In my Alternative Printmaking Report #2, I discussed the concept of image transfers. Rather than sounding repetitious, I refer anyone interested back to that post for a brief review. There are many ways to accomplish image transfers, but I thought I would try the InkAid Transferiez method because you can use inkjet prints, while in some transfer techniques you need LaserJet prints. In addition, the Transferiez process seemed fairly straightforward.

The first step was to print the image on the Transferiez sheet, and I showed some photos of that in my prior post. One then paints the receiving substrate with the Transferiez solution until it is well coated, places the printed sheet on top of the coated substrate, and gently pushes out any air bubbles, making sure that there is good contact between the printed sheet and substrate. Approximately three minutes later you carefully peel away the printed sheet and the image (hopefully) remains on the substrate with the ink having dissolved off the printed sheet and now adhering to the wet substrate. The final product is then allowed to dry.

Of course, there is a learning curve and I ran into some trouble. I spoke with the company founder who was truly quite helpful and graciously (to say the least) called me personally after I had emailed him with questions. But despite repeated attempts, I had continued problems.

After some false starts because of uncertainty as to how wet the paper should be (if there isn’t enough coating you can get incomplete transfer), I got the hang of it. Overall, as seen below, at first blush the transfer onto a thick fine art paper appeared to go fairly well.

However, on careful inspection, there were some problems. There seemed to be multiple small areas where the transfer occurred, but either incompletely or with some type of artifact. An example is shown below, where, if you look carefully, you can see multiple ‘glittery’ areas. These areas were not uniformly dispersed and were patchy in nature.

It was almost like certain areas were not adhering properly. I thought of several reasons as to why this might be the case. First, the Canon printers apply a ‘Chroma Optimizer’ to remove bronzing from the print and give all the colors the same sheen. This can be applied automatically as needed during the printing process (applied over areas with less ink, I believe) or over the entire image. However, it can not be turned off in the Canon driver. I do not know if this could possibly affect the image transfer, but I think it is unlikely as the Chroma Optimizer is also pigment ‘ink’. In addition, the shiny areas seemed randomly distributed and not isolated to certain colors or ink densities and there seemed to be no difference between the image transfers when the sheets were printed with the Chroma Optimizer on auto or over the entire image.

Another possibility that seemed more likely was that I was using a textured paper. Perhaps the image wasn’t making contact into all the ‘nooks and crannies’ of the paper texture. I tried a transfer with a somewhat smoother paper as well as onto a smooth piece of wood. Though the situation was significantly improved (see below), it was not totally remedied. In the photo below, the paper seems more textured than the images above, but it was actually less so (though still textured). The smooth wood also had these abnormal areas within the transfer.

In fairness, spraying the paper with a semi-gloss protective finishing varnish after it dried did smooth out the surface finish and, for the most part, hid the ‘glittery’ areas yielding a reasonably good result.

A transfer onto a somewhat smoother (but still obviously textured) Arches fine art paper gave better results, particularly after spraying with a finishing varnish. © Howard Grill

In summary, despite multiple attempts and changing multiple variables using the InkAid Transferiez, I could get a reasonable, but not a really good, image transfer. At least not ‘good’ to the degree I was hoping for. To me, it just doesn’t seem worth the hassle of going through the entire process for the type of results I was getting.

Your experience, of course, may vary from mine and if any readers have had better results I would love to hear any tricks you might have. Please do note that there are many reports (and YouTube videos) of people getting quite good results, but given the quality of my ‘made for inkjet’ papers I am not inclined to experiment further with papers. I may give it a whirl in the future on other substrates.

Next up I will be trying photo encaustics, but it may be several weeks before I can report on that given its complexity. In the interim, I will return to my more usual programming!

Alternative Printmaking Report #4

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