From Sketchbook To Gel Print Via Inkjet Printer

I had a little tidying and organising session today. I gathered together a bunch of things that I had stored in several different places and sorted them into groups of similar things. They are all things I have collected to use on the gel plates, but I never pull them out because they are in such a disarray. Were. They were in such a disarray, now they’re organised, and I have made space.

I divided my time between more experiments with my inkjet image transfer project and playing with my gel plates and my newly organised stash. The top image is my favourite pull of the day.

The bottom two images are a spread from my concertina sketchbook comparing four variations on the inkjet image transfer. This is the method where I print the image onto freezer paper, transfer the image to the gel plate and then print onto the page.

The trick for this method seems to be to leave the prints on the freezer paper for thirty minutes before transferring to the gel plate. The bottom-right prints on each image were made that way, and they are crisper renderings of my drawing/print than their counterparts, which were transferred immediately.

The difference between the two pages is the printer setting for the ink. On the left, the printer is set to Automatic quality, on the right the printer is set to Best. I don’t think there’s much in it, but the best quality print is a little sharper.

I still want to master the transparency idea, but that will always mean a lag between the printing and the collaging of an image, so this method can be used when I need an instant transfer.

There is another method for inkjet image transfers which involves printing onto copy paper and placing it on the gel plate, then spritzing the back with water. It works, but it’s a temperamental technique that seems to be governed by whether a butterfly is flapping its wings in the vicinity of a Class I Pictish stone, or not.

A worthwhile deep-dive that offers up so many opportunities for so many things in my sketchbooks.

Til the morn,

Suzanne

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