Leonardo

My Use of Acrylic Transfers as an Alternative Collage-Making MethodAuthor(s): Gillian HillSource: Leonardo, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer, 1980), pp. 213-215Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577822 .

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Leonardo, Vol. 13, pp. 213-215 Pergamon Press 1980. Printed in Great Britain

MY USE OF ACRYLIC TRANSFERS AS AN ALTERNATIVE COLLAGE-MAKING METHOD

Gillian Hill*

1.

Since 1976, I have made a number of prints and drawings involving lithography and silkscreen, folded paper and collage [1]. One-hundred percent rag paper (Rives BFK and Arches Cover) was used, and the collage pieces were glued in place with white glue (LePage's Bond Fast, Le Page's Ltd., Bramalea, Ontario, Canada). The papers were fairly acid-free and, consequently, resistant to yellowing and to disintegration. Furthermore, as paper constructions with graphic elements, the combination of materials was visually acceptable.

Then, in 1979, I turned my attention to a problem that I had encountered earlier in making collages: how to incorporate both cut-out pieces of prints (lithographic and silkscreen) and acrylic paint on canvas. It seemed to me that many of the good visual qualities of the rag paper I used were lost when it was adhered to canvas and, therefore, that a completed collage surface made up of areas covered by acrylic paint and by paper was un- satisfactory. In an initial approach, I employed the cut- out prints on rag paper as small hinged pieces, attached along one edge by sewing-machine stitching to an unstretched canvas coated with acrylic paint (Fig. 1).

Shortly, after completing a number of such collages, I devised a method of using the same prints as transfers on an acrylic-paint film on canvas. The transfer areas and the painted areas when seen together had a harmonious quality that appealed to me, and, furthermore, I con- sidered that the materials employed would be fairly resistant to deterioration.

The possibilities offered by the process appear nu- merous. Other print materials (such as newspaper and magazine cuttings, which are not suitable as art materials because they yellow and disintegrate readily) can be used to make transfers; so can Xerox prints. Acrylic paint, wax crayon, oil pastels and pencil drawings on paper may also be used. But, in cases where the colorants (dyes and pigments) in the inks, paints and crayons are not lightfast, for example do not resist fading, good permanency of the acrylic transfers cannot be expected.

Other artists have undoubtedly explored making trans- fers of this kind. In Leonardo, J. W. Davis has described a technique for transferring magazine illustrations and advertisements to polymer films on paper or on canvas [2]. There are also methods for transferring magazine images to epoxy resins [3]. W. Opalewski, on the other hand, suspended lithographic prints in polyester resin [4]. In his procedure, however, the print paper was not removed, because it was rendered transparent.

*Painter and printmaker, P.O. Box 2011, New Westminster, British Columbia V3L 5A3, Canada. (Received 30 June 1979)

Fig. 1 'We Are Here' collage, mixed media (acrylic paint, litho- collage, scraps of paper with typing, pencil, cotton thread) on

coloured canvas with vinyl sheeting, 100 x 50cm, 1979.

2. The procedure for making an acrylic transfer is similar

to that used for making solvent transfers [2; 3, p. 360; 5]. In both methods, the colorant is transferred from the original surface to another surface with the image re- versed. However, instead of loosening the ink colorants by rubbing solvent into the back of a print and transfer- ring them from the face of the print to another surface (the solvent transfer procedure), the colorants are transferred by painting a wet acrylic (water-base) paint layer on the print, and, after the paint is dry, the paper of the print is

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Gillian Hill

removed. In other words, the original paper support for the image is replaced by an acrylic paint layer.

The paint layer may be employed in two ways. In the first procedure, it is isolated as a thin sheet of dried paint bearing the image that, like a collage piece, may be affixed to a surface with the use either of acrylic medium or of acrylic paint as adhesive. In the second procedure, the paint layer on the face of the print, before it is dried, is put into full contact with a surface (paper or canvas, for example) to which it adheres and the print paper is removed later. An important requirement in either acrylic transfer procedure is that the colorants be insoluble in water.

In the first acrylic transfer procedure, two or more coats of paint are applied uniformly to the face of the print to build up a sufficient layer thickness. The colorant particles on the print paper come in contact with the acrylic resin in the paint layer. After it is thoroughly dry, the layer with the colorant paticles adhering to it and, consequently, with the image transferred to it, is separated from the paper by rubbing the paper off gently with the use of a damp sponge. The acrylic material need not be water-based acrylic paint (it may be used directly from the tube or diluted with water); acrylic polymer medium (matt finished, for example) or acrylic gesso may also be used.

