Ink Transfers

Also called oil transfers (depending upon what medium you use), this was a favorite of Paul Klee. I saw a show of his yesterday at the Boston College and I was surprised that, in person, I could hardly tell the difference between his transfers and his lithographs—and I'm a printmaker.

I've mentioned before that I have a big stack of clear acrylic (Plexiglas) plates that I cut for the students. They are around 12" x 18" or so, with the edges rounded. We ink these up with brayers using speedball waterbased ink. It takes some practice to get the carpet of ink the right thickness. Listen for a whisper when you roll. Make sure you use an ink that doesn't dry too fast. This is one of those lessons that needs to be tested ahead of time.

You can use one or two sheets of paper, depending upon whether or not you want to keep the drawing or have a clean verso on your print. You have to press harder if you use two. Let's use one sheet for this example. The student lays the paper down softly on the plate. If, in touching the plate, a little ink stains the paper, that's a desired effect that adds to the final image, but tell the students not to press the paper down with their hands.

Then the student simply does their drawing. Try not to move the paper too much on the plate. If it does move, it won't matter for the process, but it could make smudges and also you want all the linear areas to hit good ink. Have your students lift the corners early on to make sure they have the pressure right and to adjust it as they go. When they are done with the drawing, they turn over the paper and see their drawing in ink. The magic is that the ink feels less drawn and more printed, and the touches of ink from the plate around the drawing add a rustic, accidental charm. The ink you use might resist watercolor. If it does, while wet or after it dries, you could work back into the drawing with a wash.

Make sure that you allow for your students to have another go to make adjustments based on what they discover. For example, many times they learn that something they wrote—like their name—got reversed. Watch as they try to figure out how to do it again and get their names the right way. You can tell them Picasso didn't care and has his name backwards on a lot of his prints.

Strangely, I think I recognize the student in the self-portrait on the top right. Isn't that interesting? Obviously I remember who did it, but in my mind, it looks like her, even as simple as it is.