I am doing a “Boston” series using the encaustic photo transfer process. The previous post celebrated the Seaport district with a ” failed ” transfer rescued by Photoshop.
If you’ve been following my posts you have seen a variety of photo transfer failures which are mounting up with such rapidity that it is amazing I’m still trying to master it! But, I am.
Now, with the help of some videos from Linda Robertson (formerly Linda Womack), I tried experimenting with parchment paper transfers. Why? Because the process seemed more controllable in that you can check to see if the burnishing is working (which you can’t do with a wet transfers) and because it didn’t involve endless pressured burnishing that always brought me to the “to hell with it,” point. That being said, there was something appealing about the partial transfers that resulted from the wet transfer process. I can see its aesthetic value as pairing with some of my images more than a more faithful parchment paper transfer. With a parchment paper transfer, you can be as precise as you want to get.
The end result of this transfer which was far more successful than others and, yet, I still preferred to photograph it, and then layer it with another Photoshop version within my digital software before I printed it. The takeaway for me is that I grow my comfortable with these new methods, I appear to be incorporating them into my previous skill set rather than swapping in and out of one into the other.
Next week, I am going to be learning “pan pastels”. They arrived in a box the size of a small suitcase. That looks like a lot of choices ahead!
