Photocopy Transfer Tutorial

So the sides of the desk in my studio has the big empty spaces which as an artist I could not resist filling up. I read a tutorial on this process and decided to try it.

1. I first covered the surface in white acrylic paint but it’s not necessary, unfinished wood will work too. This can also be done with colour prints as well as long as they are printed with toner.

2. I found an image that I liked. In this case a Buddha. I converted it to a vector as it was low res and got very pixelated when I blew it up to the correct size (22” X 36”). By vectorizing it I could size it up without losing image quality. I actually used an ipad app to do it and it came out great. I saved it as a PDF and the printer was able to work with it just fine.

3. For the transfer to work the print must be done on a laser printer with toner (not ink). I could only get those done at 11X17” so I had the printer tile the image and I taped it together. Note: I forgot to flip my image. I wanted the face to look like the print but of course it goes on in reverse so keep that in mind when getting it printed. Especially important if there are words or numbers in your artwork.

4. Any gel acrylic medium will work for this. I used Mod Podge (which smells and feels suspiciously like Elmer’s so I’m wondering if that might work too) and coated the toner side of the print liberally. I have to say at this size it made it hard to get the whole thing covered before it dried and I had to go over some parts a few times.

5. I placed the print on the surface and tried to smooth out all the wrinkles. I wasn’t entirely successful but whatever. It’s recommended that you leave it on for 24 hours. I left it for a few days not on purpose. Don’t know if it made a difference.

6. I took a spray bottle with water to dampen it and mostly rubbed it off with my fingers. Sorry I have no pics but it was kind of messy. As you can see by the eyebrow some parts peeled off a little too aggressively but I don’t mind really given the way the print is. I did find that the parts where my print overlapped gave me the most problems so I’d advise you remove any excess paper.

So there’s my Buddha. I may put some colour over him depending on how I feel. All things considered he looks pretty good. I’m going to do a Ganesh image next!