How to Make Foil Proxies

(https://youtu.be/XnD6G5NzRBE)

Materials

* InkJet printer. I use an HP Envy 120.

* Photoshop or GIMP.

* Fan paint brush.

* Small Paint Brush.

* Acetone.

* Any Glossy InkAid  or Golden Digital Ground Clear. Make sure you don't buy any Matte InkAids, only Glossy versions work. *Update* The digital ground appears to be discontinued so use the InkAid, its the same stuff.

* FolkArt Glass & Tile Medium.

* Krylon Matte Finish.

* Removable Double sided tape.

* Gloss Varnish.

* Digital proxies can be found at Z's Proxy factory or check out my video on how to make them yourself.

* If you make your own proxies you'll need Matrix Bold and Magic Symbol and MPlantin fonts. Also here is a list of templates.

Process

1) Blank a foil card with Acetone.

2) Take the FolkArt Glass & Tile Medium and stir it up. Apply it to the card and allow to dry until dry to the touch.  

3) Shake the InkAid and apply it to the card and allow to dry until dry to the touch.

4) Attach the card to your carrier sheet and print.

5) Allow the print to dry for about 30 minutes or until you don’t see any sheen on the black ink. 

6) Apply a spray coat of Krylon Matte Finish over the entire card and allow to dry until dry to the touch.

7) Thin the Gloss Varnish with a lot of water then apply to any areas that you want to make foil. 

*NOTE* Keep in mind that real foils don’t have any shine over dark colors because dark ink is opaque. This means if we want our foils to look real we should place gloss primarily over light colors.

*NOTE 2* In the video I mix the FolkArt and InkAid. In general its better to apply them in separate layers so they don't interact with each other and congeal. Although, some random batches can be mixed with no problems. 

FAQ


Q: My print didn't turn out right, what should I do?

A: Check out common mistakes people make.

Q: Does this work with LaserJet?

A: No.

Q: My prints are wet with ink what should I do?

A: Try using two thin coats instead of just one coat. If the ink is wet on the surface that means it needs more substance to seep into. This is especially true for dark inks. See 2) in common mistakes people make.

Q: How do you create a graduation from foil to non-foil? 

A: Acrylic miniature painters call this technique layering or “juicing.” Google those terms to learn more.  It works by thinning down your paint, or in our case either Gloss Varnish or Folk Art Glass & Tile Medium. By applying paint in one thin layer the brush will create a natural gradient because most of the medium will collect in the direction of the stroke.

The easiest way I’ve found to create a gradient from foil to non-foil is to lay down the gloss varnish first then layering over a thin coat of Folk Art Glass & Tile Medium pulling my brush in the direction I want to be non-foil. This will create a gradual transition from foil to non-foil in the direction of the brush stroke.

This will be harder to see when applying Folk Art Glass & Tile Medium because you have to wait for it to dry before you can see the matte effect. I recommend watching a few vids on layering with paint to see it work in real time.

Q: Why won’t gloss make dark colors foil? 

A: This is a good thing because real foils don’t have dark colored foil.

To fully understand this you have to get a few points:

1) InkJets don’t print white ink. They assume that whatever you’re printing over is white already and don’t produce that much ink over light areas. 

2) Our mixture of  InkAid and FolkArt Glass & Tile Medium is not actually opaque (I miss spoke in the video). The mixture is really transparent, meaning that it does not prevent light from reaching the foil surface underneath. The reason that it looks opaque is that it is changing the reflective properties of the surface of the foil underneath. 

3) We can toggle reflective properties of a surface on and off by applying gloss or matte coating. 

4) Ink is opaque. All the dark areas of the card will be covered with opaque dark ink. All the light areas will not be covered with not much ink at all. So all the light areas of the card allow light to reach the foil part of the card and all the dark areas prevent light from reaching the foil area of the card. 

5) Painting gloss over a light area will toggle the reflective properties of the foil underneath the card back “on” by changing its reflectivity. Since our mixture is transparent the foil of the card will shine through and we get the foil effect. 

6) Painting gloss over a dark area is just like painting gloss over a normal non-foil card. It just makes it glossy and not foil since the ink is preventing light from reaching the foil surface underneath.

Ok that was complex! I hope that made sense.

Q: How do you print dark blacks? 

A: Printing black is very challenging and requires some skill.

Instead of calibrating the printer it's better to calibrate the images.

The idea is to set the contrast and black values in Photoshop, do a test print, see if it's black enough, then keep doing that until it looks good. Once you've done that then you can use that image as a reference image for anything else that you want to print. Compare any new images you print to the reference image and adjust the black and contrast until it matches and then you'll know your new image will print black correctly.

So the two things you'll want to adjust are (in Photoshop) Image->Adjustments->Brightness and Contrast

And Image ->Adjustments->Selective color. Then adjust the black level for black and gray tones.

Make sure to right click the image layer and rasterize it before hand.

If you get bleeding make sure to use at least two layers of coating. Also, sometimes what looks like bleeding is actually just a symptom of printing an image that is too low resolution. Most of the images I print are absolutely massive resolution and I get very nice dark crisp lines.


Feedback? Email me at chess314 at Gmail dot com