An acrylic print transfer lets you move a printed photo onto a painting using acrylic gel medium. It works well as an intro to printmaking and mixed media for kids around 6 and up (younger kids can paint, and an adult can handle the transfer). It takes two sessions: one to paint, and one to transfer after overnight drying. Difficulty: easy to medium.
The classic version of this technique, which some of us learned in college, is to brush ten or more layers of gel medium over glossy magazine pages, letting each dry. You then wet the page and gently rub the paper away, leaving the image in a clear, plasticky film of gel medium. The project below is a simpler version that transfers a print straight onto a painting. Golden Artist Colors shares transfer methods like this on its site.
Materials for an acrylic print transfer
- Small canvases (art boards also work)
- Pencil
- Paint: acrylic, tempera, or watercolor. We used acrylics. For kids, look for paints labeled non-toxic.
- Paint brushes, including one wide brush for the gel
- Acrylic gel medium. We used Golden soft gel in a gloss finish. Matte and semi-gloss versions exist too. Avoid heavy gels, which are too thick and goopy for this.
- A laser print or photocopy of the image to transfer. Inkjet prints give inconsistent results, so laser prints or copies are best.
- Scissors, a dish of water, and a palette (a cutting board wrapped in foil or contact paper works)
How to do a print transfer on a painting
1. Sketch. Have your child sketch out a scene in pencil, leaving an open area where the print will go. In our version, the print was a photo of the child herself.
2. Paint it. We squirted out these acrylic colors: white, red, brown, yellow, green, green gold, and blue.
When kids are learning to mix colors, fewer choices work better. Give them a few colors and let them mix new ones, otherwise they tend to use every color and the painting turns muddy. If you’d rather skip color mixing, pick two or three colors straight from the tubes.
3. Let the painting dry thoroughly. While you wait, trim your print close to the edge of the image. The transfer comes out as a mirror image, so if your picture has words or you need it facing a certain way, flip it before you print.
4. Use a wide brush to apply a generous layer of gel medium over the painting where the print will go. We brushed it over the whole canvas horizontally, then vertically.
5. Lay the printout face down in the wet gel, so the printed side touches the painting. Press it down firmly, but don’t wiggle it around. Let it dry overnight.
6. Once it is completely dry, wet the back of the printout with a damp sponge or fingertips. Gently rub away the wet paper in small circles until it’s gone. The image stays behind. It may take a few rounds of wetting and rubbing. Leave it as is (we did) or brush another coat of gel over the whole painting to seal it.
Tips for a clean image transfer
- Skip heavy gel and use plenty of soft gel. A thin coat leaves bare spots in the image.
- Let everything dry fully before rubbing. Damp gel can lift the picture along with the paper.
- If any paper fibers remain once dry, they turn white and cloudy. Rub them off with a little more water.
- Acrylic paint doesn’t wash out of clothes once dry, so cover the table and wear old shirts. Keep paint and gel away from mouths.
For more inspiration, check out these acrylic techniques, and this experiment with more acrylic transfer.
Comments
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Oh I love this idea! Can’t wait to try it with my son.
Tihs is gorgeous and I am going to get the only thing we don’t have on hand – the acrylic gel. Not that a trip to the art supply store is ever a chore – thanks for such nice clear instructions, too!
Sorry typed on my iPad I meant This!
Definitely do it! It’s one of those projects where they think it’s magic and are very proud of it. (also if you do
Also if you do it, I wanna see!
Oh, thank you for saying that! You don’t realize how hard it is to explain a project until you try to write it out. I’m glad it makes sense.
OMG I loved this! this is wonderful. In 1998 I worked at a photolab and had a little retail digital department. we use to pay tons of money for transfer material (and sadly charge clients a lot) to print their picture on the transfer material and then iron it on to t-shirts. do you by any chance know how we can do the homemade version of putting pictures on mugs? that would be so cool. thanks
Ya know- I think you have to buy an expensive heat transfer machine if you want to do mugs at home. But have you been to Zazzle? You could upload your images there and order mugs.
Wow. That is so cool! You are amazing! How long did the project take and how easy is the image transfer to actually pull off? We are not crafty over here!
So awesome that you posted this today. I was just thinking today about all the xerox lithography that I did in college, and how I would love to do it again. I always used gum arabic, but the gel medium might be more easy to use. I love the way you did this with your daughter! Can’t wait till Simon is old enough!
The great thing is that Fen did this entirely herself, so I imagine it would be doable for ages 7-8 and up. I must say, I was happily surprised at how easy this was! You could always practice with a few prints on plain paper before applying a final print to a painting.
I wish I had done more printmaking in college- I couldn’t really get the hang of etching so I abandoned it… this is a fun project and just a good way of introducing printmaking to kids. Simon should be old enough soon….in the meantime, you should probably practice doing this for yourself!
Such a fun idea! I can’t wait to try it – my fingers are tapping with excitement! Love the art boards too! The finished product is AMAZING! I love it – you have to hang that!
Wow, that came out beautifully!! I love it!
I’m going to try this with Gigi process art style! So cool!
Oh, cool- this will be a fun one to just play with.
I haven’t 3 our of 5 in the house home over the past week and a half with bad, bad colds, just as I’m supposed to be free and they’re supposed to be in school. When I see this post, it makes me just want to keep the kids home one last day for more creating!!! Fantastic. I love print making. It’s been a long time since I’ve done one and haven’t done this with the kids — thanks for the beautiful tutorial!
Oh! We got our colds from your family. The kids and I have been sick and it’s been hot and sunny around here, so it makes it feel like we’re missing the last few fleeting days of summer. It’s fun to do this sort of project with the kids, since I think it’s not really a common one, but so cool.