Silk Painting 101: #3 From Start to Finish

While you are practicing the very basic techniques I outlined in the last blog post (Silk Painting 101: #2 Practice Piece), start considering what it is you are going to paint and how it will be displayed.

Drawing
Draw your design in pencil and keep it as simple as possible. Because I will be showing the gutta technique, you need to consider the simplicity of the design while you work on your drawing. I decided to paint a pangolin because the symmetry of their scales seems to lend itself well to my drawing style.

Transferring the design onto the silk
Once you are happy with handling the gutta applicator, and with your pencil design, you will need to transfer it to the silk. Now – its perfectly fine to draw the outlines in gutta directly onto the silk, as you did with the practice piece, but (did I mention I was a control freak?) I want to keep my final product pretty similar to my original drawing.

To trace your illustration onto the silk, it will need to be flush up against the silk. For this part, I use a very (non) hi-tech pile of books to attain the right height, with the illustration on the top, directly on the silk. Trace the picture in pencil onto the silk. You can also use one of those disappearing embroidery pencils if you want to be all fancy. You don’t need to trace ALL of the details of the design – as long as you have the bold outlines, you can add the finer points directly onto the silk, if you feel confident. It’s actually a lot harder to apply gutta over the pencil than it appears!

You might want to apply the gutta in stages allowing it time to dry. If your picture is complex, its hard to do the outline without leaning on the silk and smudging wet gutta, so take it slowly and be patient. Once the entire outline is complete and dry, you’ll be ready to start the painting.

Adding the color
Remembering the spread and flow of the silk paint from your practice piece, start applying the color to your design. Because you can’t really erase the paint once you have applied it, I suggest that you begin with your lightest color, that way, if you DO make an “error” then you can paint over it with a darker color once it is dry. I don’t really think anything is ever “wrong” or erroneous in art, it’s just an opportunity to see how creatively you can rescue a situation!
For small areas remember to only put a little paint on your brush. You’ll see that it spreads to the gutta and stops – hence the term “resist technique”.

That’s really all there is to it. I made a cheeky little video for you to enjoy. Next week I’ll try and troubleshoot any questions you have sent me. I’m pretty responsive to email so feel free to contact me or Facebook message me through my MirandaRobertsArt page and I’ll get back to you asap. Kind of unofficial “online help”!

Oh and be sure head on over and pre-order your copy of “Moyo’s Journey” today!

 

Silk Painting 101: #2 Practice Piece

 
Applying the gutta is technically the most challenging part of silk painting. You need to make sure that you have strong solid outlines, with no gaps or breaks in them. To this end, I thought we would start with a practice piece first with a free form design. We are going to apply the paint FIRST for this project and then add the gutta on top of it as a decoration. This will give you a good idea of how the paint flows on the fabric, and how to control the gutta applicator.

The finished piece could be used for a card or a multimedia piece at a later stage.
HINT: When I crop painted silk fabric from a painting, I always hang on to it for future embellishments

Stretching the Silk
To begin the process, you will need to stretch the silk so that it is taut over the frame, attaching it at close intervals with the three prong silk thumb tacks. Begin with one tack in each corner of the frame. Then pin it down one side of the frame, and then pin the opposite side. Do the same with the other two sides until the silk is snug on the frame with no wrinkles. Cut the silk on the outside of the frame so that you have no pieces left flapping in the wind! Here is a short video on how to do this.

Freeflow painting for the practice piece – click here for video.
As your paint will not be restricted by gutta for this process, remember that the colors will flow into one another. Get a feel for how quickly the paint does dry – and you will see that it leaves a water mark when this happens. Also consider which colors you juxtapose with others to avoid an all over muddy brown! I am assuming that you are familiar with primary and secondary colors of the color wheel. If you aren’t then take a refresher look online to remind yourself of which colors together create other colors. I use nylon brushes in various sizes to apply the silk paint. Experiment with blending colors without washing your brush and with adding a little bit of water. Don’t try and paint anything specific, instead just work on getting the feel of the paint and how it flows on the silk.

When the silk is dry, try doodling with the gutta to get a feel for the pressure you need to apply to both the applicator bottle and the silk, the kind of bold lines you need to use, and how to avoid blobs!

Once your abstract test piece is finished and completely dry, remove it from the frame and on a low setting, with no steam, gently iron the entire piece. You can then cut out the pieces you wish to use. If you are making cards, then a light application of spray mount on the back of the piece you plan to use will work well. I will cover other gluing options in a later post. The most important thing to remember is that in order for the colors to “pop” you will need to attach the finished piece to a white background. Try it out against other colors and you will see what I mean.

