copy paper, using the instructions for a basic paper image transfer.

Once the transfer was completed and dry, this is how I assembled the collage:

1. Paint a wrapped canvas frame. I used dark teal green acrylic.
2. Apply a wash of gesso, thinned with water.
3. Add layers of cheesecloth, using matte medium to adhere them.





4. Slice up the image transfer and use matte medium to adhere it to the canvas. Use a layer of waxed paper and a heavy book to make it dry flat.
5. Add a bit of black to your gesso to create a medium gray tone, and wash the piece with a very thin layer. Gray adds a chalky look. Mess up the edges of the image a bit.



6. Add some extra-heavy gel medium around the edges for more texture and let it dry.
7. Add another thin coat of matte medium to the entire piece.
8. Layer teal green glazes and white gesso until it looks good. Stop before you go too far!



9. Apply a final thin layer of gray gesso.

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POSTED IN: Collage, Fabric & Fiber, Mixed Media, Paper, Photography, Technique Tuesday, Tutorials & Techniques