How to print a drawing on paper. Quick Tips for Transferring Images

  • 26.07.2021

Needlewomen often have the question of how to transfer a drawing from paper to fabric with maximum efficiency and preservation of important details. Drawing the contours of the image will be required for embroidery - manual or machine. There are many ways to transfer a picture to matter, it is worth considering them in more detail.

Required materials and preparation

Depending on the methods in which the drawing is supposed to be translated, different devices and additional materials may be required. Here's a rough list:

  • carbon paper or tracing paper;
  • thin cloth;
  • simple pencil, chalk;
  • needle;
  • transfer pencil;
  • pins;
  • iron;
  • lamp;
  • glass;
  • a printer;
  • fabric and pattern.

In preparation, you should print the image. You can draw a drawing in any program on a computer that makes graphic images and prints them. If the pictures are small, they are printed on one sheet.

All borders should be clear, bold, clearly visible - this will make it easier to transfer the pattern to the fabric. You can even artificially increase the contrast and saturation of the lines, if possible, remove light details from the picture.

Translation of drawing into matter

Below are the main methods by which the image is translated to the base.

Copy paper

The easiest way to translate a picture is based on the use of carbon paper. It comes in different colors:

  • black;
  • White;
  • color.

It is necessary to select the color of the carbon copy taking into account the shade of the matter. It is easier to find dark paper on sale, white paper is rare. To translate a picture, put a carbon copy, on top - a printed blank. A simple pencil is drawn around the drawing, carefully clicking on the contours. You can prick the contours of the pattern with a needle - colored dots will remain on the fabric, copying the drawing.

A clear result cannot be achieved if the details of the drawing are small: they turn out to be blurry. The technique is suitable only for smooth fabric or burlap. On fuzzy, fluffy fabrics, the image will not be clear.

The disadvantages of the method include the high "staining" ability of carbon paper - usually ugly marks are visible on the fabric.

Cigarette paper

Tracing paper or tissue paper helps transfer the design onto the fabric without carbon paper. The method is used for thick fabrics - velvet, velor, shiny bases.

First, you need to transfer the drawing to tissue paper. Then the paper matrix is ​​placed on top of the fabric, secured with safety pins (instead of them, you can take office clips). Then the drawing is stitched right on the tracing paper with neat stitches, the paper is torn off so as not to damage the threads. The embroidered drawing is ready.

Sprinkling

The decal technique is suitable for all types of fabrics - linen, cotton, silk, smooth or nap. There is no difference in the shade of the fabric - the base can be dark, light. Using the method, you can simultaneously translate a picture into several cuts of matter.

The order of work is as follows:

  1. Prepare the matrix. To do this, you need a board, which should be covered with felt and the required number of tracing paper sheets. Their maximum number is 6.
  2. Pin the drawing to the top tracing paper. Puncture the holes in the drawing with a needle as often as possible. The needle should be thick and the spacing between the holes should be equal. To work comfortably, the back of the sewing needle is stuck into the pencil, leaving a sharp tip. The pencil is much more comfortable to hold than a regular needle.
  3. Separate the matrices, lay them out one by one (fabric plus tracing paper), pin them off. Wipe each matrix from the side of the tracing paper with a solution of blue, kerosene, tooth powder. The solution will leave an imprint of the pattern on the fabric through the holes.
  4. Dry the fabric for an hour, remove the tracing paper before that. The matrix can not be thrown away, but the remains of the solution can be brushed off and saved.
  5. Draw the appeared outline of the picture or stitch it with a thread.

The solution for light and dark fabrics is prepared differently. In the first case, mix 100 g of purified kerosene, 10 g of blue, 2 g of tooth powder. For the second recipe, combine 100 g of kerosene, 10 g of powder without blueing. It is necessary to mix the product in a ceramic bowl.

Instead of tooth powder, you can use chalk for dark fabrics, and activated carbon for light fabrics. Some needlewomen simply sprinkle light-colored materials with blue without the use of kerosene.

