Picture Transfer

I have been spending my day attempting to get some school work done. But as a motivator I find it helpful to do some school, then do something else for 15 minutes or so. That way I can turn on some music and think about something other than chemical equations and John Quincy Adams. 

This is one of today's side projects, it's a super easy, looks harder than it is, project. Canvas transfer, or picture transfer.

It went from this picture (which I took this morning from that wonderful bouquet of roses):

To this: a perfectly imperfect picture.

To make, start with a reasonably simple black and white photo on normal printer paper. I turned the photo of the a rose black and white using Picasa's filtered B&W effect. That way I can make the colors have as much contrast as possible.

Then cover a canvas in white paint, pretty thick, but not gloppy. Lay the photo face down on the wet paint and press on so the whole paper is firmly stuck to the paint.

 Once it is fully dry (I waited about 10 minute then got impatient and used a blow dryer) start to careful spray or rub a small amount of water on to the paper. You want it to be damp, not wet and not to dry. Then lightly begin rubbing the paper off. This takes some patience since if you rub to hard the ink will come off with the paper. Not all of the paper ever comes off, there will always be fuzzys left over.

 After using the canvas I tried it with a piece of cardstock, it worked all right but the ink rubs off a lot easier.

Alright, now I'm going to keep reading To Kill A Mockingbird. I'm lucky that reading such a good book is part of my literature curriculum :).