I prefer to employ the second procedure in my work. I apply one or more coats of paint (or medium or gesso) to the face of the print and position it facedown on a support to which it will stick, such as paper or canvas. I have found that excellent results may be obtained by placing the wet coated print facedown on a canvas whose surface is coated with a film of wet acrylic paint or with a film of dry paint of the same or similar kind. The wet print is carefully pressed onto the canvas surface to squeeze out air bubbles and excess paint. I prefer the acrylic transfer layers to be thin to minimize or eliminate visible boun- daries between them and the surrounding painted canvas areas.

The presence of bubbles in the paint layer at the surface of the print prevents locally the attachment of colorant particles to the acrylic resin and results in blank spots in the transferred image. The more flexible the print paper and the smaller its area, the easier it is to smooth it out to avoid the entrapment of bubbles. One can, however, prevent any bubbles from reaching the print surface by applying an initial coat of acrylic paint on it and allowing it to dry completely before adding a second one that, while still wet, is made to adhere to the canvas. As I point out below, however, I often expressly allow the opportunity for blank spots to occur accidently in my acrylic transfers.

When prints on thick rag paper are being used, they should be left overnight to dry to assure complete transfer to the acrylic paint film on the canvas support; but, for thinner print paper, such as newspaper, only a few hours are required. During the removal of the original print paper with a damp sponge, care must be taken in rubbing off the final thin paper remnants in order that the transferred image remain undamaged. Dampened rag paper flakes off easily with the additional help of a gum eraser.

Completed transfers made with acrylic paint retain much of the surface texture of the paper used in the original print; indeed, the paper surface is cast in such detail that small wrinkles, creases and torn edges are duplicated. These are relief aspects that may either be retained as part of the artwork or be modified, even deleted, by rubbing down with fine sandpaper.

The completed work exhibits the illusory effect of a

Fig. 2 'We Came Here', collage, acrylic paint, acrylic transfer, pencil on canvas, 96 x 60 cm., 1979.

Fig. 3 'We Came Here' (detail).

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Acrylic Transfers as an Alternative Collage-making Method

collage surface. The technique used in achieving this effect may be called a collage-making process; however, strictly speaking, the final result is not a collage, since one has dispensed with paper and glue in favour of an acrylic surface to which graphic colorants have been transferred.

3.

In the course of working, I strive to make the acrylic surface of the canvas as smooth and level as possible by rubbing the edges of the completed transfers with sand- paper, so that they blend in with the surrounding paint. Often there is a buildup of several layers of transfers, of which some are opaque, made from paint or gesso, and others are transparent, made from matt medium. I find that the steps involved in my work are an important influence on its final appearance. Thus, I like to include the 'mistakes' of transfer-making-for example, the bare patches in the transfer caused by entrapped air bubbles between the original print and the acrylic paint film.

I often coat print surfaces with tinted paint that later forms background areas of colour. After the transfers are in place, acrylic paint is sometimes brushed on a canvas, and pencil lines are drawn in and are sealed with matt varnish that is applied and then blotted off (Figs. 2, 3).

A finished surface is somewhat reminiscent of crumbl- ing frescoes (Fig. 4) whose pictorial content is dominated largely by photographic or other recognizable images chosen for their symbolic value. The signification in- tended for the symbolism is not predetermined but is clarified only during the progress of a work or by a series of works. Since 1976, I have often included rather rigid male and female figures (Figs. 1, 2), usually contrasted with freer depictions of, for example, a flying gull, the sea or clouds. Transfers of typed or of handwritten words and phrases are sometimes added. 'We Are Here', 'Here We Are', 'We Are' and 'Here' are intended to reinforce verbally the content.

On the compositional level, I am concerned with relationships between intersecting straight and curved

Fig. 4 'We Came Here' (detail).

lines and rectangles that seem to recede from or to come forward of the pictorial plane.

The acrylic transfer process is primarily a procedure for making monoprints; however, edition art may also be produced, as it may with the solvent and epoxy resin methods. Personally, I have found the acrylic transfer method particularly satisfying as a collage-making way of painting. In such applications the traditional distinctions between printmaking, drawing and painting no longer hold.

References

1. G. Hill, Folded Print, Series 1-No. 4, 1976 Los Angeles Printmaking Society 4th National Exhibition (Downey, Calif., U.S.A.: Downey Art Museum, 1977).

2. J. W. Davis, Symmetrical and Sequential Images, Leonardo 2, 167 (1969).

3. D. Staff and D. Sacilotto, Printmaking: History and Process (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978) p. 366.

4. W. Opalewski, The Suspension of Images on Paper in Polyester Resin, Leonardo 5, 155 (1972).

5. P. Franck, Kalcinat Prints and Relief Sculpture from Flame- Treated Plastic Sheet, Leonardo 9, 300 (1976).

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