Transparent fabric

On sale there are thin, transparent fabrics - non-woven, marquise, silk, veil, nylon, georgette, organza. They can also be used to translate a picture if you intend to make the main product from them.

For work, you need to put a drawing, secure the fabric with pins on top. The contours of the picture will be perfectly visible, therefore, from the front side on the fabric, you can immediately draw with acrylics without a rough sketch. It is better to work on a thick wooden board, plywood.

Laser printer

For this purpose, you will have to purchase freezer paper. It is usually used to freeze food, but the material has long been adopted by needlewomen. On one side, the paper is smooth and can be easily ironed onto the fabric, leaving prints on it. You should prepare the main fabric on which the drawing will be made (preferably linen, cotton).

Operating procedure:

  1. Cut a sheet of freezer paper equal in size to A4.
  2. Iron the sheet with the shiny side to the fabric, iron all the corners well so that the freezer does not come off.
  3. Cut the fabric along the edges of the sheet so that no threads stick out (they can ruin the printer).
  4. Place the workpiece in the laser printer, making sure that the drawing comes out on the right side.
  5. Send the image to print (the printer may fail at first, then the procedure should be repeated).

Important! Always apply a preview before printing an image.

Solvent

You will need to print your design on heavy, glossy paper to prevent ink seeping through it. Then attach the corners of the drawing to the paper with needles, buttons. Prepare a cotton swab, wrap it with a cotton cloth, moisten it in solvent. Saturate paper lying on fabric with solvent.

To improve the result, attach the bottom of the spoon to the drawing, press well along the contour. The ink will seep onto the fabric, which will produce the same image.

other methods

If there is no carbon copy at home, you can try to translate the picture on the window - through the glass. Fix the fabric and the pattern with adhesive tape, then circle it with acrylic paints, a marker. A more "advanced" variation of the method is the use of a light plate.

Some craftswomen trim the outline of the drawing through tracing paper on a sewing machine. This will require some skill and experience, otherwise the image will be uneven. The process is complex and time consuming.

Another option is to use a pencil for translations. They transfer the mirrored drawing onto tracing paper, then apply it to the fabric, iron it with a lot of steam. Such pencils usually do not fit on synthetics, so you will have to use only linen or cotton fabrics.

An easy way to transfer your design is to use thermal transfer paper. It is bought in specialized online stores. The drawing is printed on a printer directly on such paper, then applied to the fabric, ironed with steam. The result will be much better if the printout is done in the workshop - the drawing will turn out to be juicy, it will not smear even after washing.

Resizing a picture

Sometimes you need to change the size of the picture for the fabric - to make it larger or smaller. To do this, the image is divided into approximately equal squares, and a grid is made on clean paper from the same number of squares, but of a larger (smaller) size. Then the drawing is transferred by hand along the lines that are taken from each square.

As a result, you will get a picture with the required parameters. It is best to break the drawing into many squares - this is how the finished drawing will be the most accurate. Then it can be transferred to the fabric in any convenient way.

HOW TO ACHIEVE THE BEST RESULTS IN FAST IMAGE TRANSFER TECHNIQUE

In this video, we'll walk you through some of the intricacies of work and give you a few tips to help you get the best results when transferring images from paper to another surface.

TONER PRINTED IMAGES TRANSFER BETTER

Images can be printed using a variety of devices. You can print the image with an inkjet printer, however, their instability to water significantly complicates this process and with a high degree of probability can lead to the fact that the image will turn out to be blurry (as you can see, when applied to the image with distilled water, its quality deteriorates significantly).

It is best to use standard laser printers or copiers for this purpose. Most copiers use standard 75 gsm office paper, which will work for us too.

USE FLUID CONSISTENCY MEDIUM

It is best to use the following Golden Acrylics mediums:

Do not use denser gels, as they are less absorbable and much more difficult to distribute evenly over the surface.

CALCULATE THE NEEDED AMOUNT OF MEDIUM WITH THE MEASURING CONTAINER

By measuring the medium with a measuring container, you will reduce the consumption of material, while ensuring the necessary degree of adhesion of the pattern to the surface.

