Getting the Picture

For the latest of my bas-relief animal portraits, "On a High Perch," I wanted to use the photo I had taken for the background of the piece. I had recently discovered water-soluble paper designed for a laser printer and wanted to see if it could be used to transfer the image clay.

I first coated the raw clay sheet with a very thin coat of clay softener liquid and then laid the printed image face down on it.

Here you can see that the liquid has permeated the paper and I've trimmed excess clay away.

Starting at the center of the image I began dabbing the paper with lots of water a little at a time. This proved to be a very delicate operation requiring an extremely gentle touch to remove the paper pulp without smearing the ink. I did make a few smears to the right of the bird before I got the hang of it.

Using a wet brush, I was able to fix the smears and I then dried and set the ink with a heat gun.

After baking the sheet with the transferred image, the last bits of paper were removed with water. Finally, I used colored pencil on the transfer to adjust its colors to more closely match those of the bas-relief clay and to give it a more hand-drawn feel.

The finished piece with a few of the colored pencils used.