I have finished the first layer on all the pieces in the Transcend series. After the two layers of high solid gel dried, I soaked the page in water and rubbed as much of the paper off as I could. In the photo below, you can see that the end result is a fairly transparent version of the original collage.
I painted the back of this new "skin" and the front of the substrate I'm using, which is illustration board, and then basically glued the two together (bottom photos). I had to do this is a couple of stages because I got tired of rubbing the paper off of the collages and so took two days to do that. The newly glued pieces needed to be pressed together while they dried to avoid bubbles and warping of the board, so I stacked my big heavy art reference books on them. I only had enough to press five or six at a time.
The next step was to trim the edges and prepare for the next layer. The type of the newpaper headlines is clearer than I want in the final pieces, so next will be some paint application.
I'm finding that I'm seeing images while I'm running that I will likely incorporate into the final pieces. I'll have to be careful not to include too much that represents asphalt. Or heat.