The capacity of such a container is about 30 ml of the composition, and depending on the texture and absorbency of the canvas, it can cover about 930 cm 2 of the canvas.

CUT OUTSIDE EDGES OF THE IMAGE

This way, you will spend less time rolling up unwanted paper, which will also give your work a cleaner look.

APPLY QUICKLY BUT EQUALLY

Pour the medium into the center of the canvas, then spread with a brush. Work quickly but evenly. It is extremely important to form the most uniform coating on the canvas, especially at the edges. This will ensure tight adhesion and in the future - the same drying time of the web over the entire surface. Cover both surfaces with compound and connect.

A CUT OF POLYETHYLENE FILM TO THE SIZE OF THE FABRIC WILL HELP YOU WELL TO GLAD THE SURFACES BETWEEN YOU

Lay it on top of the paper. The spatula will slide much better on the film than on wet paper, and excess medium will not fall on the top layer of the drawing.

Using a rubber roller, putty knife, or any other hard plastic applicator with a straight edge, smooth the surface, expelling air and excess medium. Movements are always from the center to the edges. Press down firmly to ensure that the pattern is in sufficient contact with the surface.

You need to tightly connect both surfaces to each other.

BEFORE CHECKING THE CORNER OF THE PICTURE, WAIT THE PAPER IS DRY AND CLEAR

Check the corner. If the pattern still comes off with the paper, press back down and wait some more. After the drawing ceases to show through on the paper, you can begin to remove the layer of paper. Grasp the corner and slowly and gently pull it towards the center. You should be able to see that most of the paper is coming off, leaving the design on the canvas.

AFTER YOU HAVE REMOVED THE ORIGINAL PAPER, WAIT 1-2 MINUTES BEFORE WIPE THE REMAINING PAPER

You can wipe off excess paper on the canvas with your fingers, and you can experiment with different textures to reduce stress on your fingertips. Continue to peel off the grain of the paper all over the design. Do not rub for too long on one point of the image, as the acrylic layer is still fresh enough to rub off with the paper. When you see that almost all of the paper has been removed, stop rubbing and let the canvas dry.

ALLOW THE LEAF TO DRY AND THEN CHECK FOR PAPER REMAINS

On a dry surface, the remaining paper grain will be clearly visible. Lightly re-wet the surface and gently brush to remove any remaining paper. But do not overdo it so as not to damage the surface of the drawing.

SMALL RESIDUES OF PAPER FIBERS WILL BECOME TRANSPARENT WITH THE HELP OF THE MEDIUM

To achieve the cleanest possible transfer, carefully apply acrylic over the drawing. The drawing can also be corrected or complemented in every possible way using acrylic paints. We also recommend using an acrylic varnish with a UV filter to increase the durability of your designs.

HOW TO TRANSFER AN IMAGE TO A TEXTURAL SURFACE

This technique will help you transfer the image to an uneven surface.

WHEN BONDING TWO SURFACES, USE FOAM ROLLER

For such surfaces, a foam roller is much better than a hard trowel. The soft roller can adapt to the surface contours and will provide the best fit.

Place the pattern moistened with medium on an uneven surface and carefully roll it in with a foam roller.

Tight enough, but delicate, so as not to tear the pattern. After removing a layer of paper, the pattern will remain on the surface, perfectly repeating its uneven texture.

We hope these tips will help you use the transfer technique in your artwork.

Anyone who loves to create something with their own hands, at least once thought about transferring a beautiful image to some surface, for example, wood, leather, fabric, etc. There are many ways to transfer an image, but in this article we will only tell you about one, very simple and rather quick - transfer with the help of acrylic paint.

To do this, you will need the following materials:

  • an image printed on a laser printer;
  • acrylic paint;
  • brush;
  • spray bottle with water;
  • the surface to which you plan to transfer the image;
  • acrylic lacquer;
  • a hairdryer (optional, but it speeds up the process).

Getting started:

1. The surface to which the image is to be transferred should be covered with a layer of acrylic paint.

2. Glue the picture to the acrylic paint, pressing firmly. Then there are two options: either we leave it until it dries completely, or we speed up the process with a hair dryer. The paint should dry completely.

