Silk Koi...

Here is what I am working on at the moment - a hand-painted silk tie.  I'm using good old Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks - I think I may have found my favourite medium to use...for this month anyway!  After painting on a t-shirt which was very forgiving when having water and pigment dabbed on it, with few runs and bleeds, it was a bit of a shock to go back to painting on silk.  When mapping out the basic design with the first layer of colour, I blythly dolloped orange on the edge of the fish and watched in horror as it spread across the water too.  Luckily a) the paint was very pale and b) if you catch it quick enough you can reverse the flow by putting water the side of the bleed which pushes the pigment back, and you can then dab with kitchen paper at the mistake and lift it out.  It took a few goes before I got into the swing of how much pigment to use and just how wet it could be before spreading too far.  Yesterday I had it mastered and work went along very quickly - I didn't really want to stop, but unfortunately my family need feeding at regular intervals...