The school sent a mass email on this event as well as the Graduate blog. I think I’ll do this myself, once I get a decent paycheck. The application deadline is October 1st. Art opportunities such as this are great for beginning artists trying to build their exhibitions/resumes. I wish somebody directed me to apply/seek out those projects when I was a sophomore. I honestly think that my late efforts to join in several print exchanges helped me get accepted into my current school. Some of my rejection letters from the state universities often mention that the level of competition (artwork) and experience (resume) were the main reasons for picking other applicants. That’s really my own guess to one of the reasons. My slides* were crappy too, but that’s a tangent to this post. Anyway, for the undergraduates thinking about graduate school or just building experience, start looking for call to art submissions online, find printmaking exchanges, or see if the local coffee shop put on exhibitions. That’s a good starting point unless you’re more gutsy or have the right connections.

Excerpt about The Sketchbook Project:

“Atlanta, GA, Sept 2009- Atlanta’s Art House Co-op has opened a call for entries for the Sketchbook Project, Library edition. Participants are asked to donate their finished sketchbooks to the project, which will be exhibited in galleries and then reside in a permanent collection where library patrons can browse by theme, media, or location.”

Seems like fun and a great way to exercise a lot of creativity in a short span of time. Check out the website link above to apply.

-Megan

*Thank god that most schools have switched to digital submissions…unfortunately after I applied.

I wasn’t going to bother with a “how-to” to wintergreen oil transfers but for whatever reason, I keep getting a lot of hits for this topic. I’m not complaining, but I feel bad that fresh visitors end up with not much insight on the technique. What I’ll do is give advice on the subject and redirection to other sites that handle the how-to with better attention than I would bother.

I’ve only done transfers a couple times back in my first semester of school. I enjoy the technique, but I found that I have better means of getting what I want with my art projects. Still, it holds wonderful possibilities and can be done at home. I imagine I might go back to it after I graduate and perfect what I know.

*First things first: solvents are toxic. That includes wintergreen oil. Don’t let the pleasant smell fool you. Use a well ventilated space, gloves, and follow proper guides for handling any solvents and disposal of excess materials (common sense studio practices). Either become well informed through credible websites or have a book that can enlight you. I keep an art & safety handbook around.

*I often dilute my wintergreen oil with rubbing alcohol. Wintergreen oil can be expensive. Rubbing alcohol can help stretch it for what it’s worth. I use a press bed to transfer my work, so I cannot verify if this mixtures will lessen the effectiveness of hand printing. You’ll have to experiment.

*I apply the solvent with a brush on a xerox. I soak the copied image and then apply the paper I want to transfer it to. I run it through the press bed with some newsprint to soak up the excess oil.

*Obviously it can take some experimentation. I did the transfer (with just the figure) and drew vulture bunnies around it. There were parts I like and didn’t like with the add-ons. With some photoshopping, I printed out another image to transfer…

Then I added some red/white inks and washes. Bam!  A mixed media project with a transfer technique!

*I have not transferred an image by hand, but for those who lack a press bed (obviously expensive even for table top varieties), a baren or a burnisher is suppose to do the trick. I’d recommend the baren, that tool was made for hand printing woodcut relief prints.

*Some helpful links:

1.) More how-to/tips from RISDpedia.

2.) Drawn! has a nice example of a solvent transfer on moleskine.

3.) Places to possibly find wintergreen oil.

I think that’s comprehensive enough on my side. For the most part, I think what you can do with transfers can be done with a ink/laser printer or other (better) printing techniques. It does have the advantage when you apply it to fabrics. One of the graduates in my program hand printed on a six-eight foot sheet of voile. Also, sometimes the effect of what transfers and doesn’t can prove to have a nice aesthetic. Some of my transfers would have a negative brush strokes where the oil barely touch the xerox and didn’t transfer. It looked rather nice (see first image), but it can be hard to purposely attain that.

-Megan