Me, Myself and Architecture

This was the first assignment in my Hybrid Media Class. The task at hand was to create a design on a 20″ x 20″ canvas representing, as the title suggests, how you see yourself  in the context of architecture. After giving it some thought, my composition reflected the clarity that emerges from my initial thoughts and concepts. I have grown so much over the years, especially with regard to my confidence in my design capabilities. Perhaps when I’m all done with school and have some time to breathe I can compose a reflective piece that will summarize my journey and the direction I think I’ll be going in. One thing remains though, Architecture, art and photography will always be a part of my future.

Having never done a transfer before, I was quite anxious about the results.

In fact, when the paper was removed I feared it would be a sequel to my beautiful disaster in second year. (Undergrad degree) With great advice from my Professor and a burst of self-confidence, I let my artistic side take over and I’m happy to say that I fell in love with the final product.  It really was awesome seeing it come together.

 

The Process:

Materials – Canvas wood etc, Acrylic Medium (Matte), Paintbrush, Sponge,

The most important thing to do is ensure that the image to be transferred is inverted before printed with a laser printer on the thinnest possible paper. I did the collage in photo shop but there’s no saying you can’t print multiple photos and tile them or even layer them!

My surface for this piece was a 20″ x 20″ canvas and I later did the same application on a 12″ x 24″ wood panel. (You can transfer on almost anything! Even a ceramic plate ( see the Third image in this post). Applying the medium was simple….. I painted on a thin coat of the medium to the canvas. Some tutorials I glanced at suggested painting onto the paper as well but it works either way. Carefully, I affixed the paper, image side down (that’s why you have to invert), onto the canvas and ensured that it was firmly sealed with no gaps. I tiled the sheets for this one, but though it was easy to paste them together, I ended up with very obvious lines where the papers connected. It may have been better to tile in areas where it would go almost unnoticed. With all that done …

I tucked it safely away for 24 hours, impatiently waiting for the grand reveal. The best way that I’ve found to get the paper off was to take a sponge and saturate the entire surface. Let it ‘mellow’ out for a few minutes then slowly roll away the paper. It should come off blank and the image should remain on the canvas. If you rub too hard, the entire thing will come off. It is  a tedious process…. Warning, it will look great when it’s still wet but don’t be disappointed after the water dries out when you see large white patches. It simply means that there is still more paper left to be removed. Repeat the process and keep doing it until you’re satisfied.

For me, I had a lot of touch ups to do. Filled in the gaps with acrylic paints. I suppose that’s really where the artistic interpretations start to kick in. I bought an iridescent medium and went to town on the edges, resulting in a shimmer finish. It took a few hours but it was well worth it and I can’t wait to tr my next piece. already have a project in mind.

Our grand display is on the third floor of Eichberg Hall. They all are really amazing pieces so I thought I’d show off my classmates’ work as well. 

 

 

 

P.S. Special thanks to my Professor Huang for this awesome assignment as well as my classmates for their feedback throughout the process and ofcourse Chris who ran across town for me so I could get the perfect print!