3. Next, take a spray bottle with water, spray it on the surface and begin to slowly remove the paper with your fingers. The image will remain on the surface. Do not overdo it with water and take your time - this is not a fast, but a fun process.

4. We get the finished picture on the surface. To be sure, you should fix the image with acrylic varnish.

For a detailed master class on transferring an image to any surface, see the video below:

Wood is an excellent material for decorative finishes and for construction, as it has strength, environmental friendliness and gives a certain charm to the external treatment of walls and floors in rooms.

Sometimes wood is also used to place various images on it, which can serve as separate paintings or be placed on the walls as decorative elements. At the same time, making an image on a tree or transferring it from a regular photo, having some tools and common substances at hand, is quite simple.

Transfer methods

But how to transfer a photo, picture or pattern to a wooden surface, so as not to spoil it, but to get a beautiful result? There are several common ways to transfer an image to a tree with your own hands.

Most often, a certain type of paper is used, a drawing or photograph in electronic format, as well as a wooden base prepared for transfer - a board to which you need to transfer the picture.

Drawing transfer methods:

  • sublimation paper;
  • paper and iron;
  • PVA glue;
  • gel;
  • film for decoupage.

Sublimation paper leaves the image on the wood surface quickly. Therefore, the way how to transfer an image with its help does not require a detailed description. A simple instruction on how to use it will be enough.

In all cases, before transferring a photo to a tree, it is processed in a photo editor, and only then is it applied to paper. Depending on the type of paper, certain substances are used to transfer the image to wood.

Preparing to transfer a drawing

It is important to properly prepare the wood surface before transferring the design to wood.

Preparation for transfer usually does not differ for each type of translation and includes the following steps:

  1. First, the work surface is cleaned. It is better that it be light, cleaned. The color of the wood can affect the quality of the future drawing, therefore, it is necessary to take into account what kind of material and type of wood is selected.
  2. To get the perfect pattern, you need to sand or sand the wood plank to keep the grain from distorting the image quality.
  3. When translating pictures, you need to use a mirror image of the picture. In almost every case, you need to consider the way the image is translated, since often a correct drawing from paper requires a mirror image.
  4. Photos should be in high-resolution digital form, if possible. This does not always guarantee a good result, but otherwise it can lead to distortion of the picture.
  5. Before translating a picture into a tree, texts and numbers should always be reflected in a mirror form. If portraits or landscapes can still be left as is, the readability of the text directly depends on the location of the text on the transfer paper.

Hot iron translation

This is the cheapest way to translate an image onto a wood board. It is best suited for transferring simple images with subsequent surface treatment.

For this method, before transferring a drawing, you need to have a printout of the image from a laser printer, as well as a surface for the drawing sanded with fine-grained sandpaper or a machine for grinding.

First, the pattern or drawing is stretched to the desired size, and then printed. A sheet of paper must be placed on the board in the place where the transfer will be carried out and fixed. After that, you should iron the paper with an iron.

For better transfer of pigment, paper can be pre-moistened with a small amount of acetone, but safety rules must be observed so as not to breathe in vapors. A gauze bandage should be used, and the area where the image is transferred to the tree should be well ventilated.

Typically, this method is used to burn patterns and simple images using a soldering iron on wood. You can also draw a pattern by hand and use a carbon copy to apply the drawing on paper, and then on a tree, or directly through a piece of paper and carbon paper onto the surface.

Image transfer with PVA glue and gel

When transferring an image with glue or acrylic gel-medium, the procedure is practically the same. It is recommended to degrease the surface and grind to a smooth state before applying the pattern.

The difference is in the procedure for applying the glue or gel. In the first case, glue is applied to the photograph, after which it is placed on the wood base. In the case of a gel, the substance is applied directly to the board, after which an image is placed on top of it. In any case, it is important to apply the substance in an even layer, not thick, but you should not leave any gaps or dry spots.

