Painting Tutorial: Gradient Techniques on Silk

Learn how to make two different types of gradients (from light to dark, and color to color) with this silk painting technique, with Desedamas

Silk is a material that offers numerous artistic possibilities that go beyond sewing: it is also a canvas on which to paint and capture all kinds of illustrations.

The textile artist duo Desedamas (@desedamas) teach us how to take advantage of the qualities of silk and master the technique of grading in two different ways. You can see the tutorial here:

Materials:

To paint on silk, you will need:

- Silk
- Frame
- Adhesive paper tape or pins
- Gutta (can be decorative or transparent)
- Watercolor paints and brushes
- Diluent

1. From light to dark

To paint on silk, we will start by preparing the thinner that we will mix with the paint, since it will brighten the silk and allow the paint to spread better.

Concentrated thinner needs to be diluted in water before use according to the manufacturer's instructions. This can be done in a reused plastic bottle.

To obtain the colors that we are going to use, we will prepare, for example, five empty bottles in which we will mix the color with the diluent.

As we want to make a gradient of only one color, going from light to dark, we will mix it with 6 pipettes of the color we want to use. To prepare the lighter color, we will take a pipette from the same bottle we just prepared and combine it with 6 pipettes of thinner.

These two mixtures will be the base for the rest of the colors: we will obtain the medium color by mixing 3 pipettes of the darkest color with 3 pipettes of the lightest color. Following this system, we will be able to prepare the colors in between.

The more color samples we prepare, the smoother the transition of the gradient.

When we have all the colors ready, we will mix clean water with thinner and use a brush to pass it over the canvas we are going to treat. This way, the color will spread better and more smoothly.

Once this is done, we will start with the lighter color, painting a strip of the silk in the direction we want the gradient to go, for example, horizontally. When the time comes to change the color, we will do so without cleaning the brush, going over the area where the tones overlap so that the change is as clean as possible.

Little by little, we will darken the color, taking care of the transitions, which we can go over with new brushstrokes if we are not convinced.

2. From one color to another

To create a gradient with two colors, we will cover the silk again with clean water and thinner. We will also prepare several color bottles as we did before. However, this time we will place 6 pipettes of one color at one end and 6 of the color we want to reach at the other. For example, blue on one side and magenta on the other.

This time, in the bottle halfway between the pure colors, we will mix the two colors by combining two pipettes of each of the mixtures to achieve the intermediate tone. We will repeat the process to get more intermediate shades until we have enough to start painting.

Once the colors are prepared, start painting in the direction you want and repeat the previous process. When you have finished painting, pass over a small dry sponge to make the transitions as smooth as possible. Now all that remains is to let our silk dry and then fix the color.

If you liked this tutorial, you can learn more from Desdemas about the basics of creating your own silk designs on their online course Silk Painting Techniques.

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