Printmaking with Book and Calendar Transfers on a Gel Plate

Loved the idea on the Gelli Arts blog that shows the imperfect experiments of Birgit. She used various magazine and book images to transfer an image on the plate and, once dried, pulled a print. Other artists have jumped on the idea and have shared their results.

Yesterday, tried it. Since Birgit mentioned she didn’t have much luck with heavy bodied acrylics, I went out and bought some craft acrylics. But, I had no luck with them and on my third try, I switched to my favorite Liquitex heavy bodied acrylics and had my first success.

98 lb. Strathmore Mixed Media paper 

Although I had a huge stack of possible magazine and book images to try, I stuck with what was working—black & white, high contract images from a photo book about John F. Kennedy.

140 lb. Fabriano Artistico hot press watercolor paper

140 lb. Fabriano Artistico hot press watercolor paper

Before stopping, I used some smaller, high contrast calendar images from Susan Boulet (1990 and 1991!) and they turned out well, also.

60 lb. Strathmore Sketch paper

98 lb. Strathmore Mixed Media paper 

Your result may vary. What worked for me:

Images

Lots of contrast of darks and lights

Both black & white and color

Paper

98 lb. Strathmore Mixed Media paper (from the coil-bound Vision pad)

140 lb. Fabriano Artisitico hot press watercolor paper

Paint

Liquitex heavy bodied professional acrylic paint

Some Golden fluid acrylics-- if mixed with the heavy bodied ones (they dried too quickly)

Techniques

Rub book/magazine image on plate firmly with a brayer and a bone folder

Still curious how and if the craft acrylics might work, how and if other book, calendar, and magazine images might work, how and if other papers might work (especially printmaking ones), I will continue experimenting.