17 October 2013

Can You Paint on Fabric With Woodblock Pigments?

Guerra pigment suspensions, to be precise. I needed to make a banner/painting for my November show and I didn't know if I could paint on raw canvas with the Guerra pigment suspensions that I use for mokuhanga. So I tried it.


Here's the banner lying on my kitchen floor. It's about 5 feet x 5 feet, so in my 1200 square foot house, the kitchen was the best place to work on it. I had the drawing all done in pencil and was ready to try the pigments.


I used very watered-down colors, as I wanted the banner to appear old and somewhat faded. I fully expected that there would be some bleed, and I just hoped it wouldn't be too much. But as you can see, the bleed was very minimal. So this is an entirely new trick to do with Guerra pigments!


I was even able to paint lines. The canvas, by the way, was just fabric store canvas that I washed first before working with.

I'm going to hold back on showing you the design for now, but I can tell you that it's a map. Here's a shot of me putting in a hem this afternoon in the autumn sunshine on my back deck. (Sometimes the life of an artist is very very good.)


3 comments:

Turtlemoonimpressions said...

Annie, do you use these pigments to print with?

Annie B said...

Hi Janis. Yes, I use Guerra pigment dispersions and mix them with rice paste on the block using a brush in the traditional Japanese method.

Terry Sargent Peart said...

Very interesting. Always something new to try and learn. Thank you! I love your palette, it should work well for an old map.