Silk painting is such a delight! ArtRishi sells both a Silk Hoop Painting Kit and a Silk Painting Supply Kit to begin your journey down the silk road…
Below is a project I designed for a Silk Hoop. Silk Hoops are easy to work with, ready to go, and are complete within themselves – they don’t have to be sewn or framed; they look great as-is!
Supplies needed:
1. Silk Hoop
2. pencil, black flair pen
3. #2, #10 round watercolor brush
4. 12″x17″ white drawing paper
5. gutta resist
6. gutta resist dispenser with metal tip
7. silk paints
Begin with a Pattern
Begin with a pattern:
Place your silk hoop on white drawing paper and trace around it with a pencil. This is your pattern template for the silk painting. You will draw the bird and leaves in pencil. Use my artwork as a source of inspiration. Take care to make every effort to make the work more “your own”. Gather examples of other artists’ work, design books (Dover make fabulous design books), photos, etc. Use my bird as a starting point – but change the look of him. Give him a new beak, different feathers, have his head facing in a different direction. Using design books, get some new ideas for leaf and floral patterns and draw them like a wreath around the bird. When you are satisfied with your drawing, go over the pencil lines with a black flair pen.
Gutta Resist Drawing on Silk Hoop
Copy the drawing onto Silk Hoop
Place the silk hoop on top of the drawing you’ve made. The silk attached to the hoop will be quite transparent, and you will be able to view your drawing behind it. Prepare your gutta resist. Just to get the feel for it; practice applying fine lines of gutta to scrap paper. With confidence, follow the lines of your drawing with the gutta resist. I used blue and black gutta. You can use whatever color(s) you’d like. Work slowly and carefully, taking care not to smudge the gutta with your hand or arm. It is also important to completely close off shapes with the gutta resist, so that the silk paint does not leak out of any openings. Allow the gutta resist to completely dry before proceeding.
Silk Painting by Bridget Hobson
Ready to apply the silk paint!
Here comes the fun part! Pre-plan your color palette. Start with light colors first. Typically, the colors are more brilliant if you apply 2 layers of silk paint – allowing the paint to dry in between applications. It is important to remember that SILK PAINT SPREADS QUICKLY. Wet your brush with the silk paint, making sure the brush is not too “drippy” with paint, and conservatively brush the center of the shape you are painting – waiting to see how quickly the paint spreads to the edge. If you apply the paint very close to the gutta resist edge, it can easily hop over the gutta – so BE CAREFUL and have fun! Remember, there are NO MISTAKES in art – if the paint jumps the boundary – simply live with it, work with it, turn it into a shaded area.
Interested in ready to go art lessons for your child or classroom? Detailed, step-by-step instructions along with beautiful color graphics are available for sale on the ArtRishi website.
Establish measuring points. Adjust your compass to capture the measurement from the center of the circle to the top of the circle. Place the point of the compass at the top point of the circle and create measuring points beyond the original circle – repeat this all the way around the circle. You may create your mandala using this template – or create a smaller mandala template by cutting out the innermost circle:
Using the smaller circle as a template, I’ve made pencil points on the yellow paper….
And now the fun begins! Note the original pencil points. A french curve may be used to create curved line symmetry – or just draw free hand as I have done. Rotate the circle and remember how it feels to draw each curve and each shape.
