We introduce a straightforward and cost-effective water-assisted approach to transfer patterns of nanomaterials onto diverse substrates. The transfer method relies on the hydrophobic effect and utilizes a water-soluble polymer film as a carrier to transfer hydrophobic nanomaterials from a patterned source substrate onto a target substrate. Using this approach, nanomaterials are transferred readily from solutions onto surfaces of various shapes and compositions with high fidelity for feature sizes approaching 10 microns.