Thursday, February 23, 2012

A Second Dyeing

Hand (dye) Painted Panels
Artist: Eileen Gidman

A Second Dyeing

Do your hand (dye) painted projects sometimes turn out less than you expected? Don’t settle for mediocre. Consider this a time for experimentation which can result in pieces beyond what you have ever done. When I first washed out these two pieces I was less than enthusiastic. The background was a faded violet and the bird was a pale yellow.

After all the work that has already gone into a hand painted piece, you may think you don't want to invest more time in re dyeing but I have found it has always been worth the effort. Overdyeing adds another layer and can produce vibrancy of colour and depth in layering. By layering I mean you can leave some of the original colour showing.

After re soda soaking and drying this fabric, I applied a deeper blue-violet to the background. I had painted the Meadow Larks truer to form the first time but decided to add more yellow the second time. On one piece I made clouds leaving some of the first dyed sky showing. On the other piece I painted dye over the whole sky. What vibrancy the yellow against the blueviolet has now.

1 comment:

Win Dinn, Artist said...

They're both singing, Eileen! I'm a firm believer in adding/overpainting and working a piece until it excites me. That's the only option other than file 13.