When I photographed this little farmhouse I knew it would be the perfect subject for a Polaroid transfer. The greatest characteristics of transfers is that they are very much like watercolor paintings; muted and soft in quality. For this image in particular I felt that it didn’t need any retouching with color pencils or paint, the effect of the transfer itself was all the image needed.

Street scenes always make great image transfers. I loved this storefront so much that I had to turn round and drive back to photograph it! I liked the colors in the original photograph so I decided not to enhance this image with any pencils or paints. There is so much creative freedom in doing transfers that if you think about it – no two are ever alike. Each new batch of film you use will have it’s own “look”. So the next time I make a transfer of this image, it will probably look a little different. I may even hand color the dresses…but that’s what I enjoy most about transfers- creative freedom!

For my image of the horse I used Polaroid type 690 film. I wanted the image to look like an old post card, so when I pulled the negative off of the watercolor paper – I pulled quickly. When you pull the negative in a fast, sweeping motion you will get what’s called lift-off. Some artists want a perfect transfer with no missing image, but I just love the effect lift-off can create. It can take multiple attempts of course, since you can never predict where the lift-off will be on the image; but with time and practice you can learn to control this effect with outstanding results.

Besides framing your transfers to hang on your wall, why not add them to your art? One of my favorite uses for finished transfers is to add them to my own art, making something that is truly mixed media. This is an example of a two-page spread from one of my altered books. I glued a finished transfer onto a book page, and added lace detail as an overlay. If you didn’t want to glue the transfer down, you could use photo corners instead so that the image is easily interchangeable.

This image was taken on a sunny afternoon in St.. Augustine Florida. This is a great example of an image I felt would benefit from extra alterations after it was dry. The colors were added using colored pencils, but you could use any type of paints, crayons, even markers – the sky is the limit! Make sure if you are going to add anything to your transfers you wait at least 24 hours before making changes, because transfers are very delicate when wet.