Laguna Beach in Silk
Image Size 20" x 20"
Silk dyes on silk
My silk painting demo last week went well. I really enjoyed it and I hope everyone else did also. I didn't do much actual painting. There was so much information to give them so I painted a sky using the watercolor technique (on a different painting) and did some color blending in a couple of other areas. Mostly, when the resist lines are used on silk, painting the piece is like 'filling in the blanks' and I know anyone new to silk paintings can do that on their own. I described what to do and how the silk dyes would react but didn't want to waste time having them watch something so simplistic.I took this painting to work on with the sky and border already painted so that they could see a finished sky and an example of the texture on this border but I worked on another painting that I had done the resist on but not any painting. You'll probably see it finished in a week or so.
The border texture in this painting was achieved by adding alcohol after the dyes had dried. The texture in the foliage is a combination of salt being added to wet dye and alcohol being added when the area was dry. I tried to demonstrate how salt reacts with the dyes but it was so dry here (5% humidity) that the dyes dried before I could add the salt. Luckily, most of the people watching were watercolorists so they were familiar with using salt. This painting hasn't been steamed yet and its just pinned to a board. After it's steamed, the white lines will be more distinct and I can stretch it so that the borders are even.
I've used this image many times but never in silk and since it's one of my favorite spots, I had to use it again. I think it translates nicely to silk.
