UUNIPERUNA - TUTORIAL ABOUT PICTURE TRANSFERING

My friend is going to Närcon as Sasha Braus from Shingeki no Kyojin, and I had the opportunity to make her the straps and the jacket. Picture transferring came handy in the jacket, which has coat of arms in the back, sleeves and left breast pocket. The first thought was to make the logos in applique, but Dalin suggested trying out picture transferring technique. 

So I thought I’d bring you this awesome tutorial about picture transfering, which I think is useful for many cosplay purposes. You can use this technique to paper, wood, plastic, metal and fabric as long as it has a light-colored base. I used Powertex’s Laserprint transfer medium. When printing the picture you want, make sure you use printer that uses laser, otherwise the picture won’t come out of the paper. You should definitely get some extra prints as well, it took me a couple times to get it right.

The prints

LIST OF WHAT YOU WILL NEED

            

     Transfer medium    

      Picture you want to transfer   

      The base where you want to transfer your picture     

      Some water    

      Hair dryer    

      Candle   

      Scissors   

      Brush    

      Pencil   

      Towel

First, cut your picture smaller, leaving white paper all over the edges for about 1 cm. Measure the place in the base with the paper, picture-side down, and mark the edges of the picture.  Now you should paint even amount of glue to the picture and to the base. Clean the brush after you are done so you can use it again.

Press the paper picture-side down to the base where your marks are. Remember to press all the air bubbles out between the layers. This is very important, because if there’s any air bubbles left, the risk of picture ripping off when you are rubbing the paper is definitely higher. I suggest trying out small pictures first, because it’s much easier to get the air out.

Instruction says that the next step is to get your hair dryer and dry the picture for about 10 minutes. But because I was so impatient, I only used the hair dryer of 5 minutes and it worked fine. After that let the picture cool down completely.

When the glue is dry and cooled down, dip your towel to water and gently start rubbing the paper off. Remember to be extremely gentle getting paper off, the picture will rip really easily. Keeping the picture a bit wet makes it easier to get the paper out. When the picture is starting to show and you think you are ready for the next step, let the picture dry up completely (you can use the hair dryer to make the process faster). When the picture is wet, it always looks clearer than it is. When there’s only little paper left, start using your finger instead of the towel, you can feel the paper better that way and fingers are gentler than the towel.

The picture is starting to show under the paper

In final product there are always going to be a little irregularity, and the best way to make it perfectly clear is to use stearin. So this is when the candle comes handy, you can use a cheap tea light or any other candle that is white. Use your hair dryer to soften the stearin a bit, the take some of it to your fingers and heat it up. Next step is to gently rub it to the picture evenly. If the stearin is uneven in the picture, use your dryer to heat the stearin up and gently rub it smooth.

Before stearin

After stearin

Now you should have your picture transferred! If you have any questions or just want the Shingeki no Kyojin sword coat of arms picture Dalin made, leave us a comment!

- E

© Niew Photography

TÄYTEKAKKU

We packed our stuff, took a bus and went to the Kangasniemi. Our mission here, in the middle of nowhere, Dalin's family's place, is to complete Ennah’s wings for Chacha cosplay. So far the project is going smoothly and with no problems.

We started with brainstorming outside in the sun and investigating the tools and materials at the garage that we were going to use.  Thanks to some almighty being somewhere that we had a machine saw and bunch of other cool man toys here to use and make the process a lot simpler.

One of our worries was how to make the wings durable. The last thing we want is broken parts after the show. So plywood was the way to go, as we got some of it free from Dalin's family. At least now it won't break apart even if we try to karate chop it. The only problem now is to make the paint last even if it hits accidentally somewhere.

A day went with sanding the whole thing with machine and by hand. Respirators came handy, and awesomely stylish too, because of the wood dust.

Team Respiratior

Now, with the power of almighty Korean and Disney music we continue our working with the wings and the massive painting project. After three days of painting, we're almost done with one side. 

SPARTA!!!

The next post will be a tutorial, we'll upload it in couple of days. Before that, here's a cute clip with Chacha on it!