After that, the surface of the photo or paper with a drawing can be smoothed out, air bubbles can be expelled and fixed in the desired position. In this case, a roller is used with which the sheets are smoothed, such as, for example, wallpaper on the walls after gluing.

It can take 12-24 hours for the glue to dry or transfer the image with the gel to completely transfer the photo to the wood. After a day, the sheet can be removed. For glue, you can slightly dampen the paper with a sponge to help separate it from the wood surface. The glue must be gently wiped off with your fingers. It will be much easier to separate the paper from the gel - you just need to rewind it.

The gel should be given a little time to dry, after which it is covered with paraffin. PVA glue also needs to dry a little, after which it is varnished.

Transfer with decoupage film

This is a good way to transfer images to wood without the help of glue or gel, which already leaves quite rich colors and bright drawings.

In this method, the surface of the board prepared with an emery cloth is used, on which white acrylic paint is applied. The paint is first slightly diluted with water, after which one layer of it is applied on the surface of the board in the longitudinal direction, and later - the second layer in the transverse direction. The paint is then allowed to dry.

At the same time, decoupage film is used, on which a photograph or the desired image is printed. First, it is moistened in water at room temperature for about half a minute. After that, it is placed on the surface of the board, and then the base is removed.

By processing the film with a sponge, excess moisture is removed from it so as not to rub the pattern. After it dries, you can use a marker to correct image defects. The board gets its final appearance after it is varnished.

From all the available examples, it becomes obvious that it is not so difficult to transfer an image to a tree with your own hands. It is enough to have neat hands and maybe some photo editing skills, as well as at least a little good color taste.

After creating a picture on a tree, you can place it in any room of the house or use it as a decorative element, multiplying it several times.

Some masters have turned this simple activity into a good business. But above all, the main task of such a transfer is a beautiful drawing on a tree, the creation of a beautiful object, gift or decor that will give pleasure to its owner.

With a minimum amount of material and time spent, you can make a memorable gift or retro-style decoration for your interior with your own hands. The wood will give the photo a special inner glow, and you will also get beautiful matte colors in the transferred frame. This is a step-by-step illustrated master class on creating real works of art with your own hands.

You learn to:
- Choose color images for transferring to the tree;
- Work with a gel medium (gel medium transfer - transfer gel, gel for transferring images; freely sold on the RuNet);
- Transfer any image to the surface;
- Competently complete the work on transferring the image to the surface.

1. Choose suitable starting materials.

The wooden base can be of any shape, but its surface must be perfectly smooth so that the image lies flat and without breaks in every sense. It is also preferable to use a light wood, since it is this wood that gives that "inner glow". Especially a light base is important for portraits so that the skin tone does not change for the worse.

As for the photo, it should be a printout exactly on a laser printer and from the very beginning a size equal to the size of the wooden transfer base. Therefore, after printing, it is good to cut off excess white paper from the frame so that it will be more convenient to work with it later. The picture should be high-contrast as standard (you can process the image in a graphics editor on a PC, if this is not the case). But a great retro effect is given on wood and shots are almost out of focus and with very soft shades of colors. See below for examples of suitable shots - from bottom to top and from right to left: high-contrast shot, but out of focus; the picture is out of focus and with soft tints; contrast shot in perfect focus. Wood will enhance the color rendition in any case.

Any transfer medium can be used, but the best image is given by a gel with a matte effect (marked "matt" on the package) and the most dense / thick consistency (marked "heavy" on the package).

Also you come in handy:
- unnecessary plastic roller,
- (or) a wide wooden stick (purchased at a pharmacy),
- a pair of medium-sized flat brushes for applying the composition (glue brushes),
- a soft sponge or dish sponge (new),
- water in a small bowl or low glass,
- paper towels / napkins / handkerchiefs / toilet paper or thin kitchen towels,
- a small amount of oil (any liquid from the kitchen).