This is a fun and easy way to start silk painting. Please send me any related questions – I’ll be happy to answer them!

If you are interested in receiving occasional informational newsletters from MirandaRobertsArt and Moyo’s Journey, please click here. I will never share your information with a third party and will not fill your inbox with spam mail! 

Silk Painting 101 with Miranda Roberts : Getting Started

You asked – so here it is – the first in a series of blog posts on “How to”… I guess you could call the collection “Silk Painting 101”, which seems a lot more polite than “Silk Painting for Dummies”!
There are various silk painting techniques. I like to describe them as Controlled Gutta Styling, Loose Gutta Accenting and Free Flow. As I am (admittedly) a bit of a control freak, I prefer the Controlled Gutta Style which some say is reminiscent of stained glass. This method best suits the bold outlines of my drawing style and is the technique I will be discussing in the next few blogs.

Materials:
I purchase most of my materials online from Dharma Trading*.
1: Habotei 8 White Silk
I prefer this weight as it works well with a range of different matting and mounting choices.
2: Adjustable stretcher frame
I have had mine for years and it is known as batik style – I haven’t found an identical style here in the US however. The most important thing is that it needs to be adjustable so that you have flexibility in your choice of painting sizes. A cheap alternative to try initially is a circular embroidery frame. As long as the silk can be stretched taut for painting, this will work.
3: Pins
Three prong silk thumb tacks to hold the silk in place. I require these for my particular frame – make sure you purchase the ones that work with best with the frame you choose.
4: Gutta
This is a latex based outliner/resist and is available in many colors. I prefer black, and occasionally use clear which will result in white outlines or accents. On the red illustration page in “Moyo’s Journey” I used this to create the aboriginal dot style effect.
5: Gutta applicator nozzle
These come in two sizes – #4 and #6. I prefer #6 as it allows the gutta to flow a little more freely.
6: Gutta applicator bottle
The gutta comes in larger bottles and needs to be decanted into these smaller applicator bottles. A messy business if you aren’t patient!
7: Marabu Silk Paints
There are many different brands of silk paint available but I prefer this range as it does not need to be steam set – just ironed. I also prefer to purchase from the wide selection of colors available instead of mixing. A little goes an incredibly long way. I have white in my palette but I have never used it – probably something I should experiment with down the line, to mix some pastels. The paint is extremely liquid – like ink – and is water soluble. This is good for creating tonal variation in your art AND for cleaning up afterwards.
8′ Paintbrushes in 3 sizes – your preference. I like the nylon bristle size 7 as my go-to brush for finer work.

Decisions, decisions!
You will also need to decide whether you are going to have your silk painting professional dry mounted and matted (expensive), whether you are going to stretch it over a blank canvas (pretty simple), or whether you are going to glue it with ModgePodge directly to the canvas (not without its own issues!). This choice will probably determine the size of your original painting.

So – get online and get shopping. I DO prefer to shop locally but where I live, its difficult to find the materials. I like to I support Dharma Trading, who are doing a lot of good in the global community, have been in business for 49 years and work hard to have a green environmental scorecard. Check them out

*Disclaimer – I did not receive payment from Dharma for this post, I am just a long standing customer who is happy with the products and service they provide.

If you are interested in receiving occasional informational newsletters from MirandaRobertsArt and Moyo’s Journey, please click here. I will never share your information with a third party and will not fill your inbox with spam mail!

Hujambo and thank you

Thank you for scrolling through my website to get this far! I am so excited about the imminent launch of “Moyo’s Journey” and I look forward to sharing her travels with you all.

My own journey to Moyo is because of the love, inspiration and opportunity that so many of you provide. To my hiking and walking friends for patiently listening to page by page accounts of my progress; to everyone who gave valuable and insightful editorial feedback as the journey progressed – particularly the ever diplomatic and extremely talented Lu; to my family for living it day by day; and particularly to Owen for giving me the world – I thank and value you all.

I came to Moyo because of my passionate belief in the importance of travel, of seizing opportunities and of being true to yourself. I also know that nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than kindness. Future blogs will circle “Moyo’s Journey” and encompass all that we discover and experience with her and the creatures she encounters.

I welcome your own voices on all of these – send me your guest posts, your photos of travel and learning from others, your tales of kindness, of adventure, of opportunity. And your photos of the wild and majestic creatures with whom we share this planet.