This project from Anja is amazing don't you think! Check out her tips below the photo.
Hi all,
A few months ago I finished my second silk painting, but I just realized I hadn't shared it with you yet, so here it is.... I really love using the Chameleon Pens on silk. It absorbs quite a lot of ink, but the results are so vibrant and beautiful every time.
I used a blank gutta-printed silk sheet from Silkcraft, so the gold-colored gutta line drawing was already there, with iron-on backing paper to keep the silk straight while you're working.
The best way to get smooth gradations on this material is filling in every next part with the Colorless Blender first, so that it's a bit wet, and then you can apply color without getting hard, ugly lines. The ink will spread all the way until it reaches the printed gutta outlines, and as long as it's still wet, you can keep working on that part. Deepening the color tones, creating new ones by overlaying two or more colors, adding shadows, lightening some parts a little bit with the Colorless Blender, and so on.
A special challenge for me this time was creating the dark shadows on the white frame, just below the flower parts. I had never done that before, and it took a lot of smoothing out with the Colorless Blender again and again, because the Cool Gray CGeight is quite a strong color. The silk absorbed it immediately, forming sharp and uneven lines.
But eventually I managed to get the soft, realistic shadows that I wanted, making the flowers really "pop out" of the painting.
I decided to leave the rest of the frame white, to keep the focus on the flowers and give some "balance" to the image.
It was a wonderful project for me, and I learn more every time I use these great pens.
They never cease to amaze me!
Chameleon Pens on Silk