2. Just before starting work, wipe your wood base several times with a clean, dry towel to remove any crumbs and dust.

3. Apply the transfer gel to the surface of the wood in a good layer: definitely not thin (you shouldn't see a lot of wood through the gel), but also not very thick (the gel layer shouldn't look like an impenetrable icing on the cake either). Just squeeze out of the tube or transfer the gel from the container to the wood with a spoon, and then spread it in a more or less even layer with a brush (or a wooden stick, or a plastic card - whichever is more convenient for you). Do not forget to make sure that the layer is not thinner at the edges of the wood base than in the middle.

4. While the gel is still wet, place the image print side down on the gel. The photo can be cropped to a size slightly smaller (or much smaller) than the wood base, in which case you end up with a thin or wide wood frame around the image. Using your fingers, gently (so as not to move the photo by a millimeter, hold it with one hand, gently smooth it in all directions with the other), smooth the superimposed photo, slightly pressing it to the surface and removing air between the photo and the gel on the wood. It is important in no case to press so hard that the gel starts to squeeze out on the sides!

5. Smooth it with your fingers, take a plastic card (it is more convenient than a stick, because the edge of the first one gives more even pressure) and, again holding the picture with one hand, continue smoothing the white surface of the photo with the other edge of the card.

6. After that, set aside your workpiece until the gel is COMPLETELY dry overnight. Resist the temptation to pick up the photo and see what happens: you will surely ruin the job. If you work in the summer, you can also put the workpiece in the sun for a couple of hours (but not on the battery !!) and then check the degree of dryness, and this may (!) Be enough.

7. After the gel is FULLY dry, take a sponge, slightly moisten the edge of it in water (do not saturate with water, just moisten it) and start applying water directly to the back of the white photo on wood. Do this carefully in several passes (wetting the sponge several times), first blotting the picture with a sponge, and then, when there is already a lot of water on the paper, continuing to move in neat circular movements. That is why - so that the material does not immediately start to be erased by spools from water - it is necessary to print the picture initially on special paper for photographs, and not on ordinary office paper. Make sure to work with the soft part of the sponge and not with a hard layer to wipe off. During the process, when squeezing the sponge, a whitish liquid will flow into the glass, and this is normal. The paper should be completely blotted from center to edge with no gaps.

8. Further, still continuing to wet the sponge from time to time, start to erase the wet paper from the image with spools. Make sure to work not only in one central area, but equally around the edges so that the paper does not rub off in one place, because you can start deleting your transferred image. Do not be especially afraid of this, rub with light pressure, and the paper will come off quickly, the main thing is not to rub one place with effort, as if you are rubbing a stain; in particular, do not scrub where the paper is gone.

The paper should thus come off completely. If there are areas that don't want to rub, use your own moistened fingers as they are smoother and feel more pressure and progress.

Swipe the sponge without pressure on the picture to remove all the spools, even small ones, and then without pressure with wet fingers on the same surface to make sure by the texture that there is no more paper, even a thin layer.

Wipe the image with a clean, thin towel to remove paper dust and moisture.

At the end of this stage, moisten your fingers again and walk again several times, but almost completely without pressure, according to the image, since the paper hairs probably still remain: while the paper is wet, it is not visible, but when it dries, it becomes very noticeable if left in the image.

9. Dry the picture on the wood again with a thin towel. We set aside the tree with the image until it is completely dry from moisture.

10. As you can see in the picture below, even if you rubbed very carefully, after drying, some paper fibers still “show up” in the image. You can use water again and then dry the picture again. But here's another, more efficient shutdown technique.

With one finger, take just a couple of drops of oil and gently apply it to the picture in a circular motion. And as you work, you will see how these villi just disappear. You have achieved the result you need - take a thin towel (paper or cloth) and start wiping the oil from the picture with the tip.

11. If, during work, a small amount of gel has gone beyond the edges of the image on a wooden base, just gently wipe off the frozen lumps of gel with your fingers.

12. By and large, the work is over. But now you can decorate the frame, for example, using a special decorative adhesive tape with a pattern - washi-tape (freely sold on the Russian Internet). Here the frame is presented in the form of abstraction, repeating and shading the colors of the image. It is also convenient to glue the side edges of a wooden base with it. You can also use acrylic paint instead of ribbons. It is also worth painting over the back of the tree with one color.